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Date Posted: 17:09:34 03/04/08 Tue
Author: Mary
Author Host/IP: cpe-69-135-186-204.woh.res.rr.com / 69.135.186.204
Subject: Characters & Shadows - Chapter 38
In reply to: Mary 's message, "Characters & Shadows - Cont." on 11:19:55 02/28/08 Thu

Chapter 38

The conference room was large, modern and dimly lit. The way the committee demanded that it be. Adrian hated it this way, it made it much more difficult for her to read facial expressions. But she had learned that was the exact reason for the lighting and it wasn’t going to change. So she became an expert at trying to read the slightest change in voice patterns to indicate any emotion in the speaker. She was getting quite good at it.

“Gentlemen we are initializing the end game scenario with the Fanning mission.”

“POS?” Came the familiar voice to her right.

“89.9% with a 2.4% deviation for error.”

“Reasons for deviations?”

She knew not to hesitate at all, even if she hated the answer, “Human reaction I’m afraid. The operative on point is ‘over-invested’.”

“Marco O’Brien.” Stated not as a question.

“Yes.”

“You have back-up in place?”

“Of course.” She answered indignantly, she hated when they treated her like a child. Who did they think they were dealing with? “Every possible scenario has been thought of, profiled, and simmed.”

“Timing?”

“I expect full closure within 24 hours.”

“And the collateral damage?”

Adrian hated this question the most, “Unknown.”

That certainly got a reaction from them she thought as she watched what movement she could see in the dimly lit room. “Unknown? Explain.”

“Nikita Fanning has introduced new variables. The scenario is playing out as expected. But she will not be alone at the final mark with David. There will be others.”

“Are they expendable?”

“No. There would be too many questions, too much exposure.”
A voice from the left caught her attention. He didn’t speak often during these briefings, “Fix it. Take Fanning out of play, minimize attention.”

Now Adrian had another issue that she knew could not be avoided. If she didn’t tell them it could come back to haunt her later, she would not accept the risk alone, “There is one other issue that has come to light.”

“Yes? But be brief. We have a full schedule yet.”

“I have been informed that one of Fanning’s men, Suba, is putting in place his own source of funding and starting a separate faction.”

“Unacceptable. Cut off the funding, remove Suba from play, clean up the mess! Do it fast. We must have full closure. Understood?”

“Of course.”

*****

Marco was ready to crawl out of his own skin at this point. David was breathing down his neck to get to Nikita. Marco was constantly profiling in his head how he could possibly stop all of this from happening. But he also knew it was futile, and in the last couple hours his thoughts changed to scenarios that would guarantee that Nikita was not harmed. But inside he knew there was really only one way. He had actually known it for quite some time, but he kept hoping that perhaps there was another way. But now it was too late, Adrian would have full teams in place, he knew where they were, how many there were, and what their orders were.

No, his fate had been sealed years ago the first time he laid eyes on the beautiful blond and knew that he could never let harm come to her. Falling in love with her had never been part of the profile.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts as he entered the temporary surveillance room that had been set up, “Are we ready to move yet?”

“Almost sir.”

“What is the hold up?”

“The advance teams are still scanning. With the additional targets in place it has taken more time than anticipated.”

“Speed it up. Keeping David waiting will get us all killed.”

“Yes sir.”

*****

Brian read through the information in front of him again. No matter how he looked at it there was only one conclusion. Nikita was dying and there was nothing that they were doing that was going to be able to stop that. Her entire body was now beginning to shut down and the stress on her heart was getting worse.

At this rate of deterioration she only had hours left unless somehow a miracle occurred. A Brian did not believe in miracles.

With a deep sigh he closed the file and left to go see Michael. He owed it to his friend to be honest, to give Michael the time to be able to say good-by to her properly.

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