Chapter 5

The next morning Macy was finally getting the chance to meet the other recruits more closely. She headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast. She was tired, having not slept much after the altercation with Birkhoff. Her confidence had been shaken and she wasn't sure how she was going to fulfill her mission, especially romancing someone who made awful remarks about her and then lied to her face in apology. Taking her tray from the server, Macy headed to a table on the far side of the room by herself. All the other recruits were around, excitedly talking about their missions and training.

After Birkhoff's comments and her so far lonely breakfast, Macy found herself pretty depressed. She knew that she wasn't the prettiest girl in the room and she had struggled with her weight for a long time. Since high school she had always been a loner, made fun of and she had worked years to overcome those experiences- yet the first new person in her life in years brought up the same old insecurities. "Macy!" one of the guard's harsh commands brought her out of her wallowing. When the guard saw he had her attention,, he continued, "Amanda would like to see you."

Taking a couple more spoonfuls of food, Macy stood up to head to Amanda's office. She was surprised that Amanda was sending for her so soon. Luckily it wasn't too long of a walk to Amanda's office so Macy didn't have very long to think about what Amanda could want. As she got to the office, she knocked on the door. "Come in." Amanda called.

As soon as she walked to Amanda's office, Macy could see what she wanted. Birkhoff sat on the couch. "Oh great." She mumbled to herself, sitting on the far end of the couch from Birkhoff.

"I'm glad you both could join me." Amanda sat on a chair across from them, crossing her legs. "I understand from Michael that you guys had a little bit of an altercation last night."

Birkhoff rubbed his forehead in annoyance and Macy rolled her eyes. "Yeah." Macy replied.

"So Birkhoff." Amanda sighed, sensing neither of them wanting to talk. "Tell me what happened."

"Really Birkhoff asked. "Do we need to rehash this. I already apologized."

Macy huffed. "If you called that an apology."

Amanda smiled, Macy could tell she was enjoying the drama. "Why don't you feel like he meant the apology"

"Because I could tell he meant the first comments." Macy argued. "Not so much the second."

"You just met me! How can you be so dismissive?" Birkhoff fired back.

"I've met a hundred people like you. You say what you think, damn the consequences." Macy replied, "Just like everyone I've always known."

"I'm sorry." Birkhoff said again. "How else am I supposed to say it."

"Mean it." Macy shouted back.

In one quick move, Birkhoff was across the couch. As Amanda got ready to call for security, she realized that Birkhoff was pulling Macy to him and kissing her gently. Macy's body was rigid in shock. Of all the things that Birkhoff could have done, kissing her was beyond the last thing that she would have expected him to do. Amanda wasn't sure if Birkhoff was trying to salvage his mission or what, but it was entertaining to say the least- especially when Macy's palm hit his cheek with a sickening thwack."

Macy sat back against the arm of the couch still in shock. She hadn't planned on slapping Birkhoff, but it had just happened. Birkhoff sat back, his hand covering his slapped cheek, and Amanda pinched the bridge of her nose, pretending to be stressed by the situation. "Obviously you two have some serious issues to work out." Amanda announced. "So Birkhoff, I am assigning Macy to you and the tech department as a specialty. I want you two to practice working together."

Birkhoff and Macy glared at each other. On the inside Macy was confused. She knew about Birkhoff's assignment to seduce her, but kissing her there made no sense. As much as she disliked the kiss on principle after everything that Birkhoff had said to her, she knew what her mission was, and even more, she had enjoyed the kiss. "So what?" Birkhoff asked Amanda, "I'm going to be like her mentor?"

"Exactly." Amanda replied. "Whenever you are not busy and the recruits don't have anything planned, I want to see her shadowing you. Once you teach her the Division basics, I want to see you task her during missions. Most of all, I want you two to work together peacefully."

"Should I take her back to my office now then?" Birkhoff looked for clarification. "The recruits don't have fitness until 09:00."

"Give her the tour." Amanda instructed him "And you two better get along- I don't have to remind you that failure means cancelation."

Macy wondered if she was referring to their current assignment to get along or if it was a subtle hint to each of them about their missions. Either way, Macy wasn't prepared to fail. As Birkhoff lead her towards his office to introduce Macy to their software, Macy tried to plot her next move. She didn't want to be too obvious as to alert Birkhoff that something was up, but she knew she had to start accomplishing her mission- Amanda was going to demand results.

Her first steps into Birkhoff's office were a surprise. There weren't many lights in the room, it was dark like a cave. In the corner of the room was a couch and what she assumed was Birkhoff's bed, buried under a mountain of blankets. 'At least that's something that I could relate to.' Macy thought to herself.

On the other side of the room was all of his technical equipment. Birkhoff had all of the newest equipment- some of it Macy recognized wasn't even on the market yet. There were all kinds of monitors that were watching a variety of things for Division. As trained as she was in technology, even she wasn't sure if she could keep up with all the things that Birkhoff had going on at once. "It's really not that difficult." Birkhoff had noticed her hesitation. "Most of these monitors are running programs that I have designed. They will flash an alert if something comes up that you need to work at."

Macy was impressed. For Birkhoff to be managing most of the technical work for an organization of Division's size by himself, he had to be doing a pretty good job. "Impressive." Macy half-mumbled under her breath, not sure if she wanted Birkhoff to hear her compliment.

"A complement?" he asked in mocked surprise. "I guess you must be impressed."

"Don't push your luck." Macy replied, rolling her eyes. "So, there's one thing I have to know."

Birkhoff looked at her in surprise. "Shoot."

"Why did you kiss me?" Macy couldn't get the thought out of her head.

Hesitating, Birkhoff wasn't exactly sure how to reply. He wasn't sure why he had done it. Part of it was a desperate attempt at fixing his mistakes to make his seduction easier for Amanda's task, but part of him couldn't explain why he had done it- it just felt like he should. "I'm not sure." He finally answered with a sigh. "I got caught up in the fire of the moment."

Macy wasn't sure his answer really satisfied her curiosity, instead leaving her with more questions. For now she decided it would be better to work with him on the technical issues to start that part of her training. "So," she changed the subject, "How does all this stuff work?"