"The target is this man." A picture of a man in a black suit, red tie, and tiny flag pin flashed up on the screen behind Michael. "Representative Ron Phillips of New Jersey." Another two pictures flashed up of the same man as ten agents and Birkhoff sat at the conference table watching the screen. Birkhoff was only half paying attention, while part of his mind was focused on what Michael was saying the other was focused on his own tablet computer where he was paging through an online catalogue of new projectors. The one in this room was sub-par and needed to be replaced. It was the kind of job he would delegate to one of his many tech support agents but today it felt like a job he could do himself.

"Representative Phillips has been known for his radical views, and has been implicated as a supporter of at least two failed domestic terrorism plots. It's important that this threat is disposed of quietly and efficiently. No one wants this to go public." Michael clicked and a picture of a park filled the screen. "The mission will take place during a campaign rally at this park in Trenton New Jersey. Operations has laid out a brush pass, in the crowd after he has given his speech. The congressman will be injected with this toxin. The toxin will lie dormant for 48-72 hours before triggering a heart attack. Representative Philips has had a history of heart disease, therefore it won't be questioned by the media. Your specific assignments have been emailed to you. See wardrobe, ammunitions, review your mission file, and meet back in operations at 0700 tomorrow."

"Any questions?" Michael paused. "You're dismissed." He said. And the agents slowly got to their feet and began to file out of the room. Michael collected his tablet computer and paused to turn of the projector. Just before leaving the room Michael caught sight of Birkhoff out of the corner of his eye. Birkhoff was still seated in his chair, clutching his can of redbull and looking as though he might nod off any second.

"Birkhoff, you look like shit." Michael said as the door clicked shut behind the last agent.

"Do I?" Birkhoff's voice was distracted and Michael could tell his mind was somewhere else.

"You look like you could use some rest." Michael said.

"I havn't been sleeping well..." he said vaguely, then realizing perhaps he'd said too much he added "don't tell Amanda." Michael shook his head slightly indicating he wouldn't tell Amanda.

"Try a sleeping pill." Michael said shortly, as he continued to walk toward the door.

"Does this mission seem off?" Birkhoff asked suddenly changing the subject. Michael stopped walking just feet from the exit.

"What?"

"Where's the domestic terrorism evidence?" Birkhoff asked."Its not in the file." Michael was often caught off guard at Birkhoff's intelligence. Michael knew that Birkhoff had been off task during the briefing. He looked exhausted and bored and yet he had read the mission file faster than anyone else in the room and was now critically analyzing the mission. It was easy for people inside division to see him as a messenger, he simply got the information they requested and relayed it to them during missions. He took orders from Percy, Amanda, or Michael and carried them out with the snarky, sarcastic remarks everyone had come to expect. What Michael, and everyone else often forgot was that burried deep in his file was an IQ test where Birkhoff scored a 155 and every once in a while Birkhoff would say something that would remind Michael that he was not as simple as he seemed. Today was one of those days.

"Its classified."Michael grumbled.

"And its over kill… you had what? 10 agents in here? For a brush pass with a nerve toxin.? That's a single man opp. Two tops."

"Percy is concerned that Nikita may intervene." Michael answered gruffly. Birkhoff didn't question Nikita's involvement, rather he continued on to his third objection.

"and since when are we in the business of killing off elected officials."

"Enough," Michael said shortly, even though Michael knew this mission was a stretch for Division, he needed to convince Birkhoff that it was a legitimate operation. "This is a black operation, but it isn't a bad mission."

"So you're telling me you're suddenly alright with killing a congressman?" Birkhoff looked up at Michael with a critical eye. "You? The guy who twitches, like actually twitches, when Percy engages in the black. You're ok with this?"

"I'm on board with this mission Birkhoff. And you should be too." Michael said crossly.

"I don't know…" Birkhoff said.

"This isn't a choice, its an order." Michael snapped, he felt the sudden need to reassert himself as the superior. Birkhoff stared blankly back at him then nodded slightly. "Do I need to put another opp support agent on this mission?"

"No," Birkhoff breathed.

"Good, cause if I need to reassign I'd have to inform Amanda and Percy." Michael and Birkhoff both knew what Percy and Amanda would do if he told them Birkhoff had refused to carry out a mission, or even if he had questioned the mission.

"I'm fine." Birkhoff lied. "I'm just tired and stuffs getting to me. I'll sleep tonight and I'll be fine tomorrow."

"I need you on this Birkhoff." Michael answered, feeling a tinge of guilt for threatening to report him. He knew what that kind of talk would do to Birkhoff's nerves. "I'm on the ground for this one and I don't want any surprises."

"Of course you need me on this," Birkhoff said with half of his usual sharpness. "I'm the best."

"I talked to my CIA handler. He doesn't believe they would go after a congressman." Lena argued with Nikita from the safety of Nikita's loft.

"With all due respect your handler is wrong." Nikita answered as she began to type on her computer.

"Well maybe not," Lena said cautiously "he questioned your intelligence, and honestly I question it too. Its rocky." Lena continued.

"I have information that they are planning to assassinate Phillips, during a campaign rally in Trenton. Look for yourself." Nikita said as she pulled up the shell program she shared with Alex. Lena leaned in carefully and read the conversation, the intelligence was weak at best.

"All this intelligence, it comes from Alex." Lena said carefully. "Do you have anything else to corroborate?"

"Alex was tasked in a training exercise to determine the congressman's route in and out of the fundraiser. She also placed a bug on a senior Division agent and heard the specifics of a debrief."

Lena shook her head, "That's not in this conversation." She said pointing at the computer.

"It was in a previous debrief." Nikita said, and Lena could tell Nikita was humoring her. It wasn't in her nature to convince a team member to take part in a mission. But Nikita wanted a second on this mission and she didn't have a lot of other people she could ask.

"So no, only what Alex has heard." Lena said, more to herself than Nikita.

"Has she lead us wrong before?"

"No." Lena conceded. "But it could so easily be compromised." Lena didn't like relying on Nikita and Alex's intelligence completely. She'd felt safer running missions for the CIA, she trusted Forester to have all the information she needed to be successful. Even though Nikita had run missions against Division successfully before she doubted Nikita had everything they would need to get in and out clean.

"If Alex were compromised, she'd be dead." Nikita said swiftly and Lena didn't argue with her.

Nikita had the advantage of being able to think like Division. She could anticipate their next move, she could avoid being cornered by relying on her training. Lena was less willing to take those risks, she didn't know how Division thought and she believed she could easily get cornered if she hadn't covered all her bases. Lena wanted every move planned out. Nikita planned her missions to a point but also relyed on quick thinking in the moment.

"Look, Division is rerouting resources toward this mission, and we aren't the only ones to hack the congressman's email, and his security director's email." Nikita repeated more of her evidence that the mission would be taking place Saturday.

Lena thought back to the night before when she had hacked the congressman's email. There was evidence that someone had hacked the email before her. It was highly secured, more secure than it should have been. Like they were reacting to some sort of intrusion.

"Suspecting it's been hacked before, doesn't prove that Division did the hacking. In fact, wouldn't it point to the opposite, that it was hacked by an amateur." Lena exclaimed. "I can get in and out of that email clean, he doesn't know I was in it. I would assume that anyone in Division would know how to do the same."

"That's true." Nikita said slowly. "Birkhoff could get in and out clean, but if the task was delegated to an inexperienced technician or even a recruit they might not cover their trail as well."

Lena felt her stomach squirm when Nikita mentioned Birkhoff so casually. She still hadn't told Nikita that Birkhoff was the man she loved inside Division.

"Ok, say for a moment that the intelligence is solid. Explain to me why Division would make a move against a congressman, that seems brash, even for them."

"Division is probably supporting his challenger, or maybe whoever would be on the republican ticket if he was killed. He could have just simply stepped on the wrong toes behind closed doors."

"Corporate Espionage?" Lena asked.

"Who knows, maybe he refused to vote a certain way or introduced a bill that would hurt one of the many companies that uses Division as a vehicle for corporate espionage. I don't know and we don't really have time to search through his entire voting record to find a motive."

"So in short, there are too many possible motives. We don't know why he's the target." Lena sat back, they didn't have a motive and they didn't have a clear mission plan, but even Lena had to admit, allowing the assanation of a congressman was not something she wanted on her watch. She couldn't sit back and watch that happen, maybe if someone like her had intervened when she was a child she wouldn't have lost her parents.

Nikita opened a map of the event on the computer, "So are you in or not?"

"Yea." Lena answered uncertainly. "If there is a credible threat I'm in. But you have to admit its reckless for them to hit a congressman."

"That's why they'll be creative." Nikita answered confidently. "Ready for a run threw?"

"Show me what you've got."

The clock read 4:23 am. Shit. Birkhoff thought. Was three solid hours of sleep too much to ask? He asked his now wide awake brain. He kicked at the blanket on his bed, as if that would make him comfortable enough to fall back asleep. Birkhoff couldn't remember a time when he wasn't an insomniac. That trouble went back even further than his involvement with Percy. It used to be the time he did his best blogging and computer hacking when he was on the outside. He used to feel so inspired when he was running on his twenty eighth consecutive hour of being awake. He hadn't minded it that much back then, at least he was productive, but now it was different.

It was always late at night, when everything around him was quiet and still, the memories, like ghosts would haunt him. The more exhausted he would become the louder the ghosts would be. Tonight was the same, tonight the ghost's topic was Claire. That had been the topic since the night after they broke up.

He got up out of bed and went to the living room to turn on the TV. He used the TV to try to silence them, a video game would silence them, but that would also keep him awake. He flopped on the leather couch, the same couch he'd shared with Claire so many evenings. No, he snapped at himself Don't think about that.

He flicked through the channels until he ended up on one of the Japanese challenge shows. He watched one of the contestants fall off one of the structures and into a lake, the announcers talked about how it was the most difficult course ever designed. Divisions got a least a dozen agents who could set course records on that thing. He thought. He watched for a few more minutes before eventually laying his head down on the pillow and closing his eyes. You're a fool for letting her go. The ghost said. Shut up, he argued with himself I did what I had to do to say alive. But the ghost didn't rest. You acted out of fear, you are a coward.

He forced his eyes open and tried to focus on the TV again. Now it was on commercial and some silly man was bragging about his identity theft protection service. "I'm Doug McPearson and this isn't a joke, that's my real social security number on the billboard behind me. I'm not afraid of Identity theft because I'm insured by…"

"Don't tempt me Doug…" Birkhoff growled at the TV. Maybe he could make a late night project out of emptying Doug's bank account and crashing his company's server. He debated it for a few minutes, it would probably take about 30 minutes, 32 minutes, he'd have to allow time for his laptop to boot up… he shut it down earlier tonight. But that would mean there was no chance of falling asleep before he'd need to get up to report to Division. Not worth it tonight. He decided.

The challenge came back on the TV and Birkhoff watched as the men crossed what looked like children's monkey bars, except they were at a sharp angle.

He shut his eyes again but made sure he continued to listen to the voices of the TV announcers in the background. Maybe I should have chosen a show that was in english. He thought vaguely before the ghosts returned. You're a coward because you ran from love. You got close to someone and you got scared.

Birkhoff rolled over onto his side, that's not true. He said over and over to himself. I broke it off because she lied, and she put me at risk with Division. It was my only choice. He argued with himself.

You could have forgiven the lies, you could have used her plan to get out of Division, you could have had a life. But you were afraid of the risk.

He dragged the blanket off the back of the sofa and tried again to get comfortable. I'm not going to risk my life for her mission. Of that much he was sure.

One day you will walk into Division and you won't leave. She was right about that. One day Amanda will get her way, Percy will find a tech expert that's better than you, or you'll talk back to Roan and he'll just plain shoot you between the eyes.

"I will never talk back to Roan." Birkhoff said out loud.

You've already put yourself on Death Row, Seymour, at least you could be there for a reason. You could be there because you are giving yourself a chance at life; A chance at happiness; A chance at love.

And there is no way she'd take me back after what I said to her. He thought.

Ain't that the truth! The ghost said. You fucked this up beyond repair.

Thanks for reading, Please Review! I kinda love the last bit with Birkhoff up all night. I could see it so clearly in my head. I hope he didn't come of as schizophrenic, that wasn't what I was going for.