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"Why can't you just change your password like everyone else!" Birkhoff snapped at Michael as he bounded down the flight of stairs leading into Michael's work area.

"Give me a password that lasts more than two weeks and I will." Michael growled.

He crossed the room and approached Michael's locked computer. "I send you reminders hourly leading up to the switch. Its Not that difficult." He retorted.

"Just unlock the computer and give me a temporary password." Michael said, the annoyance dripping from his smokey voice.

"Can I sit?" Birkhoff gestured at Michael who still sat squarely in front of his computer.

"No." Michael remained in his rolling chair as he pushed it away from the desk giving Birkhoff enough room to stand at the computer.

"Jerk." Birkhoff whispered under his breath

Michael rolled his eyes, but didn't retaliate. He decided to take the high road by not name calling, though he had a hundred different words he could use to describe Seymour Birkhoff.

Birkhoff's fingers blazed on the computer then finally he rested. "You're temporary password is 'Teacher's Pet." He announced. "Both words are capitalized."

"That doesn't meet your own security settings…." Michael pointed out.

"When I'm the one entering it, it doesn't matter."

Michael nodded once and rolled his chair back in front of the computer. He assumed Birkhoff would leave but he stood next to the desk. A moment before Michael had been mildly ammused by his typical banter with Birkhoff, but now every second Seymour spent standing next to his desk turned the moment more and more akward. Soon Michael turned his chair to face the nerd. "What?" he finally asked.

"I just wanted to say nice job on the museum mission. Explosives aren't exactly my area of expertise—"

"Are you admitting you're not infallible?" Michael smirked

"I thought we were both in over our head." He said "I'm glad you figured it out after the coms went dead."

Michael narrowed his eyes at Birkhoff. Still, he stayed next to the desk. His behavior was strange, he wasn't usually this shook up after a successful mission. "Ok," Michael muttered then turned back to his computer, Birkhoff continued his explanation.

"A friend of mine, well acquaintance really, she was the party that night. I didn't know it at the time but, well she would have died if you hadn't figured it out so…" he paused, telling Michael even part of his secret was a huge risk. "Thanks?"

"One of your escort girls?" Michael questioned, he knew Birkhoff had the tendancy to partake in the local prostitutes from time to time. It never bothered anyone in Division, Birkhoff would never jeopardize his cover.

"Yea." Birkhoff confirmed, deciding that was the most logical and likely explanation for his behavior.

"Don't let it compromise your cover." Michael said

"It won't." Birkhoff waited a few seconds then began to walk slowly from the room.

"Did you read my debrief?" Michael called

"No, not yet." Birkhoff said

"It wasn't me." Michael confessed.

"What wasn't you?"

"I didn't disarm the bomb." Birkhoff stopped walking, but before he could ask the question Michael explained. " There was some other agent there. She hit me in the back of the head and she disarmed the bomb."

"A division agent?"

"No, I don't know who she's with, maybe CIA?"

"How did she know what to do?"

"I don't know,"

"So, she basically saved your ass."

Michael rolled his eyes. "I don't like to think of it that way." He said.

Birkhoff felt a slight smile creep onto his face. "No, you don't like anyone to show you that you aren't infallible."

"Get out." Michael snapped, but Birkhoff held his ground.

"So where is she now?"

"I let her go." Michael admitted. "Not my best judgement but… head injury remember." He pointed to the back of his head where Division's doctor had placed seven stiches.

"Really?" Birkhoff answered skeptically.

"No, she was armed, I wasn't. And I was injured so I didn't think I could overpower her. And she did, save all the people at that party…" he trailed off. "I identified her to Percy, and there are standing orders to bring her in now."

"That kind of stunt would get an agent cancelled." Birkhoff pointed out.

"No, it might earn them solitary but without orders to bring her in, they wouldn't be cancelled."

"Like I said before, teacher's pet."

"Amanda wants to debrief me, that's punishment enough." Michael said. "Now get out, I have work to do."

The town car was waiting for her on the street, she was going to meet her roommate for lunch at the hospital. Being a first year resident didn't allow Rose the opportunity to take long lunches off campus, so Lena was going to meet her at work.

Forester was playing chauffeur dressed black suit. "Are we going to a funeral?" she joked as she stepped into the back seat of the car and allowed him to shut the door. He didn't respond to her joke, instead he walked around the side of the car and got into the driver's seat. He started the car and pulled out into the busy New York traffic. After about a block of driving Forester spoke.

"Nice work with the bomb." He said, he was all business. "You were the right choice for the job."

"Thanks."

"I have another assignment for you." He announced wasting no time with small talk. "We havn't fully decrypted the hard drive from South Africa, but we have gained some very valuable intelligence." He didn't turn his head as he spoke to her, but his booming voice easily carried to the back seat of the sedan. "We need to contain the information on these hard drives, in the wrong hands they would severely compromise national security. Finding them is a priority. The hard drive from South Africa indicates that there are seven other identical hard drives throughout the world."

"In the seat pocket you'll find information on your next mission. We've got a lead on another hard drive. It's is kept in a secure vault in a Geneva Bank. A bank operated by Vance Lauriet. We have reason to believe that Mr. Lauriet is storing one of these hard drives in his private vault in the basement o f his bank." Lena found a black folder in the seat pocket and began to page through the information, the blueprints and technical specifications of the bank, personal information about director Lauriet, and bio's of all known associates. After a few blocks that Lena had spent reading the file she spoke.

"The technical specifications on the bank security don't look too complicated, my father and I have a few associates in Geneva, we can probably locate the designer and set up a back door. Shouldn't take me long."

"The security system in the bank isn't the hang up, if you look closely you'll see that his particular vault is controlled by a brass key. That antique key has a microscopic code engraved into the metal, that key is the only thing that will open that door."

Lena flipped through the pages again, there wasn't any information on a key. "So where's this key?" she finally asked.

"Mr. Lauriet keeps it around his neck at all times."

Of course he does. Lena thought as she paged to through the pages and found the security system specs to his private residence. "And the security on his house is solid." Lena said. It would be a bit more complicated than simply pick pocketing him on his way to the train…

"Very." Forester said.

"So how do you expect me to get this key?" Lena asked, she hadn't found any operation instructions or mission details in the mess of papers she'd been handed.

"I want you to… be creative." Lena stared at Forester, she knew what he was suggesting, and she wasn't comfortable with it.

"This isn't a sanctioned mission is it?" Lena questioned, she suddenly felt more like a puppet than ever before. "This wasn't approved through the proper channels." It wasn't an uncommon type of mission in the intelligence world, but she used to think it was the type of mission that a civilized government wouldn't order. And she knew if she was caught she'd be on her own, she could be tried and convicted in a foreign land and no government would claim her. She had two very solid reasons not to complete the mission he was asking, one was her own morals, and second was the risk of being caught.

"Lena these hard drives are important, we've already found out valuable information from the 4% we've decoded." He stopped the car at a red light and pulled another folder out of the glove compartment. "Information that I promised you," He handed the folder back to her and Lena opened it. "Your parent's didn't die in a car accident, they were murdered by Division. Thats the name of the people we're hunting, Division." Lena stared at a print out of the mission specifics to eliminate the targets, Joseph S., Samantha S, and Claire S. She flipped a page over and found a picture of the wreckage of her family's blue minivan, it was covered in a light layer of snow, just like she had remembered. The next three pages contained a picture and information on each of the targets. The third page had her own school picture. A watermark across it read "Deceased."She felt the tears well up in her eyes but she fought hard not to let them fall.

"When I recruited you I told you, your missions would not be filtered through the traditional channels because the traditional channels are compromised. We need to find out why your family was a target, and this next hard drive might hold that information." He paused for almost a block before he stopped at another red light, and leaned over his shoulder to speak to her. "We are hitting a wall here with this key, and we need you to take an unconventional route to get it. Can you do it?"

"I don't know." She answered honestly, her voice was hoarse and weak.

"Contact me when you have a plan, I'll get you whatever you need." He pulled up to the entrance of the hospital and stopped the car. Lena handed him back the second folder and slid the other in her bag. She left the car silently and didn't look back as she walked through the main entrance to the hospital.

"Why do you have to be gone so long?" Birkhoff whined loudly so his voice would carry to the kitchen.

"Cause the system is gonna take at least a month to design and install, its standard procedure." She answered.

"How about Sin City?" He yelled.
"No."

"Well I don't like it, you in Europe, me here. It sucks... Blade?"

"No." she said as she set down his beer on the coffee table in front of him. "I know it sucks but there's nothing I can do about it. It's a very important client." She said as she collapsed on the couch next to him.

"I know…" He said, she'd already told him it was an important client. There was so much about the trip he wasn't comfortable with. One, it had come up so quickly. Two, she had to go by herself. He would have felt a tiny bit better if she was taking one of her friends , but she wasn't. Three, selfishly, he really didn't want to come home to an empty apartment. He'd grown accustomed to having her there when he came back from Division, whether he'd worked eight hours or forty eight hours straight he'd enjoyed coming home to company.

"And no girls of Amsterdam while I'm gone!" She instructed

"Oh, but they miss me." He teased. Once he'd gotten a real girl, the girls of Amsterdam didn't hold the same amount of intrigue that they once did.

"That's not funny."

"Yes it is." He smiled to himself "How about the Matrix?"

"No." He sighed beside her. She took a sip from her own beer before countering his offer. "Harry Potter?" she asked. His mouth dropped open in utter disbelief. "Negotiate B. Find the common ground!" she laughed.

"I'm not watching Harry Potter…" he grumbled as he tried to come up with another option. "X-Men?"

"I'm not sure how that's 'finding the common ground but sure. I could use a Hugh Jackman fix."She agreed. He grabbed his laptop and began to download the movie as she reached for a piece of pizza. "You know I've been thinking." She said mysteriously, and his eyes shot up from behind his laptop. There was a nervousness that she hadn't immediately expected. Then she remembered that the last conversation that started that way had ended in an attempt to get him to say I love you. "No, not that again." She smiled. And he knew what she meant. He relaxed just a bit.

"What if you quit your job." Birkhoff stared up at her again but now for a completely different reason. His brow furrowed and she saw a flash of anger in his eyes. That wasn't even an option.

"I can't quit." He said. He couldn't just quit Division like some convenience store job. He'd been at Division seven years and he'd only seen one way out. Death.

She could tell by his tone that he was trying to sound calm, when really she had touched a nerve. "I know." She whispered.

"No, you don't know." He broke in and shook his head roughly. She could see his jaw tense as he spoke. "Don't act like you do." He shifted his body slightly toward the tv, and away from her. It was such a slight move she doubted it was a conscious decision to move away from her, believing it to be an unconscious decision made it hurt more. She decided to keep pressing, her topic was too important to concede so easily.

"But what if I could figure out a way? Would you take it?"

"There is no way." He growled dangerously. He didn't look back at her as he spoke, instead he began to peck on his laptop the way he always did when he was avoiding something.

"Yea, I know but say I came up with a plan… a pretty good plan, all things considered. Would you take it?"

"No." he answered definitively.

"No? You wouldn't take me up on it? Or No, I could never come up with a plan that would work?" she pushed.

He pressed play on the movie and reached for a slice of pizza. The topic was closed.

WOW can you believe it, two updates in under a week! I'm on a role… ha ha no not really. But I did get this chapter finished really quickly! I had 2/3 of the scenes written the same night I posted the previous chapter. There will, for sure, not be an update until after July 5th.

I do have the two chapters written, they need editing before I post, and I'm still debating whether I should insert a short chapter in between them. But I really do love the two chapters I have written and can't wait to post them. Everything changes, thats all I'll say. So I'm thinking the next chapter will be up somewhere around July 7 or 8.

Everyone enjoy your Forth of July mine will be spent smack dab in the middle of no where, I hope they have fireworks! lol doubtful. Yay for road tripping!