"She really didn't say anything to me before she left," he told them for what he was sure was the tenth time. "I figured she's a big girl and she's been on her own for a long time, no big deal. She said nothing about where she was going or why. If she got a line on an op it wasn't from me, and she didn't feel like sharing."

"Just find her, Birkhoff."

"Ya, I'm working on it man, but I'm not getting anything off her phone or her com.." he informed the impatient trio that surrounded his desk. No pressure or anything

"Can't you turn them on remotely or something?" Alex demanded.

"You watch too much television," he told her, hacking away at his keyboard, burrowing through layers of encryptions and tech that he had developed himself. A few feet away, Sonya was going through a similar process, hunting the last place that Nikita had been online.

"So you can't," Alex said flatly, challenging, leaning forward on his desk, cutting into his personal space and knocking empty Fueler cans to the floor. He ignored the imposition.

"Technically it's possible," he admitted grudgingly, "But she either took the battery out of her phone or she's in an area that's out of range, in which case, no, I can't, not even if you all look at me like that," he told them. "And if both are offline she either did it herself, and I can't see her doing that, or else there's some kind of interference."

"Interference?" Michael asked.

"As in someone blocking the signal, as in no communication in or out kind of deal, as in wherever she is somebody knows that she's there and doesn't like it?" he offered. "I'm working on getting it all back up, but it's going to take some time. I have to trace the interference, then back hack it, figure out where it's coming from…"

"Ok, ok," Ryan cut in, "She has to be using a division car. Birkhoff, you should be able to pull it up unless it's been disabled, right?"

"As long as that isn't also being blocked," he said, not even glancing up from his monitor.

Michael shook his head. "No. She has her own vehicle, one of Birkhoff's toys, with all the upgrades and add ons. You have GPS on it?"

They all looked at him.

"Do you?" he asked again, confused.

"Michael…" Alex started, not knowing what to say.

"Yes, that car does have GPS Mikey, but if that one's still functional it would take us to the bottom of the St. Lawrence river," Birkhoff told him, feeling it was easier to just rip the bandage off rather than telling him gently. No one had time for that and there was no easy way to learn a beauty like that was gone forever, hell, he couldn't quite believe it and he had watched it go into the water himself, after all the work he had put into her…

"I'm sorry, what?" Michael demanded, looking from Birkhoff to Alex for some kind of distinguishable translation.

"He's right," Alex confirmed, "I was running that one from ops with Ryan, had to send in a chopper for extract. Barely got her out of there too, it was nuts..." She leaned over Birkhoff's shoulder. "Check division vehicles, see which one is unaccounted for..."

"Where the hell was I?" Michael asked, clearly not satisfied with the unfinished explanation.

"It was about a week after that," Birkhoff told him, wiggling his fingers and gesturing to Michael's hand. "You were a little out of it…high as a kite, you know?"

"Later," Ryan told him, "Nikita should probably tell you that story herself...after we get her home."

"Great…"

Home…Michael closed his metal fist, listening to the click and whirr of the hinges and parts moving together and responding to his brainwaves. He was beginning to think he had missed a lot more than he had imagined, and that catching up was going to be a bit complicated. A twinge of phantom pain shot through his non-existent hand but he didn't feel it as strongly anymore. He clenched his teeth until it passed, thinking only of Nikita and what had driven her to go off on a solo op, what role he might have played in it. He knew she was in pain, but he hadn't seen just how far it all must have pushed her. Birkhoff was right, though it hadn't been how he meant it, but he had been out of it since the accident, out of it and too angry and hurt to care.

"I've got it," Birkhoff announced happily, bringing a satellite image up on the big screen, with a blinking light that indicated the location of a division vehicle in a dense forested area. "This is the last place we got a signal from the car and it wasn't moving. It's offline now but it's the best we've got. This is also the last time and location that her cell pinged off a tower. Doubt she's still there though….Middle of nowhere too.." he said, scanning left and right from the vehicles location, looking for something…anything.

"There," Sonya announced. "Top right corner." Scanning in, the tops of a few disused warehouses could be seen, not quite clearing the trees that surrounded them. There appeared to be no actual access roads leading to the buildings while power lines ran down to them and trees had obviously been freshly cropped in the vicinity.

"I've got movement," Sonya added, zooming in even closer, to the point where tiny men were visible moving on the roof of one of the buildings.

"Send the coordinates to my phone Birkhoff," Michael ordered him.

Ryan opened his mouth, then paused. "We have teams for this," he said finally, but it was weak and without expectation. They ignored him. Any other op and he would have pressed the issue, but this was Nikita, which changed everything. He nodded, then turned back to Birkhoff. "I want her cellphone records. She didn't get this op from division. I want to know who she's been talking to."

Michael was already half way to ammunitions when Alex caught up with him in the hall.

"I'm coming with you," she said, matching his pace, but he stopped, looking her up and down as though she might start popping pills right in front of him.

"You haven't been cleared. You shouldn't be in the field," he said.

She cocked her head to the side, confident. "Neither should you." She imitated Birkhoff, wiggling her fingers, which earned her half a smile.

"Fair enough. Let's go."

"You're driving," she told him.

"Well I'm not good for much else..."

"I guess we're about to find out."

So watching the promo for next week's episode, it kinda looks like they're stealing my Nikita goes off on her own and Michael and Alex have to come to the rescue idea, so I thought I'd get this chapter up before they get there first…

Thanks for all the reviews. I'm feeling the love :)