"How much time do we have?" Birkhoff asked Michael and Nikita as soon as they returned to the loft. The two were exhausted and ragged after their latest mission and worrying phone call from Alex, but they kept pushing forward. Then wasn't the time to stop. They'd hear from Alex in a couple of hours- after the Cleaner left and after she debriefed with Division. And they'd have intel on Operation Sparrow in hopefully the same time frame. The rogues could rest when the world was saved. It should be peaceful enough by then for them to actually breathe.
"Alex said the op would go active in a couple of weeks. I'm guessing Percy pushes back that time now that we have his black box," Michael replied. The rogues only had a few weeks to catch up to and stop whatever the hell Percy was planning. That should give them plenty of time to crack the black box. But once they do, could they actually get ahead of the operation and shut it down for good. It probably all depended on what was inside the black box. Time was definitely not on the rogues' side. The faster they were at decryption, the faster they were at planning, the better off they'd be. They might've even had a chance at winning.
"Operation Sparrow. Honestly. Where does he come up with these names?" Nikita was fairly certain that she had huffed something Alex had said before. However, the sentiment remained the same: how the hell did Percy come up with those names. Each operation name sounded so stupid and pretentious. And unless you did a million different senseless leaps through mind games, you'd never figure out how the name connected to the op. That was probably how Percy kept a handle on the spread of information- you couldn't guess the mission or the target from the name. Yet it was still annoying, especially for the rogues.
Michael wished he had an answer, if only to further taunt Percy. But even when he was in Division, he had no idea how the ops received their names. He was only aware that the names were misleading. If it was seemingly harmless, then it was possibly the worst mission Division had done yet. Michael didn't doubt that Sparrow was the exception. Something disastrous was about to go down. And the fact that hardly anyone in Division knew of it meant that it was worse than anyone's imagination, "All I know is the more innocuous they sound, the more lethal they are. Percy usually plays things close to the vest, but this is paranoia. He's scared."
"He should be," Nikita smirked proudly. Okay, even she knew she was being too cocky. Yet confidence was what kept her going. She couldn't be worried about Alex or anxious about Sparrow if she was confident that Percy- and subsequently Division- would burn. That was a goal that could hurdle her past any obstacle. It had so far, at least. Whenever Nikita felt confident in her abilities and her team, things just seemed so much easier. Yes, the war was still hard. Fighting every day just to survive was the most difficult thing they had to do. But carrying the emotional weight of it all was easy when she had a strong conviction in herself and her team.
"Sparrow's an inside job. It's a move against the government," Michael wasn't sure why he felt the need to repeat that information- Birkhoff and Nikita had also heard Alex's warning about Operation Sparrow. However, he felt the need to restate how serious the situation was. Sparrow wasn't like any other mission the rogues had thwarted before. There was a chance they hadn't considered the extent of their actions; how disastrous could the fallout be; what exactly would victory or defeat bring. The rogues needed answers- desperately.
"So assassinate the president? Fake a terror attack to start a war? Whatever it is, if it fails with Percy's fingerprints on it, he burns, and he knows that," Nikita would've liked to think that Percy would never go that far, but, honestly, her wild speculation barely scratched the surface on the bastard's evil. Operation Sparrow could be anything; it could start World War III. The rogues had to decrypt the black box and fast. Yet, instead of handing it over to Birkhoff, Michael helplessly tapped on the box. Nikita had to gently stop him, "Hon, I don't think Morse code is gonna break the encryption. There's only one person who can."
"You have the blood sample for the biometric sensor?" Catching the black box Nikita tossed to him, Birkhoff held out his other hand for more. Decrypting the damn thing should move a hell of a lot faster if he didn't have to worry about the first encryption. Luckily, the rogues in the field had taken care of that. They handed over the vial of blood from Winters, and the hacker immediately went to work. His computer set-up at the loft was nowhere near as advanced as his set-up in Division (a rogue's budget and resources were nothing like a black ops organization) but that'd only slow him down. He could still crack the thing. He was sure of it.
Although Birkhoff started his decryption out strong- typing like the wind- he almost instantly slowed down. He was already running into a problem with his equipment. Running circles around Division hackers, his tech could handle that without problem. But decrypting Percy's dirty, little box of secrets, it was having trouble. He recognized the kind of coding that had been used, and he could attack it. But he didn't have the hardware to do it all. Not in time to stop Operation Sparrow. Nikita noticed the hacker's sudden change in demeanor, and instantly feared the worst, "How long do you think it'll take, Nerd?"
"Well, if it's a public key with asymmetric algorithms, and I do a brute-force attack, then we're looking at, I don't know, roughly a thousand years," Birkhoff's confidence began to wane. It wasn't by much. However, it was discouraging to know that with his current equipment, he wasn't all powerful, "Look, most locks are unbreakable if you're just guessing the key. My approach is different. I like to mess with the hardware that generates the code. I'm like the kid who hotwired the cable box to get the adult channels."
"Dude," Nikita stopped Birkhoff from going too far. She didn't need all the dirty little details. All she needed to know was if he could break into the black box and gather intel on Operation Sparrow before it was too late. It had always been assumed that he could. Birkhoff had done so many amazing things with just a keyboard and mouse before- he had once hacked with a blu-ray player. The black box would've been a challenge, yes. But surely not that much of a challenge for the great Shadowwalker.
"If I'm gonna break the box before Sparrow, I'm gonna need more advanced toys. Supercomputers, oscilloscopes, lots of other gear," Sighing, Birkhoff regretfully admitted to his limitations. He still undoubtedly believed that he could crack the black box. He was already certain that he could parse through the encryption in no time. He simply needed the equipment that would back up his skills. A whole bunk of gear should do the trick. All of Percy's secrets would be revealed. If only there wasn't a catch. Then, the rogues wouldn't have run into their first problem with stopping Operation Sparrow.
"Where can we get these toys- besides Division?" Already, Michael could feel the mission slipping away from them. It was maybe too idealistic for the rogues to believe that Birkhoff could crack the black box without a Division computer. As a rogue, the hacker had built himself a fantastic computer set-up. However, the restraints of being an enemy of the state truly showed itself then. There were no supercomputers, or advanced technology, or any other fancy equipment. It was just slapped together pieces of tech and Birkhoff's amazing skill. Which, though the rogues never would've thought it, was bound to meet its limits eventually.
"If I even have a hope of cracking the box in time, I need access to the SCIF room at CIA headquarters," Birkhoff repeated the stipulation. The only other place where he could find the kind of equipment that'd allow him to crack open the black box was in the CIA. It wasn't ideal, yet it was better than trying to break into Division. And it was better than letting Percy win because their equipment wasn't good enough. The SCIF room was the rogues' best bet if they wanted to win. And they had to win.
Whereas Michael spent a moment to think over involving the CIA, Nikita reached for her burner. She was dialing a number and stealing a voice scrambler before Birkhoff and Michael could stop her. If they absolutely had to use a CIA resource, then she absolutely had to call Ryan Fletcher. She made sure to use the code they had put into place to ensure that Division wasn't still trying to bug him after he had discovered them. Then the two set up a meeting. As soon as that was squared away, Nikita excitedly rejoined the others. Their problem would be solved soon, "I'm meeting Ryan, Platform two, Union Station, downtown Washington."
"What are you gonna offer him?" Michael instantly wondered. He still didn't know CIA analyst Ryan Fletcher that well, and- honestly- that was his fault. He should've made it a point to connect with their ally instead of letting Nikita handle it. Yet, in his defense, he had never been quite sure of Ryan's intentions. Sure, Division tried to blame him for what had happened in Chile. But after that, did he really want to keep raging war with the black ops group. It'd be safer if he just faded away. After helping with Alex's killchip and the dirty bomb, he had to have come to that conclusion. Ryan might have had a better sense of self-preservation than the rogues had.
"Offer him? He wants to take Percy down as much as we do," The team of rogues had to get better at actually acting like a team instead of running in separate units. Nikita didn't have to give Ryan anything to make him work with them. All he had ever wanted was the truth. He wanted to stop corruption and help innocents. Unlike the other rogues' intense need for revenge, Ryan's motives were purer. He wanted Percy to burn because he was evil; it was that simple. He was one of the good guys. Always had been, and always would be.
"You can't trust the CIA," Sharking his head, Michael tried to get Nikita off her course. Although he knew that was impossible, he had to try. There had to be something else they could do to get Birkhoff in that SCIF room besides trusting Ryan Fletcher. It wasn't as though Ryan was completely untrustworthy, it was simply the fact that he was a CIA analyst. The agency couldn't know what was occurring anymore than Division could. Word couldn't get back to Percy. He had to remain in fear while the rogues made their attack from the shadows.
"I don't. I trust Ryan," Nikita argued. She would never trust the CIA. Besides the fact that different CIA directors had been in Percy's pockets, the same government that ran the agency also created and condoned Division. Nikita could never trust anything that came from that government. The organization was just as fundamentally corrupt as any other governmental organization she had encountered while growing up and while being forced to serve. However, individual people and agents could be good. Michael, Birkhoff, and Ryan had taught her that. Nikita could trust them with her life.
For some reason, Michael thought turning to Birkhoff would help his argument. However, the nerd was on whoever's side would get him to the SCIF room. That just so happened to be Nikita. Michael sighed. Alright, fine, they'd bring in Ryan Fletcher. But Nikita wasn't going to meet with the analyst alone. Her partner was going with her. She had gone without him to Switzerland and that had been a terrible mistake. Michael wasn't going to let Nikita out of his sight again. Wherever she went, so did her, "Then you can trust Percy to be all over him. I'm coming with you."
"Hey, better for you to run interference with Division, don't you think?" Although Nikita appreciated Michael's need to always be by her side, someone had to make sure that Division stayed off their backs. He had more experience as a rogue than she had. He knew how to lead the black ops group around in circles. That'd be the perfect distraction while Nikita met with Ryan and figured out a way to get Birkhoff into a CIA SCIF room. Division couldn't catch onto their plans. Once they did, Sparrow could accelerate- or worse.
"We can have Alex do that. You need backup on site," Michael could concede to the point that someone should ensure Division stayed out of their business. Yet Alex could handle that from inside the bunker far better than he could have outside of it. She could also try to get more intel on Sparrow from Kelly (though, that might've been a stretch) or that computer tech she talked to a lot (Michael was fairly certain that her name was Sonya). The rogues' mole was a better resource then than he could've been. He simply had to be Nikita's partner- watch her back in the field and protect her from everything.
Before Michael could dial Alex's number, Nikita abruptly stopped him. They still hadn't heard back from their mole after the situation with Jaden. Things should've been resolved by then. The Cleaner should've left. And if Alex's explanation was true, then her debrief should've ended. She should've been able to call the rogues by then, and she should've been able to help them with Operation Sparrow. So where was she. What happened to Alex, "Where is she? You said she'd be out in a couple hours. It's been longer than that."
"Something's not right," Michael agreed with Nikita. Birkhoff didn't have to hear anything else. He hurried back to his computer and checked Alex's tracker. It read that she was still in the bunker. Under normal circumstances, maybe that would've been normal. But after what had happened with Jaden, she shouldn't have been held underground for so long. She should've been let go. She should've been free to call. Something must've gone wrong. Either Alex had been caught in a lie about Jaden. Or she had been caught in a lie about the rogues.
"Michael, get her out of there," Taking his hand in hers and squeezing tight, Nikita begged. She could handle Ryan and the SCIF room. Birkhoff could see how much of the black box he could decrypt on his current equipment. Michael was then needed to save Alex. Storming right into Division was out of the question. So he planned to check out her apartment first. Hopefully, he could discover clues as to what was going on, and he could figure out how to help Alex from there. The rogues were so close to a real victory in their war. It couldn't be jeopardized then. Nor could they lose anyone right at the finish line.
Alex fed the same half-truth she had told Nikita to Amanda. Although Amanda had more questions, she also believed Alex. She and Jaden had always been antagonistic. Even though they were beginning to get along, they were bound to kill each other one day. There was no reason to believe otherwise. And there was no reason to believe anyone else had been involved. Alex had shot Jaden. There was nothing else to investigate, and the whole thing should just be forgotten. At least, Alex really wanted it to be forgotten. She didn't want to think about Nathan or the fact that she had lost him. She just wanted to disappear, "Are we finished?"
"Yes," Amanda answered. Alex gladly began to rise from the chair she had stiffly sat in while she debriefed. However, Amanda held her back. She held out a staying hand that instantly caused anxiety to shoot through the young agent. She wasn't off the hook just yet. She was about to be struck by even more blows, "Alexandra, one more thing. Are you familiar with our new cochlear implants? Division's been developing them for some time. They go in a subject's ear, and they're virtually undetectable. Even to the person they're planted on."
Jaden's complaint about a ringing in her ears came crashing back into Alex's mind. She had just assumed it was another side effect from the trackers embedded in their necks. But her ears had never rang. She had just had a headache. Jaden had had more done to her. She had the implants- the cochlear implants. Everything that the two had discussed in the apartment had been heard by Division. Nathan's knowledge of the assassins, his involvement in Jaden's death, Alex's call to the rogues… oh God, her call to the rogues. It had all been captured, every last muttered breath. That was it. Alex was caught. Her own voice sold her out, "Nikita, thank God…"