Chapter One
Walking slowly down the street, pulling his hood tight over his face, rushing along the cold, rainy spring day, he thought about everything that he had been through. For the last two years hiding had been his life and until he was ready to, he did not want to change that. No one expected him to be alive and he looked a lot different. He had let the hair grow on his face, instead of being clean-shaven like before.
For two years after he'd finally escaped, he lived underground, out of view, not wanting to chance Division finding out. Through the people he would never give up who helped him get out, he had found out that they were helping someone else- someone who could help hi accomplish his mission- find Nikita and help defeat Division and Amanda.
He also wanted to see Alex again. He had hated to leave her thinking that she had killed him, but it was the only way for him to get out. It was obvious she would be upset, but he had to explain things- get them out in the open finally. Following the directions on the paper, he had been left; he turned left into an alley between buildings. He had no idea who he was meeting; just that it was another person being rescued from the claws of Division. His hands ran across the gun in his belt to make sure it was still there. Even though these people had rescued them, they could never be safe.
About halfway down the alley, behind a restaurant, he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Turning around, a dark-haired, well-built man came out from behind a dumpster. "Are you Thom?" he asked quietly, his eyes silently scanning for threats.
Thom gave him a curt nod. "That's me." He replied.
Holding out his hand, the young man replied, "I'm Sean."
"Nice to meet you." Thom shook his hand. "Let's get out of here. I have an apartment set up near here."
It was about twenty minutes later when Thom led Sean into his safe house. He had taken all the precautions to make sure that Division could never find him in case they had ever tracked he was still alive. Jammers blocked the trackers and he kept as low a profile as possible since he'd returned to the northeast only a couple weeks before. As Thom opened the door, Thom watched for his roommate. Not knowing Sean very well, he didn't want to take the chance of the roommate startling him and Sean drawing a gun. Walking in, Thom finally noticed him in the kitchen. "This is my roommate, who also has to hide from Division. Nathan, this is Sean."
Nathan wiped his hands on a dish towel, and then shook with Sean. "Nice to meet you." He greeted.
Sean was confused. In his time with Division he had reviewed all the rosters and Nathan's name didn't ring any bells. It was Thom who finally spoke up, "Nathan was Alex's neighbor. During a fight between Alex and another agent in her apartment, he killed the other agent and had to hide. Luckily I found out and we headed out together."
Things pieced together a little more made Sean a little more comfortable. Everything had been happening so quickly- Division killed him, and then recruited him, and then he faked his death to get out. It had been a difficult choice. He respected Nikita's fight and wanted to help, but it hurt him to see Alex the way she was a refusing his help. From there he was had decided space was the best cure and he took up the agents' offer to fake his death and get him out of Division and out of that life. He wanted to give it a little time until Nikita could help Alex find herself again as he knew that she would. "So, now what?" Sean asked.
After quickly debating how much to explain, Sean replied, "She's going through things but Nikita will help her through. She always does."
Thom and Nathan looked a little torn by the news she wasn't doing great, but quickly Thom moved on. "So what has been happening in Division? We weren't able to get any news while we were hiding in Bora Bora"
Sean nodded in approval of their hiding location, and then stated, "Well, I don't know what happened between when you died and when I arrived, but I don't think the gap was more than a couple months." Sean started. "I got there and Amanda was in charged, Percy locked up in the silo."
"I wish I could have seen that." Thom replied, "That bastard cost me two years of my life in hiding."
Nodding in acknowledgement, Sean continued. "By that time Michael had joined Nikita and Birkhoff had bolted after decrypting a black box for them."
Thom looked stunned and Nathan, not knowing anyone, looked confused. "I'm really surprised Michael and Birkhoff would defect."
"Did you know Nikita and Michael were an item? That was part of it." Sean explained.
Stunned into silence Thom didn't say anything, but Nathan replied, "I briefly met both and that surprises me."
Shrugging, Sean asked, "I can't explain it but that's just what happened. Birkhoff eventually joined them; we took out Amanda and Percy, who got free. Percy and Roan died and Amanda went on the run. We tried to catch all the rogues to close Division but Amanda kept getting in the way. That's where they are now- trying to get all the rogue agents and bringing down Amanda."
"So," Thom wasn't sure he had totally followed that, "Amanda's on the run. Nikita and Michael are in charge of Division to find rogues and close Division."
"Exactly." Sean replied.
For a couple minutes they were all silent, analyzing the situation. "So how do we contact Nikita to rejoin the fight?" Thom asked.
"I could message her or meet her?" Nathan finally chimed in. "I'm the only one they don't expect to be dead, so I wouldn't be too much of a shock on them to start with."
The others couldn't argue with that. All of this was going to be a shock and Nathan would definitely be the smallest one to start off on the right foot. "How do we get their attention?" Thom asked.
"I have a secure line to contact Birkhoff." Sean offered, "Nathan, you can tell him I gave you the information after you contacted me- before I died."
Nathan agreed. "I think that will work. IS Birkhoff going to know who I am?"
Sean wasn't sure of that part. Surely Alex mentioned him, but that didn't mean Birkhoff would remember the name or that had ever seen a picture of him. "I guess we have to take that chance." He replied.
"When?" Thom asked, excited for finally seeing Alex again.
Sean glanced at the clock. It was the middle of the day- odds were that Birkhoff would get the call right away. "He should be there now." Sean answered.
The three men looked back and forth. To each of them it was clear- they were all nervous about giving up life on the run- or in Sean's case giving up letting Alex have space. Deep down they knew Nikita and them could use allies, and all of them wanted Amanda to pay the price for each of their situations.
They took an hour to plot out what Nathan would say to Birkhoff to get his attention. It had to be just right so Birkhoff couldn't disconnect the call as a prank. The easy thing would be Alex identifying Nathan- or even Nikita, but there were no guarantees either would be around or even available. When they had finally satisfied themselves with their plan, Nathan sat down in front of the computer as Sean and Thom placed a sheet behind him to hide their location- just in case the video got in the wrong hands.
Nervously Nathan punched in the phone number. "It's ringing." He reported.
Sonya was startled when the computer rang to signal an incoming cal. Glancing at the screen, she thought she was seeing things when the line came up as one of Sean's. "Seymour," she called across the room where Birkhoff was working on a project. "There's a call. From one of Sean's lines.
Just like Sonya had thought she had seen it wrong, Birkhoff assumed he had heard it wrong. What did you say?" he wiped his hands and headed for the computer where Sonya was.
Sure enough, there was one of Sean's numbers. "What do we do" Sonya questioned.
"Answer it." Birkhoff replied, using the mouse to hit the answer button.