You know how it goes.
No rights to Nikita.
"Where are we going?" Birkhoff asked impatiently, eyeing the lockers they passed.
"Did you want to see the escape route or not?"
"This hall leads to an air vent," he reminded her.
"For a geek, you're not too smart."
"Well, for a hot chick, you're not good company."
"Shut up." Alex led them forward, to the air vent Birkhoff had predicted. It was round, with a thick, dark metal barrier. "See, genius? You could fit through it."
"An air vent is the escape?" Birkhoff said. "That's so very Toy Story."
"Well, that's the way it is," she shrugged. Then she turned back to him purposefully and said, "Now go unwire the bug, please."
Amanda had said her surveillance would start as soon as she left Division, but she may have decided to start early. She had to get this done fast, and using as vague wording as possible.
"Hold your horses, Alex," Birkhoff said, holding up a hand. "You may have just led me to any old air vent. How do I know this doubles as an escape?"
"Do what I asked," she began, choosing her words carefully, "then maybe I'll let you in."
"No way, little girl," he rejected. "Show me the exit first."
She tensed at the precise words, but figured Amanda would've spoken to her over the implant at the first sign of villainy. "Fine," she huffed. "Help me open it."
The each gripped the left end of the metal and heaved. It swung open droopily at the hinges, opening to a dark hole teeming with possibilities, both good and bad.
"Ladies first," Birkhoff beckoned onward.
"Coward," Alex muttered, crawling into the whole.
Behind her back, Birkhoff stuck out his tongue.
They scooted through a wide, concrete hole, not dissimilar to a sewer. Alex emerged first at the other side, dropping herself onto a platform made of the same material as the vent entrance. Birkhoff popped his head out after her.
"Crap," he breathed, noticing the bottomless bit just beneath the platform.
"Watch your step," she warned.
Carefully, Birkhoff stepped onto the platform after her. "This doesn't look like an exit," he noted. "Unless suicide is your idea of escape."
She pointed up to a ladder situated on the wall to their right. "If you climb up that ladder and push open the metal grate, then run really fast, Division would be long gone."
"Is that right?" Birkhoff mused, looking up. He's been stuck in here for six years. It seemed impossible that escape could be so simple. It was as if he'd been thrust into a dream. Not a good or bad one, but something unreal.
"How'd you find this?" he asked, still gazing upward dreamily.
"No questions," Alex rejected promptly. "Now deactivate the bug, will you?"
"Yeah, about that . . ."
"I am capable of slicing your face open," she warned, hearing denial before it came.
"Yeah, I get that," he began, "but I think Amanda would notice that lack of recordings."
"What?" Alex exclaimed. "But you said-!"
"I thought you were lying, Alex," he said, as such a thought should be obvious. "But don't worry, I can still get you off the hook, if you'd be patient."
Alex crossed her arms skeptically, glaring dangerously at Birkhoff. "What can you do then?"
"You'd still have to be bugged," he began. Seeing Alex's expression, he continued hastily, "but only for a little while, like a few days or so. I can record up until then. Don't do anything too explosive during that time. After that time is over, I can take the sounds from those three days, put them on loop, and send those to Amanda's computer instead. I'll still be able to hear what you're actually up to, though."
"How long will I have to be good?" she asked.
"I'd say a week, just to be safe," he suggested, "but try to keep quiet as possible. If she notices you dropping a frying pan in the same location way too often or saying the same thing every day, she could get suspicious."
"You're asking me to not speak to anyone for a week?" Alex frowned.
"Do you want freedom or not?"
"What if I'm called into Division and have to talk to someone?"
"You don't have to be monitored while your inside Division, especially if your having private discussions with Amanda," he explained. "I'll probably be required to turn off your bug while your here."
Alex thought through this, then nodded. "Okay, but if you're escaping Division, how will you be around the execute all this?"
"I'm not planning on escaping Division," Birkhoff scoffed.
"Then why'd you want to see the escape?"
"Well, the possibility of freedom is heartening," he said, gazing up dreamily at the newly discovered exit. "You know, if things get to bad, I'll know there's a way out. But I doubt I'll ever use it. I'm not, like, Nikita or something, all genius and inconspicuous. I could probably be found."
"I thought you prided yourself on being a genius," Alex smirked.
"In Division, behind a computer, I can be," he admitted. "Hiding out in an oak tree, not so much."
"Nikita's not hiding in an oak tree," she chuckled.
"And how would you know?"
Alex faltered. "Just . . . it doesn't seem like her."
Birkhoff shrugged, than started back toward the entrance.
"Hey, Birkhoff?" Alex spun around to face him.
He glanced over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows.
"Even after you disarm the bug to Amanda's computer, did you say you'll still be able to hear everything I'm doing?"
"Yep," he confirmed. "But don't worry. I'm not a tattletale."
"You've given away Nikita's location plenty of times," Alex recalled.
"Well, yeah, it's Nikita," he rolled his eyes. "It's kind of rule number one here to inform Percy of leads on Nikita. But it's not like you work for her or anything, right?"
Alex's throat tightened.
"You probably just want to get with your little boyfriend," he continued.
"I don't have a boyfriend," Alex sighed. Before she thought about it, she added, "At least, not anymore."
"On the rocks?" Birkhoff raised an eyebrow. "How civilian-like of you. Any particular reason for this?"
Alex glared at him.
"Sorry," he faltered. "It's not my place to ask.
"It's fine," Alex sighed. "It's just, deep and complicated and intense and once I get started, you probably won't even care."
"Says who?" Birkhoff scoffed, feigning being seriously offended.
"Just go," Alex urged.
Birkhoff sat defiantly at the edge of the exit to the silo, and Alex groaned.
"Your lowly opinion of me is offensive," he explained bigly. Using quite a mockingly sweet voice, he said, "Now tell Therapist Birkhoff your problems."
Alex glared some more.
"I'm waiting."
More glaring.
"Bottled up emotions are no way to-"
"Birkhoff!" she practically shouted, sound vibes radiating through the large silo. "Would you stop mocking me for a second. You've probably never had a significant other, so you probably don't know what it's like to lose one."
Birkhoff suddenly lost all his humor, as if it'd been sucked out of the room. His eyebrows creased together and his muscles tightened.
The room was still tense and empty-feeling from Alex's outbursts. She was still glaring, but her face was softening gradually.
Without another word, but one surprising returned glare that seemed, possibly, harder than Alex's, he got up and walked out of the silo.
Alex, dumbstruck and confused, followed him.
"Birkhoff?" she called, shutting the silo entrance behind her. "Birkhoff?"
"What?" he spun around from his position at the end of the hallway, hands stuffed in his pockets. He still seemed hard and angry.
"What's the matter with you?" Alex asked, without really thinking about it. His sudden shutdown had gotten her curious, despite how infuriated she was with him.
"A multitude of things," he replied, turning around again.
"Birkhoff," she called again. "Why the sudden loss of charm and charisma?"
He paused, then looked over his shoulder. There was a heavy silence between them before he said, just barely loud enough for Alex to hear it, "I do too know what it's like to lose a significant other."
He began walking again, leaving Alex speechless.
"I think I'll go enable your chip now," he announced listlessly. "Have fun being quiet."