| Subject: chapter 9 |
Author:
s.b.
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Date Posted: Tuesday, September 21, 03:16:08am
In reply to:
s.b.
's message, "The Progeny of Four" on Sunday, September 19, 09:33:38pm
Operations closed the file on the screen and turned his chair to face Madeline. “I want a DNA sample. Run it against all our databases.”
“I’ve already ordered it,” Madeline replied. Like Operations she too was curious about Nikita’s parentage. When they had first taken Nikita in as part of Section 4’s original experiment they had been informed then that she was the child of two operatives, but no names had been given.
“I hope you’re not making a mistake with bringing her here. I know you feel this is the only way to return Michael to his former self, but I don’t see why it has to be this girl. The fact that she’s even affiliated with Section Four is enough to concern me. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you why.”
Madeline knew he was referring to the case of the profiler from Section 4 who had been assigned to a sub-station in Germany three years earlier. This hadn’t been any ordinary profiler though. She had been a young girl, no more than ten years old, much like Nikita had been when they’d first brought her to Section One. This girl though had the capability to plot missions as good as any Class 5 operative. The problem had been that the girl apparently had ‘other’ talents as well that Section 4 had failed to inform the substation about. Before the substation’s leaders had figured out what was happening, they had lost four operatives in what appeared to be a string of unexplainable suicides.
“I don’t believe Nikita poses any threat to us,” Madeline answered. “She was part of the original experiments, before they started delving more into genetic manipulation.”
“You mean before they started creating monsters?” Operations replied with disgust. “I don’t know why Oversight gives them as much funding as they do.”
“Not all of their experiments have been failures,” Madeline reminded him gently.
“Yes, but Mr. Birkoff is an exception to the rule. If more of their research ended up with results like him I wouldn’t protest so much.”
Madeline’s mouth curved upward. “One of ‘two’ exceptions.”
“You mean his brother, the one that we’re not supposed to know about? Well that just goes to show how foolish they are. Why in the world would they let him go if he’s supposedly as good as Birkoff?”
“Maybe they feel a little outside exposure will be good for him.”
“Like this Nikita girl. Do they think he won’t resent having his freedom taken away when they eventually pull him in?” Operations gave a dry laugh as he stood up and walked over to the glass windows overlooking Section’s main floor. “At least with this girl life in Section will be an improvement to the one she’s led so far, and that’s ‘if’ she even makes it past the training stage. What else have you been able to find out about her?”
“Section 4 set up the clinic where Roberta Wirth gave birth. She was in and out of shelters at the time, no known family or acquaintances, she had an arrest record for misdemeanors, including some prostitution. She was the perfect target for Section 4 to do a switch with.”
“Switch Nikita with her child.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her real child?” Operations asked, suddenly curious as to the fate of the other baby.
“With her mother’s history of addiction it’s unlikely they would kept it in Section. It may have been put up for adoption…”
“Or terminated.” Operations concluded. That was a hard truth to accept but it was how the Sections operated. He almost felt sorry for Roberta Wirth and the fact that she never knew the child she had raised was not her own. But then, he thought, since she threw Nikita out to live on the streets at age sixteen, maybe she didn’t deserve to raise the child in the first place.
“What I don’t understand is why that life? If Section 4 wanted to observe how one of their prodigies would survive out in the free world, why didn’t they choose a more conducive environment?”
“Conducive to what?” Madeline asked. “Survival in Section? A child raised in a harsh environment would have a better chance of surviving in Section than the one raised in luxury.”
“Perhaps you’re right. Do you think this was their intention all along was to bring her back into Section?”
Madeline had given this very question a lot of thought over the past weeks. “I imagine their original intent was along those lines, and then when they started making headway with their research their objectives changed from focusing on environmental influence to genetic make-up.”
“But why didn’t they eliminate the earlier group of subjects?”
“Nikita’s group would have still served a purpose.”
“As the control group.”
“Yes.”
Operations sighed. All this talk about genetics, even if it was meant to benefit the Sections in the long run, left him feeling uneasy. "I wonder if there are others out there that we don't know of."
“From the original group?” Madeline walked over to stand next to him. “I’m sure there are. The question is, how many?”
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