A/N – Sorry this update took so long...unfortunately, real life is making it impossible for me to update as quickly as I want to. However, I will try to get updates done as quickly as I can.

BTW, a huge high-five and kudos to my reviewers and those who put the story on Alert! You motivate me to keep going! Thank you so much!

I've gotten a few reviews asking that this story become a Malex or a Alex/Thom story. I can't promise anything right now but we will see what the future holds. ;)

Note that parts of the story that are italicized are flashbacks and parts that aren't are "present time" (i.e. not flashbacks).

Disclaimer: It's a FANFIC! Why would I own anything?

"Boo-yah!"

Birkhoff jumped up in victory; arms raised in the air. Michael looked at the computer technician warily. "Is there something you'd like to share, Birkhoff?"

Birkhoff slowly turned around to face Michael with a smug smile on his face. "Remember I said we were seeing some unauthorized bandwidth use?"

Michael nodded slowly. "Yeah…"

"And remember how I said that the transmissions were using a modified TLS Handshake with the last sixteen bytes of the secured…"

Michael was starting to get really annoyed at Birkhoff. There were times he really didn't like this guy and all of his techno-speak.

He so desperately wanted to call him 'JERKhoff', but thought better of it.

"Enough of the techno-babble, Birkhoff. Get to the point."

"Well, I ran a trace program to determine the origin and destination of Nikita's little chat..."

"So?"

"The origin was internal, buuuuuuuut…" he paused for dramatic effect, "…we just located the destination."

With a wave of his hand, Birkhoff revealed what he was so happy about: on a map of downtown New York city, a blinking dot appeared with the address displayed beside it.

Michael just stared at the screen intently as Birkhoff leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "I think we just found Nikki's secret lair."

This was music to Michael's ears.

After her betrayal in Uzbekistan, he owed her.

BIG TIME!

(Three hours ago…)

Percy walked into the control room and noticed Birkhoff furiously typing away at his keyboard. He walked over to his technical guru. "I assume that you are doing something productive here, Birkhoff?"

Without looking up, and after taking another sip of Red Bull, Birkhoff answered Percy's question. "Yes sir. Since Nikita seems to be getting the jump on us lately, I figured she's somehow hacked into Division's servers. So, I decided to develop some extra firewall layers to prevent her from getting in. I also wrote a few programs to monitor all bandwidth usage in Division to look for anything suspicious, and a few logging programs to log said activity. I'm just finishing up the last few lines of code and should have them up and running in a few minutes."

Percy was impressed. "Good thinking. I wondered why we kept you around."

"Well, it certainly wasn't for my good looks," Birkhoff wryly replied as Amanda walked into the room.

"It would take a miracle just to make you look decent, Birkhoff," she replied. He replied by mockingly blowing her a kiss.

Although mildly disgusted, Amanda turned her attention to Percy. "Percy, we may have a problem…"

Birkhoff ignored the conversation behind him – he was too focused on his work to even care what Amanda's latest problem was.

It was about ten minutes later that Birkhoff's code was compiled and ready to run. Sighing and admiring his handiwork, he gave the commands to start his new programs. In an instant, his computer monitor brought up a screen showing the active data connections currently into and out of Division.

He jumped up and let out a victorious whoop, causing everybody in the control room to stare at him.

He realized every pair of eyes was on him…and he slowly slunk down back into his chair.

"Uh…as you were."

He spent the next fifteen minutes sifting through the information in front of him. He was able to identify the different connections to the Division servers: links into spy satellites; hacks into the Pentagon servers; hacks into English, Canadian, French, and other foreign government servers; connections through to agents' handheld devices…all of the usual stuff.

It was not long after that a new connection appeared…but this one seemed different than the rest.

It was an encrypted connection, and there wasn't a connection protocol listed for it. This piqued Birkhoff's interest. He wondered: Is somebody using a new proprietary protocol that I don't know about?

He opened up a logging tool that showed in real time the data being transmitted while logging the transmissions. The data was garbled from the encryption, but he could see that the data transmissions that went out from and in to Division were sporadic.

It dawned on him: it's an online chat!

He tried using every known encryption protocol to decrypt the data streams but nothing worked.

However, Birkhoff was undeterred. He studied the data streams and worked to decipher the encryption protocol.

After making a number of different tweaks…

"PAYDIRT! SHADOW WALKER STRIKES AGAIN!"

…he finally cracked the encryption.

However, his face then fell when he read the text flashing across the screen.

He picked up the phone. "Uh, sir," he said to Percy, "you might want to see this…"

In an abandoned building somewhere in New York city, Nikita was engaged in a chat with Alex, concerned with the content of her information. Nikita was at her keyboard typing:

:The whole thing sounds very serious.

The room filled with Alex's synthetic voice as the reply came:

:My 'contact' was very distressed over what she saw of Operation Storm Shadow.

:Is there any way you can get me details?

:I'll try, but after the last incident in the infirmary, computer access has been locked down tight.

Nikita smiled as she typed:

:I know you. You'll come up with something.

She patiently waited for Alex's reply…

…but after what seemed like an eternity, the chat screen filled with:

:CBE

-END TRANSMISSION-

Nikita blanched and shuttered as she stared at the screen. Fear washed over her.

Alex had typed in their emergency code:

CBE – Cover Blown…Emergency.

Her fear was compounded as a new chat box opened up and the synthetic voice boomed:

:Hello Nikita.

She stared in shock as she realized Alex had been discovered.

After a few seconds, the chat screen had a new message:

:What? No reply? No witty comeback?

Based on the tone of the text, Nikita knew exactly who it was. She reached for her keyboard…

:What do you want, Percy?

:Oh, only to gloat. To let you know that I have your friend here, and to let you know that I win. Did you really think you'd defeat me?

While Percy was responding, Nikita had pulled up a command line window and started typing a few commands into it. She stopped long enough to answer his text:

:You haven't won yet, Percy. I can…and will bring down Division.

That should get him riled up a little, she thought. She was right:

:See, Nikita? THAT'S your problem…you're deluded to believe that one person can take down an entire organization – MY organization. Your delusion has cost Alex her life! It will soon cost you yours!

Suddenly, a read box popped up on her screen flashing the following text:

ALERT: COMMUNICATIONS TRACE IN PROGRESS…

"Dammit!" Nikita typed some more commands into the command line screen. She started a program to confuse the trace – make it look like her connections were from different parts of the world. She also tried to shut off the chat link.

The computer replied:

ERROR: UNABLE TO CLOSE CHAT SESSION.

Nikita didn't know how much time she had, but she knew had to act fast.

The chat screen showed a new entry:

:See Nikita, in the end, I always win.

"Oh, she's good, but not as good as me."

Birkhoff smiled as he started to get a trace on Nikita's location. He noticed Michael had walked into the command center and was starting at one of the screens with a world map on it, watching as a line started to move from the center of the map and weave it's way around the world. "What's going on, Birkhoff?"

The computer technician smiled. "She's using a program to spoof her location. As soon as I can get past her little maze of lies, I can pinpoint her location."

"She could just turn off her computer, Birkhoff."

He shook his head. "No, she can't. First thing I did was send a command to lock her PC. She can't do squat."

Michael smiled. "Let me know as soon as you have something."

The night air was cool and the street was pretty dark as there weren't a lot of street lights in the area.

Good, Michael thought as he stood outside of an old abandoned building, better for cover.

A group of Division's best agents accompanied Michael on the raid on the address Birkhoff had provided. The building was located in a relatively poor part of the city. It butted up against the building beside it with an alley way on the other side. Good news, as the sweeper team only had to worry about three possible exit points.

It made sense, he figured, that Nikita would here. It was out of the way from the main drag, the crime rate was horrific, and nobody would ever think of coming for a social visit.

Normally, Michael never let his missions get the better of him. However, this one was different. The tension was palatable that he could taste it.

She had denied his revenge against his family's murderer. She had denied his only reason for living.

Tonight he swore: if he couldn't get revenge on Kasim, he was definitely going to get it on Nikita.

The team kept radio silence in case the former Division agent was listening in on their radio frequency. An agent approached the front door of the building. He waived a signal to Michael, who relayed it to agents down the alley. The six agents in the alley split up – three maintained positions around exits in the alley, and three more silently headed for the back of the building.

Once the agents were in place, Michael waved the signal for everybody to enter the building.

Nikita was rummaging through one of the boxes that she had packed when she heard a noise coming from the lower floor. Quietly, she withdrew her gun and slowly made her way towards the stairwell…

Agents quietly made their way up the stairs, checking for any signs of Nikita. All was quiet until they heard a noise coming from the second level.

Michael followed the agents to the second floor…

Shadows…Nikita could see shadows flashing in the stairway. Hiding behind a corner, she raised her weapon and prepared herself to face her intruder…

Agents quickly spun around with weapons at the ready…

After a few seconds, one of the agents shouted down to Michael, "Sir, you'd better see this."

Nikita spun around, aiming her pistol…to find a homeless gentlemen standing in the stairwell. He shrieked at the sight of the weapon. "Please don't hurt me!"

Michael walked into the room that was completely empty except for an empty clothes rack and a laptop on a table. As he approached, the computer screen displayed the following text:

MOTION DETECTED…START VIDEO…

Suddenly, a full-screen image of Nikita's face showed up on the screen. "Hello Michael."

He nodded. "Nikita," he replied through gritted teeth.

Nikita's image smiled. "I'm sorry I'm not around to have this conversation face-to-face, but I wanted to leave a little message for you. And that message is this…you might want to leave now."

Suddenly, the screen showed a timer that was counting down: …7…6…5…

Horror flashed across Michael's face.

"GET BACK!"

Four seconds later, the laptop and table were no more as it exploded into oblivion.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?" Nikita demanded of the frightened man standing in her stairwell.

He cowered before her. "I just wanted to see what was going on. This building's been abandoned for a long time and we normally don't get visitors." He then pointed at her gun. "Please don't shoot me. I mean no harm."

Nikita put her gun away, walked down the stairs to the man and held out her hand. "I'm sorry I scared you. I literally just moved into this place and…well…you never know who will be snooping around. You know what I mean?"

The homeless man looked over at Nikita's outstretched hand. Sensing that danger had past, he let out a sigh of relief, then straightened himself and shook her hand. "I understand, missy, but you almost gave me a heart attack!"

She smiled a sweet smile. "I really am sorry about that. Can I buy you something to eat to make up for it? There's an all-night diner just down the road and I haven't had any to eat all night."

He smiled back in kind. "Thank you so much. I'd like that. Name's 'Wilson' by the way."

"Nikita. Good to meet you Wilson."

She excused herself to get her purse. As she picked it up, she heard a beep come from her handheld computer. It only displayed one message, "Detonation complete."

She smiled, put the computer in her purse, and left to eat with her new found friend. She figured she could unpack her belongings in her new place later.

I know what you're thinking: "Nikita could have just shot her computer to stop the trace". True, but she didn't – why will be revealed in later chapters.

Your reviews make me really happy. So, if you like the story so far, please review. PLEEEEEEEEASE! :)