Alex refused to go quietly. Although she was handcuffed in the back of a police car, she wasn't just going to sit there while Amanda drove them to only God knew where. The young woman was going to do everything in her power to free herself. Unfortunately, in her current situation, that simply caused her to act like a caged animal. Alex ripped at her handcuffs and slammed and kicked against the door. Amanda was completely unfazed while she sped off down the road. In fact, she was amused by Alex's wild attempts- like kidnapping her was even more worth it, "I'd calm down if I were you, Alexandra. It'd be easier if you just relaxed."
"Fuck you," Alex seethed. Every ounce of her body was filled with boiling blood and pure venom. She didn't think she had felt that much anger before. Besides what she felt for Semak and Vlad. The instant she was free of her handcuffs, she was going to claw her way out of the back seat of the cop car, and she was going to kill Amanda. She had enough rage that she believed it was possible. That bitch couldn't be allowed to breathe after all she had done- after what she had done to Sean. And Alex was beyond determined to be the one to end her. She simply had to escape her cuffs first.
"I was right. You even have her command of language," Spying on Alex through the rearview mirror, Amanda chuckled. Despite Nikita's claims to the contrary, she had molded and shaped Alex just as Division had molded and shaped her. The young heiress was even reacting just as the rogue would in that situation- spitting curses, blind rage, desperate need to escape. Alex was a bit more clumsy than Nikita, however. She had only been taught by the rogues and a Navy Seal. She didn't have the refinements of Division. Maybe Amanda could change that. She had always wanted to help teach Alexandra Udinov.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to rip your fucking throat out for what you did to Sean," Slamming her entire body weight against the car door, Alex threatened. She knew the back of a cop car was impossible to escape from; it was designed to keep prisoners captive. However, she had enough training from the rogues that she could find a way to break free. Nikita had once taught her how to escape from handcuffs. All Alex had to remember was the steps. While she was so angry and livid and upset and frightened, it was difficult. But she had to focus. She had to stay determined.
"Just what I did to Sean? Interesting," Amanda mused as she refocused on the road. Of course, it wasn't surprising that Alex would've been most upset about Amanda's target on her boyfriend's back. Yet it was interesting that she considered that crime the only sin worth punishing her over. Amanda was going to have an interesting time delving into the young woman's mind. She already had an idea based on what she knew of Alexandra Udinov and their limited time together. But each new second with her garnered more and more fun plans. There was a chance that Amanda had left Switzerland a winner after all.
Finally, Alex remembered the steps to unlock the handcuffs around her wrists. She ripped the cold metal away, and focused her attention on the next obstacle in her way. She doubted she could unlock the back door. But maybe she could rip away the grate separating her from the front seat. Not only had she seen that in a movie once, but she was pretty sure that Nikita had once told her that that was an option. With her metal handcuffs in hand, Alex began to saw at the grate. She made the same sounds she had when she was messing with her restraints and the door so Amanda wouldn't grow suspicious. And soon enough, she was making serious progress.
"Oh. It's about to get very interesting," Once enough of the grate had given way, Alex smirked. She was able to slip her hand underneath the partition and grab Amanda's awful red hair. Utilizing more speed the strength (the awkward angle hardly allowed for strength anyway) Alex pulled Amanda's head sharply back and slammed it against the steering wheel. Unfortunately, the move only stunned the bitch. There was barely enough time for Alex to make another daring attempt to escape. Yet she still tried. Through the opening she had made, she managed to reach past Amanda and grab for the car keys.
Her fingers wrapping around the keychain, Alex was so close to ripping the keys out of the ignition and using them to escape. But Amanda had quickly snapped out of her gaze. She threw the car in park, grabbed Alex's wrist, and twisted it back so she'd release her grip. Alex couldn't help but help in pain and try to jerk back. Amanda wouldn't let go of her arm, however. She kept the young woman's wrist in a death-like grip, and she kept her forearm straightened- just as long as it took for her to grab a sedative she had stolen from the ambulance. The bitch plunged the needle into Alex's veins, snarling in triumph, "I agree."
"Okay, I want admin-level access to the Swiss P.D. What they see, we see. Heidi yodels in the woods and someone phones in a noise complaint, I want to know about it," Birkhoff ordered the numerous hackers in Ops already doing all they could to locate Alex. It had been several hours, and the only real lead they had was that Amanda had eventually abandoned the police cruiser she had stolen. Division was left grasping at straws. Yet they would keep grasping at straws until they had a lead. They couldn't give up; they couldn't give in.
"It's been ten hours. She could have crossed the border by now. What was that exit strategy again?" Pacing Ops, Sean didn't know what he was supposed to do. Usually, while the hackers were doing their thing, he'd call in favors from military personal or government officials he knew. Someone always knew something. If he pulled the right strings, he could get Division intel. However, Sean couldn't contact anyone in his old life. He couldn't even contact people he hardly knew. He was dead, and any intel he could use to help find Alex had died with him. There was nothing left for him to do- besides asking Nikita to go over what happened once again.
"No exit strategy. Cops were improvised," Nikita stifled a yawn. By no means was she under-stimulated by everything occurring around her. It was just that ever since she had been pulled out of that fire, she hadn't given herself a moment to rest. The hours-long jet ride back to Division had been filled with debriefs, explanations, and efforts to not have the effects of smoke inhalation catch up to her. And of course, all her time in Division had been spent desperately hunting down Amanda and Alex. Nikita couldn't rest until Alex was safe and Amanda was dead. It didn't matter if she was running on empty. She wasn't the priority.
"Was that her call, or was that yours?" Sean couldn't stop himself from snapping. Deep down, there was a rational part of him that knew he couldn't blame Nikita for what had happened; she had no control in what Amanda did, or even in what Alex did. However, there was no room to be rational in that situation. The love of Sean's life had been captured by the most evil and psychotic bitch he had ever met, and he didn't have a way to save her. He was going to lose her exactly as he always feared he would. How could he ever possibly sane when his whole world was crumbling- and there was still nothing he could do.
"Hers. What does it matter?" Confused, Nikita attempted to track what Sean could've been thinking. There was a chance that the downsides of her lack of sleep was catching up with her. It took her just a bit too long to react or think. And she could feel her exhaustion begin to fizzle out into irritation and anxiety. However, Nikita continued to refuse to give in to what her body was begging her. She'd ignore the pain in her lungs with each intake of breath. She'd ignore the heavy pull of her eyelids. And she'd ignore the fuzz in her head. Everything had to remain about Alex. It was her alive, or it was nothing.
"I'm just trying to figure out how the hell Amanda pulled Alex out of the back of a police car, when just an hour earlier, you were sitting three feet away from her," Stalking towards Nikita, Sean decided to channel all his uncontrollable emotions on misplaced rage. Actually, he didn't decide anything. It just happened. However, since it had, there was no way for Sean to pull it back. Nikita was going to feel all of his wrath whether he completely wanted to or not. She was the easiest to blame, after all. Along with Sean, she had sworn to do everything she could to protect Alex, and she had failed.
Nikita knew Sean was right to hate her. She hated herself as well. She should've killed Amanda when she had had the chance. She should've let the fire kill them both. She should've tried to kill Amanda despite the paramedics and firefighters present. She should've tracked down and killed the bitch instead of helping Krieg with Stefan. She should've sacrificed herself to kill the bitch instead of being selfish. Because she had to be the hero, so many of her loved ones suffered. Sean was right. It was really that simple- even if Nikita pretended that it was more complicated than that, "Because you think the answers are so easy."
"No, I think Alex is in danger again," Sean bit. Who cared about explanations when Alex was out there with Amanda. He didn't want to hear Nikita make excuses for why she couldn't protect Alex (though, rationally, there was hardly anything Nikita could've done to stop what had happened). He didn't even want to hear about logic or that it was Alex's plans that led to Amanda's kidnapping opportunity. He only wanted answers to where his girlfriend was, how he could save her, and how he could hold her in his arms again.
"It doesn't matter what the exit strategy was. We are going to find her. We are," Michael interrupted before Nikita's exhausted rage and Sean's anxious anger could battle it out. What had happened on the mission didn't matter anymore (though, Michael knew Nikita was holding back about what started the fire, and he was dying to hear the truth). Division's focus had to remain on Alex. And their unbridled emotions had to be channeled into hope that they'd find Alex and rescue her. Yes, that was a lot to ask for. But at least it was something they could control.
Whereas Sean continued to simmer with rage, Nikita was able to take a breath to calm down (focusing on her husband's hand on the small of her back helped). Snapping at one another wasn't going to solve anything. In fact, Division turning on each other would play exactly into Amanda's hands. All she ever wanted to do was fuck with Nikita and her team. That moment wasn't any different. She had captured Alex for a reason. She wasn't just going to kill her. She was going to torture her and the team first, "Michael's right. Amanda's not gonna kill her. If she wanted that, she would have done it on the spot. She has a plan."
"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I got her. I got Amanda. She's calling in," As if on cue, Birkhoff shouted for everyone in Division to hear. Michael, Sean, and Nikita immediately rushed to his computer station and bombarded him with questions. Unfortunately, there was only so much he could answer. His first instinct was to trace the call, but there was no real call to trace. Amanda was still ahead of Division. She had anticipated the move to track her and had already counteracted it, "It's prerecorded. I can't trace it."
Michael motioned for Birkhoff to play the recording anyway. There could be something in the recording they could use to track the bitch. There had to be some clues- ones Amanda didn't intentionally drop, anyway, "Hello, Nikita. I don't know about you, but I found Switzerland to be very fruitful. I may not have gotten what I came for, but I walked away with something far more valuable. I guess that's the thing about being on the run. You never know when things will suddenly turn your way."
Nikita didn't realize she was clutching Michael's arm with a vice-like grip until he readjusted her grip so that she held his hand instead. The amount of emotions that had crashed into her couldn't be described. The best Nikita could boil it down to was how much she hated Amanda. She might've sworn it a lot, but the next time she saw the bitch was going to be the last. She was going to ensure she killed her once she had another chance, "The offer I'm going to make should be relatively easy for you. Hand Ari over to me, and I'll give you Alex. I'm sending the coordinates for the exchange."
Birkhoff and Sonya sprung into action once they had the coordinates. Michael instantly moved to catch Ryan up on what they had discovered. Nikita and Sean were the only two left standing still. Amanda's follow up words didn't give them the fire to keep moving like it had the others. Instead, they were completely frozen, the horror of it all filling every breath they took, "Be there in 48 hours, or Alex dies."