I don't own Nikita or any of its characters etc.
Yay! Michael joined them, but will anyone at Division guess? Hope you enjoy this chapter. Someone makes a surprise visit at the end.
"It's not my fault it didn't go off!" Birkhoff shouted to everyone and no one as the rest of the people working on the mission ran around the room in a panic trying to fix the dud bomb that was compromising an agent's mission.
"No," Michael shouted back. "But just hurry up and blow it up electronically before the whole mission goes to hell!"
Birkhoff looked behind him and said to Michael in a higher pitch, "Dude! I can't blow up the bomb until I know the exact code for it. Geez man, simple stuff."
Michael tapped his shiny black shoes on the busy and messy floor, "Yeah well I do the missions, I don't fix things. You're the nerd so hurry up!"
Birkhoff scoffed, offended, "I am so not a nerd."
Michael's voice was getting louder every time he bothered wasting his breath on Birkhoff, "Blow it up!"
"Okay, okay. Hold on a minute."
Percy's black silhouette appeared in the doorway and he signalled for Birkhoff to approach him, by himself.
"Yes sir," Birkhoff said. He clambered out of his chair and clutched his aching back which was permanently hunched from sitting at a computer all day being verbally abused by people who needed to take anger management classes.
Birkhoff looked at Percy waiting for him to speak but Percy was too busy looking at him like he was a small child that needed teaching how to behave properly in the mission room, and in general.
"Yes sir?" Birkhoff was the first of the two to speak.
Percy gestured towards Michael who was now screaming at some other poor tech guy, who was trying to help.
"I don't want him in here," Percy said in a hushed tone.
"But sir, he's crucial to the mission and has as much right as anyone else, even if he's quite loud."
Percy didn't have time for Birkhoff's backchat, "Just make sure he doesn't come back in here again."
Birkhoff knew juicy gossip when he heard it and could sniff it out from a mile away, "What did Michael do?"
Percy coughed and lowered his voice so only Birkhoff could hear, "Last night after their mission, I told Michael to take Alex home and them come straight back to Division. He came back five hours later. Let's just leave it at that. I don't trust him."
Birkhoff's jaw dropped, "Wow, Michael must be getting some!"
Percy shot Birkhoff a death stare and Birkhoff quickly restated his last comment, "But you er, know. Just because he was late it doesn't mean he was sleeping with her, dude! I mean sir."
Michael looked up from his temporary station to see Birkhoff still talking with Percy. He walked over to Birkhoff's assistant, trying not to look too shifty and took his coffee.
"Can I have this? Been a long day, if you know what I mean." Michael hinted, looking over at Birkhoff.
His assistant shrugged and went back to typing codes at super speed into the mainframe of ShadowNet.
"Erm yeah, thanks." Michael looked at him oddly. Why did everyone who worked with Birkhoff have to act like him as well?
Michael walked quietly and casually over to Birkhoff's station, the one containing crucial information on the mission at hand and the bomb controls and slowly poured the coffee over the keyboard, making sure it drowned every letter in the brown liquid.
Sparks flew from the computer and the screen went black. Michael jumped back before he got an electric shock. Everyone stopped and looked from Michael to the computer to Birkhoff, and back to Michael again.
"Whoa! What have you done?" Birkhoff ran over to his precious computer and started to stroke the monitor which had burnt to a crisp and was starting to smoke up the room with a rancid, light blue smoke.
Percy growled underneath his breath and left Birkhoff to deal with Michael, while he went to waste his time somewhere else more important, like lunch.
Michael shoved Birkhoff away from him and shouted, "It was an accident. It was your own fault anyway. You're the one who left your stupid geek cables on the floor and I tripped on them."
Birkhoff kicked them aside and said, "They are not geek cables. They are very complicated and precise AV cables that give us the feed. That you, just destroyed. Dude you acting weird lately, maybe Percy was right."
"Right about what?" Michael said through gritted teeth as he crushed his coffee cup in his hand.
Birkhoff looked at him and let out a long whistle, "Never mind."
Michael shoved past him, brushing Birkhoff's shoulder and threw his coffee cup in the metal mesh bin at the other side of the wide room.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Birkhoff demanded to know. "We have a bomb to detonate!"
"Do it yourself," Michael muttered as he left the room in search for some peace and quiet.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Alex asked Nikita and Owen who were sat on her plush leather sofa drinking a really awful smelling herbal tea from tiny china cups.
"Alex, it's just a phone call. There's nothing to go wrong about it." Nikita laughed, she loved it and found it highly amusing how Alex could be so naïve about things.
Alex sniffed her green drink and then threw it down the silver sink. "I know that, I'm not stupid! I mean, what if they can trace it? Then we'll all be in deep shit."
Owen crossed his legs and folded his arms, "Alex. I'm one of Division's best ex- agents, I think I know how to make sure a simple call isn't traced."
Alex narrowed her eyes at them both, she hated how they thought she was stupid when it came down to the technological side of things. But hey, if you needed someone to be an escort or kick someone's ass she was your girl.
"You ready?" Nikita asked, throwing the house phone at Alex.
Alex dialled in Michael's private Division number that took her through to his personal office.
"Hello?" A deep, smoky voice said on the other end.
"Hey, Michael," Alex said flirtily, but Owen coughed and she pushed the thought of Michael looking hot in his suit out of her head so she could concentrate.
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah," He said. "Birkhoff was driving me mad so I went to my office to get away from him and his damn tech talk."
Alex laughed and said, "Perfect. We need a favour from you."
"Sure, what is it?"
"Go into Percy's office and look around for any information that might lead us to where his black box is hidden. We know where other ones are, we just haven't gotten round to getting rid of them yet. But if Percy doesn't have his own any more for protection, it will make him a lot easier to crack."
There was no answer from Michael's end of the line and Alex paced around waiting for him to reply.
"Are you still there?" She asked.
"I'm here," Michael said. "I don't think I can do it for you, sorry."
Alex took the phone away from her ear and covered the bottom half with her hand.
"He says he's not going to do it," Alex hissed at Nikita and Owen. "I told you it wouldn't work."
Nikita said, "Pass me the phone here."
Alex threw Nikita the phone and she caught it just before it whacked Owen in the side of the head, making him spill his drink all down his jeans in surprise. Alex threw him an old rag that was hanging over the handle on her oven.
Nikita swallowed and held the phone under her chin, "Michael. You wanted to join us and you need to get used to the fact that this is what we do. It's not safe and we risk a hell of a lot of ourselves to do what we do. So if you're not going to do then you're out… Great. Call me back when you've got what you need."
Owen and Alex stared at Nikita.
"What?" She said looking at them both who were gawping at her.
"It's like you have magical powers," Alex said in awe of Nikita.
"Well, he said he would have a look but he can't promise anything." She lifted up her pen and pretended to cast a spell on Owen.
"Gribbit," He said, pretending to be a frog which Nikita thought was hysterical and she started to roll around on the sofa clutching her stomach.
"You two are so immature sometimes," Alex raised her eyebrows at them which made them laugh even more.
Michael slipped his key card into his pocket waited for the elevator to open on the second to last floor, thankfully there was no annoying elevator music to distract him. When the doors opened he was face to face with Percy, who didn't look happy to see him at all.
"Michael? What are you doing up here, there's nothing you need." Percy glared at him. He knew he was doing something suspicious but he didn't have enough information to pin anything on him.
Michael breathed in and prepared himself to lie to his boss, a very dangerous man, for the first time, "Left something up here when I brought you your case files this morning. I think I dropped it outside of your office, I'll get it then run down to help Birkhoff again."
"Hm," Percy said, watching Michael as he left the elevator and Percy entered it. Now it was Michael in Percy's position. "Be quick, and don't wander around up here."
Michael ran down the hallways that seemed longer and more like a labyrinth the further up Division you went. Of course on the top floor there was only one way to go, to your death and if somehow you managed to escape from it, there was no way out and you would be found eventually, somehow.
A shiver went up Michael's spine and the hairs on the back on his neck stood on end. He knew he was risking his own life by infiltrating Percy's office and rifling through his private belongings but he loved Alex and he would do anything for her. He also loved Nikita in his own special way and he would grow to like Owen so he couldn't let his friends down.
He reached Percy's office and the ominous grey doors loomed above him. Just like everything else in the god forsaken place, it had no colour or personality.
He pulled out his key card from Percy's office swiped it, then punched in the code. There was no response, Percy must have changed the code for it so absolutely no one could go in.
"Dammit, come on!" He muttered.
Luckily he had learned a trick from Nikita many years ago that he still remembered. He bent down on one knee and put the card in his mouth while he rummaged in his grey blazer pocket. Michael pulled out a broken pen and took out the piece on the inside where the ink is stored. He felt around under the keypad for a small hole. His fingers were too clumsy to feel for it, he tried to look underneath but it was impossible seen as it was attached to the wall.
He held his pen up to the underside of the keypad and moved it around until it lodged into the hole. Michael jammed the pen inside as far as he could, until the keypad momentarily disabled itself to establish what the problem was. He sneaked into Percy's office and forgot to shut the heavy doors behind him.
"Right where would Percy hide his black box?" Michael said to himself.
He started at Percy's desk. He put everything back in his pocket and pulled out the first oak draw. There was nothing but paper work and recruit files, so he tried the next one.
Michael tugged and yanked at the next draw down from the previous one but it wasn't coming loose. He opened up the first draw and felt around for a key. At the top of the draw, embedded in the wood was a small button that he wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been looking for the key.
He pressed it, waiting for something bad to happen. The locked draw clicked and opened itself, revealing a key. But it wasn't for that draw because it had just opened, so where was it for?
He stood up and frantically looked around the room for something that would need a key to open. A window? Yes, but not useful. An shiny, brown, locked box sat on Percy's desk in plain view, but Michael knew that Percy wouldn't be that obvious, or stupid.
Then something caught his eye. In the far corner of the room an old, beat up, grey file cabinet was screwed to the wall. He walked over to it and inserted the key, turning it anti- clockwise. He stepped back as the file cabinet opened to reveal, not drawers, but a safe. The safe was sat cosily in the wall, perfectly hidden and concealed. Michael reached out to try a combination when he heard the elevator door ping open.
He froze and stood behind the doors waiting for the person to pass.
Soft footsteps echoed through the hallway but they gradually got louder until they stopped right outside of Percy's office.
The woman entered the room and looked around. She walked over to Percy's desk and opened the first drawer, she was looking for something in particular.
Michael tried to look at who it was but Percy's jacket was covering his face. He lifted his hand slowly to try and move it but the key's in the pocket jangled.
Whoever was in the room with him stopped what she was doing and walked over to where Michael was stood. She ripped the jacket away from him and said in horror, "Michael!"
"Jayden? What are you doing here?" Michael asked Jayden as she turned bright red with embarrassment and shame.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Jayden," Michael hesitated. "Why are you here?"
Jayden sighed and said, "Because! I've been here for six whole months and I haven't been activated for a mission yet. So, I came in here to look for my file to see why. But it seems to me like you're in here looking for something as well."
Michael said, "Yes. But unlike you, I have permission to be in here."
Jayden snapped back at Michael, "Really? I don't think you do, I've heard rumours."
"What rumours?" Michael snarled. The only reason he didn't turn her in to Percy was because he was worried she would do the same to him.
"Doesn't matter," Jayden replied. "You get me the next mission and I'll make sure nothing slips out of my mouth."
Michael said, "Why should I?"
Jayden smiled arrogantly and said, "Because I'm sure whatever you were doing here, wasn't with Percy's permission and he'd be intrigued to find out about it."
Michael was about to say something when she put her hand up to stop him.
Jayden said, "Oh and the fact that you're sleeping with Alex."
Michael turned red but not with embarrassment, with anger.
"I am not sleeping with Alex, so you can get that idea out of your head." Michael retaliated.
He wasn't sleeping with Alex, not yet anyway.
"So," she said. "Do we have a deal?"
Michael stuck his hand out to meet Jayden's but he wasn't happy about it, "We have a deal."
"Good," she said and she turned on her heel and left the room.
Michael pulled out his phone and fumbled with the digits.
"Alex?" He said.
"Yeah, do you have it?" She replied.
"No, not exactly. We have a problem." Michael answered.
"With what?" Alex sounded worried because it was her idea as well to send Michael in there.
"Jayden interrupted me."
"Jayden?" Alex shouted down the phone.
She turned to Nikita and Owen with a helpless look on her face, but they didn't know what to do or say.