Chapter One
Angrily Ryan walked down the hall towards his office. In his hand he carried a manila file folder. Another casualty of Amanda's games. At his desk he threw the folder down, and then sat in his chair. Grabbing the folder he mindlessly flipped through it. They had been attacked again; the sixth time in a month, and a tenth agent had died during the battle. They kept trying but they could just not quite get ahead of her.
Amanda had declared open war on the heads of Division- Nikita, Alex, Sean, Ryan and Michael. She kept threatening to take them out and while she had not been able to get to them, she had killed a bunch of their agents trying to get through to her. Division had to do something- but the question was what. How could they ensure their safely and the safety of all their agents when their primary job was so violent.
Michael walked into his office. "Hey Ryan, what's up?"
As Michael sat down, Ryan began to explain the situation. "As you've probably notices, we have been having a run of bad luck with Amanda trying to get to us."
Michael nodded along. "Yeah."
"We have to figure out what to do." Ryan commented.
"She's after us. " Michael acknowledged. "We have to find a way to get the other agents out of the crossfire."
Agreeing, Ryan shook his head. "Exactly. But we can't put ourselves in the position of getting hurt either."
"I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure how we can accomplish this. If we're in plain view she'll kill us. The agents would be okay, but we would be dead."
Michael could practically see the light bulb go off over Ryan's head. "That's it." He practically shouted, "We have to be in plain sight, but untouchable."
Scratching his head, Michael had no idea what Ryan meant. "What?"
"Celebrities." Ryan simply replied, a grin crossing his face. "If we are celebrities, they can't touch us, but we're in plain view."
Still not buying it, Michael replied, "But you can't force celebrity. It would still be a matter of getting in good graces with the general public- and that's not generated."
"Remember the video we shot? To have proof of what we are, just in case the government attacks us?"
Michael thought back to the strange occurrence. When the government had once again threatened their demise, they put together a video showing exactly what Division was, threatening to release it if the government threatened them. The way it had been shot they could use it as a movie. As celebrities they would have to worry about fake IDs anyway o no one would know the video would be their real identities. "We would lose our leverage and we would expose our real identities."
"It's not like there is anyone to recognize us. All your family is dead, all Nikita's family."
"You mom is alive. Sean has sisters." Michael pointed out. "And this won't work without me, you, Nikita Alex, Sean and Birkhoff going along with it."
"We may have to take the chance and reach out to them. Make sure they don't blow our cover." Ryan responded.
Michael shook his head in disagreement. "It could bring them into harm's way. What if Amanda started targeting them? Threatening them if they don't come out and expose us? I can't bring them out with us- they have families that would recognize them then put two and two together. Ryan you were in the FBI! You don't think there isn't someone out there that would recognize you?"
"You're right. Sean too- and Alex. Only you, Owen, Nikita and Birkhoff would be safe- there aren't people out there to recognize you- or at least none that would be willing to come forward. "
"Alex is a celebrity in her own right. We could alter Sean and your look and, to be completely safe, Owen's look in case anyone recognized him from the bank robbery only a few years earlier. "But then your video won't work."
"It focuses on your and Nikita. We can just make sure to edit the others out as much as possible. Then they can be celebrities by association." Ryan seemed to have an answer for everything.
"How are we going to get the video picked up by a major film company? Make sure it gets released- soon? Make sure it succeeds? Here are so many ways they could fail."
"It's the only chance we have." Ryan responded.
"Should we call the others? See what they think?" Michael suggested.
"Maybe that would be a good idea." Ryan keyed the earpiece they always ore. "Nikita, Owen, Birkhoff, Sean, Alex, can you please come to my office."
All of them responded so Michael and Ryan sat back to wait for them to arrive. As Michael thought about it, Ryan's plan certainly made sense- it would be best to hide in plain view, but it would definitely be complicated to put that plan into action. If they could resolve all the issues it would be a possibility. It was insane they had to plan this anyway."
Birkhoff was the first to arrive. "Hey, what's going on" he greeted Michael and Ryan.
"Too much." Michael replied with an eye roll.
"Trying to stop Amanda?" he asked.
Michael nodded as Alex and Sean came in together. They sat on Ryan's couch and chatted as they waited for everyone to arrive. Nikita arrive with a hug for Michael finally followed by Owen so they could get started. "Thanks for heading in." Ryan told everyone.
"What's going on?" Nikita asked.
"We've got to make an action plan on what to do about Amanda. At this point we cannot continue to let her kill our agents while looking for us." Ryan explained.
"Ryan has a suggestion." Michael continued. "He thinks we should hide in plain view. Become celebrities so they can't touch us. For Alex we would use her already formed popularity and for Sean, Ryan and Owen we would alter their appearance."
"How do we force our way into becoming celebrities? We can't really force that." Owen had the same concern.
"We could." Birkhoff replied, "I've read about the psychology of celebrity and what could do to force the issue, plus we have technology they don't to put special things in place to alter the illusion."
"Like what?" Michael was interested to hear what Birkhoff could suggest.
"Well one thing with celebrities is getting recognition. What we can do then is make fake Twitter and Facebook accounts that are obsessed with us." Birkhoff used the air quotes on obsessed.
"That could work." Ryan eyed Michael who in turn gave him an affirmative nod.
"But what would we be famous for?" Nikita was playing devil's advocate.
"I think that movies would be the best genre. A lot easier to be liked for looks rather than music which could be subjective." Ryan replied.
"But how would we do this?" Nikita asked.
"We will have to shoot a movie- a movie about Division without using the name or implying it's real. A spy- thriller would be popular."
Nikita rolled her eyes. "Yeah Ryan. This is such an exciting life."
"With a little manipulation maybe." Sean replied.
"I think we give it a try. Worst case scenario the government could also not be able to trust us" Birkhoff suggested.
"I wouldn't go that far." Michael sarcastically replied.
"There's no harm in trying Michael." Nikita also wasn't keen on the idea, but was willing to try to give it a try as some sort of solution."
"We had better get going on this then. The movie and the fake social profiles are going to take a while to set up." Birkhoff commented.
"We had better gather the troops and update them on the situation." Michael pointed out.
"They will be happy that we are helping save them and then they will help us get our plan going." Ryan agreed.
About fifteen minutes later the group stood in front of the young recruits. Understandably they looked very nervous with all the recruit murders recently. The group loudly talked amongst themselves, conspiracy theories running wild. "Everyone, everyone," Michael shouted, "We have a plan to try to stop the attacks on Division."
That got the recruits attention. The talking slowly stopped and they focused their attention on Michael and the others. "As you know recently a bunch of recruits have been killed. Amanda is trying to get us and a bunch of recruits have been killed in the process. We have decided that hiding in plain view, where they can't touch us, will be the best option." Ryan explained.
"We are going to make a movie, loosely based on Division. We are going to plant social media pages to push our popularity so we become celebrities. If we're famous we will be easy to find but impossible to touch."
"I'm going to help you guys get those base pieces- the social profiles and such- into place." Birkhoff explained.
For a few seconds the recruits were silent and it was fairly unnerving. Finally one of them spoke up. "Where do we start?"
Everyone smiled in relief. The plan was going into place and hopefully this would protect them all. It was about time things went right for Division.
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