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Subject: The Real and True Chapter 12 *** Revised *** If you have time this one is better!!


Author:
Mary
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Date Posted: Friday, August 26, 11:18:21am
In reply to: Mary 's message, "The Healing Touch II Chapter 8 +" on Monday, August 15, 08:09:01pm

Sorry dear Reader:

I posted the wrong version of Chapter 12 and didn't realize it until lilitz91 was nice enough to point out to me that I hadn't finished a sentence in one of the paragraphs. I then checked and realized that I had posted a prior version. I am truly sorry for my mistake and I do believe that this final version of Chapter 12 is much better than the previous one.

I hope you enjoy....


Chapter 12 - Final Version

Dinner was complete, the fire was warm and stoked, and Nikita sat down to listen to Michael.

“Right after I finished medical school and my internship I met Walter. I was in a bar having a celebration with some other graduates and we were more than a little happy at the time. I can still remember everything about that night. It was the last night that I was ever truly free. I stepped out of the bar at about 1:30 in the morning. I noticed immediately that the street was quiet, and the streetlights above the bar were off. A van pulled around the corner, the door slid open, and Walter pulled me in. That was my introduction to Section.”

“So how long were you in this group the first time?”

“Six years. I spent the first year training to see if I had what it took to be an operative. They quickly found out I did.”

Nikita heard the self-reproach in his voice, she could tell that reliving this time in his life was exceptionally painful for him. Her heart began to ache for the pain that she knew he was feeling. She didn’t want to pity him after everything that he had done to her, but she couldn’t help deeply feeling for the caring doctor that she still saw every time that she looked at him. She had seen the gentle way that he could calm a panicked patient, the skill he used as a surgeon in the operating room, the featherlike touch of his long fingers on a frightened child’s face. Was this the same man standing in front of her? How did he do it and stay sane?

Michael continued, “I was soon leading teams in the field. Profiling missions, and ordering cancellations.”

“Cancellations?”

“If you don’t live up to Section standards then the cost is your life.”

Her eyes expanded as she took in what he had just said. It was positively unthinkable in her world. Things like that didn’t happen. Did they? “My God, Michael, that’s inhuman.”

He softly whispered the tortured words that were pulled from his soul, “That’s Section.”

She could tell that he couldn’t take talking about it from an inside perspective any longer, it was tearing him apart and she was watching it happen. She tried a change of direction in the conversation hoping to spare him some of the terrible pain that seemed to emanate from him, “How did you get out?”

“Even Section answers to someone. There is an organization called Oversight, they monitor all of Sections activities. I knew that there were protocols being used that had been banned by Oversight.”

“So you went to Oversight with the information.” Her tactical with the direction of the conservation seemed to help him and his tone was not quite so bleak, his eyes not so blank and helpless.

“Yes. I had enough information to get out of Section as long as my silence was maintained. I had copies of the intel hidden and funding would have been jeopardized if the intel became publicly known.”

She chose her words carefully realizing that the wrong question might mean that he stopped responding to her altogether. He was walking a tight edge and she was concerned for him, very concerned. “Funding? So this is a government based organization?”

“No. They are separate from any individual government or branch of military. They act as an isolated entity, and no will even acknowledge the existence of this clandestine organization. They are funded through questionable means that couldn’t be traced no matter how hard someone tried, but there are rules of protocol that have to be followed. None-the-less Section One still tries to make their own rules and operate autonomously.”

“Accountable to no one, yet perceived responsibility for all. Is that the idea?”

“Something like that.”

They both sat in silence for a few minutes as Nikita digested the information provided and thought about what it must have been like for the talented doctor in front of her to live the life that he was describing. She ventured to ask him the one question that scared her the most, yet she felt inside like he needed to verbalize some the pain that he was burdened with, needed to share it with someone. “What is it like for you?”

“Section?”

“Yes.”

“You do the job,” he turned from her, she could tell he couldn’t look her in the eye and talk about his personal role in the organization

“That’s it?”

“That’s all there is. I don’t exist anymore. No one in Section does. There is no past and no future, just today and the job.”

“I don’t think I could do that. How do you do that?”

He turned back to look at her and she was stunned to see the changes in him. A solid blank mask was on his face, he was completely unreadable to her. His green eyes were dull and grey and held absolutely nothing. Looking at him chilled her and she realized that attempting to balance the two halves of himself were taking a toll on him that he may not be able to maintain. His next words scared her even more, “You turn off everything in side yourself. Only your thoughts are private, and sometimes you wonder if that’s really the case. You work, you sleep, and you stay alive.”

*****

It was late as she sat in the office and watched the two lovers as they talked. Michael was correct in the perception that he was conveying to Nikita about Section. An organization has to be efficient. And that efficiency required sacrifice on the part of every individual. There was no other choice, that result was a world that was not full of anarchy and chaos. Oh, she knew it wasn’t perfect either, but things could only be controlled so much, even by someone such as herself.

She was pleased with the events between Michael and Nikita that she was seeing so far. Things were going just as she had planned. Nikita was even stronger and more beautiful than she had envisioned her to ever be. Years of watching the young woman struggle through school, guiding her movements in the background, opening doors for her that she could not imagine; and now finally it was all starting to come together.

Wolfe had almost ruined those plans, but Michael had risen to the occasion just as she had profiled that he would. Michael was loyal, his integrity could not be swayed, that was his one known attribute that could always be counted on. She had wagered on his integrity and he had followed the profile perfectly thus far. His return to Section One had been foreseen, expected and choreographed to the smallest detail. The mission at Marcali had been carefully planned for years. And, of course, the success of Wolfe Enterprises had been carefully orchestrated.

The type of organization that she presided over required money, and lots of it. In order to keep it alive, it had to be cared for and fed. This merger would allow for the long term funding required and would allow for her transition of power to the next generation. She was weary, it took all of one’s soul to do the job that she did and she needed rest. She knew that rest would only come with her successor in place.

She sighed as she turned off the monitor and leaned back in her chair. The time was drawing close and she could feel the changes coming. She picked up the cell phone and called, “It’s me.”

“Good evening,” came Grey Wellman’s reply on the other end of the call.

“Is everything ready?”

“Of course, you know it is.”

“I want this completed. Push, and push her hard.”

He sighed, they had this conversation before, “I have.”

“No you haven’t. Mr. Wellman if you want to stay alive you will have her in Hungary in the next 48 hours.”

“I’m not sure she’ll be stable or capable…”

Her patience at an end she snapped, “I don’t care. She has to be pushed, she was born for this, she’ll be fine. Now do it!”

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Replies:
Subject Author Date
a little better (NT)elderFriday, August 26, 10:06:16pm
Welcome back .....(r)Lady EFriday, August 26, 11:38:14pm
Either or wonderful, remember there are no mistakesLoveroySaturday, August 27, 09:21:28pm
Oh dear....(r)JaronSunday, September 04, 10:33:01am


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