Chapter 9

The next morning was like a Twilight Zone. He was in his own apartment but Division owned him. He could get up when he wanted, do what he wanted, but he still had to report back to them when they wanted. After his breakfast and shower Birkhoff found himself driving back to Division. He wondered if he would be doing it the rest of his life or if they would let him retire at some point.

When Birkhoff got to Division, he pulled around to the garage and parked his new car. Getting out of his car, it took Birkhoff a little while to remember how to get from the garage to his office. After a few wrong turns, Birkhoff finally opened the door to his office. As the door opened, he had to brace himself to keep from falling over. While he had been at his new apartment, they had removed all of Simon's things. They had replaced all the furniture with things more suited to Birkhoff's style. "Awesome." He commented, putting his laptop bag down on the floor.

He checked all of his monitors to make sure there were no problems. Luckily nothing had popped up overnight, so Birkhoff moved on to his messages. Not too surprisingly there was a message from Amanda. Clicking on it, he cracked his knuckles as it loaded and opened. He scanned it quickly:

Birkhoff-

Lana is falling behind in computer skills. In an

attempt to prevent her cancelation due to complete
success in all other areas we would like you to tutor

her for an hour after class in your office each day
until further notice. Please start today.

-Amanda

Birkhoff rolled his eyes. He didn't want to deal with personal training another recruit. Even if he and Lana had previously pleasant interactions, it would be completely different to personally tutor someone. Teaching wasn't exactly his favorite task, and now he would have to spend more time doing it. Knowing he didn't have a choice, Birkhoff closed the messages. He wondered if Lana knew about the arrangement, but figured it didn't really matter. Walking across his office, he found a hacking program that he was going to have the recruits practice their hacking skills on. It had only taken a few hours for him to create the program which made the hacking look and feel like a video game, easier for the recruits.

After he had gotten everything together he headed towards the computer lab. As he walked down the hall he ran into Amanda. "Birkhoff!" she greeted him. "Nice to see you back."

Birkhoff was slightly surprised at the accusation that he wouldn't return. "I'm heading to the computer lab now."

"Great." Amanda smiled. "Did you get my message?"

Birkhoff nodded. "About Lana?" he questioned back.

"Yes." Amanda replied. "I think she is a great agent but she's just falling behind in the one area. I want to see if a little extra help in that area will turn her around."

"Sure." Birkhoff replied, "Anything specific?"

Amanda shook her head in reply. "Everything with computers. It's just an overall area that needs an improvement."

"Okay." Birkhoff replied, "Did you tell her about this?"

Amanda shook her head again. "No. I figured you could let her know after class."

Birkhoff figured it would be Amanda's game to make him give her the bad news. "Okay I will have to let her know." Birkhoff replied.

"Have fun in class." Amanda waved as she continued down the hall.

When Birkhoff got to the computer lab, the recruits had not arrived. It was five to ten, so he spent the time getting the software into place for their activity. As he heard the recruits' voices in the hall, his heart began to pound. Today was completely different- Birkhoff wasn't just the temporary head tech- he was now the head tech and he was sure the other recruits weren't quite going to be impressed. The door opened and a bunch of recruits finally came in. "Hey Birkhoff, still playing head tech?" John, one of the recruits came into the room.

"Actually," Birkhoff replied, "today I am officially Head tech."

The recruits just looked at Birkhoff in disbelief. "What about Simon" Davy, another recruit questioned.

"Unfortunately, Simon was murdered by some of his enemies." Birkhoff replied.

"So now you're head tech?" John questioned. "You've been here for what, two weeks? How is that fair?"

"What, are you banging someone?" Davy taunted.

"Enough!" Birkhoff shouted in reply, startling the recruits. "Sit down! I'm head tech because I am far, far more intelligent when it comes to computers. I am far more qualified to do this."

All the recruits sat at their stations, surprised at Birkhoff's sudden outburst. Once everyone was set up, Birkhoff started introducing the lesson. The recruits were talking amongst themselves, definitely about Birkhoff but he tried to ignore it. Instead he decided to crack the whip any time they did something wrong. "C'mon guys!" Birkhoff shouted, "This is not a difficult case!"

"Maybe if you were a better teacher!" John shouted in reply.

"It's hard to teach idiots." Birkhoff replied. "Maybe you guys ought to focus a bit more on the hacking and a bit less on me."

Birkhoff saw Lana smile a little at him standing up to the other recruits and it made him feel a little better. As the recruits continued working, Birkhoff watched their progress on his tablet. He realized quickly that Amanda was right when he looked at Lana's progress. She was way behind the other recruits even if they had not gotten every far."

After the most excruciating hour ever, he finally excused the recruits. As Lana was passing by, he stopped her, "Lana, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Lana stopped at the desk where Birkhoff was waiting. "Can I do something for you Birkhoff?" she asked.

"Yes." Birkhoff put his tablet down on the desk. "Amanda told me that you are struggling with your computer skills."

"Yeah." Lana embarrassedly blushed. "It's definitely a weak spot."

Birkhoff stood up, "Anyway, Amanda wanted me to tutor you to try to improve your skills. See if a little one-on-one helps out."

"It could help." Lana agreed, "When does this start?"

Signaling for Lana to follow him, he replied, "Now. An hour every day after computer lab."

"Great." She replied sarcastically.

It wasn't that Lana minded spending time with Birkhoff- he was a really nice guy and he knew a lot about computers. More so she was not going to enjoy having to spend an extra hour on computers- her weak subject. She watched as Birkhoff led her through a maze of halls to what she assumed was his office. They walked into the room and Birkhoff rolled a second wheeled chair over to the station where he had all his computer gear set up. "Have a seat." He told her, sitting down in the other seat. Once they were both seated, he asked, "So where do you want to start?"

Ana shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. Computers are so foreign to me."

"How?" Birkhoff found that hard to believe. "Computers are so prevalent these days."

Lana leaned back in the chair. "Well, my parents were technophobes." She explained, brushing her brunette hair with her fingers. "They never had anything. They even made the school put us in alternative classes when our classmates had computer or technology classes."

Birkhoff let out a low whistle. That was pretty surprising someone would go to those lengths these days. He had apparently sat there thinking for longer than he expected because Lana replied, "I know it's shocking, isn't it?"

"Yeah, a little." Birkhoff replied. "You seem to have recovered well."

Lana smiled. "Don't be too impressed. I've been at Division for two months. It took me that long just to figure out the computers."

"See, computers aren't that bad." Birkhoff replied as he turned his equipment on. "You can figure this out just like you figured out how to use a computer."

Lana smiled back to his grin. "Okay, okay." She replied.

"We'll start at the beginning." Birkhoff explained, "Tried this."

Birkhoff brought up a very simple hack. He watched as she tried it to see where she was getting lost. "So Lana, where are you from originally?" he asked her.

Lana clicked the mouse on the screen. 'So far so good.' Birkhoff thought. "I am from Las Vegas." She replied.

"Las Vegas." Birkhoff didn't think that Lana was near as flashy as he would expect someone from Las Vegas to be.

"Not quite what you expect someone from Las Vegas to be." Lana turned to him then added, "Don't worry, I get that a lot. I have a lot of skeletons in my closet."

"You're here, so I'd imagine at least one." Birkhoff laughed.

"I supposed that's right." She replied. "I wouldn't peg you the type to have a skeleton."

Grinning, Birkhoff replied, "Well, I am here."

"Let me guess," Lana laughed, "Something with hacking?"

"Very good." Birkhoff laughed again, "Although I don't know if they want me to tell you that. I guess it is pretty obvious."

"Well, you don't seem the killer type." Lana replied.

"Neither do you." He replied, "Wait," Birkhoff caught a mistake she made in her hack.

Putting his hand over hers, he moved the mouse on the screen to show her what she should be doing. "Oh!" Lana commented when he was halfway through. "I see. I was just overthinking."

The hour with Lana was going pretty quickly. With each task he had Lana practice, he found himself sitting closer to her. He found out that Lana, in the lack of technology she'd had in her life, she had a lot of time to study. For years she had read textbooks for fun. That had led her to be a very smart young woman. While Birkhoff was technology smart, Lana was book smart. Birkhoff was surprised how well they were getting along.

After Lana successfully completed a hack, she quickly turned to Birkhoff in excitement, surprising him and ended up with her face inches from Birkhoff's. Both of them were silent in surprise as they looked at each other.