AN Well I am officially moving tomorrow …which means that there will probably be no updates from me for a little while, or it will at least take a little longer. Thanks everyone for their lovely reviews as always :D
Was that a strange look from Michael? Did Alex just smile at him in a weird way? Did Birkhoff just look at him with disgust? Ryan was freaking out. He hadn't had much sleep and was on a constant vigilance for a sign that maybe somebody had heard something. Sean seemed to be perfectly fine, besides being his rather moody self. Was he really the only one making such a big deal out of this? Well it wasn't really the sex that he was making such a big deal about; it was the reactions from the people in the house. They all knew he wasn't entirely straight, but there was a big difference between knowing and hearing it. He nearly choked on his sandwich when Alex suggested someone should try talking to Sean again: He got everyone their attention with that.
"Oh I don't know. I think Ryan and Sean had a great talk yesterday." Michael made a jab at him. 'So they had heard' the agent in question gulped. Nikita slapped her boyfriend on the back of his head.
"What are you guys talking about?" Birkhoff questioned, putting down his ipad. Birkhoff and Alex slept on the other side of the house, which meant that he probably didn't know and quite frankly Ryan wasn't sure if he wanted him and Alex to know. Sean had after all once been interested in the young female. He didn't get a choice in the matter though as Alex was quick on the uptake.
"Oh My God, You slept with Sean!" She exclaimed loudly, making sure that anyone who hadn't connected the dots now certainly did. She seemed actually rather happy with the idea. He wasn't sure it that was a good thing. "Damn, I thought it would take ages for that to happen. I am happy for you guys though." She added as an afterthought.
"I'm sorry….I am not really following this conversation anymore; but for your information it was just a one-time thing. So could you please drop it." She seemed shocked by his outburst. They all were really. He didn't really care though it was his life to live, he did not need two couples to give him relationship advice on a relationship that didn't even exist.
Four pairs of eyes followed him as he stalked out of the room. Birkhoff looked at the rest of them. "I know that I am the actual genius in this house, but do you guys have no brains at all?"
"How was I supposed to know we weren't allowed to know? They weren't exactly silent about it last night." Michael exclaimed, feeling guilty about the whole situation.
"I think I am going to talk to Sean." Alex murmured, leaving the room. A high pitched beeping from Birkhoff his computers made the remaining agents turn their attention to the screens.
"Another black box has been detected." The resident genius exclaimed as his fingers rushed over the keyboard, trying to locate the signal. "It isn't decrypted yet, but the signal is coming from Germany. I don't need to guess who is there with them."
"Do you mind filling us in on that nerd?" Nikita questioned as she tried to follow the information that was flying across the screen.
"In a second, I have to make sure that he isn't turning the locating bug around on us." Birkhoff muttered as he wrote line after line of codes. Once he finished that he turned around.
"What do you guys know about what I did before I joined Division?" this was a good story and he enjoyed that for once he could stun the others into silence with his awesomeness.
"You were getting into highly classified files by hacking which alerted Division and going from where we are living you also stole a lot of money." It truly was little to go on, but Birkhoff had been in Division long before Michael had. The black ops organization wasn't really the place to share life stories.
"That was only a small part of what I did. Nearly every computer system in the world that is worth hacking has a backdoor designed by me. We hackers know how to recognize work from others. Everyone has their own way of working in codes and writing them. You have no idea how many havoc we can cause if we wanted to. Hacking gets rather boring after a while however so the good ones know where to go for a challenge. Someone posts a goal encrypted in a certain goal and once you crack it you have to make sure you get it before someone else does. It can be files, money, shutting down alarm systems." Birkhoff explained.
"You mean that a thief could decide he wanted to steal something he just asked someone to shut down the system?"
"No, hackers don't do that kind of stuff. We only get stuff we can transfer via computers, no hands on jobs. Digital fingerprints are after all a lot harder to find than real ones. I won nearly every challenge for a couple of years and then there all of a sudden was a new guy online. German and he was good. Not as good as me but a pretty close second."
"So why didn't division get him as well?" Michael agreed with his partners question. People that were so good that even Birkhoff admitted it didn't come by often.
"Because there was no digital fingerprint on him. The only way you knew he had been there was if he left a clue for you. He is like an unbreakable code, he changes his writing pattern every time. If you don't have the fingerprint it is near to impossible to find the one responsible." He tried to keep from using a degrading tone; Not everyone is a genius after all.
"So he is actually better than you? Division caught you after all." He did not like the smug look on Michael his face.
"No, he isn't smarter than me. He may not have a fingerprint but that doesn't mean he is better than me. While he is good at encrypting, he isn't a good hacker. He won some of the more basic challenges, but he never managed to do the bigger ones. When I say basic I don't mean things that you guys could do though." He added a smug look to that sentence, nearly getting a slap from Nikita.
"If we don't know who he is, how do we stop him from helping Ari and Amanda?" She was looking at the quickly changing computer screens.
"Well we don't know who he is, but we do know where he is thanks to our ever amazing black box." Birkhoff replied, typing in a few codes. "It will take a few minutes to triangulate the signal because this guy is certainly using some sort of jammer. Not one that is good enough to keep me out however." He finished with his typing and went to grab another energy drink in the kitchen.
"So how is everything going between you and Alex?" Michael asked as he joined the nerd in the kitchen.
"What do you mean?" Birkhoff feigned ignorance.
"Please nerd, you ran out of this building without so much as even a notice to her where you were going. Not even giving us a clue whether you were coming back. Alex was pretty upset with your actions. She was happy when you came back and the money she gave you was to show you she understands, but you hurt her. Did you even apologize for that?" Michael tried not to sound too accusing as Seymour had the annoying habit of shutting people out when they did that.
"She didn't really seem that upset when I spoke to her so I think we are okay." The resident genius did not want to tell Michael that while they had slept in the same bed Alex had been distant. She had placed herself as far on the edge of the bed as she possibly could and he had noticed the stiffness in her muscles.
"Come on man! This is Alex we are talking about, she nearly fooled Amanda with her acting. Talk to her Birkhoff or you may not have a relationship at the end of it all."
"Thanks Mikey, but I do not need relationship advice from someone who still hasn't been able to talk to his girlfriend about their future together." Michael threw him a look. "Don't look at me like that; I know about the ring dude." The computer gave off a loud beep, signaling it found the data they needed. Michael didn't say anything after that.
"Okay, our guy lives in Lutherstad Wittenberg, Germany. I'm pulling up the satellite images now." The pictures showed a rather large villa with a view of the Elbe.
"Can we get a live view?" Nikita questioned, who had been called back in by Michael. There were a few seconds of black before a black and white scene was playing before them of the villa. On one of the sundecks there was a woman, clearly Amanda, talking to someone else. The other occupant wasn't very tall, nearly pixie like, with short hair making her almost look like a child. Nikita opened her mouth to ask if Birkhoff could run a facial recognition but the program was already up and running on one of the other screens.
"Anna Kuhlhoff. Twenty four and rich. She is the owner of the villa and there are no other occupant registered. No children or husband. I think our black box decrypter is a woman!" Michael laughed at the sour look on Birkhoff his face. "You are not telling me you are angry because you didn't know she was a woman?"
"No! I am angry at the fact that she is younger than me." He grumbled, feeling insulted Michael thought he was a sexist.
"What is exactly our plan? It will take us at least two days to get to Germany and set up." Nikita was reading through the extra files on Anna.
"The black box will be decrypted by the end of this day, maybe a little longer. Whatever you do; Amanda and Ari will have Division their dirty little secrets." Birkhoff explained to them.
"Not if we sent in Division. They will probably have some sort of team near them."
"You want to send in Division!" Nikita exclaimed. "You want to lead them straight to the black box?" Michael pulled her against him, muttering soft words of nothingness in her hair to calm her.
"I do not want to have them get their hands on the box, I want them to get their hands on Anna. If they take her to work for them or kill her, she will not be able to decrypt the box that way. Is it possible for you to send a hint to Division about her and a signal to Ari and Amanda?" the question was aimed at Birkhoff.
"Getting Division in there is no problem, it's getting only Amanda and Ari out with the box that will be difficult. Any hint send to them will automatically end up at Kuhlhoff her door."
"But if Division knows who she is, she will be on the run for the rest of her life. She doesn't know their program like you do, she will not be able to hide from them long enough to decrypt the box, right?" It was a long shot, but the only one they had right now.
"I'll send the trace to Division and a red alert to Anna her house. Let's see what she's made off." The genius muttered as his nimble fingers once again roamed the keyboard.
There wouldn't be much happening for the next couple of hours, which gave Michael and Nikita some time for themselves. The beach looked bleak and empty with the grey clouds hanging over it. "Birkhoff hasn't talked to Alex yet." Michael told Nikita as they relaxed on one of the benches outside the house.
"I can understand his reluctance. His fight was with me for losing his money and the whole deal with Carla, but he ran out on Alex too. It must be difficult to face the consequences of that." His girlfriend replied, trailing soft patterns on his leg.
"Alex told me she wanted what we had. To be totally honest and open with each other. Birkhoff has been hiding things from her and she has had some trouble admitting things to him. Now they are in this mess. I'm not sure they can actually stay together if they do not talk about things." He hated to see them both so torn apart while at the same time loving each other so much. They were together and apart at the same time and the delicate balance they had right now would soon start to shift one way or the other.
"We cannot force them to talk Michael. They are both grown ups. Do you want to lock them in a room until they finally talk? Because if we do that to them we might as well put Sean and Ryan in a room as well." Looking at him she realized she put an idea in his head. "Michael no! We can't do that to them. They are going to fight it tooth and nail, not to mention that they will literally break the door down."
"Why should we not do it? They will hardly wreck the house and they all need to talk. We were forced together in a room and it only brought us closer together." He kissed the top of her head as she shuddered at the memory.
"How do you plan to even get them together in a room. I doubt they will willingly enter the room with the knowledge they will be locked up."
"We will just tell Alex and Birkhoff you want to see them and you tell Sean and Ryan I want to speak to them about a mission. Leave the room for a second to grab something and then lock the door."
"Michael I love you, but you watch to many movies." Nikita mumbled as she shut him up with a kiss. The plan was put in motion after dinner though.
"Alex, Nikita wants to see you in our room…something about a dress, I think." The girl in question left in search for the older woman.
"Ryan, Michael had some questions about a few reports you left for him to read. He is in the study I think."
"Birkhoff, Nikita wanted to ask you something. Don't look at me like that, I have no idea what she wants either. She is in out bedroom I think."
"Sean, Michael wanted to know if you were up for some sparring sometime…he is in the study right now." Nikita smiled as the navy seal left his room in search for Michael and then quickly moved to her own room. Alex was already there.
"Hey you wanted to see me about a dress?" She questioned her mentor. It was at that moment Birkhoff walked into the room. In a quick move she shoved the nerd in front of her and took a few steps back until she was at the door.
"Nikki, what the hell…" Birkhoff began, looking from one female to the other.
"You two need to talk, so talk." Ignoring their protests she closed and locked the door behind her.
Sean and Ryan reached the study at the same time and for an awkward moment tried to figure out who should enter the room first. Michael was sitting at the desk and stood up quickly when both men looked at him quizzically. Without saying a word he walked to the door and locked it behind him, using their disbelieve against them. "You guys clearly need to talk. You are not going anywhere until your problems are solved. A word of advice, Birkhoff likes his house to stay in one piece and breaking down the door won't solve anything." He met Nikita in the living room, wondering how the two couples were faring in the other rooms. Hopefully nothing would be destroyed.
I know I haven't written much balex scenes in this one, but the next chapter will mostly be focused about them talking to each other and solving their problems.