Infinity and Beyond
-Chapter 16-
Free, Part One
The first thing I feel when I start to wake up is mommy's arms pulling me closer. I open my almond-shaped dark brown eyes sleepily. Mommy's awake as she kisses my forehead.
I lean closer to her before raising my head a little so that my lips would touch her neck. "Good morning, mommy."
"Good morning." Mommy smiles at me. "Did you have a good sleep?"
"Uh-huh." I nod. "I like to sleep with mommy."
"Oh, why?" Mommy asks, still smiling.
"Because mommy keeps scary things away." I smile happily. "I love mommy!"
Mommy laughs lightly as she hugs me. "I love you too." She brushes some of my hair out of my oval-shaped face. "We'll get up and have a nice, crunchy breakfast, and then we'll go see Alex, okay?"
"Okay." I giggle as she tickles my tummy.
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Mommy and I are in a mall. Mommy's holding my hand as we're waiting for Alex, who's just about to push a shopping cart past up before mommy stops her. "You made it."
Alex turns toward her, smiling before they hug. "I called as soon as I was alone." Alex tells her.
"I know." Mommy says quietly before they let go of each other.
"And I used a clean phone." Alex says.
"Good." Mommy smiles as she touches her hair. "We'll use burners from now on, alright?"
"Yeah." Alex nods quietly.
"Toss it at the end of the week." Mommy pulls out a black cellphone and hands it to her. "We'll rotate carriers."
Alex smiles and takes it before crouching down to look at me. "It's nice to see you again, Infinity."
"You too." I grin at her before she stands back up to look at mommy again.
They stare at each other for a few seconds before Alex speaks up again. "They thought Thom was the mole." She sounds and looks a little sad. "Mostly because when you fought him, you let him live." 'Thom's dead.'
Something in my stomach rolls into a sad ball as I grab onto mommy's hand tightly. Mommy looks down at me and squeezes my hand gently before looking back up at Alex.
"Yeah." Mommy says sadly. "I was there though, Alex. You didn't have a choice." She tries to comfort her before continuing. "This is gonna be a very big adjustment for you, living on the outside."
"I've been on the outside." Alex reminds her. "I'm ready."
"Well, you're not gonna be ready for anything until I remove your tracker." Mommy tells her. "Once I clone the signal, I'll be able to control where they think you are."
"Can we wait a little bit?" Alex asks. "I'm still pretty sore." Her hand touches the back of her neck.
Mommy frowns and turns her around a little before pushing her toward a corner. "Come here."
Then she peels off the bandage on the back of Alex's neck halfway and looks at a round scar. Her eyes widen just ask Alex turns toward her. "What?"
"Nothing." Mommy tries to smile, but she doesn't sound like she believes what she's saying. "Nothing." She repeats as she smoothes out Alex's hair. "It's just they are um… usually in the hip, and this one seems to be at the base of your cortex."
'Cortex: the outer layer of the back of the brain.'
"So?" Alex frowns, she sounds worried.
"So… minor surgery's a little rusty." Mommy tries to tell her gently. "I'll just have to find another way." She doesn't sound very sure of herself… "I'll let you know what I come up with. Don't worry, we have time."
Alex's still frowning as mommy continues. "Now, keep shopping. I heard it's supposed to be fun."
This makes Alex smile a little. Mommy smiles back at her before leading me away. "Bye, Alex." I smile and wave.
"Bye." Alex waves back.
Mommy walks a few steps before turning back to look at Alex quietly, who's looking at a package she looks like she might want to buy.
Mommy turns away from Alex again before muttering angrily. "Percy, you son of a bitch."
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Mommy and I are sitting in a restaurant as mommy's looking at Ryan, who's sitting a few tables away talking to a blonde-haired woman.
A few seconds later, the woman walks away from him and past us. Mommy turns to me. "Come on, honey, let's go say hi to Ryan." She stands up and reaches out a hand for me to hold. I stand up and take it.
We walk up to him. "She wants you, dude." Mommy says to him. "Congrats."
Ryan looks up at mommy's words. Mommy sits down in the chair across the table from him before she pulls me onto her lap.
"You're alive!" Ryan's eyes widen in surprise. Why would he be surprised?
"Oh, I never get tired of hearing that." Mommy smiles at him.
Ryan turns his head to look behind him. "You're not being tailed." Mommy tells him as she grabs his wine glass and takes a drink. "Don't worry, I checked."
"How in the world did you manage to sky dive with a four year old?" Ryan asks before frowning. "And why would I be tailed?"
"Oh, I don't know." Mommy says in the tone that computer mama calls sarcastic. "Maybe because you were openly investigating a shadowy government group that threatens the very fabric of our nation?"
"Maybe." Mommy shrugs before continuing. "I've intercepted intel. Pilot programmed Division into place. It's a weapon's test. I need to take that file and meet me across the alley across from Ryerson's 0900 tomorrow morning." Mommy takes out a folder and puts it in front of Ryan.
"Wait… hold on…" Ryan sounds like he's still trying to take in all that mommy's telling him. "Slow down… okay, um… how do you intercept their intel?"
"We'll get into that later." Mommy says before flipping open the file. "First, I need you to arrest this man. Seymour Birkhoff. He's our key to making sure this tech never gets used."
"Our key?" Ryan raises an eyebrow.
"Are you in this fight or not?" Mommy sounds impatient. "Because if you're not, I've gotta move."
"Okay." Ryan sighs. "Look, first of all, I don't have the jurisdiction to arrest anyone. Now if you're talking about rendition—"
While Ryan's still talking, mommy whispers very quietly in my ear. "Come on, honey, we've got to go."
I frown a little as mommy silently picks me up and stands up before leaving silently while Ryan's still talking. I hug mommy as I try not to giggle. Mommy's doing something funny…
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Mommy and Ryan are talking in an alley between two buildings. I'm kicking around a little stone while they're talking. "… died of an aneurysm." Ryan's saying.
"Try integrated circuit in his brain." Mommy tells him. I see a caterpillar on the ground. I bent down to pick it up before mommy's voice stops me. "Don't touch that sweetie."
I stand back up before turning to her with a smile. "Okay, mommy."
"Kill chip, they're made by Division." Mommy continues to speak to Ryan as I pick up a stick to draw hop scotch.
"Wait, now they're using the chips again? On who?" Ryan frowns.
"All I can tell you is that they're innocent." Mommy says quietly.
"Okay, look, this relationship… alliance… thing… has to work both ways." Ryan tells her. "When you get something, I get something."
"I agree." Mommy nods. "I saved your life, now you have to help me save someone else's."
"I thought you wanted me to identify the government group that sanctioned Division." Ryan says. He sounds a little impatient. "Through investigation, connecting dots, collecting a paper trail, you know, stuff I actually do as an analyst."
"I do want you to do those things." Mommy tells him as I'm almost done drawing my hop scotch.
"So then when did we take the leap from covert investigation to illegal abduction?" Ryan asks. He sounds a little annoyed.
"When it became necessary." Mommy argues back. "Look, hacking Birkhoff's laptop is the only way that I can access Division's done, and stop what's going on."
I drop the stick back on the ground as I'm finished drawing now. I pick up the little stone that I was kicking around before and I start playing with my hop scotch.
"And how do we stop them without them knowing I'm behind this?"
"Well, we don't. Percy thinks you're an analyst who collects paper trails, connects dots, but will never hit bigger. Which is what he will continue to think when you drag in Birkhoff's pre-Division hacker charges."
"Okay. So once I bring him in, then we do a hand off with the laptop."
"It's a little more complicated than that. His laptop is raiged with the security system, if it goes more than 25 feet from him, his hard drive fries."
"Right, which means you need to be there." Ryan says slowly before laughing, but it's not a happy laugh. "So, now what? You're asking me to break into the CIA?"
"Just the field office." Mommy says.
"Just… yeah." Ryan nods unhappily. "And when Birkhoff sees us working together, will Division still think that I'm just a old off the scrub?"
"Birkhoff will never know that I was there." Mommy tells him.
"What if Division tracks Birkhoff? Somehow gets word out?"
"Oh, I'm counting on it." Mommy smiles.
When Mommy and Ryan are done talking, Mommy calls me over. "Come here, sweetie."
I skip over to her happily and slide my hand into her's. "Mommy?"
"Ryan's going to go help mommy do something." Mommy tells me as she crouches down beside me and points at him. "You want to say goodbye to him?"
"Bye-bye, Ryan." I smile up at him. "Thank you for helping mommy."
"You're welcome." Ryan crouches down in front of me and smiles. Then, he stands back up and turns to mommy again. "You know, you still haven't told me how you managed to sky dive with your daughter strapped to you."
"I guess I'm super mom." Mommy smiles and shrugs.
"I've a feeling that's not an exaggeration." Ryan smiles back and shakes his head before turning to leave. "I'll see you later."
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Vision
Alex was standing by the door of her new apartment when her new neighbour walks toward her. 'Nathan.' "Hey." He said. "So, when you and your boyfriend moved in earlier, I thought I had introduce myself. I'm Nathan, across the hall."
Alex was struggling with two big brown paper bags as she tried to open the door. "Oh!" Nathan said. "Here, let me…" He took one of the bags.
"Oh, it's okay." Alex smiled at him. "You don't have to do that." She opened the door and walked inside with Nathan following behind her.
He put the bag on the kitchen table as Alex shut the door behind her…
End Vision
Mommy's on the phone with Ryan as we're in the same mall where we met Alex. "See, that wasn't so hard." Mommy says. "I'll meet you at the roun-des-vu point."
We turn a corner to where Alex's waiting. They both say "hey" to each other as I play with the new yoyo mommy bought me.
"Here." Mommy says, handing her the black cell phone.
"Thanks." Alex says as she takes it in her hands. "House-warming gift?" She smiles.
"Not exactly." Mommy sighs. "It's a computer virus; I need you to plug that into the network computer inside Division."
"Tonight?" Alex asks a little nervously.
"Is that gonna be a problem?" Mommy frowns.
"I got invited to a party…" Alex says, she sounds like she's not sure of something. "I thought it would be good to go. You know, for my cover."
"For your cover…" Mommy repeats.
"Yeah." Alex nods.
"It's what I used to say at first." Mommy tells her softly.
"What do you mean?" Alex asks.
"I mean they give you a place to live, and a car, and some clothes." Mommy says quietly. "And then soon you start to feel like any other girl in the city. Then one day, you get a phone call, out of the blue, and they remind you that you're not."
There's a moment of silence before Alex speaks up again. "Is this about my tracker?"
"The virus is a red haring." Mommy nods. "It'll throw Division off the set, so they don't know that I hacked their database."
"You're not telling me something, Nikita." Alex looks at mommy, frowning. "What is it?"
Mommy looks a little uncomfy as she looks away from Alex… I stop playing and go to hold her hand.
"If we're partners, we need to trust each other." Alex says impatiently.
"So trust me." Mommy says before picking me up and leaving.
"Bye Alex." I say quietly…
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I'm waiting in a room with someone mommy said that Ryan told to look after me. Mommy and Ryan are off to get Birkhoff…
Just then, the door opens as Ryan and someone who's wearing a black wool hat over their head walks in. He or she put their bag down before they take off their hat. "Mommy!" I squeal happily as I raise my arms up toward her for a hug.
"Hey, sweetie." Mommy pants a little, but she's smiling as she comes and gives me a big hug. Then, she turns to Ryan. "It's a miracle anyone can breathe under those things." She sounds a little annoyed.
"I don't think my guys suspected a thing." Ryan smiles as mommy puts a laptop on the empty desk and sits down in the empty chair beside me.
"Okay, you're on." Mommy tells Ryan after she types something on the laptop. "See if you can put the fear of God into him."
"From what you told me, that guy thinks he is God." Ryan says. "I'll do my best."
Mommy takes off her jacket as I hold my hands out. "I hold it for mommy?"
"Okay." Mommy smiles before she hands it to me.
I take it and hug it to my face. Mommy's jacket smells nice, just like mommy does…
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Mommy and I can hear Ryan and Birkhoff's conversation in another room.
Ryan: What do you know about a hacker named Shadowwalker?
There's no sound from Birkhoff.
Ryan: Guy had his hay day in the 90s, it's brilliant, security hacks, he's so good he managed to pull up a cyber intrusion in the pentagon back in the 93.
Birkhoff: What's a cyber intrusion? Sounds vaguely sexual.
Birkhoff doesn't sound very happy. What does vaguely sexual mean? I can hear Ryan laughing as mommy rolls her eyes and rubs her face.
I stand up and go to mommy. I pull on her arm. "Mommy okay?"
Mommy quietly shushes me before smiling and pulling me onto her lap. "Now I am." She whispers very quietly into my ear. I bite my bottom lip and giggle silently.
Ryan: Shadowwalker was a mastermind in international crimes; actually you're familiar with them. Here's the bottom line, the CIA has evidence linking you to the Shadowwalker identity.
Now, Birkhoff sounds like he's laughing.
Birkhoff: A, that's impossible, because I'm not Shadowwalker, and B, I'm dying of thirst, and as part of my civil liberties, I demand an energy beverage. Whatever has the most tor in it.
Ryan's laughing again.
Ryan: You want to get that to go? Cause you're headed to a Bangkok prison after we extradite you.
'Extradite: to hand over a criminal to a foreign state in which the crime's committed.'
Birkhoff's laughing.
Birkhoff: Mini Ethan Hunt, you worry about where you're headed, because you've no idea who you're dealing with, and I've always wanted to say that. It's true.
There's the opening and closing sound of a door, and then, silence. A few moments later, there's the sound of footsteps before Ryan comes back into the room.
I get off mommy's lap as she stands up and searches through her bag. She pulls out the yoyo she bought me. "Go and play, sweetie." She gives me the yoyo. "Ryan and I have work to do."
Then, she turns to Ryan. "Let's talk…"
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Author's note: Alright guys, here's another chapter. As always, please remember to review me any thoughts and ideas you may have.