Nikita doesn't belong to me.
All in A Day's Work
Michael sat at the desk typing on the computer. He'd just arrived back from a job in Cyprus and he was dead on his feet but he knew Percy would expect a report in his inbox first thing tomorrow, so Michael had two options really; either finish it tonight or come in early tomorrow morning and get it done before Percy checked his mail. He preferred to sleep in so he had to get it done now.
An hour later Michael was happy with his report and he was ready to send it to Percy when somehow he lost everything. He'd been saving but he failed to find the report anywhere. He frowned at the computer, booted and rebooted it but he couldn't find the report. He thought of calling Birkhoff but he was tired and he wasn't in the mood for any jokes about his lack of computer savvy; besides Birkhoff had some work he had to finish for Percy tonight. He'd ask Birkhoff to find it tomorrow; at least he'd finished it.
As he was going to switch off the computer, a blank page with only a prompt appeared out of nowhere. Michael looked at it wondering what was going on. He pressed the ALT+DEL+CTRL keys and he watched in fascination as the letters A, L, T, D, E, L, C, T, R, and L appeared on the page and then disappeared leaving the words READY FOR USE on the screen. He shook his head, it was probably one of Birkhoff's games, and typed Hi, and waited.
0000
Nikita was sitting at her desk watching the News on the computer. Alex was fast asleep; they'd just finalized their plans to get Alex into Division. In less than three days, Alex would be Division's newest recruit. This was what was keeping Nikita awake, she was worried about her young friend; Alex claimed that she was ready but Nikita feared for her safety, what if she got caught? What if they made her do things she couldn't do? What if…?
The News was interrupted and the word Hi, appeared on Nikita's screen. Someone in Division had activated the Shell box program. Birkhoff must have found it, Nikita thought, what should I do? She looked at the screen nervously.
0000
Michael looked at the screen, waiting for a reply. A thought came to him, why not play a silly game, see what Birkhoff's computer would say in reply?
He typed;
At first I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live
Without you by my side, and waited.
Nikita looked at the words on her screen and in spite of herself typed back.
But then I spent so many nights
Thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
Michael burst out laughing; Birkhoff's computer knew some things. Let's see if you know this, he said to himself, and typed;
The moon is up, the stars are bright
The wind is fresh and free
We're out to seek for gold tonight
Across the silver sea,
and waited, within seconds he'd received a reply.
The night was growing grey and cold
Break out the sails again
We're out to seek a realm of gold
Beyond the Spanish Main
Nikita waited for a bit, wondering all the while if she'd taken leave of her senses and typed;
'Wonderful,' I ejaculated.
Michael typed back;
'Commonplace,' said Holmes.
This was interesting Michael thought to himself, he was about to type something else when Birkhoff walked in. Without giving much thought to why he was doing it, Michael quickly shut down and stood up. "I'm beat," he said to his friend.
"Me too," Birkhoff replied, and they left the room.
0000
Nikita saw that the user had logged off; she smiled to herself and picked up her gun and went to bed.
0000
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
The quotes are not mine;
I will survive by Gloria Gaynor
Drake by Alfred Noyes
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
