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Date Posted: 08:58:05 06/23/08 Mon
Author: Mary
Author Host/IP: oh01pixinet01-nat86.net.relizon.com / 216.111.160.86
Subject: Good and Evil - Chapter 16 Chapter 17
In reply to: Mary 's message, "Good and Evil - Chapter 12+" on 13:22:50 05/26/08 Mon

Chapter 16

Nikita was in the Perch looking over the data for the Milan mission. The profile was excellent, not quite as good as she would have expected from someone like Michael, but then few operatives ever become as good as Michael had been. His ability to focus, and to shut himself off from everything else except the mission, was what had made him both the best operative in Section and their greatest liability in the end.

She sighed as she realized just how true that was. She had become his personal mission over the last year and that was simply not allowed to be in Section. Section always had to come first, there could be nothing and no one more important than the mission of Section. Otherwise it was not an effective organization. Its goals were so expansive that the expectations of those who fed the organization had to be optimal at all points in time. Otherwise the Section just became, as Paul had pointed out on more than one occasion, “no better than the CIA.”. She understood now, not all of it, not his egomaniacal quest for power, but she was beginning to better understand his passion for the responsibility of Section.

Walter stood at the door and watched her lost in her own thoughts. She looked a little pale and tired to him today, but she had made it through the evening last night without too many scars. The mission yesterday had been tough on her and it showed. She was learning that life in Section; as an operative, munitions expert, or Operations; was not an easy job. There were realities, some ugly realities that simply had to be faced. He hoped she would maintain her soul through the process, but he doubted it. Nothing against her personally, he just had been around Section for too long and he knew when someone’s humanity was being yanked away from them, and hers was definitively being pulled on right now.

She was strong, he knew that. She got over the tears fairly quickly last night and managed to put her “game face” back in place fairly well today. She would cope, she would manage, but would she survive intact? He couldn’t do that for her. She had to do it for herself, find the strength at the core of who she was and anchor herself to her principles. It was going to be rough, especially with the news that he had to tell her today.

“Morning Walter,” her husky voice sounded professional and controlled matching her demeanor this morning. She seemed stiff almost too formal.

“I’ve got news that you’re going to want to know about.”

She turned her full attention to Walter, “What is it?”

He hesitated, knew that she wouldn’t take this well, “I’ve lost the tracking on Michael and Adam. I’ve tried everything to reset it Sugar.”

She took a breath, felt her heart beat, and then took another breath, “Do you know what might have caused this?”

He shook his head and told her what she already knew, “The only way this could have happened is if Michael turned off the transponders from his end.”

Her face went completely blank, in a manner that Walter had never seen before. It was as if something had just been turned off in her soul. “I have to get back to work.”

“Sugar, I think that we…”

She put up her hand to stop his words and icily stared at him, “I said I have to work.”

Walter turned and left, utterly stunned by her actions. He knew that she would take it hard, but after last night and the way she had finally talked to him he thought that he might be able to get close to her again. Maybe even help her a little through everything that she had to face. But she obviously didn’t want his help. At least not now, he wondered if ever.

*****

Michael sat in the shade of the early evening and watched Adam as he played at the shore. Adam loved to build sand castles, he would spend hours doing it if Michael let him, and Michael would do anything that made the boy happy. Adam had been sleeping a little better the last two nights, and Michael knew that a good part of the reason was the therapist that Adam was seeing. He seemed to talk a little more the past few days. He would now ask for things when he was hungry or if he wanted something. He seemed a little less afraid of everything.

That should have made Michael more relaxed. But Michael had forgotten years ago how to relax. He knew how to be alert, on edge, to search the perimeter for possible hostiles, to always check egress points, to know how many seconds it would take to get to a point of coverage in case of ambush. Those were things that Michael knew, but he did not know how to relax.

The sun was beginning to set and Michael called to Adam and they made their way up the long hill to the house. Gabriella would have dinner waiting for them and then bath and bedtime for Adam. Normal, it was so important to keep everything normal and on a schedule for Adam. He needed the consistency as it was his grounding point right now. A schedule, rules, support, love, things needed to just be calm and normal. These things would allow Adam to heal. Whenever Michael looked at his son’s innocent face in sleep, at the small hands curled in slumber, it reminded him why he had to make this work.

Gabriella had indeed left dinner which Michael and Adam had together. Adam ate heartily while Michael ate for the sake of his son but still felt the now familiar nausea that seemed to follow him through most of his days now. He would eat, Adam needed to see that, and then very quietly and privately after most meals Michael would be sick. He knew that he was loosing weight, not a lot yet, and he kept his workout routine intact, but this could not continue. Michael needed to keep his skills at their best to be able to protect Adam.

Bath time came and went and soon Adam was tucked in bed after a story and Michael poured a glass of wine in hopes of sleeping some tonight. He was closing the door leading to the portico when he sensed the change in the air. He reached into one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out the fully loaded glock and chambered the round. Pulling back the safety he silently went toward the back of the house.

The night was dark now and Michael left no outside lights on, he had been busy with Adam, a careless mistake on his part. The intricate security system that surrounded the house had not detected anyone, but Michael knew that all security systems were meant to be broken. There wasn’t a single one that he was aware of that he hadn’t been able to circumvent yet. So while he armed the system, he did not trust the system. He trusted only himself right now.

There was a sound just outside the open doors leading to the veranda. Michael stood perfectly still and listened intently and then he heard it again, another step, just outside the door. Only one person was all he was able to detect, there were no sounds of any backup that Michael was able to discern. The light from the full moon tonight and from the city down below was all that kept the area from being completely black now. Michael stayed deep in the shadows, moved through the perimeter of the room, gun drawn and ready.

He spotted the intruder just outside the window, whoever it was they were good to have gotten this close to the house. Either that or Michael was really slipping and he hadn’t been out of Section that long to have deteriorated that much yet. No, this intruder was well trained, quick, silent, smart. It felt like Section to Michael and the adrenaline rushed through his blood. What had happened? Why were they here? Were they looking for Nikita? Was it possible he had really seen her after all?

Focus Michael, he yelled to himself in his tired brain. You have to protect Adam, it doesn’t matter why they are here. They are. Now take care of it. You need information from this person. Information is power. Take this operative and then find out what is happening.

He swept closer to the open door and could see the operative pressed into the back of the house in Section Black from head to toe, trying to be invisible. The operative moved and Michael saw the gun drawn. Michael quickly made his move, he crossed the threshold of the door to the veranda in a sweep and disarmed the operative with a kick to the chest that threw the operative to the floor of the stone veranda and sent his gun spinning out of reach. Michael stood over the stunned operative and ordered, “Don’t move or I will kill you.”

Michael silently stood there assessing the area for any backup but there was no one else out there. After another few seconds Michael turned his attention to his captive. “Remove the mask.” He ordered again.

The sight of the bright white-blond short hair pulled the air from Michael’s lungs and then her blue eyes looked up at him. She smiled, “Michael.”

He was stunned, could only utter one question, “Nikita?”




Chapter 17

He continued to hold his gun on the woman in front of him. She wasn’t Nikita couldn’t be Nikita.

“Michael.”

“Don’t move. Who are you?”

“Michael, it’s me.”

“No. You’re in Section.”

“Let me explain.”

“Get up.”

She could see the exhaustion etched in his face, the confusion and danger in his eyes. She knew not to disobey him right now. “All right.”

She stood and winced at the pain in her chest from his kick. She had learned years ago just how dangerous he was, and even though he had not meant to mortally wound with the hit, it still would be one nasty bruise.

He saw the pain go over her face as she got up and something inside of him twisted at the thought that he had been the one to hurt her. Then he reminded himself that she was not Nikita, could not be Nikita. This was a horrible ruse brought about by some terrible enemy that wanted to extract revenge. That or Michael was truly insane and had finally broken after all these years of Section.

He took her inside and downstairs to the back bedroom. This was the location that he had supplied just in case he was comprised. The door on the room was reinforced steel, there was full surveillance in the room and a laser sensor system that would report any movement back to a main console upstairs. He put her in the windowless room and tied her to the chair that sat alone in the middle of the barren room. She winced again as he tied her arms behind her back but he had shut off any misplaced emotions associated with this hostile.

Once she was secure he stood behind her at the perimeter of the room, in full Section interrogation style and asked, “Who are you?”

“You know who I am.” She spoke softly, gently, using a tone that she reserved only for her time alone with Michael. He would know that tone, she knew this.

“It’s not possible.”

“Yes. It is. Let me tell you what has happened.”

He ignored her and continued the questioning, “Who do you work for? How did you find me?”

“Michael, please, it’s me. Nikita. I’ve always known where you were.”

His tolerance was reaching an end. It was inconceivable that this could be her. He put the gun in the waistband of his pants and came up behind her without a sound putting his arm around her neck and pulled tightly, “I want to know who you are. If you know me, then you know there are many ways that I could kill you right now. Tell me what I want to know.”

Tears came into her eyes, she was trying to hold it together, desperately trying to reach the man that she loved. She was tired too. It had been a long flight and getting here had been terrifying, constantly watching if she was being followed. She knew that he would be wary and untrusting of her, but it was still so difficult to feel this way. “There is a disk in the pocket of my coat that will explain this Michael. Please, take it out of my pocket and watch it.”

He hesitated, and then loosened his grip on her. She continued, “I encoded it so only you can open it Michael. I used your profile that you gave me right before you left. You told me that if I ever wanted to communicate with you to encode the message using the files that were on the profile. Look at the disk, the files are there.”

He released and walked around to stare at her. Her eyes were filled with tears and she looked so much like Nikita. Smelled like Nikita, sounded like Nikita. It would have been so easy to just believe her. But Michael had been taught discretion for a long, long time and it made no logical sense that she was here. So instead of untying her and folding her in his arms which he ached to do, he gingerly reached inside the jacket that she wore and removed the disk from the inside pocket.

He looked at it for a moment, pondering what may lie ahead and then silently walked out of the room.

*****

Walter spotted Jason and called him over to his workbench in Munitions, “You talked with Nikita today?”

“Nope. You keepin’ awful close tabs on her aren’t you?”

“Nah. I was just wondering. I talked with her this morning and she seemed a little off.”

“I’ll let you know if I notice anything,” he replied and headed back to Comm.

“Thanks Jase,” has called after the young man.

Jason sauntered into Comm with his usual confident stride and turned on his Comm unit. She was waiting for him to give her the morning update. He pushed a button on the laptop, secured the channel and then heard Myra on the other end of the line, “Jason, how is One today?”

“All seems to be just fine.”

“That’s good to hear. You stay in close touch with me. We are at Phase II, she is now in place.”

“That will make things much easier.”

Jason closed the line.

*****

Michael sat at the desk and held the disk in his fingers. He was not a man to waste time, but he almost feared what might be on the disk. His mind was racing with profiles and he knew he should have already grabbed Adam and but his backup profile in place immediately. But two things kept him from doing that. The first was Adam. He needed Michael to be strong, stable, and make good decisions. This anomaly tonight, while extremely disturbing, seemed to be an isolated incident his Section brain told him. He had tunneled into Section and Oversight and there was no sign of any pending missions, or any activity anywhere near his current location. Michael reasoned with himself that he knew the organization and if they were mobilizing something he would know it long before they were anywhere near him.

The other reason for not initializing his backup profile was the woman that was tied up downstairs. Every fiber of his being wanted to believe that it was Nikita. He had seen that face and had been unable to breath for a moment. He thought of the last time they had made love and the way she had cradled him against him, loving him, so warm, so soft. He pushed the memories to the back of his mind, shut off the ability to reach out to them, and then placed the disk in the laptop.

The files he left for her were loaded on the disk and Michael swiftly maneuvered through them to get to the information that was on the disk. He tried to stay calm telling himself that someone else could have found the files, duplicated them.

Then Mr. Jones appeared on the screen of the laptop. His gravelly accented voice was meant to be addressing Nikita, “My dear girl, if you are watching this then I know that you found the clues to the only gift that I was able to leave behind for you. I know you thought I was something of a monster. I left you at a young age, never was there for you, let you struggle as you grew up on the streets and then in Section. But, we’ve been through all of that already.

“I want you to know that you were always close to my heart. I loved you from the moment you were born. I’ve followed your every movement and I secured Michael to be your mentor and guide for Section, only the best for my daughter. I can only hope that someday you will forgive me for my sins, if your heart is indeed big enough for that, and I believe that it is.

“I realized just how much you love and completely trust Michael the day in MedLab when you chose to disobey me and refused to shoot him. As much as I believe you were born to run Section, if you are watching this message then you have decided that you were also born to be with Michael. Our lives are about difficult choices Nikita. We are special you and I. We were born to be special.

“But I’ve come to recognize in my short time with you that does not mean, nor should it mean, that you have to be made to suffer. So you will find all the instructions that you need to get out of Section on this disk. Being Operations requires much more than just the sinking of files and disarming of trackers to be able to leave. But everything you need to know is here. It is my final and only gift to you my daughter. I am very proud of you Nikita no matter what you may choose to do. You are a beautiful, intelligent woman and I only hope that the life you have is fulfilling, happy and one that you choose.”

The message ended and Michael then scanned the disk for the additional files mentioned by Mr. Jones. He had never seen these files before and was surprised by their existence and the fact that he had left them behind for Nikita. <i> Could it be possible? Could she really be Nikita? </i>

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