Chapter Two

Kirsten woke up the next morning in her somewhat comfortable bed in Amanda's new facility. It took her a few minutes to remember where she was. She had been working with Birkhoff and Michael for so long it took her a minute to recall her change in location. Sitting up in the bed, she reminded herself of her goals. Today she had to get information from Amanda about the new organization to pass back to Michael and Birkhoff. She would also have to contact them to make sure she could and to let them know she was in place.

After she took a shower and changed, she grabbed her tablet and headed back towards the main operational center. She was surprised not to find Amanda there, but remembered where Amanda had pointed out the offices. Kirsten headed in that direction. The first door was labeled as Amanda's so Kirsten gently knocked. "Come in." Amanda's voice called quietly.

Opening the door, Kirsten was surprised as she walked into Amanda's office. The room was dressed up like a formal sitting room. The room was painted off-white, fancy paintings on the wall. There was very expensive looking furniture- a couch and two chairs, a coffee table and a side table between the chairs. Amanda sat on the side of the room at a vanity much fancier than Kirsten had ever seen before, checking her make-up and jewelry. "Kirsten- good morning." Amanda greeted her with a smile. "Have a seat." Amanda gestured to the couch as she walked towards the chairs herself.

After both women were seated, Kirsten put her tablet on the coffee table between Amanda and her. "This is my tablet. Do you want to check it to make sure I can't do anything I'm not supposed to?"

Amanda took the tablet and tapped a few buttons to check on the settings and capabilities of the tablet. Then she used a scanner to make sure there was no tracker in it and no bug. When she was satisfied, she handed it back to Kirsten. "Thank you for being so forward." Amanda told her.

Smiling and putting the tablet back on her lap, Kirsten then asked, "So what kind of things am I going to be doing for you?"

Amanda crossed her legs. "I'm not sure exactly yet. I think it is very likely you may become my second in command and that would somewhat change your responsibilities. Mostly we will be doing missions to earn operational funds. As things go well, we will add more recruits to train to do our missions."

"We'll have more recruits? Kirsten questioned.

"Some. The younger people who want to help but don't have the experience." Amanda replied, "But for now, to start, we'll just have experiences spies."

Kirsten nodded. It made sense- in their line of work they would have to replace their loses which would best be done through young recruits. "So how is this all going to start?" Kirsten was curious what their official start scenario would be."

"We are currently at 35 agents and we are aiming for fifty before we start running missions. We're hoping to get to 200-250agents when running at full capacity."

"Are the agents volunteers?" Kirsten took notes on her tablet to report back.

"Yes. Depending on experience, seniority and those kind of things, they'll make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. To give you an idea of the calculations, I would pay you about $90,000 a year to start with your experience."

Kirsten nodded along. It was a good plan to start people off with this organization. Kirsten was glad to hear that it wouldn't be like Michael and Birkhoff had described Division where the recruits were anything but volunteers. It was one of the real negatives in Division's set up. "That sounds good." Kirsten confirmed.

"I'm glad you think so. I want to see you in action, but I definitely think that you could potentially be my number two- so please keep that in mind."

Kirsten nodded. If she was Amanda's second-in-command, it would make it very easy to get Michael and Birkhoff the information they were looking for. Kirsten was realistic though- she knew she couldn't count her eggs before they hatched. It was a nice thought but she still would have to earn it- and without blowing her cover. "So how do you keep people in line? Keep them from just leaving or spilling your secrets?" Kirsten saw that being the major issue with not following Division's style.

Amanda just smiled. Obviously she had thought everything through well to make sure she covered all her bases. "To be paid they get no money until their year of service is up. Then they can roll it continuing until they leave. If they break their contract in any way, they lose the money- potentially all of it- if what they do is really bad."

It made sense to Kirsten. From what Michael and Birkhoff had told her, Division provided for their agents while they were in Division, so it wouldn't really matter if they got their money right away- they wouldn't need it. That way they didn't get paid until they successfully accomplished their contract and if they re-enlisted, they only made more money- and had more money to lose if they made a mistake. It was ingenious really. "Makes a lot of sense. No one can just leave you and they have incentive not to give you away- my only worry would be are you having any trouble with recruitment?"

Amanda shook her head. "Not really. It weeds out the people without the right goals at hear, makes sure people don't betray us and encourages them to stay with us longer to make more money."

Kirsten had to admit that Amanda seemed to have everything planned for and it definitely scared her. She was so prepared it was hard to imagine that Amanda wouldn't have something in place for a secret agent- especially after Alex- what they had modeled her after. Kirsten knew she was going to have to be real careful and make sure that she wasn't discovered and didn't give herself up.

After a little while talking with Amanda, she finally excused herself and headed back to her room. Using the scanner the Birkhoff had hidden in her tablet she made sure there were no bugs in the room, no cameras to show what she was doing, Kirsten then settled on the bed. Setting up the tablet the way Birkhoff had shown her to, carefully punched in her identification and password in then waited to see if Birkhoff would reply.

Birkhoff was searching for the Dirty Thirty when the pop up Kirsten came up. "Hey Mikey." He called over the headset, "Can I see you in my office?"

"What for?" Michael replied.

Birkhoff rolled his eyes. They're running a secret op and Michael starts asking questions. Thinking for a minute, he finally replied, "I have a couple of things of the mission I need you to look over."

"Okay…I'll be right there." Birkhoff could hear the irritation in Michael's voice. "Geez Michal, open your eyes."

Rolling his chair up to the screen where Kirsten's chat was open.

xx01: Anybody home?

With a smile, Birkhoff typed:

xx02: Hey. M's coming

Kirsten pulled the tablet up to her chest to wait. They had decided early on not to use full names, just in case, so she knew when Birkhoff mentioned "M" that he meant Michael. A couple of minutes had passed before her tablet beeped.

xx02: What have you heard?

It had only taken Michael a couple minutes to get to Birkhoff's office. "What are you being so cryptic about?" Michael immediately asked.

Giving him a "duh" look, Birkhoff pointed to the screen and quietly said, "Our secret mission? Remember that?"

The look on Michael's face was priceless. He must have clearly been having a bad day that he completely had forgotten about their mission. "Oh! I'm sorry. I've had a lot on my plate." Michael explained.

Another message popped up from Kirsten.

xx01: Glad you didn't ask if I was okay or if I got in okay.

Both Birkhoff and Michael chuckled, glad that Kirsten was keeping her sense of humor.

xx02: You're in okay?

xx01: Yes. Talked with Amanda.

"That was fast." Michael acknowledged. "Ask her what she found out."

Birkhoff leaned over the keyboard and typed:

xx02: What have you heard?

xx01: Missions for money. Recruits by choice. Paid only after fulfilling contract.
More money the longer you stay.

Everything Birkhoff and Michael read made sense. They were going to be in a lot of trouble if Amanda got a place like this up and running. He hoped they could keep Kirsten successfully in place show she would be able to give them the information to sabotage her missions before she could build up any money.

xx02: Any missions?

xx01: No. Still trying to gather resources.

Birkhoff looked back at Michael. "Anything else you want to ask her?"

Getting in closer to the screen, Michael read over what Kirsten had been telling them. She wasn't giving them a lot of information, but that was just to get them the most information as quickly as possible without getting caught. "No. Just tell her to report back if she hears anything."

xx02: Report back when you have more.

xx01: 10'4

"I hope this works." Birkhoff
commented to Michael as he closed the chat.

"It will." Michael looked at Birkhoff. "We just have to make sure we take Amanda down and keep Kirsten safe."

"Well, so far so good." Birkhoff commented.