"Counter-snipers on the surrounding rooftops own the sightlines. No person or vehicle gets within range of Kendrick without us having the drop on them first. All units, be on alert," Watching the scene from Ops, Ryan reported into the coms. Division had spent the entirety of the day before planning their dead-drop with Kendrick. They were prepared for any contingency or surprises; nothing was getting past them. Nikita would receive that flashdrive full of black box intel, and Amanda wouldn't have her chance to kill Kendrick. It was airtight.
Sean and Alex surveyed the area before they climbed into the truck they were to provide backup from. Neither spoke as they worked. Occasionally, Alex would glance at her boyfriend to assure that he was alright. She knew how seriously he was taking the mission; he wouldn't let the black box intel about his mother be spread around the world. Yet she didn't want him to be so overwhelmed that he lost focus. Division was prepared for anything. It would be alright. His family would be safe. Alex needed Sean to know that. Yet he seemed so focused on the mission, he couldn't comprehend anything else. He hardly noticed his phone ring, "Yeah."
"Your mother was a good woman, Sean. She didn't deserve to die," Amanda's voice rang loud and clear over the phone. Even Alex could hear it in the passenger seat. Both she and Sean went on instant high alert. They scanned the area for any sign of Amanda and signaled to Nikita that something was wrong. She stepped off the curb away from the coffee cart and approached Kendrick. The explosion occurred out of nowhere. One second, the former rogue and the director of the CIA made eye contact. The next, she was blown off her feet, and he was dead.
The explosion could be heard and seen in Ops. Then everything went radio silent. Camera footage they were spying on and coms they were listening through went silent. They had no idea what was occurring and why. While Birkhoff attempted to bring back their eyes and ears, Michael called Nikita. He needed to hear her voice, and he needed her to tell him everything. Ryan tried to help the two, but he couldn't wrap his head around what went wrong. Everything was secure. How could it have gone wrong. How could they have led to Kendrick's death. How could they have fucked up that badly, "I can't… I can't tell what we missed."
"We didn't miss anything. Our screen was airtight. This was an inside job. We couldn't have protected against it," Birkhoff's explanation for what they had missed didn't sound entirely too real. Honestly, he was mostly spitting out facts that should've been true and hoped for the best. He was in as much shock as Ryan. He couldn't understand how Kendrick's car blew. The team had made certain they had everything covered in the field. One of the director's guards could've done something, but that didn't seem possible. They were missing something. Amanda was at least six steps ahead of them, and they didn't even know in which direction.
"Street cams. We need to scrub them, erase any trace we were there," Remembering himself, Ryan ordered Birkhoff. There wasn't anything that could tie the catastrophe directly to Division; however, they couldn't be seen at the sight of the director of the CIA's death. Once the President learned of the disaster and knew Division was involved somehow, that'd be it for them. There was no way they could talk their way out of cancelation. They needed to destroy the evidence, and they needed to stop Amanda. Once again, so many lives depended on it.
"We know who did this, and we can't tell the authorities that we know because they'll ask how we know and who the hell we are," Slamming his fingers against the keyboard as he hacked, Birkhoff seethed. They could immediately tell the FBI, who were running the investigation, exactly what was going on, putting more pressure on Amanda. Yet they couldn't. They'd be considered insane. Or worse, the President would have them killed for breaking their vow of silence. Division was all alone and fighting a war on multiple fronts, for the millionth time, "Psychological torture. Amanda's specialty."
It took time for the agents in the field to collect themselves after the explosion and rush back to Division. Yet as soon as they entered, Sean and Alex hurried to Ops. They had to tell the team about what they saw and- more importantly- what they heard before the bomb went off. Amanda had been on to them from the beginning. She had guessed their plans and had created her attack around them. Birkhoff's comment had hit the mark. Amanda was fucking with the team, especially Sean, "I agree. She called me just before the strike to gloat."
"The whole team's back? Where's Nikita?" Startled by Sean's and Alex's sudden appearance in Ops, Ryan questioned. Their coms had been knocked out by the explosion; Division had no idea what had happened to their team. If everyone was back, though, maybe the explosion wasn't as disastrous as they had feared- even if it was still awful. Except, Nikita hadn't stormed into Ops demanding to know what went wrong. She wasn't preparing to attack Amanda with everything she had. She was just gone. Ryan was terrified that since Nikita was closest to Kendrick, something terrible had happened to her. She could've been severely injured, or worse.
"She's in Medical. Just cuts and bruises. She's with Michael," Quickly, Alex calmed Ryan. Nikita was fine. She was hit by a lot of debris, yet she hadn't sustained any major injuries. When the team finally returned to the bunker, Michael immediately rushed to his wife and scooped her up in his arms. He didn't care that others were watching. He simply assured himself that Nikita was alive and well. She was undoubtedly alive, but Michael soon noticed glass in her open wounds. Although she protested, he dragged her to Medical. Her cuts needed to be cleaned before she ran off again. They couldn't afford for a team member to get an infection then.
"How the hell did this happen?" Sean snapped for Ryan's and Birkhoff's attention. Knowing about the safety of their team was important, yet it wasn't as important as figuring out how Amanda had managed to kill the director of the CIA while surrounded by Division agents. How had she managed to plant a bomb and detonate it while so many people were standing guard. And why had she called him beforehand. If she was really going to gloat, wouldn't she have called Nikita. Sean was nothing but an Oversight goon to Amanda, so why call him.
"Working on that." Eyes glued to the computer screen, Birkhoff replied. Hopefully, he could find something on the street cam footage as he erased Division's presence. Maybe Amanda slipped up, and he could catch her plotting something in a passing car. Or maybe he'd spot Ari, a former Gogol goon, or even a Dirty Thirty. Unfortunately, Birkhoff didn't find any of those people. He didn't find anyone. The whole team had already been wiped from the scene, "Uh, guys? Looks like someone's already accessed the traffic cam servers around the bomb site."
"FBI. They're already checking," Ryan attempted to find an explanation. He felt as though he was just grasping at straws, though. The whole team was grasping. Sean's steely gaze was set on Birkhoff's computer while Alex kept glancing at her boyfriend in the hopes that she could find a way to calm him down. The room's anxiousness and confusion wasn't helpful, nor was the fact that Michael had panicked from the moment the bomb went to the moment he saw Nikita's wounds. The whole team (all of Division, really) was too high strung. They needed to settle down and focus if they were going to stop Amanda's plans- whatever they were.
Birkhoff wanted to agree with Ryan. he really wanted to contribute the hack to the FBI. But the feds wouldn't need to hack, and they wouldn't erase footage. Someone else had messed with the street cam footage. The hacker seemed to be trained well, so Birkhoff doubted it was just a random person. A Gogol hacker had to have done it. Amanda had given them instructions to wipe all Division agents as they appeared. Birkhoff couldn't figure out why, until he found someone who shouldn't have been where he was, "No, before that. This is a hack. We've already been deleted from the scene. Not all of us, though."
"What the hell? That's not me. I was in the truck," Sean didn't know who he was arguing with. Everyone knew he had been in the truck with Alex; his tracker and the team could vouch for him. He absolutely was not making a phone call around the corner like the footage claimed. Though, he had been on the phone. Was that why Amanda had called him. Was she taunting him in some way. If so, then why him. Why mention his mother. Amanda had mostly gone after Nikita, even going so far as being upset when she had pulled out of the field. So why change her game. Why would Amanda screw with him.
"Amanda grafted your face onto some other guy's body. It's a digital mask. We pulled the same gag on her last year in Moscow. It's payback," Carefully, Birkhoff explained what he had discovered about the hack. He had absolutely no idea why Amanda wanted an image of Sean near the explosion. Fucking with the team by placing in an extra image that would be difficult to erase before the FBI found it was an awful trick to pull. Yet that couldn't have been all Amanda was planning. She had something worse up her sleeve.
"You have to erase this. This is bad," Reaching for Sean's hand, Alex gave Birkhoff an order he was already following. He had begun to erase the footage of whoever was masquerading as Sean. But with the digital mask in place, it was taking extra time. If the FBI caught up to them, it might be too late. Though, maybe on first watch the feds wouldn't be able to connect the dots. They might not question a man on his phone while the bomb went off- at least not without evidence. The team could get ahead of the investigation and shove all the attention off of Sean. Then, whatever Amanda had done couldn't hurt the team.
Again, Birkhoff was already way ahead of Alex. After the explosion, he hacked the FBI and installed a program that'd report on their progress. Anything they learned, so would Division. Yet that wasn't as promising as Birkhoff had hoped. It was just one blow after another, "And getting worse. Shadowbot's been monitoring the FBI investigation. Turns out a cellular call pinged off the local tower at 9:02 on the dot, the exact time of detonation. The number is registered to Lieutenant Commander Sean Pierce."
"Amanda called me. I didn't call out," Once again, Sean didn't know who he was arguing with. Alex could back up his statement, and so could his call history; also, the team would believe him. They knew he wanted to kill Amanda just like the rest of them. They were aware that he was fighting for them to have their lives and freedoms. Sean simply felt defensive. He was being attacked by Amanda at every curve, and he still had no idea why. What exactly did she want from him. What was she trying to prove.
"She cloned your number and put you at the scene of the crime, so you can't say your phone was stolen," Continuing to explain softly, Birkhoff informed Sean. At that point, even if he could erase the digital mask and footage, the FBI would be onto the Seal. The feds were going to blame him for what had happened without ever considering a second suspect. And why should they when Amanda just handed them the perfect evidence. A high profile case could be closed in a few hours. Any law enforcement agency would accept that without question.
Sean squeezed Alex's hand tightly. His face went pale, and his eyes were blown wide. Through his painful grip on her hand, she could feel his pulse quicken and the blood in his veins go cold. He was panicking almost as much as he had when his mother was killed. And she knew why. The whole tea knew why. Amanda hadn't just called him to gloat or taunt him about his mother. She had targeted him specifically. Her evil plan wasn't centered around Kendrick; it was all about Sean, "She's framing you for the assassination."