"What is the status, Birkoff?" Madeline asked as she walked up to him.

Birkoff, looked up from the glow of his monitors, wincing at seeing her. The look on her face was that of a predator ready to pounce. "Everyone is in position, and Denalman should be arriving at any moment with the merchandise. The General has already arrived. We have accounted for five guards in the surrounding bush."

"Good!" Madeline smiled at Birkoff and rubbed her hands. Leaning over Birkoff's shoulder, she picked up her comm unit. Moving over to the overhead monitor bank, she began giving orders to the team in the field. "This is a reminder, people, we want both the General and Denalman alive . . . Michael, have the General's men be removed from play?"

"Yes," came Michael's reply through the speakers in the room. He sounded almost pleased. Both Madeline and Birkoff looked at each other for a moment, frowning, not sure if they heard what they had. "All of his people have been removed from play and . . ." Michael paused for a moment . ". . . returned to the gamebox." He sounded as though was actually enjoying this mission.

Madeline turned to Birkoff, a question in her eyes. Birkoff, shrugging and about to make some smartass remark, is stopped by a flashing light on his panel. "Heads up people," moving quickly, he double checked his sensors, "Denalman has just entered sensor range."

"Here we go people, by the numbers now." was heard in Michael's voice over the speakers. "Team Two?"

"Ready!" Nikita responded.

"Team Three?"

"Ready!" replied the team three leader.

"OK! Wait for my signal. Remember people Madeline wants these two alive." Michael replied.

Everything grew quiet as everyone in Section waited. Then, over the speakers, the faint sounds of a large truck could be heard as it pulled into the area and stopped.

"How close are they to the objective?" Madeline asked Birkoff after shutting off her comm unit's mouthpiece.

"Within 100 feet. Close enough to see everything in the light of the full moon, even in this jungle, but not close enough to hear any conversations." Birkoff answered as he watched the heat echoes on his monitors. Keeping an eye on another monitor for any additional electrical activity in the area, Birkoff looked over to Simon and Gayle. "Ready?" he asked them, covering the mouthpiece on his comm unit.

Both gave him a microscopic nod and he returned it with an added wink at Gayle. All three were set and ready, the two waiting for Birkoff's signal.

************

Without warning, a faint blue dot appeared on the other monitor. "Ten seconds people." Birkoff stated flatly as Madeline, her back to him and his crew, continued to watch the overhead monitor bank.

Upon hearing that, both Simon and Gayle's finger flew over their respective keyboards.

"Computer activity in the area, transaction in progress," Birkoff stated flatly over his comm. "Hit it."

Over the speaker, Michael's voice is heard to say, "Go, go, go."

Before it was possible for any of the field ops to move, a single gunshot is heard. "What the . . .?" came Michael's voice over the speakers. "Who fired that shot?"

"Denalman" answered the voice of the team three leader.

"Someone get in there and hit him with the tranq's! I want him down for the count . . . NOW!" Michael's order was heard over the speakers and everyone present could tell he was not a happy camper.

"What's going on, Michael?" Madeline demanded through her comm unit, Her "I will have an answer" pose wasted on him. "What happened?"

In the time it had taken Madeline to make her demands, Michael and the other teams had moved in. The area was secure and they had Denalman. As the tranq's began to take effect, Michael demanded Denalman tell him what had happened.

Over the speakers, Madeline heard Denalman's responses. "That flippin' General attempted to fiddle me. When he accessed his account, he was not only broke, his account didn't even exist!" He could be heard to spit. "He must have thought me a bleeding idiot."

Madeline turned to Birkoff. "There was $100 Million in that account, where did it go?"

"Checking . . ." Birkoff's fingers flew over his keyboard. "There is not a trace of the money. . . not even a trace that the account had even existed." He continued his search. "I have no explanation at this time, other then some possible glitch in the bank's computer software. Either that or one of the employees plugged in one too many toys and ... " He turned to Madeline, a look of confusion on his face.

"Continue the search," she ordered and walked off. "What is their ETA?"

"In spite of this, everything is on schedule . . ., ETA is thirty-six hours" Birkoff said to Madeline's back.

As Birkoff watched Madeline walk up the stairs to Operations' perch, his hands flew over his keyboard performing a pre-arranged set of commands. Turning to read to print out on the monitor, he almost burst out laughing when he saw where Simon had redirected the pilfered money. Birkoff then hit his delete key, effectively erasing every transaction the three had made.

************

A couple of days later, Birkoff looked up to see Madeline walking towards him. He was relieved to see that there was a slight bounce in her step, meaning that she had had a very satisfying session with Denalman. I could almost pity the man... he thought to himself, ...but not much.

"Have you managed to figure out what happened to the money?" Madeline asked tonelessly as she reached Birkoff's station.

"No." He said, looking her in the eye. "It looks like a malfunction in the bank's programming. His account along with several others were either closed or the information corrupted beyond recovery."

"Did they have backups?" Madeline questioned.

"For the other accounts, yes. The General's? No. " Birkoff said, shaking his head. "The account was only opened that day . . . I am assuming for this specific transaction."

"Well, at least we have the merchandise . . . Oh, and Denalman is now working for us." She said with a satisfied smile which made Birkoff shiver. Then she turned and walked away, heading for Op's office to debrief.

Well, that should be an end to it. Birkoff thought to himself. Good thing I had Simon scramble a few account after Gayle lifted the money.

Looking down at his hands, he again saw the ring on the middle finger of his left hand. He remembered the night he received it . . . and the solemn vow which went with it. He smiled a satisfied smile . . . and remembered . . .

Candles had illuminated the room in flickering light and there was a quiet hush as Birkoff was lead into the room by his predecessor. Once the doors had been closed behind them, the whisper of people changing positions could be heard. Eleven people formed a circle around him as he took his vow. Upon the completion of his vows, his mentor and predecessor slid the ring he now wore on his finger and said, "This symbol you now wear makes you one with us, the heart of Section."

A beeping on his console brought him back to the present. The sims he had been running were finished. Once he transferred them over to Operations computer, he could leave for the day.

___________________________________

Three weeks later, Birkoff, Simon and Gayle were at their stations working diligently in the attempt to locate a missing shipment of ground-to-air missiles. Just as Nikita entered the room, Simon shouted that he had found them. Birkoff and Gayle immediately went over to see what he had found.

Nikita walked over to Simon's station to see what he was shouting about. Just as she reach his station, Birkoff and Gayle began cussing a blue-streak. They had nothing good to say about the intelligence of the military, and specifically about Shipping and Supply. When Nikita got the chance to read the monitor in front of Simon, she busted out laughing nearly choking on the cookie she had been eating. The missiles were not missing at all. In fact, Shipping and Supply had sent the missiles to that base's Commissary Warehouse by mistake, and they were still there.

************

The three of them looked over at Nikita wondering what the hell she thought was so funny. Spying the package of Thin Mint Cookies in her hand, Birkoff asked, "Where did you get those?"

"What?" Nikita said. "Oh, the cookies?"

"Yeah." Birkoff replied reaching for a cookie.

Nikita jerked the package out of his reach. "I had to pick up a few things at the store this morning. There were these cute little girls, some in green and some in brown uniforms, just inside the doors" Nikita smiled. "They were just so cute . . . I just couldn't resist."

"So how much have they gone up this year?" Birkoff asked Nikita reaching again for a cookie only to have them pulled out of his reach. "They seem to go up every year."

Nikita just stood there looking at him.

"How much do they cost this year?" Birkoff asked again.

"Cost?" A look of confusion crossed Nikita's face.

"C-o-s-t, cost. The monitory value of an item?" Birkoff spells out for Nikita's benefit. "You have to buy them."

"Buy them?" The confusion on Nikita's face grew.

"Yeah, you know, you take money out of your pocket . . . hand it to someone . . . they, in turn, give you something you want." Birkoff felt his frustration levels rising quickly. "They don't just give them away!!"

"Uh . . . yeeessss they do." Nikita said slowly. "Yoouuu, know? Out of the goodness of their little hearts . . . they give you soooommmmeeethhhiiiiinnnggg to make you hhhhhhaaaappppyyyyy." Nikita snickers at the frustration now evident on Birkoff's face, and again moves the cookies out of his reach. "Besides, the little girl who handed me two boxed said that her Scout Leader received a letter from National Headquarters. It said that since they had had a banner year of unheard of cookie sales, that all cookies this year were free. The letter, is seems, also stated that for every box given away, fifty cents would be donated to the local groups."

Birkoff, Gayle and Simon looked at each other and smiled, then laughed. As one, they turned and began jogging towards the exit. At the last moment, Gayle turn back to the other techs, "Cover for us, we'll be gone for about an hour." Just before she turned to run after the guys, Gayle stopped, "Oh, by the way, if Operations comes down looking for the missile info, tell him its at Simon's station." Without another thought she races to catch up to the Birkoff.

Biting into another cookie, Nikita just shook her head in disbelief as the trio disappeared.

Having walked up behind her, Operations asked, "Were are they off to?"

Without looking over her shoulder, Nikita answered, "Don't know. They said something about cookies, missile info at Simon's station and ran off."

Operations walked over to Simon's station, tripping over a loose cable, and slammed his fist into the desktop after reading the info. "MADELINE!!!"

************

Operations stomped to the railing of the catwalk outside his roost, "Has Birkoff returned yet?" he asked, looking around. After everyone in site shook their heads 'No', he turned and went back into his office. Everyone on the floor below, could hear faint grumbling which ended with the slam of a door.

_________________________

Birkoff and his fellow conspirators walked into the room below.

Nikita, working at one of the stations, looked up when she heard them enter. "Where have you three been? Operations has been looking for Birkoff for the last 15 minutes." Nikita asked.

Each person continued to just smile and strut over to their work stations. All three of them carried four cases of Girl Scout cookies, two cases under each arm. They looked like the three cats who had eaten a canary . . . after tormenting it.

The strange way Birkoff was walking captured Nikita's attention almost immediately. She rose from her seat and met him as he reached his desk. As she reached out to help him, he dropped the cases under one arm onto his desk and began swatting her hands away.

"Wha-" Nikita stepped back one step. "I was just trying to help!"

"Yeah, I know your help..." Birkoff plops down the box of Oreo-O's Cereal he had carried under his chin squarely on the desk, well out of her reach. "...keep your greedy hands off. Go play with Michael."

With out another word, he sit down. With on hand he began stowing his treasure into every available nook and cranny of his desk and the surrounding consoles. With the other, he tore open a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies and stuff four into his mouth.

As Nikita stomped her way towards Michael's office, Birkoff whispered over to Simon, "You know, I think that was your best choice yet," as he contacted Operations while stuff another cookie into his mouth.

"M-m-mim mack sur."

"Swallow, Birkoff" Operations said before going off on him for leaving his post.

************

Birkoff, drying his hair with a towel, crossed the room to his station. Looking around, he saw that Simon and Gayle had already arrived. With the lights up and all systems brought up to speed Birkoff asked, "What's on the agenda for this morning?"

"Not much at the moment," Simon said. Without looking up from the console, Simon reached up and rubbed the towel around his own neck, catching a stray trickle of water from his still damp hair.

"Many of the Operatives who usually come in early called in," Gayle said warmly, looking out from under the towel she was using to dry her head. "Even Ops and Madeline are running late in this storm."

"Coolness," This will work out perfectly, Birkoff thought to himself. Snapping his fingers to get both their attention, he said one word, "Cabal."

All three of them immediately moved to his terminal. Birkoff pulled up the simm on his console to show them what the objective. In South Africa, there was a minor dictator who had been diverting funds being sent to his country for food relief for his people. Birkoff had been studying the situation for several weeks. After much searching, he had finally found all the locations where the dictator had hidden his ill gotten gains.

While Simon and Gayle quickly took in the intel, Birkoff remembered standing where Simon stood now. At that time he was looking over his mentors shoulder. At that time, Birkoff's mentor had pegged a drug lord in North Viet Nam. There were going to remove the monies from his Swiss accounts and send them to three refugee hospitals: one in South Viet Nam, one in North Viet Nam, and one on the boarder.

The movement of Gayle and Simon returning to their stations brought Birkoff back to the present. "Everyone know what to do?" Birkoff asked.

"Yeah." Simon said.

"Got it." Gayle chirped, her excitement showing.

"Fine," Birkoff's fingers flew over the keys. "Step one."

Gayle immediately went into her thing. Weaving her way through all the safeguards in Cayman Island banks, she moved the contents of the dictator's accounts to an account in Switzerland. Birkoff had covered her tracks by supplying the account in the name of one of the dictator's more evil generals. Just as this finished, Madeline entered and turned to go to her office.

"Eight seconds people." Birkoff said, knowing that this would give him two seconds to wipe every thing they were doing from the activity log.

Simon, knowing what he was going to do with the money, immediately caught the monies from the Swiss accounts and bought bearer bonds. Changing to another identity, he then sold the bearer bonds. With these funds, he sent a purchase order to a food company sending the purchase to the address for "Feed the Children".

"Now," Simon quietly barks.

Birkoff's fingers fly again. Just before all the information is erase, never to be found again, he sees what the money went for.....

Unable to stop himself from giggling, he whispered to himself, "Got Milk?"

The end

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