| Subject: Chapter 4 - Took me a while to write this one. Wanted it just right. |
Author:
Mary
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Date Posted: Wednesday, August 03, 12:05:19pm
In reply to:
Mary
's message, "The Healing Touch - Part II" on Wednesday, August 03, 12:02:24pm
Chapter 4 – Part II
The corporate offices of Marcali Industries were as stark as Section – almost. Michael had been greeted warmly by the Vice-President of Investments and after an intense month of working with the analysts at Marcali, Michael was finally able to really begin to find the information on this company that he needed. The first investments and books that he was shown, their legitimate investments, were well structured and it made the company look like a viable investment for anyone looking to purchase the company stock or bonds.
He knew that their had to be more, much more, and it took a little time to convince the Vice-President just how good Michael was at re-structuring their debt to make those books look even better. Once that was done the door was open to Nikolai Marcali himself.
Michael sat thinking about the meeting as he sipped a cognac in his apartment. He was part way through the process of putting together a status update to Cecelia and he wanted to ponder the facts one more time before he sent it. Once Michael was in the good graces of Nikolai he quickly had accounts into the ‘other investments’ of the company and they were much worse than even Cecelia had feared. Nikolai was moving money over five continents continuously, laundering it on a daily basis through drug lords and foreign banks. He was sponsoring terrorism in at least thirty countries and with groups such as Red Cell, Glass Curtain, and the Collective.
He was supplying funding for guns, biological warfare, cloning experimentation, basic infrastructure, and anything else that these groups would need. He was also recently into more perverse pleasures such as the white slavery market, adolescent slave trading and pornography. He was funding the deaths of thousands of people every day with his contacts worldwide and a well established network of terrorists that was shocking.
He had to be stopped. Michael was attempting to put together a profile, but it was going to take time. Nikolai’s reach was both broad and deep and this would need to be carefully orchestrated if Section were to be successful.
An unexpected knock at the door had Michael instantly on his feet and weapon drawn. He approached the door slowly and from the side, weapon ready. A familiar voice said from outside the door, “You can let me in. It’s Walter.”
Michael ran at least a dozen scenarios through his tired mind as to why Walter would be standing outside his door right now. Not a single one of them made any sense to the trained operative. He stood to the side of the door, gun ready, opened the door and waited.
“Michael, put the gun down. It’s me. I can explain. But I can’t talk to you if you blow the back of my head off.”
Michael lowered the weapon and watched as Walter walked into the apartment. “Nice place you got here amigo. Great view. They are taking good care of you, aren’t they?”
“Why are you here?” stated coldly and softly.
Walter walked over to the bar and poured himself a cognac and took a seat as Michael continued to watch his every move. “That’s a long story to tell. You might want to sit down for this.”
Michael sat across from Walter and tried to calm his racing mind. “Is Nikita all right?”
Walter took a long sip of cognac and told him, “Well that depends. You know as well as I do where she is and how she is. She’s miserable and you know it. She believes you to be dead, she’s left medicine and locked herself into an institution that was her birthright and she feels a horrible responsibility to be there and learn to run it. Do you call that all right?”
Michael silently stared at Walter, but the pain of his words could be seen in his eyes.
“No. I didn’t think you would.”
There was silence as Michael stood and went to look out over the lights of the city. “Why are you here? How did you know where I am?”
“The hard questions first. I suppose it’s time you know. Years ago when you left Section, you were led to believe that I was also freed and that it was because you requested it. Yes, you had a lot of leverage against Mr. Jones and you gained your freedom that way, but I was never free.”
It clicked in Michael’s mind like the tumblers of a lockset falling into place, “You were sent with me to monitor.”
“Yeah. I watched you all these years and reported your movements back to Section. You had too much information and you couldn’t just be ‘let go’.”
Something else began to take shape in the back of Michael’s mind and the idea would not leave, “That would mean that you’re…”
“Yep, you’re getting the picture now. When you left I was pulled out of Section and recruited into Oversight. I answer only to Center now.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“That’s the hell of it Michael. I don’t want to be here. I never interfered in your life. You quietly led the life that you wanted to, and god knows you had earned that. You made the decision to go back into Section, I didn’t agree, but I didn’t stop you. It took care of the whole Paul and Madeline mess and in your heart you truly thought you were protecting Nikita. I love that girl like a daughter and your death almost killed her too. Watching it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I held her for hours while she cried for you.”
Both men sat in silence for a few moments lost in their personal thoughts of that difficult time. Walter continued, “But what you need to know is that you and Nikita are being setup by someone at Center.”
He slipped into mission mode so fast at the sound of her name he didn’t even realize that he had done it, “How?”
“Nikita works for Wolfe Enterprises, you know that. What you don’t know is that they are seriously looking at a takeover try for Marcali Industries.”
Michael’s back stiffened and his hands formed into fists, Walter knew the young man was angry and it was going to get worse. “How do you know that?”
“Just trust me on this one Michael. I know.”
Michael instantly realized that it would be inevitable that he would meet with Nikita if he remained at Marcali, “I have to cancel this mission.”
Walter quickly balked at Michael’s suggestion, “You can’t. This has to play out. I don’t know who at Center is pulling the strings but these are some dangerous people. They want Marcali to be taken out of play and they want Wolfe Enterprises to get that takeover. If you do anything at this point to disturb this mission we will both be cancelled by Center.”
“Michael, I have thought and thought about this. Someone with a lot of power at Center wants to see this merger between Wolfe Enterprises and Marcali Industries happen. They have strategically placed Nikita where she is to make sure that happens. If anything goes wrong they deem her as acceptable collateral.”
“Of course they would.”
Michael sat and thought. Walter already knew that there was only one course of action that made sense but the operative needed to come to that conclusion on his own. He understood the scenario now and Michael was running profiles in his mind, Walter could see it.
Michael thought about the danger that Nikita was in once again. His stomach turned at the thought of anything happening to her. He had walked away from her, told the ultimate lie in order to protect her. Now the only way was to tell the truth, “We have to go and see Nikita.”
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