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Date Posted: 08:53:50 05/20/08 Tue
Author: Mary
Author Host/IP: 66.162.52.3.gen.fullservice.net / 66.162.52.3
Subject: Good and Evil - Chapter 10 and Chapter 11
In reply to: Mary 's message, "Good and Evil" on 10:19:52 05/11/08 Sun

Chapter 10

Nikita walked into Trepanier’s office without knocking and pulled the gun out from under her jacket.

“Do you want to live?”

The operative was stunned by her intrusion and by the gun pointing directly at his forehead, “Operations?”

“You heard the question. Do you want to live?”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

She moved her arm just to the left and shot the gun making the lightest of flesh wounds in his left arm. He yelled and grabbed at the top of his arm coming away with a handful of blood.

“What the hell?”

In her most authoritative tone she told him, “Section is not about being fair. Section is not about second chances. I think you fundamentally know this. But you need to have a deeper commitment. You have to realize that one more mistake and I will be forced to have you cancelled. I can be your friend. I can help you. But I can also be your worst enemy. You have to decide how much you want to live.”

She turned to leave and stopped at the door, not turning around she told him, “Go to medical, get that stitched up, and then I want to see you in the Perch.”

*****

Walter walked up to Perch and wondered how she would be. “Sugar?”

“Yes Walter?” she replied as she reviewed the profile for the pending mission.

“You shot Trepanier. Is that your way of helping him?”

“Yes actually it is.”

“You are starting to confuse me. First you form alliances with Three and don’t tell me, and now you are shooting operatives. You want to talk about this?”

Nikita smiled a small, almost sad smile, “Walter I didn’t tell you about the plan with Myra because I understood that you two have a history that is, shall we say, not mutually happy?”

“You could say that,” Walter smirked.

“I didn’t think you would be too happy with the arrangement and therefore I left you out of it. You have enough to think about. I chose Jason because of his special skills. Especially tampering with files?’ Nikita gave Walter a knowing look.

“I can explain that…”

But she interrupted, “I don’t want to know. I actually enjoy not knowing.”

“Ok Sugar. But what about Trepanier, did you have to shoot him?”

“Oh, I barely grazed him. You know what a good shot I am, if I wanted to shoot him, I would have.”

“Yeah, I suppose you would.”

“I just wanted to be sure to get his attention. All part of the plan to get him ‘focused’.”

*****

Trepanier left Medical after getting his arm stitched and bandaged. He went to the Perch as instructed. Without introduction he started, “You want to tell me what the hell this was about?”

“I already did. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“I didn’t deserve this.”

“Yes you did. Don’t fall into that trap of believing that Section owes you something for your competency and your commitment. That’s not the way that it works. You will be competent and you will be committed and you will stay alive. But that is all. There is no letting your guard down, no small breaks because you are mentally tired, there is just Section. Accept it.”

“Am I in abeyance.”

“No. But you are close. You want to tell me about it?”

“What?”

“Whatever it is that has you off your game,” she replied in a softer tone of voice.

“Would it make a difference?”

“It might.”

“My wife, um….ex-wife, she remarried and just found out that she is pregnant.”

“I see.”

“All we ever wanted to do was have a kid. But she couldn’t get pregnant.”

“Instead you ended up in jail.”

“Yeah, but I told you that ….”

“It doesn’t matter now Paul. You have been here long enough to know that. Nothing that we were before the Section matters now. You only have the here and the now. And I need you at 100%, or I can’t need you at all.”

“I understand.”

“I hope you do. This thing with your ex-wife?”

“Yes?”

“Stop any surveillance immediately and get over it. Dismissed.”

As he reached the door he turned around and saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. He left without another word.



Chapter 11

Michael sat out on the veranda watching the people go by on shore below as they enjoyed the last moments of sunset. The house where he sat was built into the side of a hill and he had selected years ago for the spectacular view of the ocean to the south. Then just to the north he had a perfect view of the only road leading up to the house. From a tactical perspective it was in a perfect location. He tried without success to push from his thoughts how much he knew that Nikita would have loved this house. He never got the opportunity to bring her here. Instead he had carried his son into this house in darkness, like a criminal.

The rest of the day had been difficult for Michael. Adam had a good session with Dr. Sanchez, and Michael was extremely relieved that his son was comfortable with the doctor. But after Adam’s part of the appointment was complete Gabriella had arrived to take Adam home and give Michael and Dr. Sanchez some time alone to discuss Adam.

Michael’s thoughts drifted back over the half-truths, and straight out lies that he told that afternoon…

“It got much harder to leave Adam and go on the trips that my business required as he got older…I loved Elana, and I was faithful to her….”

“We had a happy home, when I was there…at least I think we did…”

“I had been out of Adam’s life for a while. I can’t explain to you why but it was best for Adam to believe that I was dead.”

“Elana lost her estranged father at almost exactly the same time that I left her life and it was difficult…”

“Once I found out that Elana had been killed in the car accident, I had to get Adam. I was all he had left and I needed to raise him. I knew Adam needed me.”

“Yes he was kidnapped…”

Michael recalled how Dr. Sanchez explained how difficult it is with children for them to understand reality. It is a very fragile thing to them. Michael had taken a basic truth – death – and warped it’s meaning for a very young boy. Adam didn’t understand death, he didn’t understand grieving, but he knew that his Daddy was no longer there and that he would not be coming back. Now Michael had broken that basic truth – he had come back from the dead. So, to young Adam, anyone could do it. Why couldn’t his Mommy come back too? If he just waits long enough and is really good then Mommy will come back too.

And the men that had taken Adam, they had not harmed him in any way, but Adam had been very afraid of all the guns and the bad words and the locks on the room that he was in. And they didn’t give him foods that he wanted, nor did they read stories before he went to sleep, and they wouldn’t leave a light on went he slept, and they didn’t have warm blankets or pajamas at bedtime. All of these were very real, normal things that were part of the normal expectations of a small boy, and all of them had been ripped away. Like so many other things in his young life.

Adam had a lot to work out in his mind and it was going to take time and consistency for Adam to heal. Dr. Sanchez had stressed how much Adam now needed consistency, no more surprises and no more traumas. Children had an amazing ability to be pliable about the environment around them. They could heal, if they were given the proper safe environment to do so. Adam needed that environment now. Michael had vowed that he would give that to his son, after all that he had taken away from him he owed Adam this and much more.

Michael continued to sit after the sun had set and allowed his eyes to drift shut being lulled into a light sleep by the heavy exhaustion. Then he heard her, her voice, that beautiful, sexy, husky voice…”Michael. Please help. Michael.”

He was instantly alert, awake and on his feet. Gun cocked and in his hand he searched the veranda and the surrounding perimeter but there was no one there. On the south end of the veranda though he could swear that he could smell her perfume.

Was it just the stress of the last weeks playing with his mind? He had a huge responsibility with Adam now and he had to live up to that responsibility. Weariness of the whole situation washed over him and he dropped back into the same chair that he had been in earlier. What was to happen now?

*****

She made her way down the side of the hill carefully as she had been trained. She had to be careful, this was Michael after all. She had stayed perfectly still in her hiding spot while Michael had checked the perimeter of the house, just as she had been told to do. She made sure that all her hair was hidden under the black hat that she wore so there would be no flashes of blonde that he could possibly make out in the darkness. She neared the rocks of the shore and then shed her black clothing to reveal the more festive and normal tourist attire underneath. She reversed the black backpack that she wore to reveal it’s bright interior shell, and put all of her dark clothing inside of it.

With her blonde hair now blowing in the breeze and bare feet in the sand she looked like any other vacationer on the beach.

After she had walked for a while she pulled out her cell phone and auto-dialed, “Contact has been made,” she reported.

“Any incidents on site?”

“No. There were no anomalies.”

“Response time of target?”

“Delayed. I would have expected better.”

“Not considering what he has been through. Proceed to next phase.”

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