A/N – First: sorry for taking so long to update – I hate it when real life gets in the way. :)
Second: a big thank you to those who reviewed and/or set this story on Alert. You guys rock!
I want your opinion on something – I called this story "Escape" but I'm not completely happy with the title. Since this story will morph into something more than just an escape, I'd like your feedback to an alternate name for the story's title. Perhaps it should be renamed, "Unlikely Alliances" or something like that. Let me know what you think.
In the meantime: Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!
Oh, and I forgot this on the first chapter: as this is Fanfic, I do not own Nikita.
The day he became field agent, Thom figured that his life would be better: he welcomed the freedom from the underground "bunker" of Division; he welcomed the chance to breathe fresh air; and, most importantly, he welcomed a chance to serve and protect his country from threats that the average person would never know about. Right now, his current mission found him sitting in the back of a Division SUV, with four other agents, as it streaked down the highway. During the ride, his mind wandered to his first days in Division:
"You do know you've got a second chance at life?" Amanda asked him, lighting a candle on the table in front of the couch where she sat. "I'd like to talk to you about it."
Thom sat across from her in an arm chair, fidgeting nervously. "Tell me why I'm here again. I don't remember signing up for any of this."
Amanda smiled warmly. "Of course you didn't 'sign up' – you were chosen, Thom. We see a lot of potential in you and we want to give you something."
Thom just sneered. "Oh yeah? What's that?"
Amanda leaned forward and looked right into his eyes as if she could see right into his soul. "Purpose, Thom. We want to give you purpose." She then quirked her head and asked, "Isn't that what you want? A reason for living?"
His life now was a far cry from where he came from when he first came to Division: long ago, he was only a kid living on the streets, fighting to survive, and living for nobody but himself. Now, as Amanda had said, he had a purpose and a chance to make a difference in the world. He didn't mind this second chance at life; he was going to embrace it as long as he could.
However, this mission made him start to question what and why he was doing what he was being asked to do. His previous assignments were easy to understand: he was assigned to eliminate threats to the United States, whether it was an African diplomat or a Russian spy. Now he was chasing down two rogue Division recruits – of course, what made it worse was the two rogue recruits were his comrades.
He shook his head at the thought: Jaden and Alex are working together? The absurdity of it all was confusing enough: Alex, the smart girl, yet who seemed very secretive; and Jaden, who gave herself completely to Division and would do anything for them.
It didn't seem to make sense: why would they turn on Division? Why now?
And why would they run together? They didn't even like each other.
"THOM!"
His commander's yell woke him from his thoughts. "Sir," he replied in acknowledgment, sitting up straight in his chair.
The commander of Strike Team Bravo sat in the passenger seat and had turned around to talk to Thom. "Is there anything special we should know about these two recruits?"
Oh, if his commander could hear his thoughts: Yeah: Alex is smarter than all of you guys combined. And Jaden…well, she'll kick just about everybody's ass here. With the two of them together, they'd be a force to be reckoned with.
"No sir," he simply replied.
A third agent, who was watching his hand-held GPS, yelled out, "Sir, they're about 700 feet due west."
The commander looked out the window and realized the two women were in the forest beside them. It was time. "All right, pull over."
The driver obeyed the order, pulling the SUV over to the side of the highway. An overhead lamppost washed the SUV in light making the Strike Team hide their firearms before exiting the vehicle. Once they were a distance away from the SUV and out of the glare of the highway lamppost, they drew their weapons to hunt their targets. A couple of agents were holding GPS trackers which led them towards the two recruits.
These two escapees' fun was about to come to an end.
"Dammit!" Jaden hissed watching the five men exit the SUV at the side of the highway. She looked over at Alex. "So, I hope you've…"
She stopped noticing Alex's expression of shock on her face. "What?"
Alex recognized one of the agents getting out of the SUV: "Thom?"
Jaden looked over at the five men, seeing their friend amongst the group."Oh, isn't that just great?"
The two women watched as the Strike Team approached, drawing their weapons. Alex sighed. "It looks like they're carrying portable GPS trackers."
Jaden sighed and her shoulders slumped. "So much for the element of surprise. Now what do we do?"
Alex started to think – since the Strike Team had GPS trackers to find their location, getting around them was out of the question. They didn't have any weapons on them so they couldn't take them on...
Alex looked around and found a stick that was about three feet long and a couple of inches wide. She threw it to Jaden, who caught it in mid-air. "You any good with that?"
Jaden spun it around skillfully before gave Alex a wry look. "Yeah, a little," she replied sarcastically.
"Good." Alex smiled and devised a plan.
One of the agents watched his GPS as the two tracking dots split apart and went separate ways. He yelled to the Strike Team commander, "Sir, they're splitting up. They're going in opposite directions…" After a few seconds, the dots stopped moving. The agent looked up at his commander with a quizzical look on his face. "They seem to be taking up defensive positions," he said in disbelief.
"Understood, Drake," the commander replied. Pointing to another member of the team, he said, "James: you go with Drake and take the one on the left. Thom, Brad: you two are with me."
Alex watched from her vantage point as the team split apart. That's right…come on…
Drake held the GPS tracker as he and his partner walked towards the dot on the map. As they approached, they realized that, whoever it was, they were hiding on the other side of a rather big tree. Drake pointed to James to split up. James nodded in understanding and the two agents quietly circled the tree from opposite sides.
Quickly they spun around to the other side of the tree…and were surprised to find nothing there. Drake looked back at the GPS tracker – they were in the right spot. "What the hell?"
Their confusion was the perfect distraction as, without warning, Jaden jumped down from the tree, kicking James in the head, sending him sprawling. Before Drake could react, Jaden swung the staff down on his hands, knocking the gun away; then swung the staff like a baseball bat. The thick stick collided with Drake's head, sending him flying head-first into the tree trunk, knocking him out cold. By this time, James had recovered and was getting up only to be jabbed in the stomach. The agent doubled over only to get a face-full of wood as Jaden sent him sprawling. He hit the ground out like a light.
The other agents heard the commotion and turned their attention towards their fallen comrades. Alex used the diversion to her advantage. She dropped from her tree with a large rock in her hands, bringing it directly on Brad's unfortunate cranium. He went down in a heap as the commander turned and aimed his firearm at Alex. Unfortunately for him, his reaction was too slow as Alex had thrown the rock at him. He ducked the flying stone but Alex used that moment to run up, kick the commander in the "privates". She then kneed the doubled-over screaming agent in the nose, knocking him out cold as he flew backwards.
Then Alex heard a click: the click of a gun.
"Alex, don't move! Put your hands where I can see them!"
Alex realized that she was at Thom's mercy and she slowly put her hands behind her head. She slowly turned to face him. She couldn't see his face very well but could see he held his gun at her – his hands held steady, not wavering at all. "Thom…" she whispered.
"Silence!" he yelled, causing her to jump. Then, as if he regained his composure, he spoke more calmly: "Alex, don't say a word – it will make this easier."
His statement sent a shockwave of fear through her. What does he mean by "this"? Why is he doing this? And where the hell is Jaden?
"Thom…please…" was all she could whisper.
The two friends heard another click of a gun. "Thom, drop it…or I will drop you," Jaden's voice commanded.
Thom closed his eyes and sighed deeply – he knew he was caught and he mentally cursed himself for letting it happen. He slowly raised his hands in the air. For Alex, it was a huge relief. She walked over and relieved Thom of his weapon. That's when she realized she could see his face – it was a look of steel resolve.
He looked at Alex. "What the hell are you thinking? Both of you? They will find you and you'll be killed!"
Jaden slowly walked towards them still with her gun trained on Thom. "Do you really think I wanted to leave Division? And with her?" motioning toward Alex. "After everything they've given me? They gave me another chance…a new life…"
"…a life they were going to take away," Alex chimed in. "We were slated for cancellation. Remember?"
Thom looked at her. "What did you expect? Percy told us what you guys did – how you killed the guards to escape; how you intend to meet up with the Russians… "
"LIES!" Jaden cried in disbelief. "They're all lies! That's not true at all!"
He asked her accusingly. "Really, Jaden?"
Jaden's voice started to crack as she spoke: "We found something, Thom…something horrible. Division has a plan that has major worldwide implications. When they found out we knew about it, they wanted us dead."
"What plan, Jaden?" Thom asked her.
Before she could answer, Alex interrupted. "Can we discuss this later? We're running short of time!" She lowered her weapon and walked up to Thom. "Thom, will you come with us? We can explain everything on the way."
Thom looked directly at her. He didn't even blink as he replied: "No."
"What?" Jaden asked disbelievingly. "Why not?"
He looked right at her. "You turned on us, Jaden..."
"No! Division turned on us!" Alex replied with resolve in her voice. "Thom, we're stopping Division's plan with your help or not."
"And I will stop you," he replied.
Alex closed her eyes and shook her head as her heart filled with a great sorrow. This wasn't the Thom she knew – the Thom that kept the peace between Jaden and Alex, gave her a radio after a job well done, made her laugh and feel special, who she kissed before his first mission…
The Thom she knew was gone.
"I'm sorry, Alex, but I must do what I have to," he told her.
She looked straight at him. "So do I." She walked up beside him and quietly whispered, "I'm sorry too."
With that, she brought the butt end of the pistol down striking him on the back of his head, causing him to collapse down in a heap. Jaden stood there in shock not believing that the man she cared for – dare she even say, loved – would be hell-bent on doing Division's dirty work. She turned to look at Alex's pained expression on her face. They stood like that for a few seconds before Jaden broke the silence: "We've got to go."
Then it hit Alex: "KEYS! We need to find the keys."
They searched the five unconscious agents for the keys to the SUV. After taking the keys, as well as the agents' guns and fifty dollars they had in their wallets, Alex placed their new finds in her shoulder bag as they approached the SUV. "What's the likelihood Division's tracking this SUV?"
"I'd say 'more than likely'," Jaden replied sarcastically as she climbed into the driver's seat and starting the ignition. "I figure we'll be able to drive about forty-five minutes before we'll be in trouble."
Alex nodded as she bucked up in the passenger seat. "It'll have to do. Let's go."
Percy stood there expressionless as he watched the recruits' tracking dots move down the highway. Birkhoff swallowed hard as he knew that, when his Director said nothing in times like this, it was to hide his boiling rage. Michael, on the other hand, couldn't help but let out a small grin, as two of his recruits had taken on some of Division's best and won – he had trained them well.
The silence was broken by a phone ringing in the control room. Michael picked it up:
"Control…yeah…good…stand by." He hung up the phone. "Sir, we've got two more Strike Teams ready to go…"
"Do we know what vehicle they're in, Birkhoff?" Percy asked.
The computer technician typed in a few commands into his computer and a new screen appeared. The screen showed, among other things, the make, model, VIN number and license place of the SUV. "Yes sir. This was the vehicle assigned to Bravo team."
"Call the Virginia State Troopers," Percy calmly ordered.
Birkhoff looked confused. "Sir?" he asked inquiring the reason for this odd command.
"Birkhoff, is our vehicle currently being stolen?"
"Yes, sir," he replied, not knowing where this was going.
"And when a vehicle is stolen, you call the police right?"
"Right…"
"And they look out for the stolen vehicle and, when they find it, detain the occupants, right?"
Birkhoff realized where this was going. "You're getting the state law enforcement to help us in the chase."
Percy smiled. "More hunters to join the hunt."
Michael also clued in. "If anything, it'll slow them down…"
"…while our team moves in," Percy finished. "Michael, tell the teams they're a 'go' with 'shoot on sight' orders."
"Yes sir," Michael replied, picking up the phone.
"Birkhoff..." Percy started to say.
Birkhoff started frantically typing on his keyboard, hacking into the Virginia State Troopers' computer system. "On it, sir."