After Sean and Alex left Ryan's office to continue working with Sonya on the rebel investigation, Ryan was hardly given a moment to himself to think over the potential mutiny. He wanted time to reflect on the situation and figure out what was occurring. Unfortunately, there was more going on in Division that needed his attention. Namely, whatever Nikita, Michael, and Birkhoff were up to.
Ryan had heard bits and pieces of what the three were doing. He knew it was all about obtaining a better prosthetic for Michael, and he knew that they were dealing with the same people from Kosovo: the Shop, whoever the hell they were. But by the way Birkhoff, Nikita, and Michael urgently stormed into his office, Ryan could assume that there was a lot more going on than he was told. He wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing. Yes, he wanted plausible deniability if the three got into trouble. But, the trouble they were finding themselves in seemed like something Ryan should be aware of.
Without wasting any time, Michael plopped his research onto Ryan's desk and caught the head of Division up on the side missions that had been occurring, "Alright, so, the Shop wants us to break into a lab in China and steal a biotech device. It's a delivery system for protein-based infections, prions, that'll eventually allow us to cure everything from colds to cancer. It's hard to say exactly how it works, but this thing, it actually infects you with a cure."
"Or it'll spread Ebola. Or the T-virus. Or, fuck, in six months, we could be fighting off zombie hordes," Birkhoff continued to share his distrust of the Shop. Of course he'd still tag along with Michael and Nikita on their mission; he'd do whatever he could to help his best friend. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't complain. At some point, Michael or Nikita had to listen to him and change their minds. Even with a bio-prosthesis on the line, none of that was a good idea. If the Shop willingly trafficked children, then they were capable of all kinds of evils. The fact that they were scientists meant nothing.
Sighing, Ryan looked at what Michael had laid out for him. He wasn't surprised about the side missions. He was a little surprised that Michael was the one moving secretly and using Division resources for his own gain; usually, it was Nikita who was doing anything she wanted. Since the two were engaged, it was possible that her bad influences were rubbing off on him. If so, then Ryan should learn to accept the fact that he could never make the two do anything. He had to just go along with what they were doing and ensure they didn't get hurt, "What else do we have on this 'Shop'?"
"They're probably a think-tank that develops tech for the U.S. military. They're scientists, just with the management style of Oversight," Michael summarized what he had been able to find and what he had understood from Nikita's account of her time with Heidecker. He wouldn't call the Shop a group of harmless scientists- the plane full of children was something that could never be forgotten. But it wasn't as though they were another black ops group that needed to be taken down. They wouldn't be engaging in another war by getting involved with them. At the most, they'd only be getting into trouble.
"Putting this tech into U.S. hands wouldn't be the worst thing. Though, we would still have to be cautious," Ryan mused. Although he was aware that the United States wasn't any more trustworthy with advanced militaristic technology than any other country (his time running Division had definitely changed his mind on those things), he knew that the President and Danforth wouldn't disapprove of their activities if their country had something the Chinese didn't. Honestly, most of his thoughts lately had been concerned with how his superiors would react. He didn't want anything to happen that'd upset them. It was a sure death sentence if it did.
"Yeah. Speaking of cautious, Fletch, if we do this, it's a four-man op. We will need personnel," Nikita finally shared the real reason she, Michael, and Birkhoff went to Ryan's office. Updating him on what they had been doing was important. Yet, what finally pushed them to talk to him was the need for Division agents for their operation. Michael and Nikita weren't enough for what they had planned. They needed at least two more agents. Since Sean and Alex were helping with the rebellion, their help wasn't an option. The team had to go outside of themselves for help.
"Whoa. No. Nobody's going to want to hear about a side mission right now. It would have to be volunteer-only," Instantly, Ryan shook his head at the idea. Hundreds of agents had just heard that stepping out of line could get them killed. Any unsanctioned mission would be reckless and dangerous. Absolutely no one would follow that order; the mutiny would only grow. Ryan believed that it was contained at the moment, but one small thing could jeopardize that. He couldn't take that risk, and neither should Michael nor Nikita.
"That's fine. I've got two guys I can already get on board. Owen might be down as well," Michael shrugged. He had only wanted agents who'd want to go on the mission with him anyway; it was a personal venture, so no one should be forced to do anything. He had reconnected with a few of the recruits that he had mentored while a handler, and he was certain that they'd be willing to help. He also thought that Owen might be up for it- mostly because Nikita had convinced him to think that way. Michael could assure that the side mission wouldn't hurt Division. The agents would have complete control of their own actions.
"Sorry, but Owen's out. He's keeping tabs on Danforth for us, just as a precaution," Once again, Ryan negated. It had been Owen's idea to watch Danforth after Nikita had blackmailed him with the black box. Although Division had assured the commander's silence, there was still a chance that he might doublecross them. At least with Owen watching Danforth, they could be prepared incase such an attack occurred. Ryan didn't like to be that paranoid- Percy levels of paranoid- yet he knew it would be naïve not to be. Division had to be prepared for everything.
Birkhoff stared at Ryan, perplexed. He had thought that Ryan would at least agree with him about the Shop. Michael and Nikita were more or less a lost cause. Once they were on their own path, it was impossible to push them off. Birkhoff would still try, but he was aware his complaints only fell on deaf ears. Ryan, on the other hand, was rational. He should've seen the danger in the situation, not agree with it. He should've been on Birkhoff's side, "Wait. Don't tell me you're actually considering this?"
"No one's saying we have to do everything the Shop wants us to do. We get the device. We control the situation," Michael tried to appease Birkhoff. Although he was going through with the mission, he wasn't completely bowing to the Shop. Michael continued to have reservations about the group of scientists, and he absolutely did not trust them. He was simply using them to get what he wanted. He still had control. Neither he nor Division would be doomed by stealing the biotech device.
"As long as it's volunteer only, and you leave small footprints, I see no reason not to move ahead," Ryan completely understood Birkhoff's reservations to the mission. However, he also trusted Michael to have control over the situation. The Shop wouldn't be a threat to Division, and Michael would receive a better prosthetic. It seemed like a win-win scenario. Which meant that Ryan's focus could remain on stopping the potential mutiny- the thing that really would be the downfall of them all.
While Sonya continued to poke around on the servers for any intel on the saboteurs' identity, Sean and Alex decided to look for clues in the armory and the locker room. The C4 used to set the charge had to have come from somewhere. If they found the origin, maybe they could find who had stolen it. Alex volunteered to check the locker room while Sean explored the armory. Except, he never actually made it to the weapons locker. He stopped to talk to Michael for a moment, then he returned to Alex's side. He was still determined to not let her leave his sight- a fact that she was beginning to question, "Hey. I thought you were in the armory."
"Yeah, I was on my way, then Michael found me. He asked me to go on the China op. I told him I was busy stopping a potential mutiny," Sean lied. Michael had told him about the op, but he didn't offer for Sean to join. Although the former Seal wanted to help his future brother-in-law obtain a better prosthetic, he had his own important mission. He was getting nowhere with discovering what was wrong with Alex; talking to her and watching almost all of her moves wasn't working. Sean had to start changing up what he was doing. He considered looking into South Ossetia, yet he had no clue where to start.
"Mutiny? Come on. Ryan's going a little overboard, don't you think?" Rolling her eyes, Alex huffed. What was occurring inside Division wasn't a mutiny; she was certain of that. The agents who had set the charge were simply taking control of their situation. Division was becoming a hellhole again, and they were determined not to be trapped inside anymore. The team shouldn't punish the agents for that. They should be understanding and maybe even help them finally gain their freedom.
"He's not the only one," The words left Sean's mouth before he could stop them. He had learned long ago to not agitate Alex when she was already upset- and after South Ossetia, she was always upset. He was simply upset and frustrated too. He wanted to know what Amanda had done to his girl. He wanted to know how he could help her be herself again. Sean hated seeing Alex like that. She shouldn't be so angry and on-edge all the time. She deserved to smile again and have whatever weight had been placed on her shoulders lifted.
Abandoning what she was doing, Alex turned to look at her boyfriend incredulously. She had thought that his hovering and overprotectiveness after South Ossetia had been sweet. But the way Sean constantly worried about her and insisted that something was off began to piss her off. It was one thing when the others expressed their concern about her, yet it was a whole nother thing when her boyfriend did it. He was supposed to believe her when she said she was fine. He wasn't supposed to annoyingly keep pressing her buttons until she snapped, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
Quickly, Sean took hold of Alex's hand in an attempt to calm her. Although she let him hold her hand, she continued to glare at him. He took the small victory for what it was and simply focused on making himself clear. He didn't want to upset her; he could never do that. He only wanted to help her, make sure that she was happy, "Look, the real reason I didn't go to China with Nikita and Michael is because I'm worried about you. You've been different ever since South Ossetia. I just want to make sure you're okay."
"Why is it that the moment that I start showing a little bit of backbone, that I start voicing my own thoughts and start disagreeing with Nikita and Ryan, you guys think Amanda did something to me?" Dropping Sean's hand, Alex seethed. For the past few weeks, every single time she had expressed her own opinion, someone assumed Amanda had fucked with her in South Ossetia. It wasn't fair. So what if she had started to disagree with the others. Nikita argued with everybody all the time and no one thought she was fucked up. Why did Alex have to be treated as a special case. Why couldn't she be heard.
Sean attempted to grab Alex's hand, yet she pulled away from him. She was beginning to shut down, not wanting to hear whatever else he had to say. Sean had to force her to listen to him. He also had to get her to talk, to be honest. Whatever had happened in South Ossetia, he wouldn't judge her for it. He just needed to know so he could see her smile again, "Alex, be honest with me. When we were in that bombed-out hospital looking for Larissa, I saw the same chair that Amanda used on Owen. Were you in that chair?"
"For the thousandth fucking time, I was never in that chair. I was in another room the whole time," Alex felt like she had to yell in order to get her point across. There could've been a million reasons why Amanda had had her torture chair in the hospital. Maybe she had tortured the soldiers, or maybe she had been preparing for more fucked up schemes that'd hurt the team. That damn chair had not been used on Alex; her torture had been something else entirely. The sooner Sean realized that, the sooner he'd stop incorrectly assuming that she was different.
"So nothing happened the entire time you were with Amanda?" Sean pressed. Even Alex had to know that Amanda wouldn't capture her just to talk to her. Alex had been just as much a part of the bitch's downfall as Nikita had been. Amanda had to have wanted revenge against her too. Her capture was more than just a ploy for Ari. Alex should've realized that just like Sean did. Amanda had done something to her, and since she was a bitch, it had to have been terrible.
"The only thing that happened is that I didn't save Larissa," Brushing harshly past Sean, Alex stormed out of the room. Sean sighed. He definitely should've handled that better. It was going to take a lot of apologizing to get her to calm down again. He should stop interrogating her about South Ossetia; it was just making things worse. His idea about investigating South Ossetia should be his only course of action. He had nothing to go off of except Larissa, however. He was probably just grasping at straws by going down that avenue. But with Alex's wellbeing on the line, he would grasp at any straw he could.
Michael and Nikita had the prion. Unfortunately, that was the only good thing to come from the mission. Things had been going well, and their plan had been working great. But after one slight hiccup with their technology, the people they were stealing from caught onto them, and hell broke loose. Armed guards attacked, bullets and broken glass flew everywhere, and not all of them managed to make it out alive. Jason, one of Michael's former recruits, took a bullet for the others, giving them a chance to escape with the biotech device they wanted. Though, was it truly worth it anymore if they had to lose someone to retrieve it.
Jason's death hit Michael hard. He slumped in his plane seat and battled tears the entire flight back to Division. Nikita did her best to comfort him, yet she was struggling too. Jason had eagerly volunteered to help Michael with his mission; then he died ensuring that they got what they wanted. It wasn't fair, and it also seemed incredibly selfish. Jason should've been able to get what he wanted too. He should've eventually been freed like the rest of Division. Especially since his last moments were spent helping somebody he considered a friend.
When they returned to Division, Michael wiped away his tears over his former recruit, then poured his entire focus on the prion. Whereas he wanted to make the trade and get his new hand that night, Nikita needed a moment to herself. She had to get her head straight and seriously consider what it'd be like dealing with the Shop. She didn't like any of the scenarios her mind came up with. Most of them led to more deaths. With that in their future, then how could it all be worth it. Yes, Nikita wanted her fiancé to be happy. But could he truly be happy with those costs. She didn't think so.
Wandering around Division, lost in thought, Nikita seriously contemplated what their next moves involving the Shop and the bio-prosthesis should be. She knew Michael's grief had turned to lividity and he was using that lividity to go extra hard at the Shop. But Nikita didn't know how long that would last in the long run. She doubted it would. There had to be something else they could do to take control back from the Shop and show that they couldn't be fucked with- that more people couldn't die. Unfortunately, before Nikita could come to a definitive solution, her thoughts were interrupted when she slammed into an agent, "Oh. Sorry. My bad."
"It's alright. How's Michael? He must be devastated. Jason really looked up to him," The agent Nikita had stumbled into instantly pressed. Nikita sighed. Word about Jason's death had spread like wildfire around the bunker. Everyone knew about it before they had even returned from China. So, of course, people were dying for any sort of gossip related to the situation. Nikita was in no mood to play into that.
"Yeah. We're all devastated. Jason took a bullet for us. That's not a small thing," Nikita replied rather diplomatically. In reality, Michael was absolutely crushed that he had gotten Jason killed. He added that heavy weight to his shoulders and carried it with him as he dove even further into his hunt for a better prosthetic. He wouldn't let Jason's sacrifice be in vain. He had to get what he wanted so his recruit didn't die for nothing. Nikita didn't blame him for that; she thought the same. But she wished Michael would take a moment before he kept moving forward. He should properly grieve Jason's death, lift some weight from his shoulders.
"I was in Ops the day you killed Percy. You came in and spoke to us. And you made that promise. You're the reason we're all gonna get out of here someday. You're the reason we're all going to go home," The agent- Nikita believed her name was Rachel- continued to press. Nikita just smiled softly and moved out of the hallway. Months ago, that statement was something she absolutely believed in. Currently, however, she wasn't so sure. Returning home was probably just a pipedream. It might be best if Nikita just gave it up.
She shook that thought from her head- it had weighed her down enough- and joined Michael and Birkhoff in the nerd's cave. Rather than drown in her thoughts, she should focus on helping Michael and dealing with the Shop. There were still a lot of things to discuss. The most pressing issue was the bio-tech. It had cleared Birkhoff's tests, but that didn't mean anything to the nerd, "Well, the device is real. It's exactly what the Shop told us it would be- again. But that doesn't mean that it can't be twisted into something horrible and nightmare-inducing. Just because they're up front, doesn't mean they don't have nefarious purposes."
Rubbing her tired eyes, Nikita sighed. Birkhoff was probably right. However, if they stopped then, Jason would've died for nothing. And that fact would upset Michael more than he already was. The three couldn't just abandon the mission; they had to complete it. Which, unfortunately, meant more deals with the Shop and the fake Heidecker that suddenly appeared on the Shop's computer, "Well done. I understand you were successful."
"I hate when he does that," Birkhoff startled back. He had thought he had always been technology's biggest fan. But the way the Shop utilized it made it horrific. There were times where he didn't even want to touch a computer anymore- him, Shadowwalker. It just seemed a little too Big Brother for his taste. The fact that someone from the Shop always seemed to be listening and watching from their laptop was disturbing. There was obviously no good intentions with those actions.
"We have the prion. When do I get my hand?" Forcefully, Michael demanded. He was done playing games. He should've demanded to have the bio-prosthesis first instead of going on an errand for the Shop. If he had, then he wouldn't have gotten Jason killed. He also would've truly had the control he believed he had had. He had been too swept up in the excitement for something better that he had screwed up. He refused to make that mistake again. The Shop was going to finally give him what he wanted, and Michael wouldn't lose anyone else in the process.
"Tonight. Go to the fourteenth floor of the Bremmer building in Buffalo, New York. You deliver the package, and we will attach your hand on-site," The fake Heidecker explained briefly; then, the computer shut off once more. It wasn't clear if Michael's harsh demand had caused the bluntness or the fact that the Shop was done using Division's skill sets. Hopefully, it was a mixture of both.
"Attach it on-site? That means there's gonna be a team of Shop surgeons waiting to do the deed right there. And we're gonna walk into that? A manned Shop facility? I don't care how cutting-edge they are, it's gonna take hours to perform the surgery, and I really don't want to think about what these guys can do with time on their hands," Birkhoff's concerns, though, were on things other than the Shop's blunt response. Michael would be waltzing right into danger by going to that building. The Shop would have all the control. They needed to figure out another way to go about things. That couldn't be their only option.
Nikita agreed with Birkhoff. There was no way she was leaving her fiancé unarmed and unconscious with the Shop. They'd have all the power, and who knew what they could do to him with it. She needed a way to take some power back. After a moment of thought, she finally had her idea. It was a bit extreme, but Nikita didn't care. Extreme was how she knew she could control the situation to get what she wanted, "Hey, Nerd, can you rig an explosive to this canister? If Michael's gonna be under the knife, I want to put the Shop under the gun."