Infinity and Beyond

-Chapter 25-

Echoes and Covenants, Part Two

"I'm expecting the haul to be worth around sixty million." Mommy continues as she's holding my hand with her cuffed hands.

"Hmm..." Ari nods. "What's your cut?"

"Eight, four up front." Mommy says, making my oval-shaped face frown. I don't get it...

"Two up front, three reserved as bodyguards for your little princess." Ari says.

Mommy just nods silently. But mommy has a lot more than just two or three cuts... "But mommy, you've cuts and bruises all over you!" I whimper tearfully. "Not just two or three!"

I start crying a little again. I don't like it when mommy has cuts and bruises, it makes me hurt and it makes me want to cry.

"No, honey." Mommy tells me quietly as she crouches down beside me and pulls me into a hug again. "That's not what he meant."

Mommy stands back up as Ari silently nods his head before the big, bald man standing beside mommy uncuffs her hands. "You've got two strikes against us, Nikita." Ari warns scarily. "If there's a third, I promise you, Gogol will divert an absurd number of resources towards finding you, and when we do, it will be unpleasant."

His tone makes goosebumps pop up my olive skin. I pull on Ari's hand. "Please don't hurt my mommy..." I cry as tears fall out of my almond-shaped dark brown eyes.

Ari crouches down, but before he can say anything, mommy quickly picks me up and wraps her arms around me tightly, almost as if she's nervous. "I'll be alright, sweetie." She whispers in my ear before giving me a long kiss on the cheek.

Ari doesn't say anything, but he just smiles crookedly as if he's just heard something really funny...

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"Her name is Alex." Mommy's on the phone. "You've done this for her before. I need an identity package, Gustov, scrub her clean."

'Disappearing your friend...' Computer mama tells me what Gustov is saying on the other side. 'Again... Not a problem. How soon do you need this?'

"If I had my way, Alex would be on a plane far, far away by now." Mommy sighs.

'Oh, so rush job. When can you bring her by?'

"She's not available." Mommy tells him. "But I can't wait. I need that package ready as soon as she is."

'Nikita, I'm an excellent forger, but two things I can't forge are finger prints and passport photos.'

"I've an idea of how to get that." Mommy says. "I got to call you back though."

'Hey, I've to ask, what exactly is she running from?'

"Let's just say..." Mommy frowns sadly as she's staring at her computer screen. "I'm more worried about where she's heading." She says before hanging up.

"Mommy?" My almond-shaped dark brown eyes look up at her as I'm sitting on the floor with toys all around me.

"You made a mess again, honey." Mommy murmurs quietly as she walks over and sits down on the floor beside me before pulling me into a hug. She sounds really sad...

"I'm sorry, mommy." I hug her back quickly. "I'll clean up and be a good girl so don't be sad."

Her arms wrap around me tighter before I speak up again with a whimper. "Do your bruises still hurt, mommy?"

"Not right now." Mommy whispers in my ear before I smile a little and gives her lots and lots of kisses...

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Mommy and I are inside Alex's apartment as mommy's waving a black walkie-talkie shaped thing that has a big circle of red lights on it around. "No signals detected." The thing talks?

I pull on mommy's arm. "Mommy, hold hands?"

"Sure." She smiles at me before we hold hands.

"Mommy, what are we doing here?" I ask as I put my curly dark brown hair behind my ears.

She puts the talking thing away and picks up a glass and breathes on it before looking at it. "I need to find something." She tells me softly.

"What is it, mommy?" I tilt my head. "I'll help you find it."

"Hmm..." Mommy laughs a little as she picks me up into her arms. "It's alright, sweetie. I like you right where you are." She says as she tickles my back, making me giggle happily.

Then, she takes out a Ziploc bag from her black bag and puts the glass inside before putting it into her black bag. After that, mommy looks inside Alex's closet and cabinets. I bite down on my red lips as my oval-shaped face frowns silently. 'Nathan's coming.'

I don't know how, but mommy looks as if she knows that someone's coming. She quickly puts a blue booklet-like thing in her back pocket before putting me down and hiding me. "Stay here." She whispers to me quietly. "I'll be right back."

Nathan has a bat in hand and is about to hit mommy, but mommy easily grabs the bat from his and throws him onto the floor. She puts a foot on his chest. "Who the hell are you?" He grunts.

"I'm the one who isn't breaking into a woman's house with a baseball bat." Mommy says angrily. "And you are?"

Nathan growls some words I can't understand as he tries to get up, but mommy pushes him back down with her foot.

"I don't think you understand the way this works." Mommy smiles scarily. "I've your bat and you're on the ground which means you're not exactly in a position of power."

"I'm Nathan." He pants. "Alex's neighbor."

"You're Nathan?" Mommy murmurs in surprise before she walks over to me and picks me up again. "Why are you breaking and entering?" She asks him as I wrap my arms around mommy in a hug and put my red lips on her cheek. Mommy rubs my head with a small smile.

"I'm not breaking anything." He says. "I've a key."

"I've a key." Mommy says. "Explain the baseball bat."

"Alex and I had plans, but she never showed." Nathan explains. "She never answered the door, I can't get her on the phone, I'm worried. Then, I heard you going into her apartment, and..."

"Why didn't you just call 911?" Mommy asks.

Nathan doesn't answer as there are sirens outside. "Wait, you didn't call 911, did you?" Mommy sounds worried.

"Uh... Who are you?" Nathan asks in confusion.

"I'm a friend of Alex's." Mommy tells him. "She's out of town, I just came to check on the place."

"She's alright?" Nathan says. "She didn't call."

"It was a really sudden trip." Mommy says. "She had to jet, but I'm sure you'll hear from her soon." Mommy tosses him the bat back. "Look, I hate to disarm and run, but, I've got to go."

"Wait!" Nathan calls out. "You sure Alex's alright?"

"She'll be." Mommy tells him before we leave...

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"Standard procedure." Gustov says as he runs a black beeping thing over mommy's body before he does the same for me. "Beep beep beep..." I sing along with the beeping thing. 'Metal detector.'

"Seriously?" Mommy sounds annoyed. "She's four." She says before shaking her head and picking me up. "Can you get it done by tonight?" She asks him.

"Please." Gustov scoffs. "Let's see it." He says as he takes a blue booklet from mommy's hands and opens it up to see Alex's picture. 'Alex's passport.'

"That will work." He says before mommy gives him a plastic bag with the glass from Alex's apartment in it.

"Now, how many times have I done this for you, Nikita?" Gustov says as he leads us further into the room. "First, it was at Wakefield, and Daniel Monroe, and your friend, Alex, that girl Sara, and now, Alex again. I do this for you so often, I should call it "The Nikita Special."

"Buy five new identities, get the six one free." Mommy smiles a little as she hugs me warmly, making me lay my head on her shoulder.

"You know this can't go on forever, Nikita." He chuckles a little as he turns around to face her. "I know who you used to work for. And I'm pretty sure those are the same people your friends are running from now. Powerful people."

"Too powerful." Mommy nods. "That's why I've to help."

"Help yourself." He tells her. "In our world, friends are not assets..."

"They're liabilities." Mommy says it at the same time as Gustov. "I know. I've heard it before."

"But you're not buying it." He raises an eyebrow.

"Can we talk about what I am buying?" Mommy says impatiently. "Did you find a surgeon yet?"

"I spoke with a neuro-surgeon in Sweden." He tells her. "He says that he can deal with your chip issue, but an off the book surgery, that's a complicated endeavor."

"How much does he want?" Mommy asks.

"A lot." He smiles crookedly.

"How much?" Mommy asks again.

"You're not going to like it." He shakes his head with a scary smile before three other men pops up into the room around us. "It seems that little girl of yours is worth more than any of us can count, Nikita..."

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Author's note: here you go, guys, here's another chapter. Please review!