From here, authored by Falling Into Heaven, aka Anna.
All the Right Moves
Chapter Eight: Doppelgänger
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"Will you please keep your voice down?"
Birkhoff stared at Michael, fear floding through his veins, heart thumping wildly as he considered the consequences for what they were discussing. "Mike... if she's-"
Michael glared at his friend. "I will handle it, okay? If Percy hears anything, especially now we've been breached... If Alex isn't who we think she is, then she deserves her fate. But we need to be sure, right?" he replied, trying as hard to convince himself as he was Birkhoff.
"Fine. But if I'm asked directly, I'm not taking the bullet for her. And that's not metaphorical. It's the only way this is going to end. You know that, don't you?"
Michael knew it all too well. Percy and his cleaners had itchy trigger fingers, and no semblence of a concience. That was all fin when they were taking out a warlord, but when it was his friends, his colleagues in the firing line... he liked to be certain before he signed their death warrant. "Okay. What do we know?"
"She's a freaking traitor." muttered Bikhoff, sinking down onto one of the few seats scattered around the room.
"What do we know?"
He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Something doesn't add up. The operation with Dadich, the Senator fiasco, not to mention Alex's graduation job... They've all gone wrong, thanks to Nikki."
"Nikita started getting the jump on us between Jaden and Alex arriving." Michael frowned. "But we found the evidence on Jaden. There's no way she turned two recruits. Especially not two that keep trying to beat the crap out of each other."
"Fine. So it's not Nikki. You think little A's just a reincarnation?" Sarcasm laced Birkhoff's tone.
"Is that really helpful?"
"I'm knee deep in conspiracy theories here, man. If Alex isn't a mole, then she is so damn messed up I think even Amanda might have trouble seeing the light in her pretty head." Birkhoff sighed, lowering his voice. "Look, Mike, I'm prepared to back you on this one, for now. I can do some digging, find out if things don't add up. But you gotta do something too, man. Don't let her near any classified intel until we know what's going on. We're just getting back on our feet, and we can't afford another breach."
Michael nodded, head spinning with information and theories as he tried to figure ot what Alex was hiding. "Fine. I'll handle Alex, you figure out some way to do a thorough background check on her." he paused, tilting his head as he considered something. "Check her past, in Ukraine. She got her hands on forged documents to get to the US, so maybe it wasn't the first time."
Birkhoff turned to the desk full of computer screens, muttering under his breath as he began the lengthy process of rebooting everything. Michael's blood felt cold as he realised that Alex might have been lying to him. After everything, she might have lied. That bothered him on more than a professional level.
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Thom gripped Alex's upper arm, steering her towards the van full of servers, glancing around to ensure that they were alone. "I'm not sure of the details, but the code red definitely didn't come from Nikita and Owen. I spoke to Owen this morning and he said they were holding off for a while, that they were trying to cultivate an informant of some sort. No way they had time to do this."
"It's not Nikita's style." Alex agreed. "She tries not to draw attention to herself until she's played her hand, got what she wanted."
"There was an op, right? The reason Russia with Love's in town?"
"Russia with love?" Alex quirked an eyebrow.
"Elena. She kind of scares the hell out of me." he frowned.
"Elena's not so bad. Maybe a little scary, sure. But she looks out for people. I think she still has a heart, which is hard enough to do in Division."
"Just 'cause she's friends with your boyfriend doesn't mean you have to like her." Thom chuckled, ignoring the slight flare of jealousy as he thoughe about Alex and Michael.
She blushed. "I - We're not -"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. Though I'm not sure that anyone would care. At least, not at Division. I'm pretty sure Nikita and Owen would have something something to say."
"Yeah, well. Nothing's happened. Not really, anyway."
"But you want it to, right?" Seeing her torn look, and guessing her internal battle between hurting his feelings and exploding from bottling up her own, he smiled. "Look, you can tell me, Allie. We're friends."
"We won't be if you keep calling me that." she admonished half-heartedly, the effect limited thanks to her grin. "I like him, okay? It's like... he understands me. Not the 'me' at Division, and not the 'me' that Nikita's made. It doesn't make sense, since he's only seen Division Alex, but I..."
"Division Alex? That anything like Malibu Barbie?" he laughed. "Seriously, though. I understand. When you're on the inside, and you don't believe in the cause, it can be hard to find someone you can relax around. So do your thing with Michael, but just remember... if it comes to it, it'll boil down to you against him, and he won't hesitate to shoot you. Could you do the same to him?"
Alex swallowed, but was spared the decision as a noise caught their attention, and Elena ducked her head around the door, red hair pulled back into a ponytail. "When you two chatterboxes are done, there's a meeting about to start up in Operations. Percy wants to brief everyone together."
Thom squeezed his friends shoulder reassuringly, before giving her a gentle push in Elena's direction. "On our way, Boss. And ay I say, even in the chaos, you still look lovely?"
Alex gave him a strange look, wondering what the hell her friend was up to.
The Russian on the other hand smiled, liking the compliment. "Flattery gets you nowhere. Operations, stat."
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Percy eyed his staff with nothing but cold calculation and suspicion. His gaze passed over every agent, and Alex's heart skipped for a moment as it lingered on her. It was what she imagined being summoned to the principal's office would have been like, if she had ever have gone to high school.
"As you are aware, Division was breached by an unidentified team today. Although the persons in question were... dealt with-" Amanda smiled at his words, alarmingly comfortable with death. "We have still taken precaution and moved location. New protocols will be put in place, and everyone will have to submit to a requalification, including full physical, fitness, strategic and senario tests, as well as a psychological evaluation."
Amanda stood, a cold smile settled on her perfectly lined lips. "It's nothing to worry about. If you are loyal to Division and have nothing to do with the breach, then you will be requalified and either returned to your assignments, or assigned to a specialist task forc intended to locate and contain the threat."
Michael glanced towards Alex, who chewed on a hangnail absently. She didn't look particularly concerned by the new, rigorous security checks, but if she was lying... Percy would put a bullet in her head before she realised what was going on.
"I'm assigning everyone to a unit, and you will work and train together for the time being. Recruits have been moved to a seperate location and another agent has taken over training, so Michael will be here to give us his full support.
Thom leaned over to Alex, keeping his voice low enough so ony she could hear. "You gonnabe able to manage this?"
"Nikita constructed my cover herself. I'll be fine. How about you?"
"Good enough. Besides, it's you they're going to scrutinise."
She glanced back at him sharply. "Why?"
"Because it's the operations you're near that Nikita's sabotaged. Do the math."
Concern bubbled in Alex's chest. She covered tracks well, other than breaking into Percy's office, though admittedly that was a stupid move full stop. But Division were good at digging up dirt. It was what they did, after all. And she had no way of contacting Nikita, tipping her off... she was on her own.
Michael's gaze remained on Alex, watching her expression stiffen at something Thom said to her, thoughts clearly running through her head. As the familiar knot in his stomach tugged, reminding him of just what was at stake, he denied his deepest instinct to go to Alex. To kiss her. It was an urge that was overriding all of histraining and common sense. She was messing him up, that was for sure. If she was a mole, so help him God he'd put the bullet in her himself.
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