Chapter One
Birkhoff and Alex stared at the TV in shock. There was no way this could be happening. Turning to the tech behind him. Birkhoff asked, "Are you sure you got that facial recognition right."
The tech just nodded in reply. Alex and Birkhoff just looked back and forth. "Get Michael, Ryan, Nikita and Owen in here now." Alex finally told the tech.
As they waited for everyone to arrive, they continued to watch the live news feeds. If they had not been running Division, it would have looked like a Division job. It had all the trademarks except one- the Division agents themselves. The people slowly came in- Owen, Sean, Ryan Michael and finally Nikita and as each of them arrived they stopped and starred at the screens. No one had to explain what was going on or what their theories were- it was as plain as day exactly what was happening. Standing there in silent shock, it was Michael who spoke first, stating "It can't be. It just can't be."
"We've worked too hard for this." Ryan added.
"What are we going to do?" Birkhoff questioned.
"Ryan!" a tech called out, interrupting the group. Facing to turn the tech who called him, she continued "the president is on the phone- line one."
Concerned looks passed back and forth between the group. This group could be a lot of trouble with this latest development. On the big screens in Operations was a picture of a dead US Senator. To most people it was just an angry person who shot a senator. Digging deeper, the senator was closely involved with Division and keeping them under control. This could only mean one thing- Amanda. The worst part- a note on the senator's body who pegged the responsibility on a new black ops group- Blackline. If just suspecting Amanda wasn't enough, the techs had identified Amanda driving the getaway car.
In the note on the body, it explained that Blackline was developed to fight the terrorists in the world that the government was ignoring. The group claimed to be 200 strong- if that were true, and it could be based on the 12-man team that had carried out the mission on the news, Division had a new Division to worry about and combat. "What do we do chiefs" Birkhoff asked Ryan, Michael and Nikita.
No one knew exactly what to do. No one had been able to destroy Division and now that was exactly what they would have to do- take out Blackline- or the new Division. "We've got to find them first." Alex finally suggested.
"There's just no way." Michael exclaimed, still in shock. "How could she get that many people together so quickly?"
"Look man, I don't know how she did it either, but she did it." Birkhoff replied. "Who knows- maybe she had this backup the whole time. Either way we can't afford to call her bluff, we have to prepare as if it's true.
"So what do we look for to find them?" Sean asked, "What all would be needed to start an organization like Division or Blackline?"
This was a tough question- none of them had been there when Division was founded. There was so much involved in this organization- no one wanted to think about what it would take to get a place like that going. "We can search worldwide for code ads in magazines to see if that is how she recruited." Alex suggested.
"Good. Start there. Birkhoff- look for large weapon purchases." Nikita suggested. "We have to find out where they are."
"Did we get their attention?" Amanda turned around in her chair as her helper walked into her new office
"It did the job. We got their attention." His gruff voice replied.
"Just wait until they find out you're alive." Amanda commented with a laugh.
He didn't say anything. It wasn't ideal, but he had to avenge Percy's death and Amanda was giving him the opportunity to do just that. Adjusting his glasses, he replied, "I know they were worried about Alex, but they should have made sure I was dead."
"Ah well Roan. Their mistake is our gain." Amanda ran a hand through her hair to straighten it. "You're a better weapon when they think you are dead."
"So what is the next step?" Roan asked.
Amanda was keeping Roan on a leach- she didn't want to give him too much freedom because she didn't trust him and because he would overtake her with it. He was very helpful, an excellent tool but Amanda had to keep him from too much power. "Well did you get the false intel in place?"
Simply nodding, Roan replied, "All done. They have a wild goose chase ahead of them."
For a moment Amanda was glad that the electrocution and near death had made Roan a little more talkative. It would have been very difficult to do this with the previously understated Roan. "Well, I am going to go check on the techs and see how set up is going."
Walking down the hallways- painted black to match the organization's name, Amanda made her way towards their operations center, Control. Amanda didn't want her new organization to completely mirror Division, so she was using some different names. When she got to control, she was enthusiastically greeted by Erin, her head tech. Her version of Birkhoff- except a lot happier. "Hi Amanda." Erin greeted her, "things are going well. We're starting to get all the technology in place and medical is getting all the recruits their trackers- I was about to head down to start calibrating them."
Smiling at the young, red-head tech Amanda commented, "Great. You are so much easier to work with than the last tech I had."
"Thanks- I guess." Erin was clearly confused since she hadn't known the other tech- but she took it as a complement.
"Do you have the prison database set up yet?" Amanda knew she had to have recruitment in place.
"Head of the CIA approved it and got it yesterday." Erin replied as she worked setting up a computer terminal.
Amanda smiled. It had been lucky for her that the CIA had determined they were not happy that Division had been created under their noses (except for a select few agents). Of course Amanda had put the information there for them to find, but that didn't really matter. What was important is she was there when the CIA was looking for a solution and that's how Blacklight came to be. She had funding and the green light for more than she had ever been able to do with Division. She was going to be unstoppable and she was going to give Division exactly what they deserved- total and complete destruction.
"How is she getting funding?" Ryan asked aloud, "Do you think that she is working for some government?"
"There's a good chance she would have to be." Michael replied, "For the funds something like Division requires, someone would have to have a huge checkbook. That's just for maintaining- getting started would be even more expensive I would imagine."
"This is such a mess." Alex just shook her head in disbelief.
"Hey!" Nikita shouted, swirling her dark hair out of her face. "We beat Amanda and Percy and we'll do it again."
"Well I don't think we have to worry about Percy…" Birkhoff tried to lighten the mood. "It'll still just be a little harder this time."
Nikita just rolled her eyes. "Hard has never stopped us before." She replied.
"We just have to be prepared." Michael reminded them. "Make sure we know what we are dealing with."
Ryan nodded in agreement. "We have to remember this is a brand new organization. There are bound to be flaws that they have not worked out yet. We just need to find those weak spots and exploit them."
"Finding the weak spots and the organization in the first part will be hard." Sean reminded them.
"But completely doable. We have to do this- God knows what Amanda is going to do with a new organization at her disposal." Nikita pointed out. "We've already seen the horrible things that Amanda can do- and I don't want that happening to anymore innocent people."
"Have we found anything yet?" Alex impatiently asked.
Birkhoff just shook his head. "Everything is scattered all over. Nothing yet I can track to one place. It's like they are purposely putting things out there to try to draw us away from where they really are."
Frowns spread across the room. It wasn't a good sign and wasn't a good start to their search. "They couldn't be in the US, could they?" Alex threw out.
"There's no way the government would let it happen again, is there" Nikita replied.
"Only if they didn't know about it." Ryan replied.
"They did before." Michael reminded them of Division's awful beginning.
"I'm gonna be sick just thinking about it." Birkhoff commented, taking a drink from his energy drink.
"We've got to figure this out." Nikita pled to the group. "We cannot let this happen again. Think of the innocents- Daniel, Emily, Sara, Nathan, Carla- people who died or had to abandon their lives because of Division. There is just no way this can happen again- the country will not survive it."
They all knew Nikita was right. The question remained- how were they going to find her and how were they going to fight her?