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Date Posted: 21:19:24 03/27/08 Thu
Author: Mary
Author Host/IP: cpe-69-135-186-204.woh.res.rr.com / 69.135.186.204
Subject: Characters & Shadows - Chapter 48
In reply to: Mary 's message, "Characters & Shadows - Cont." on 19:42:54 03/19/08 Wed

Chapter 48

A couple of days of long talks and even longer periods of sleep and Michael and Nikita were both feeling much better. Michael got the full story on Nikita’s marriage to David and what her life had been like since. He was horrified at what she had been through and at the same time inspired by her strength to make it through such an ordeal. He also both wanted to thank and pummel Marco for his multiple roles in what Nikita had endured. But Michael knew that Marco was a good man and truly tried to help her as much as he could.

Brian wanted to keep Nikita one more day just to be sure that none of her symptoms returned but she was having nothing to do with that suggestion. After a rather heated discussion Brian relented, but only because they were going together back to Michael’s house, he still didn’t want Nikita to be alone for long periods of time.

Michael breathed a huge sigh of relief and dropped onto the sofa in his den as he felt so much better just being back in his house again. He looked over at Nikita who curled into the deep chair across from him and she seemed to just be swallowed up by the oversized cushions.

“We need to eat.” He said more for her benefit than his own. He had noted that she wasn’t eating much of the hospital food and took it that it just tasted horrible. But now she was home and he wanted to see her really healthy again, she was far too thin for his liking.

She smiled at him through sleepy eyes, “I bet you don’t have a thing in this house.”

“Well guess again. I’ll have you know that I sent Walter to the store with a very specific list to fill this house with nutritious food. I think we need a late lunch.”

She yawned as she followed him to the sunny kitchen, “I just want to go take a nap.”

“You can after some food,” he gave a quick kiss on her cheek and started to rummage through the stocked refrigerator. “Walter did a great job. How about some quick eggs and sausage? And I’ll cut up some fruit.”

She really wasn’t hungry, “Ok. Whatever you want is fine.”

Taking in her tone he stopped collecting items and went to her, gathering her in his arms and holding her for a moment, “Tell me.”

“What?”

“Whatever it is that has you so concerned, what’s wrong?”

She turned from him and went over to the window, “Nothing….everything….oh, I don’t know, ok.” She was frustrated because she couldn’t shake this feeling that she had. “I know they are watching us, guarding us, and it freaks me out a little. I can’t help it.”

He followed her, “The agents?”

“Yes. And I know it doesn’t make any sense. I know they are here for our protection, but I just don’t like it. I mean I lived for years with the fear that David could appear at any moment and it didn’t unnerve me as much as this does. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it makes sense,” he told her softly turning her to face him. “You have been through a trauma and years of a heightened sense. Now that part is over and things are new now. Having someone close by watching you all the time is going to be uncomfortable. I’m uncomfortable about it. But I have to know that you are safe. We all want you to be safe.”

She heard his words and she knew that he meant them. But for some reason they just weren’t getting through to her. But she didn’t want to disappoint him, he had been through so much with her and he deserved and needed to be happy and relaxed. He couldn’t do that if he was worried about her. So she smiled, a small smile that would tell him all was well, “You’re right, I’m being silly. It will just take me a little while to get used to all this.”

He was relieved that she listened and her smile made him much better. But he was also hungry and a bit tired himself, “Let’s make that lunch and take a nap.”

*****

Marco wanted out of here and he wanted out now! He hated being cooped up, trapped by an establishment that he despised and could not control. No he did not mean MI-6, he meant the nursing staff. They were demons and he wanted to get away as fast as he could. If one more of them wanted him to remove some piece of clothing, poke him with something, or take his temperature he was going to leave this place so fast they would have no idea what happened.

He knew that Michael and Nikita had both been sprung from the entrapment and he was hating this even more than before.

“Someone looks likes mighty pissed off today.”

Jasmine’s appearance in the room made his heart rate jump, he hated that she did that to him but there didn’t seem to be anything that he could do about it. He collected himself quickly, “You would be too if you trapped here with no regress route available.”

“Ok, stay that way. But I won’t share what’s in the bag if you’re going to be this way the whole time I’m here.”

He wanted to be angry. He liked being angry right now. But she was so cute and adorable standing there smiling at him with her eyes dancing and he couldn’t resist the temptation. “Ok, so what’s in the bag?”

“Oh, so I can tempt you huh? Good. Contraband, in the form of veal parmesan with angel hair pasta, marinara sauce and garlic bread.”

“Oh my god, real food. Get over here girl.”

Jasmine pulled everything out of the bag and sat it all out on the tray and they both dived into the marvelous food.

Once she was almost done she began what she was really here to do, “So I assume you would like an update?”

“Anything to take my mind off being here.”

“Suba has gone underground. No trail that we can find at this point. With his available resources that we know of he could stay hidden for a long time.”

“That can’t happen.”

“We know. We are working on a way to find his current source of funding and cut it off. Then he’ll be forced to surface and find a new source. The word on the street is that he had a deal arranged for a lot of money, he had already placed a huge order for guns before he went underground.”

“A deal, do we know with whom?”

“Intel says it’s with Paul Wolfe. A contract with Suba to murder his wife.”

“Paul inherits the millions and Suba gets a cut.”

“We figure that’s the angle. But Suba makes a lot more if he also takes Paul out of the equation.”

Marco sighed, this was getting ugly, “How sure are you of this intel?”

“Ninety two percent right now.”

“What’s the plan?” he asked her.

“Our best chance of success is to let it play out for a little while. Cut off Suba’s funding making it look like an enemy faction stole the money, Suba is then forced to come out from hiding and contact Wolfe for the hit.”

“So we use Wolfe in this game? Let him go on with his life like we don’t know that he wants to have his wife killed?”

“He’s not exactly an innocent in this Marco.”

“No he’s not. But this will affect everyone around him.”

“I know. I know where you are going. Yes there is a small probability that this will affect the production of ‘Section One’ and involve others. But we have to flush out Suba.”

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