***********

“My God, Nikita, what are you doing?!” I had just heard her telling Rene that she had watched as Michael had come stumbling out of the abandoned building and had raised his hand to her when he heard her yell his name. The three of them, Rene, Nikita and Walter, looked startled when they heard my voice from the door of Rene’s room. “What are you telling my son? He’s a child, he doesn’t need to hear this!” I was appalled that Nikita was describing to Rene the last seconds of his father’s life.

Rene regarded me with huge eyes, red from weeping. “Mom, I asked her to tell me and, at first, she wouldn’t tell me. I begged her, Mom. Please don’t be mad at me...Please!” He jumped off the bed and ran over to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me further into the room. He led me to a chair next to his bed and gestured for me to sit down. As I sat down, I remembered that this same chair had been the one that Michael had been sitting in when I discovered him over two years ago and an ocean away, sitting next to a six-year-old Rene and singing the restless child back to sleep. That had been the first time I had seen Michael since Madeline had given Rene to me and sent me far away from Michael. I had thought I would never see Michael again. Yet, he had found us and had quieted his son’s bad dreams that night, and reestablished his relationship with a son that we both had thought lost to Michael.

And here I sat, in the chair that Michael had used to sing a lullaby to his newly-found son. I wished he was here now, to quiet Rene’s fears once again, but I knew that was impossible. I looked into my son’s eyes and saw that his fears were for his father’s safety, and not the grief of a son who had lost his father to death. His green eyes were shining with the fervor of one who knew he was right, a child who knew his father was still alive somewhere out there. Was it possible? No, of course not. Nikita had seen Michael die.....or had she?

“Mom, I have to know. You know that I have to hear it, don’t you?” He still held my hand, and I turned my face to him and away from my gloomy thoughts.

“Yes, Rene, I know.” I pulled him into my arms and hugged him, and then looked over to where Nikita sat, with Walter’s arm around her. She was beautiful, even with her face streaked with tears of sorrow and heartache. “Nikita, go on, tell us and don’t leave out any details.”

She looked from me to Rene and started from the beginning....

*******

Hugo returned to Michael, grinning at the thought of his continued suffering. With no major injuries to Michael, Hugo knew he could take a long time in exacting his revenge for the losses to himself and his organization. He really wasn’t interested in any of the intel that Michael possessed. Although it would be a bonus, if he could glean any information from the Section operative. Hugo smiled as he unbolted the door and walked into Michael’s cell.

Strange, he thought, the target of his hatred was still laying where he had been when Hugo had left him a few hours ago. At least that oaf of a guard had secured Michael’s feet. It rankled Hugo that even here, Michael could still manage to take out one of his men. Hugo walked up to the still form on the floor and used his foot to nudge one of Michael’s legs. He started in surprise when instead of the defiant look he had expected from Michael, he heard a groan emanating from Michael’s lips, and saw a grimace of pain in the man’s pale face. Hugo bent down and touched Michael’s forehead, and felt the hot dry skin. He straightened up and looked down at Michael’s leg and took a step back when he noticed the unnatural angle of the lower limb.

In a rage, he marched to the door and called for the guard. No one damaged his property unless he ordered it.

***********

Alex had joined us in Rene’s room by the time that Nikita had told her story for the second time. He had very carefully lowered himself to sit on the floor by my chair, and listened intently to all the details as Nikita related again what happened. He stopped her a few times to ask questions to clarify what she had said. Alex was puzzled that whoever had shot Michael did not follow him out of the building. Why had they stayed inside? And who had given the order to detonate the explosives? That was Michael’s order to give. This and many other anomalies were slowly making skeptics of all of us. Rene’s eyes glimmered with rays of hope. He knew he was winning us over to his way of thinking. He smiled a secret little smile and I began to believe....

“Nikita!” Rene shouted suddenly. “Tell me. When that man raised his hand to you, which hand was it?” He waited as she closed her eyes and thought about his question. She unconsciously raised her right hand slightly and then put it down in her lap and quickly raised her left hand.

“Left,” she said. “He raised his left hand, “up high, like this.” She copied the gesture from her memory. She opened her eyes and peered at Rene. “Why?”

“Okay,” he whispered, excitement held on a tight rein, his body trembling with it. “Did you see his watch?” She again turned her thoughts inward, thinking back. Her eyes flew wide. “I don’t remember seeing a watch...but, but Michael wears two watches on his left wrist! Oh, Rene!! There wasn’t a watch, there wasn’t a watch!!” The two of them, Rene and Nikita, met in the middle of his room, hugging and laughing and finally collapsing on to the floor. The rest of us, stared at them in amazement, beginning to understand the revelation that had come to them. Sam, Rene’s dog, had joined the pile on the floor, and he was gifting both Nikita and Rene with copious face washing, doggy style.

Walter was grinning from ear to ear, happy to see the joy in his Sugar’s eyes. He almost hated to burst the bubble of happiness permeating the room. I happened to glance over at Walter and saw the smile fade from his face. I gripped Alex’s hand tighter and he looked up at me, and seeing the direction of my gaze, followed it.

“Walter, what are you thinking? Tell us.” Alex said, his voice piercing the happy noise in the room. Nikita stopped her play with Rene and sat up, looking toward Walter and holding Rene in her arms, trying to still him, as she tried to decipher the serious look on his face.

“Well, if we believe that Michael is alive, then we have to ask the next most obvious question. Why would someone go to so much trouble to make us think he is dead? What do they want with Michael? I’m sorry, folks, but we aren’t out of the woods on this thing yet.” He paused, his old blue eyes glancing at each of us. “We have to contact Section. We need their help.”

I looked at Alex and I could see his mind working. I knew what he was thinking. Michael was a treasure chest of information about Section. If Section knew Michael had been compromised and taken by an unknown group, they just might decide to cut their losses and the mission to rescue him could just as well be a mission to silence him. I knew that this was what Walter was thinking as well, and now I could see the apprehension growing on Nikita’s face as well. Alone, Rene grinned up at us, confident that his father would soon be back with us.

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

Alone once more in his cell, Michael pondered his fate. He was feverish and felt hot, even though the cold from the stone floor should have helped to cool him down. Images swirled in his mind and he wondered how long he had lain where he was. He knew he was drifting in and out of consciousness, and in one of his wakeful moments, he had heard yelling outside the door to his cell. Hugo was the one doing the yelling and then he heard someone, the guard, he thought, pleading with Hugo. Michael was brought full awake when he heard the sharp, loud report of a gunshot, and the pleading voice of the guard stopped. Good, he thought, one more down. Michael let his head fall to the right, his cheek seeking the coolness of the stone, and his last conscious thought was of Rene. He wondered if Section would still protect Rene, Grace and Alex when they learned of his death. He longed to shift his weigh, but any movement caused him pain. He smiled then, knowing the darkness he was surrendering to would take away his pain.

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

“Just do it, Birkoff! I don’t care what they think. Now, check the mission video and tell me whether or not Michael was wearing two watches just before the explosion. Also get a close-up on his face and enhance it. I need to know if it matches what we have on file of Michael.” Nikita sat in the floor with Rene’s head propped in her lap. The excitement of the last hour had been too much for him and after listening to the adults talking over the details, Rene eyes had started to droop. As exhilarated as he was, he just could not stay awake and had laid down, still listening to our discussion of the whys and hows of what must have happened to Michael. Soon, he was fast asleep with his head in Nikita’s lap.

Our discussion went on but we lowered our voices for his sake. Alex spoke quietly, “The most plausible cause for Michael’s staged death and kidnapping is so the enemy can interrogate at will and extract information. The longer they have him, the more likely they are to break and compromise him. We need to get to him as soon as we can.”

“WE, read you, are not going to get anyone. You are not strong enough and, Alex, you are not going anywhere without me! Do you understand me?” I had decided that, God help me, Alex was more important to me and our babies, and I was not going to let him go anywhere without me. I didn’t know at the time just how many of my words I was going to have thrown back in my face.

Alex dipped his head and took my hand. “I realize that I am no longer a cold op, Grace. But I know how missions work and I can help plan this one, can’t I?” I sniffed and shook my head.

“Alex Carson, what AM I going to do with you?” I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed it. Still seated on the floor, he slid closer to me and settled into the vee formed by my legs and leaned back against my tummy. He closed his eyes and smiled, then opened them and leaned his head as far back as he could so he could look up at me.

“Grace, my love, I think that whatever is to be done has been done already and the proof of it is lying here between us.....See, they agree!” He laughed up at me and leaned back once more so that he could feel his children moving inside of me. I kissed the top of his blond head and admonished him.

“All right, Alex, but planning only! Don’t even think about going on a mission, even if it is to save Michael. He wouldn’t thank you to know that you risked his godchildren’s father.” I looked up to find both Walter and Nikita regarding us with broad smiles on their faces.

“Nice, huh, Sugar?” Nikita ducked her head to keep us from seeing the tears that were threatening in her blue eyes.

“Yeah, Walter, nice.” I knew she was thinking about Michael....

***********

At that same moment, Hugo sat in his makeshift office, not knowing that the key to Michael’s secrets and his lifeblood was a scant half-hour’s travel away. He was deep in thought, contemplating his next move. The stupid guard that he had killed had injured his captive far worse than he had intended. And now, Michael was burning up with fever and in far more pain that even Hugo had planned for him. The man at the dusty table that served as his desk laughed, and thought to himself, that Section bastard deserved whatever pain he was feeling. Philo had been his mentor and he mourned the loss of the man who had been like a father to him. Hugo had looked forward to many days of tormenting the man who had delivered Philo to the bowels of Section and he didn’t want to be deprived of his cold vengeance. The fever that burned within Michael would probably kill the Section operative and take away Hugo’s fun. He had to figure a way out of this that would save Michael for the hell that Hugo had charted for him.

***********

“Nikita?” Nikita’s head jerked up when she heard Birkoff’s voice in the cell phone.

“Yes, Birkoff? What do you have?” she demanded.

“Well, I have an anomaly here. I....I don’t understand. Just a minute....” He went off-line and Nikita jerked the phone away from her ear and stared at it as if it had offended her. Then, huffing a sigh, she put it back to her ear and was surprised to hear Madeline’s voice instead of Birkoff’s.

“Nikita, who is there with you?” Madeline asked smoothly, but Nikita could hear a faint agitation in Madeline’s voice. “Is everyone there with you?”

“Yes, Madeline, everyone is here with me.” Nikita said clearly and slowly, catching the eye of everyone in the room. She looked down at the angelic child who was still sleeping, still oblivious to the words being spoken over him. My breath caught in my throat and I suddenly realized just how tightly I was gripping Alex’s hand when I felt him cover my hand with his other hand. The tension in the room was growing to unbearable heights. Nikita listened to what Madeline was saying, her face beaming with unrestrained joy and then darkening with concern, and a touch of fear. “I understand, but why......yes, I’ll tell them. We’ll be on our way within the hour.” She paused, pulling her eyebrows together in another frown. “I’ll do it.....I know that Madeline, but I’m here....now! Yes, of course, I’ll be careful. Just a minute.” She took the phone from her ear and turned to Walter. “Walter, do you have a PDA with you?” Walter pulled an electronic gadget of some kind out of his pocket and waved it at her. “Yes, Madeline, Walter has his pad....All right. I understand, I’ll be careful. Goodbye.” She pressed the End button on the phone and leaned over and kissed Rene on his head and threw back her own head and laughed. “It’s confirmed. Whoever it was that I saw killed, it wasn’t Michael! Birkoff opened Michael’s file. He had closed it without looking at it when he got back from the mission. When he opened it and checked his tracker, he saw that it had moved away from the area of the explosion.”

“His tracker? I don’t understand.” I was puzzled. Alex turned and kissed the bulge of our babies, and then explained things to me.

“Grace, each operative has a tracker implanted inside their bodies. It ceases operation when the operative dies. It helps us locate the ops that go missing. If Michael’s tracker moved after Nikita saw him killed, then that means that it wasn’t Michael that died.” Alex swung his head back toward Nikita. “Tell us the rest....what did you mean when you said that we would be on our way within the hour? And what is Madeline transmitting to Walter’s pad?”

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

“Tell us, Nikita....” Alex persisted, wanting Nikita to tell us what Madeline had told her about Michael and his location.

“Alex, Birkoff pinpointed Michael’s tracker. That is why she wants you, Grace and Rene to go to Section for a few days.” She paused and we leaned forward expectantly, waiting for her to continue. She watched us, trying to gauge the impact of her next words. Birkoff established that Michael had been moved a considerable distance from the location from where he was taken. “At this moment, Michael is less than a half-hour’s travel from us.”

Nikita’s bombshell of information left us stunned. “He is in a small village about twenty miles from here, in what we think is a small compound that was purchased by a holding company controlled by Red Cell. Madeline thinks he is being kept there for preliminary interrogation. A profile is being planned as we speak. Walter and I are going to do a little reconnaissance in advance of a team being sent in.” Nikita stopped and smiled a little.

“What is it? What are you thinking?” I asked, curious at the cause for that sweet, sad smile. I knew it concerned Michael.

“It’s nothing, really,” she answered. “I was just thinking of how much I loved hearing Michael’s voice. I love his accent, and the way he pronounced ‘reconnaissance’ used to make my spine tingle.” She sniffed and I watched as her eyes started to tear up once more. “I just hope I get to hear his beautiful voice again.”

Rene was still asleep, with his head in her lap. She leaned down and kissed him on the temple, as if contact with Michael’s son would transmit her love and concern for Rene’s father across the twenty miles to him. I looked around the room and caught tears glistening in both Walter’s eyes as well as Alex’s. I resolved at that moment that I would storm the gates of hell if it would bring Michael back to the embrace of his family.

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

Twenty miles away, Hugo made a decision. He picked up the hand radio, keyed it to speak and barked out an order. “Red, bring your buddy and meet me in the hallway outside Michael’s cell. I have a job for you...and bring your bag with you.

Five minutes later, Hugo was pacing back and forth outside the cell where a feverish and ill Michael lay. Hugo could hear the short shallow breaths coming from the man inside the room, and he raged inside of himself. He hated this man, wanted him to suffer even more than he was now, and here he was stomping around outside Michael’s cell waiting for someone who might just give him his wish. Two figures appeared at the end of the hall. They walked in tandem, each taking surprisingly long strides.

“Red, finally. I have been waiting for you. I have a job for the two of you.” They nodded and looked at Hugo eagerly. Red and her friend, Psycho, were Hugo’s top interrogation specialists and they carried out any task he gave them enthusiastically and efficiently. Red and Psycho prided themselves on delivering on any instructions given to them by Hugo.

“Is it our turn with the famous Michael?” Red asked.

“Do we get to work our wonders on him?” asked Psycho, unconsciously rubbing her hands together.

Hugo smiled at their eagerness to practice their talents on his prisoner. “Yes, I would like it very much for you to work your wonders on him. But not just yet. I want the two of you to take a look at him first. One of my....former employees damaged him a bit more than I had planned. I want your opinion of his condition. He has a fever and I want to know how long he will last. I have plans for our Michael, and those plans call for him to be healthy enough for his punishment to last a long time.” Hugo laughed. “Check him out and let me know what you think.” With that said, he turned and walked away from the two women.

Red looked at Psycho and silently they entered the unlocked door of the cell. They were surprised that the door was unlocked. Red and Psycho had heard many stories about the legendary Michael, and couldn’t imagine keeping him in an unlocked cell. The sight that greeted them as they entered the dark room where Michael lay so still made them understand very quickly why a locked door was so unnecessary to imprison the formidable Michael of Section One.

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

Both Nikita and Alex tried to calm me down. To know that Michael was so close, yet so far away worried me. Also, the fact that Red Cell was in such close proximity to Rene set me to packing quickly. Clothes were literally thrown into bags. I moved as quickly as my heavily pregnant body could. To get in my path meant to be run down by a juggernaut Mom concerned for the safety of her family. Nikita followed me around trying to tell me that it was probably just a coincidence that the Red Cell base was so close to us. For once, no one was getting an argument from me about going back to Section. If running kept my son, my unborn babies and my husband safe, then I was all for running. “Calm down, Grace! Everything is going to be all right. We will get Michael out. He will be okay.”

I stopped what I was doing to stare at her. “Nikita, I know you will get Michael out if you can. That’s not what is driving me. I know that Red Cell probably doesn’t even know that Rene exists, but do you know what Red Cell would do if they got their hands on Rene? Michael and Section will be an open book to them, and you know they would do anything to Rene to get Michael to talk. I’m not taking a chance with Rene’s life. I know that I am panicking, but I can’t help it. I want to get him somewhere safe, and right now the safest place I can think of is Section.” Nikita tried her best at calming my fears and finally gave up. She had a mission to prepare. She and Walter were going to do the preliminary on-site reconnaissance in advance of the Section team that was now being prepared.

Alex was issuing orders to his second in command to secure the grounds of the Center while I packed for our hopefully short stay at Section. A shocked Rene was silently gathering Sam’s food and water bowls into a carrier. He also dragged a sizable bag of dog food into the kitchen. I took a minute to reflect on the effect that Sam, a rambunctious young Golden Retriever, was going to have on Section. I knew we should leave him here with the Center staff, but the next few hours and days might be hard on Rene and he might need a friend. So, Sam was going to be introduced to Operations and Madeline. If they didn’t like it, they could just get over it.

************** Red and Psycho moved quietly into the cell, observing as they went the ashen face of Section’s most deadly Angel of Death. “He doesn’t look like the stuff of legend, does he,” whispered Psycho. Red knelt by the man on the floor of the cell and carefully placed her hand on his forehead. When he moaned slightly and moved his head under her hand, she snatched it away. Red looked up at Psycho and said urgently, “He’s burning up with fever.” Then quietly, she commented to her partner...”He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Again she reached out and touched his forehead, combing her hand through his hair. Psycho threw a puzzled look at Red and knelt down by Michael, brushing the backs of her fingers down his cheek. “Yes,” she replied feeling the hot, dry skin, “so beautiful, but so sick.” She moved down to Michael’s legs and ran her hand down first his right leg, feeling the break about mid way between his knee and his foot. At her touch, Michael inhaled involuntarily, the sound echoing in the cell, his breath hissing from between his clenched teeth. “So much pain...” she said to herself. She continued her examination, moving to the left leg and finding an edge of broken bone puncturing the skin of his leg. The wound was infected and the flesh around the protruding end of bone was red and angry-looking. “Oh, Red,” she said, “setting this is going to be very painful. And he needs more than us to help him recover from the fever. He needs to be in a hospital, under a doctor’s care.”

Red sighed, knowing Hugo wasn’t going to like hearing that. Purposefully, she arose from her kneeling position beside Michael, and went to where she had put her bag on the floor next to the door. Bringing it back to Michael, she set it down next to him and opened it. Looking behind her at the door to make sure that Hugo was still pacing outside, Red silently removed a black case and opened it. Psycho blinked as she saw what her partner was doing. “But Hugo wants him to suffer. Red, you can’t do that!” She moved to stop Red from taking the syringe out of the case.

Red glared at her friend. “He will still hurt, just not as much. Hugo will still get his pound of flesh.”

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

Hugo spun around at the hoarse shout of pain that came from Michael’s cell. He ran to the door and found himself wincing at the scene before him. Odd, he thought, why am I feeling sorry for this man? Hugo watched as the two women worked over Michael, one holding Michael down and the other pulling on his right leg to straighten and set the broken bone. Michael’s face was contorted in pain, but after his initial outcry of pain, he had somehow calmed himself and turned his head to regard Hugo blankly, with pain glittering in his green eyes, and again Hugo felt a rush of pity for the pain that Michael was experiencing. I’m getting soft, Hugo told himself. I should be happy that he is suffering. What was it about this man, that Hugo should sense this uncharacteristic sympathy for one who had been responsible for the deaths of Philo, Zalman, two of his men and countless other Red Cell operatives? As Hugo watched, Red and Psycho continued their work and after a few strenuous minutes, they had straightened and set Michael’s other leg. He noticed that there was also a clean bandage wrapped around Michael’s left shin, where the bone had protruded through his flesh. Bile worked in his throat and he swallowed hard, furious with himself for what he was feeling. Now, as Psycho continued to hold a weakly struggling Michael down, Red applied splints to both legs and immobilized them as much as she could. She looked up at Hugo and used one hand to brush back her hair, damp with perspiration and sticking to her forehead.

“This is all we can do for him. He needs a doctor. We don’t have the antibiotics that he needs to fight the fever. If you don’t get him to a doctor, he’ll die and you will lose your punching bag.

Hugo stared down at the two women and took a deep breath. “I’ll see what I can do. I don’t want to lose my prize just yet.” And as if he had to prove that he had no feelings for the suffering of the man on the floor, Hugo flippantly walked over and nudged Michael with his foot. “Is he still experiencing pain? You didn’t give him anything, did you?”

“No, of course not, we followed your instructions to the letter. He continues to suffer, he just knows how to control the pain.” Red gestured at the manacles still tightly locked around Michael’s wrists. “Are these really necessary? This man is going nowhere in his condition.” Psycho glanced up at her partner, trying to decide what was going on in her head. She had never seen Red show such concern for one of their charges. Why was she so worried about this man, as beautiful as he was or not?

“Leave them on. He is very unpredictable. He could kill the two of you before you could react. In the meantime, watch him. I don’t want him dying on me yet.” With that said, Hugo looked down his nose at Michael once more and then turned and left the cell.

As Red and Psycho watched, Michael shivered and set his green gaze on them. “Why?” was all he asked. The two women looked at each other and then back at him.

“I don’t know....maybe after all I have done and seen, I just don’t want to cause anyone any more pain. I’m only 32 and I feel like I’m ancient.” Red hung her head and sighed. Psycho, feeling sympathy for her partner, squeezed her arm, but looked puzzled at Red’s words. But even as Red reached into the black bag beside her to prepare another injection, Psycho said nothing, and only nodded as Red questioned her with a look that asked, are you okay with what I am doing?

When the needle slid into his arm, Michael felt the lethargic sensation overtake him and as he allowed himself to drift off into the velvety darkness of a respite from the pain and fever, he heard himself whisper, “Thank you, Red.....” And was surprised to feel a soothing touch glide across his forehead.

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

Nikita and Walter surveyed the small village from their vantage point just inside the tree line outside of the village. They crouched behind a thick stand of brush and reread the information transmitted to them on Walter’s PDA. Nikita closed her eyes and remembered the pained expression in Rene’s eyes when she buckled him into the back seat of the Land Rover. “You’ll find my Daddy, won’t you, Nikita?” She kissed him on his forehead and made another promise...

“Of course, I will find him, Rene. I want him back as much as you do.....Tell you what! When I get Michael back, we’ll have another sleepover. How about that?” Nikita ruffled his black hair and lifted his chin to look into the green eyes so like Michael’s. “You believe me, don’t you?”

Rene raised his child’s trusting eyes and smiled at Nikita. “Sure! I know how much you love my Daddy, Nikita. I know you will bring him back to me!” Nikita blinked back the tears that stung her eyes and hoped with all her might that she was not telling another lie to Michael’s son. She would bring Michael back to Rene, or she would die trying. She felt a hand on her arm and lifted her glistening eyes to see Grace leaning over the front seat back. Grace was smiling.

“Nikita, we know you will do your best. Be careful. We want you back too.” Nikita grinned back at Grace and kissed her hand.

“Grace, if he goes, I go...I won’t come back without him. I love him too much.” Grace eyes flew wide at Nikita’s comment. She knew what Nikita meant by her words.

“Nikita, wait for the team. You can’t do it all yourself. Don’t take any chances with yourself or with Michael...He won’t thank you for risking yourself for him....!”

“Grace, I’ll be careful...I intend to spend the rest of my life with Michael, however long, or short, it may be....and I want it to be as long as possible.” She pulled her hand from Grace’s tight grasp and kissed Rene one last time. “I’m going to find your Daddy, now. Wish me luck, Rene!” She hugged him tightly, closed the back door to the Land Rover and watched as Alex started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. She waved at Rene and kept waving until he and the Land Rover were out of sight. With a heavy sigh, she walked over to where Walter had assembled their gear. Some of it came from the back of Walter’s car and the rest of it came from the small arsenal that Alex kept in the basement of the Rehab Center. Nikita shook her head at the collection of materiel. Alex must have been a boy scout in his former life, his motto must be ‘Always prepared.’ They had enough supplies and firepower to fight a small army. She hoped it didn’t come to that.

Nikita unclenched her hands and focused on the PDA. It indicated that a small cluster of buildings on the west side of the village was the most likely place where Michael was being held. Nothing in this village had changed hands in years, except for the small compound on the village’s west side. Intel also indicated that the villagers shunned whoever had purchased the compound. They didn’t like change, so they pretended that the buildings were no longer a part of their village. Reports to regional authorities from some of the villagers reported strange sounds in the night, but no one had investigated. Everyone kept to themselves. They didn’t pry into the affairs of the new owners of the buildings on the west side of their homes.

Nikita intended to pry and to pry aggressively. Walter clapped his hand over her forearm as she rose and started forward. “Nikita, remember that this is a recon mission. No contact. Just see what is what and come back here. If Michael is there, leave him and wait for the team. Don’t try anything, Sugar. I want both of you back. You know this is the way Michael would do it. Wait...for...the...team. Okay?” Walter’s faded blue eyes stared relentlessly into Nikita’s bright blue ones. “Okay?” he repeated, his grip tightening painfully on her arm.

She tugged at her arm and gazed balefully at Walter. “If I can’t get him out, I will, Walter. You know I won’t take any chances with his life. Now, let go of me!!” Finally, he opened his fingers and let go of her arm. “If I have bruises, I’m going to tell Michael on you!” She grinned and leaned over to kiss Walter on the cheek. “I’ll be careful. You know me!”

“Yeah, Sugar. I know you...that’s why I am telling you to be careful.” He grinned and watched as she moved stealthily through the darkness. It had been difficult for Walter to persuade her to wait for the sun to set, but eventually she listened to him, knowing he was right in his plan for the recon mission. Stubborn, she was, he thought, bull-headed also, but he had never known a better person that his Sugar, Nikita. Walter settled down to wait. It was going to be a long night. The team was on its way, but he didn’t expect them for another hour, maybe more. By that time, Nikita should be back with the lay of the land. Again, he hoped she would be careful, and then, he smiled to himself. Yeah, sure, she would be.

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

Nikita used the shadows to move. She watched the guards on their rounds and knew that they didn’t expect any trouble. They were lax, and not very observant of what was going on around them. They were more interested in smoking and talking than they were watching. Good, she thought, that would help her to find Michael.

She found him in the second building she checked. Nikita heard voices, and fled into the dark shadows and listened. A man and two women were arguing outside of a small building that looked as if it had once been a stable.

One of the women was arguing vehemently with the man. “Hugo, I am telling you that if you don’t get a doctor for him soon, he will die. His fever is raging and he is dehydrated. At least let me give him water. I know you want him to suffer, but he has to be alive to do that!” The three of them walked toward a building across the compound from the stable, the man saying something that Nikita couldn’t hear, but it must have been something that the woman wanted to hear because she quit talking and Nikita saw her turn to the other woman and nod. They disappeared into the other building and Nikita used the shadows once more to glide unseen into the stables. She found Michael in what must have once been the tack room. No bridles or other tack hung in the room, but Nikita heard a sound and looked up at the ceiling of the room. A chain hung there from some sort of pulley, and it clanked at it swayed to and fro. Curious at what caused the movement, her eyes followed the chain down, and there, on the floor, she saw that the chain ended with a set of manacles. And then she saw the hands, encased in the sheepskin lined manacles. The hands had been pulled over his head and lay on the floor, unmoving. Her gaze slid down the arms and her stomach seemed to clench as she saw Michael’s face, one temple encrusted with dried blood. She gave a small cry and ran over to him and dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor. She didn’t feel a thing as her knees connected with the floor. She carefully pulled his arms from their position over his head, grateful for the extra length of the chain that imprisoned them, and gently laid his bound hands on his chest. She watched as his mouth tightened in pain and then, fearful that she would cause him more pain, Nikita cautiously pulled Michael into her arms and murmured his name.....and then, in anguish, she said outloud...”My God, Michael, what have they done to you?” Some of her tears splashed onto his face and, as if recognizing where the tears had come from, Michael opened his pain-glazed eyes and said her name, “Nikita.”

Chapter 28

Nikita let out the sob she had been holding in when she heard Michael say her name. “Michael...Michael,” she said, over and over again, as if repeating his name would bring him back to her. He was looking at her, but it was as if he didn’t see her, his eyes seemed to be unfocused, and dark with fever and pain.

“Nikita? Where are you? Why did you leave me?” Michael’s face contorted in pain and he closed his eyes. Nikita bend over him and kissed his eyes, his lips and then, his forehead. The words that she had heard spoken outside came back to her full force when she pressed her lips to Michael’s forehead.

“...he will die. His fever is raging...” the woman had said. Nikita’s hand replaced her lips as she felt the hot, dry skin of Michael’s face.

“Oh, Michael, you’re burning up!” She reached into a pocket and pulled out a bottle of water which she opened and very carefully brought to Michael’s lips. He drank eagerly and she saw him smile slightly when she pulled the bottle back, concerned that he might start to choke.

“May I have more if I’m a good boy?” he said, “I’m so thirsty....please, may I have more...?” She poured some of the cool water on his forehead and watched as it ran down the sides of his face and into his hair. He smiled again, and once more opened his eyes. This time they focused on her face so close to his own. “Nikita? What are you doing here?” She let out the breath she had been holding, and kissed him again.

“Thank God, Michael....we have to get out of here...come on.” She froze in her effort to pull him up as he cried out in pain and collapsed into her arms. Terrified that she had hurt him, Nikita did a quick survey of his chest, running her fingers lightly over the mission T-shirt and for the first time felt the broken ribs and looking down the length of his body, saw the splints on his legs. The sight chilled her to the bone. How was she going to get him out of here with his broken legs? Nikita looked into Michael’s face and she saw in his eyes the answer, even as she heard it from his lips.

“You can’t get me out of here, Nikita. You have to leave me and go. I can’t walk and you can’t carry me. Leave me, Nikita. You have to...” Michael lifted his manacled hands and wiped a few of her tears from her face. “I will always love you. Will you tell Rene that I loved him to the end? Please?”

“No, Michael. I won’t tell him that because I am going to get you out of here. We are going home. I’ll figure out a way. I have to....I have to.” Nikita looked around the room, as if she could find something to help her get Michael on his feet, but she didn’t find anything and then she knew that what he said was true...She couldn’t get him out, not by herself. She laid her cheek against his forehead, felt the heat there and wept in her frustration. “I’m not going anywhere, love. I’m staying right here with you.” She held him to her more fiercely, rocking him back and forth, vowing to herself to never let him go again.

“Please, Nikita. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you. You can’t let them take you. You know they will use you against me. I can take anything they do to me, but I can’t take what they would do to you. Please, Nikita, you have to go and leave me. Now!” Michael pressed his face into her breast and seemed to find some short respite from the pain. He kept repeating, Please, Nikita, please. And Nikita thought her heart would break if he said it one more time.

“I don’t want to leave you, Michael. Please don’t make me.” Even as she said it, Nikita knew she would leave him. She didn’t want to, but she knew he was right. She couldn’t carry him. She had to get out and go get the team. That was the only way. Nikita leaned down and kissed Michael’s too warm lips and cried again at the thought of leaving him. “I’ll be back, Michael. I promise. I promised Rene I would bring you back to him. Don’t make me a liar, Michael. Promise me you will hold on. You have to promise me.” She pulled his face from its resting place against her chest and looked into his fever bright eyes. “Promise me!”

“I promise,” he said. “I’ll hold on as long as I can. Now go! They cannot find you here.” As gently as she could, Nikita raised Michael from her lap and laid him back on the cold stone floor. Michael closed his eyes and felt Nikita’s kisses rain down upon his face. He smiled, glad that he was lucid enough to have known that she was with him one last time. “I love you, always.”

“And I love you, forever and always.” Nikita felt as if her heart was breaking. She steeled herself for the leave-taking, and as she bent over him to press her cheek against his face, she heard a footstep behind her and someone spoke.

“Well, well, well, this is touching...And you must be the fair Nikita....”

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

“Well, well, well, this is touching...And you must be the fair Nikita....”

Nikita whirled around at the sound of the voice and drew her gun from the thigh holster, but the figure at the door was able to kick it out of her hand before she could bring it up to fire. As soon as she saw that the gun in the woman’s hand was pointed at her and Michael, Nikita spread her arms and shielded Michael as much as she could. She waited...the shot she expected never came. Another figure appeared at the door and pushed the gun down so that it pointed toward the floor. Psycho resisted Red’s hand on her gun and then acquiesced to her partner’s will when she saw the determined look on Red’s face. “What do you think you are doing, Red? She’s Section, like him.” Psycho gestured at Michael with her gun hand and Nikita moved to keep herself in the line of fire, protecting Michael. Psycho grinned at Nikita’s movement. “Don’t worry, Nikita. If anyone gets shot here tonight, it’ll be you, not him...He’s too valuable.”

“Good,” Nikita said, raising her chin defiantly, signaling to her captors that she wasn’t afraid of them. “But for someone who is so valuable, you don’t take very good care of him!” Not caring what the two women would do next, Nikita turned her back to them and again, bent over Michael. “Do you have more water? He’s burning up. Please?” Nikita hated having to ask her captors for anything, but then, she would do anything to lessen Michael’s suffering. She said again, “Please, some water?” And was surprised to find a large bottle of water being thrust into her hand by the woman called Red.

“Here, don’t let him drink too quickly. Make him drink slowly. Yes, that’s good...that’s fine.” Nikita pulled her eyes from Michael’s face to look at the woman who had knelt next to her. Red glanced at Nikita quickly and then away, and then returned her gaze to Nikita’s clothing. “Have you got any medicine on you...any antibiotics?”

“Yeah, I do, but not anything like he needs. I’ve just got simple stuff.” She took a chance. “Can you help me get him out of here? You seem...different from her.” Nikita raised her head and indicated Psycho, who was still standing in the door, holding a gun on her.

“No, I can’t help you. He’s can’t be tugged and pulled on, and he certainly can’t walk on his own. What were you thinking about, coming in here by yourself? You must have known you couldn’t get him out alone.” Red regarded the tearstains on Nikita’s face. “You’re the woman in the tape. You’re the one Hugo fooled with the fake Michael. That kid was good, wasn’t he? You really thought it was Michael. You thought you had lost him, didn’t you? You thought he was dead. What gave us away?” The woman actually seemed to want to know how Nikita knew Michael was alive.

“A tracker...Michael has been transmitting all along. We always knew where he was,” she lied. “See.” She reached behind Michael’s ear and peeled away the comm link she had placed there moments ago when she had last kissed him, and showed it to Red. Better to give this one up than to reveal the one embedded in his body, she thought, that one could go on transmitting to Birkoff. “What happens now?”

“You get the hell out of here and leave Michael behind!” Red said quickly. Psycho started to protest and Red shut her up with a withering glance backward.

Nikita stared at her, unbelieving, and then, knowing she could do no more for Michael at this point, Nikita bent over Michael’s prone form one last time and brushed her lips against his and whispered into his ear, “I’ll be back and next time, we will leave here together.” His fevered eyes opened and as if he knew she was leaving him, he smiled sadly at her and said, simply, “Godspeed, Nikita. I love you.” His eyes drifted closed, and Nikita bowed her head and said a prayer for him.

“And I, you.” Nikita kissed him and rose to her feet slowly and turned to face the two women. “Why are you letting me leave and what happens to Michael?”

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

Psycho laughed evilly and turned her feral eyes to Nikita. “Please, honey, drop the blonde moments and think rationally here. Red is letting you leave. Personally, I would serve you up on a platter to Hugo. He has already told us that he wished he had taken you along with Michael. He thought it would have been fun to work on you in front of Michael. Hugo was impressed when he saw the depth of your feeling for Michael when you went wild trying to dig our ringer out of the rubble. I think he imagined Michael in that kind of anguish as he watched me and Red take you apart.” She took a step toward Nikita and again found Red’s hand on her arm. Psycho’s gaze snapped from Red’s hand to Red’s eyes. “Why are you going to all this trouble for these two? I don’t understand you anymore.” Psycho shook off Red’s hand and walked over to where Michael lay and glared down at him. “What is it about him that you find so appealing, Nikita. Anyone who has been in Section as long as he has must have lost his soul long ago.” Psycho looked Nikita straight in the eye, waiting for an answer.

Nikita matched Psycho’s glare and took a deep breath. “Michael has been in Section a long time, and when I first met him, I thought he had indeed lost his soul. But after I got to know him, I found out his secret...he had learned to live his life split in two. To everyone at Section, he was machine Michael, the perfect operative. I was lucky enough to discover his deeply hidden other side and over the years, I learned to love that side. I haven’t always liked him. In fact, sometimes I hated him, but I was never indifferent to him. I think I have always loved him. And I know now that my life is entwined with his. Once, when I was a little girl, my mother sent me to Sunday school. And I heard the story of Ruth, and even though the story was about two women, I have always remembered the story about how Ruth told her friend that wherever she went that Ruth would also go. I have wanted to love someone like that and now I do and he is right here with me. Wherever Michael goes, so go I. If he dies, then so do I. Have you ever known anyone you can say that about?” Nikita challenged Psycho, and was surprised to see tears appearing in the other woman’s eyes.

Psycho shifted her teary gaze to Red and whispered fervently, “Yes, Nikita, yes, I have.”

As if to deflect any discussion of how she and Psycho had met each other, Red said urgently, “ We have no time for this. Hugo will be here soon and Nikita, you have to be gone. For Michael’s sake, he cannot know you were here.” She hurried over to Nikita and began pulling on her arm.

Not to be drawn away from Michael until she was ready, Nikita yanked her arm from Red’s grasp and knelt by Michael’s side. She ran her fingers through his tangled hair and looked thoughtfully into his sweet face. His eyes were closed and he moved his head from side to side restlessly. “I’ll be back for you, my love, stay alive for me.” She rose resolutely and faced the other two women. “What does this Hugo have planned for Michael? I won’t leave until you tell me.” The firm set of her mouth told Red and Psycho that they were staring at an immovable object.

Red spoke first. “Hugo wants Michael to survive so he can visit his revenge upon Michael. He is taking him to a doctor friend of his for treatment. I convinced him that Michael will die otherwise.” She grinned. “I did lay it on rather thickly. Michael is very sick, but I think the fever will run its course. He does need medical attention, but I think he will be all right. You have a team on the way, don’t you?” The widening of Nikita’s eyes gave her the answer she sought. “You need to stop them. Michael will be heavily guarded in the transport. Any attempt to rescue him will bring about his swift death. Track him to the doctor’s location....I know you must have another tracker on him. The one you showed me isn’t the only one, is it? I thought not....I could see it in your expression. I would tell you if I knew where Hugo was taking him, but he wouldn’t tell me. Track Michael and take him when he reaches the doctor. Now, you have to go. Hugo will be here soon.”

With a last look back at Michael, Nikita bit her lip and followed Red from the room, once again, leaving Michael behind....

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

Walter was waiting for Nikita when she returned. As she ran from shadow to shadow, she managed to reign in the despair she felt at leaving Michael behind. At least, this time she knew he was alive, if badly hurt. She had bitten her lip hard to keep herself from crying and giving away her location. Be strong, she thought, I will get Michael back....I will get him back. And as much as she tried to tell herself that she had done the right thing in leaving Michael, she was furious that she hadn’t been able to carry him out. The logical side of her knew she was right to have left him. They would have a better chance of bringing him out alive with a full team. But, the side that loved Michael told her she should have stayed with him to the end. She smiled through her tears, as she heard Michael’s voice telling her that she had done her best and that he loved her for it.

Suddenly, a hand gripped her around the waist as another hand covered her mouth. She was about to deliver a killing blow to her captor’s face when she heard Walter’s whiskey smooth voice in her ear....”Well, Sugar, it certainly took you long enough. What did you find? Did you see Michael?”

Nikita took a series of deep breaths to calm her jangled nerves from the ordeal of the last few minutes and from the fact that she had almost killed Walter. She turned on him angrily and gave him a tongue-lashing about sneaking up on her like he did. It was exactly the kind of tongue-lashing he would have wanted from her, but he understood her and lowered his gaze, trying his best to look contrite. “Geez, Sugar,” he said finally. “I sorry I scared you. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Nikita looked at Walter’s downcast eyes and hugged him fiercely. “Oh, Walter!! I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting you and I....I....almost killed you. I couldn’t have taken it if I had hurt you.” All of a sudden, the stress and mental anguish of the last few hours, if not days, struck Nikita full force and she dropped to the ground beside Walter, hitting hard on her backside. Walter sat down beside her and cradled her in his arms. He murmured soothingly to her as her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs.

She gasped as she tried to curtail her weeping. “I’m sorry, Walter,” she said over and over. Then, she told him all that had happened on her reconnaissance of the compound where Michael was being held, where she had left him so sick with pain and fever. “I couldn’t get him out. They hurt him, Walter...they broke his legs...I couldn’t carry him out! I left him, Walter! I left him again!” She continued to hold on to Walter as his hand smoothed her hair from the top of her head down her back. His heart was breaking for her. He comforted her as best as he could. He knew it wasn’t enough.

“Shhhhh, Sugar, shhhhhh. Don’t think about it. You can’t do everything yourself. We’ll get him when the team gets here. He’ll be okay.” She sat up quickly and wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“No! We have to stop the team. Hugo, the leader, is moving Michael. The intel I gathered indicates that Michael won’t be there for much longer. I heard Hugo say he was taking Michael to a doctor for treatment,” she lied. After all that Red had done for her and for Michael, she would not betray her, not even to Walter. “He will be too heavily guarded on the trip. We have to get Birkoff to track him and then retrieve him from wherever they take him.”

Walter was watching Nikita work through her profile for the mission to rescue Michael. He grinned as he saw her agonized tears dry and the bright gleam of determination light her blue eyes. Even in the darkness hiding them in the treeline above the small village, Walter could see that the old Nikita was back. She allowed Walter to help her to her feet. He noticed that she had a certain set to her jaw that told him that she was through with her emotional fragility. The strong forceful young woman that Michael had trained was back. And this time around, she was taking no prisoners in her quest to bring Michael back to her and to Rene.

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

Meanwhile, in the compound below, Hugo supervised as two of his men roughly picked up a delirious Michael and carried him to a covered truck waiting outside. The two men started to toss Michael into the truck, but Red appeared and directed them to carefully lay him inside on the floor of the truck. After making sure that Michael was secured and would not be jostled on the trip to the doctor, she joined a grim-faced Psycho and spoke briefly to Hugo before he climbed into the front of the truck. The two men who had carried Michael to the truck took seats along the inside of the truck, their guns trained on the man at their feet who so obviously did not pose a threat to them. One of the men nudged Michael in the side and elicited a moan of pain as broken and bruised ribs protested. The men grinned at each other and settled back for the long ride to the clinic where Hugo was headed to get help for their prisoner. As the truck pulled away from the compound, two dark figures emerged from one of the buildings and got into a car. The engine roared to life and Red and Psycho headed in the opposite direction from the truck. Inside the car, Psycho glanced over at Red, who was driving and asked, “Where are we going? “

“Anywhere but here,” Red replied, “we have plenty of money, thanks to Hugo, and we can just disappear for awhile. We can find a new line of work. I can’t do this anymore. How about you?” she asked a pensive Psycho.

“Fine with me,” she said. “Whither thou goest, so also shall I go. Let’s blow this pop stand. I feel like sunshine and sand for a while. What do you think, Mom?” Red smiled at her daughter and pressed her foot firmly to the floor and decided to find out just how fast her Jaguar could take them away from this place of pain and darkness. They never looked back.

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

Nikita and Walter had driven back to Section in silence. After warning off the team, they had taken their time, stopping for coffee at a little bistro on the outskirts of the city. Walter watched Nikita for signs of her earlier despair and found not a whit of that feeling of helplessness he had detected as she told him how she had had to leave Michael. In its place was a firmness of mind that reminded him of Michael. When Michael put his mind to something, the thing would be done, no questions. Walter smiled to himself. He remembered that day long ago when he had passed Michael in the hall at Section. Michael had barreled by him, not noticing Walter, so focused was he on his errand. “Whoa, Michael! Where’s the fire, kid?”

Michael had stopped a few paces past Walter. He did that step back maneuver that eventually turned him to face Walter. “Excuse me?”

Walter had always liked the “kid.” He had called Michael “kid” when he was young and in training. When Michael had reached Class 5 status, he had quietly walked up to Walter and asked very politely if Walter could call him Michael and not “kid” anymore. That time in the hallway was the first time in many years that Walter had slipped and called him “kid.”

“Oh, nothing, Michael. I just wondered where you were going in such a hurry?”

“New recruit....a cop killer,” he had answered and then turned and continued on his way. Walter had seen him soon after he had encountered Nikita for the first time. Walter had seen him leaving after the first session with her. Michael was using both hands to smooth back the hair that had fallen over his ears. A small smile was lifting the corners of his finely shaped lips. Walter remembered thinking that he wanted to see whoever had brought that rare smile to Michael’s lips. He had seen her the next day, and Walter had been dumbstruck with the young woman he now called his Sugar.

A passing truck with glaring headlights snapped Walter back from his reminisces. He looked over at Nikita in the passenger seat. “Why so quiet, Sugar? We’ll get him back. Don’t worry.”

I’m not worried about getting him back. I know we will do that. I’m trying to think of what I am going to tell Rene. I promised him I would bring his father back to him, and here I am....empty-handed yet again.” She put her hand under her chin and slumped down even further into her seat. “He’s going to think I am nothing but a liar.”

“Sugar, he will understand. He knows you would bring Michael back to him if you could. Believe me, he’ll understand...he is Michael’s son.” Nikita turned to look at Walter’s profile, lit only by the lights of the car’s instrument panel and the headlights of passing cars. She smiled, and Walter felt warmed by her kind regard.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Like father, like son. God, Walter, I miss him. I miss Michael.” She was quiet then and when he glanced over at her a few minutes later, he was glad to see that she was asleep. The next few hours, if not days, would be hard on her.

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

Everyone seemed to be hanging around Birkoff’s station. When Alex and I joined the growing crowd, Birkoff got up and gave me his chair. I sat down heavily. This pregnancy thing was making my body swell into the most interesting shape. I felt like a huge basketball.

I sighed as I sat down and Alex dropped casually to the floor beside me. “I’ll be glad when I can do that again!” I said. He smiled up at me and took my hand.”

“I’ll be glad when you can do one or two other things.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I laughed at him and agreed whole-heartedly with him. Birkoff’s surrender of his rolling chair seemed to set off a chain reaction. I laughed to myself as I saw several of the young people working for Birkoff get up and slide their chairs toward him. He grinned sheepishly at the collection of chairs surrounding his knees, before taking a chair from a young man with multiple body-piercings. Birkoff lost no time in propelling himself back to his position, from which he could watch several monitors. One beeped, and everyone sat up straight. I gripped Alex’s hand and looked around for Rene.

Birkoff nearly jumped out of his skin as Rene poked his head out from under Birkoff’s table. “Is that my Daddy?” Rene shouted excitedly. He scrambled out from his hiding place and peered closely at Birkoff, waiting for an answer. “Well?”

“Geez, Rene. You almost gave me a heart attack. What would have happened if I had keeled over? Who would answer this message?” Birkoff grinned and reached out to tousle Rene’s straight black hair.

Not understanding the rhetorical question, Rene looked around and said simply, “I bet one of them could do it.” There was a general rumble of amusement at his words, and he glanced around and gave everyone a big grin before again focusing on Birkoff. “Ummm, Birkoff, who is the beep?” Birkoff blinked and bent over his monitor.

“It’s Nikita and Walter!” Birkoff smiled broadly and then the smile vanished from his face. “Oh no....they had to leave Michael behind.” Suddenly mindful of what he had just said, Birkoff whirled around in his chair to face Rene, whose face had begun to crumble at Birkoff’s words. Birkoff stretched out his arm and pulled Rene into a one-armed awkward hug. “Hey, that’s not necessarily bad news. We still have a tracker on your Daddy. He’ll be fine.” Over Rene’s head, Birkoff made eye contact with me and I knew the news was not all good. I squeezed Alex’s hand and he arose from his place beside me and scooped Rene up into his strong arms.

“Hey, kiddo, let’s go get something to eat! How about it?” He hefted Rene up onto his shoulders and turned toward the cafeteria. As they left Birkoff’s station, I heard Rene huff. “I’m getting stuffed! Every time the grownups want to talk, I get sent to get something to eat! Alex, you aren’t really hungry, are you?”

As they disappeared down the hallway, I heard my beloved’s laughter as he asked my son a single question. “Rene, are you going to say NO to your Mom when she asks you to do something?” A pause and then, “I thought not.”

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

I listened with my eyes closed. Birkoff relayed the information transmitted from Walter’s PDA. Nikita was able to get in and speak to Michael. “He’s badly hurt, broken legs and a fever. She couldn’t get him out. We’re still tracking him. Two hostiles turned to our side and helped Michael. They set and splinted his legs, gave him something for the pain....even lied about the seriousness of his condition to fool the leader, a man called Hugo, to get further medical attention for Michael. Hugo wants Michael healthy enough to endure punishments for trapping Philo and Zalman. Hugo is Red Cell, and apparently is more interested in revenge on Michael than he is gathering intel for Red Cell. Nikita has rejoined Walter and they are on their way back. Red Team has been recalled.” Birkoff sat back in his chair and exhaled heavily. “That’s all I have for now. We’ll get more when Nikita and Walter debrief.” He swiveled his chair and looked at me over his glasses which had slid down his nose slightly. “I’m sorry the news isn’t better, Grace.”

I sighed and smiled at Birkoff. “It’s okay, Birkoff, at least we know for certain that he is alive. I started to get up and suddenly, the young man with the pierced...everything was at my side helping me by taking my arm and pulling. “Thanks...,” I said, feeling awkward for not knowing his name.

He smiled back. “Pierce,” he said, grinning widely when he saw the incredulous expression on my face. He whispered gently, “Pierce, my name is Pierce.”

“Oh,” I stammered, “Oh, thank you, Pierce.” I smiled and patted his hand. “Birkoff, will you call me when Nikita and Walter return? I’ll be in my room. Also, if you would, could you let Alex know where I am? I need to talk to him and Rene.”

“Sure, Grace.” He spun in his chair when a series of beeps sounded at his console. “Michael is on the move again. He glanced over his shoulder. “I know, Grace. I’ll let you know when we have any more information. Now, go get some rest. Your babies’ Mom needs her rest.” I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as Pierce held my arm and led me out of Systems and down the hall to the quarters that had been assigned to Alex, Rene and me. As we left Systems, I raised my eyes to Operations’ aerie and saw that he and Madeline were deep in conversation. Madeline moved her eyes to lock with mine and she smiled at me. I know that most people would have been chilled to the bone to be the recipient of a Madeline smile, but at this moment in time, I felt warmed by her smile, as if she was saying to me, we know where he is and I will make sure he is all right, trust me. And for some reason, I did trust her. I knew that she, like Nikita, would always try to protect Michael.

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

Michael roused from his feverish unconsciousness as he felt himself being lifted from the back of the truck onto something softer than the bed of the truck. Anything was better than the bruising he felt forming from the hour or more of bouncing around in the truck. Every inch of Michael hurt for some reason. His legs ached and he could feel pain radiating from each of them. He wondered if he had been damaged beyond repair. Michael remembered the discussion about Alex Carson when he had been shot and his knee shattered. Was a medical cancellation in his future? Could Grace save him as she had saved Alex. He smiled. He probably would never see the inside of Section again. Hugo would tire of tormenting him and would most likely put a bullet in his brain. At least it would be over if it came to that. He would regret only one thing, not seeing Rene and Nikita once more. He knew Grace and Alex would raise his son into the kind of man Michael would liked to have been. But he did worry about Nikita...what would become of her? Thinking of Nikita jogged his memory. Had he imagined awakening to her kisses and caresses just an hour or so earlier, or had that been a cruel dream, a nightmare caused by the fever that ravaged him now. No, he distinctly remembered her lips on his, her hands on his body. She had been there in the cell with him. He remembered her tears when she realized that she couldn’t get him out, and her anguish when he had finally convinced her that she had to go, that he could withstand anything that Hugo did to him. Anything but seeing her tortured or killed. Michael had asked her to tell Rene that he loved him.....loved him until the end.

Michael gasped in pain, as the gurney he was on slammed into the wall. A voice, one that he did not recognize, scolded one of the guards that had ridden in the truck with him. “Don’t do that again! This man is my patient now and I will not have you taking out you petty frustrations on him or my clinic walls!” The guard grumbled something, but the words were lost on Michael, who had slipped back into the pain-free darkness.

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

“Nikita, Uncle Walter!!” Rene shouted and ran to the two as they came through van access. Nikita dropped to her knees and accepted the hug from Rene. He didn’t question her about where his father was. I could see that surprised Nikita, then she looked up from the hug and saw me standing behind Rene leaning heavily on Alex’s arm. She smiled wearily and closed her eyes, intent on taking comfort from the small arms encircling her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring your Daddy back this time, Rene. I promise you that the next time I won’t come back without him.” she whispered into my son’s ear.

“I know, Nikita. Mom explained everything to me. You were alone and my Daddy weighs too much for you to carry him. Is he hurt very bad, Nikita? Tell me. I can take it. I won’t cry, I promise.” He lifted his chin bravely and peered closely at Nikita. Tell him the truth, I thought, he can take. He is his father’s son.

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

Louis, the attendant pushing Michael’s stretcher down the hall to the elevator, was very careful. He did not want to anger Dr. Sorenson again. He wondered why Dr. Sorenson had ordered him to take this patient down to the basement, but he had long ago learned not to question his employer. He knew that the doctor worked off the clock for some rather unsavory characters and the man that had brought in this man on the stretcher was one of those scary characters. The men with Hugo were rough, coarse and cruel men. They had handled Dr. Sorenson’s new patient as if they didn’t care what happened to him. Dr. Sorenson had thrown a fit and berated the men in front of Hugo, who just stood there and laughed. He had a cruel, evil laugh and Louis wanted nothing to do with Hugo. He would just do his job, keep his mouth shut and go home with the extra cash that Dr. Sorenson would pay him.

The man on the stretcher was tossing his head back and forth. His splinted legs were strapped down on the stretcher and his wrists were firmly buckled into restraints on the side of the stretcher. He seemed caught up in a nightmare of some kind. Louis had felt of his forehead and knew that a fever raged inside of the man. The elevator doors clanked open and Louis pushed the stretcher inside to begin the ride down two floors to the room he had prepared earlier in the day at Dr. Sorenson’s instructions. The sound of the metal doors closing seemed to terrify the man on the stretcher. He began struggling and trying to pull his hands from the restraints, and he started yelling something. At first it was unintelligible and then Louis could make out his words.

“Please, no, no....don’t hurt me....PLEASE!!!” A fever-wracked Michael writhed and tried to pull his hands free, but they were bound tightly and other hands held him as he was beaten into submission. His police guards had told him this would happen to him. They had laughed as they told him what to expect on his first night in prison. It was what he deserved, they said, after what he had done. Michel’s first week in prison had been a week of unremitting brutality and sexual assault as the inmates took their turns with him. He began hoping that they would kill him, so it would be over, but they were careful to keep him alive. And always the assaults took place in the dark recesses of the shower room, where overhead the pipes clinked and clanked. The inmates took turns keeping watch for the prison guards, so that they could have the privacy needed to partake of this beautiful new nineteen year old convict.

Louis felt sorry for the young man on the stretcher. So, he had been in prison and had suffered greatly for it. It was none of Louis’ business, so he continued to push the stretcher to the secluded room. The pipes in the basement clanked and sang and Michel began screaming in the terror of his delirium. Louis tried to muffle the terrible sounds coming from the man on the stretcher. “Merde,” he thought, “he’ll wake the dead!” As fast as he could, Louis finally reached the room where he had been told to leave the young man. Dr. Sorenson had directed Louis to sedate the man, so Louis quickly pulled out the syringe and injected Michael with the sedative. He was still screaming, but slowly, his frantic movements calmed and the screaming stopped. Michael quieted, but in his mind, he struggled on. The groping hands of the inmates were pulled away from him and he could only feel the hands of one man, Jean-Jacques, a seasoned convict who all the other inmates deferred to without question. Jean-Jacques calmly whispered into Michel’s ear that he now belonged to Jean-Jacques, that he would service only Jean-Jacques and no one else, or Michel would die, horribly. So, Michel chose to live horribly instead. His third week in prison found Michel calmly tearing his blanket into strips, which he patiently wove into a rope. He had decided to escape the hell he found himself in. Carefully, he tied one end of the rope to the bars of the window just above the top bunk in his and Jean-Jacques’ cell. Michel tied the other end around his own neck. He had made sure the rope was not too long. He had measured it carefully. When he was ready to escape, Michel laid down on the top bunk and said his prayers, asking God to watch over his sister. Tears of anger, pain and regret gathered in his eyes and he closed them one last time, squeezing the tears from his eyes. Michel took a deep breath and turned over and rolled off the bunk. The rope pulled tight. Michel struggled for breath and when it wouldn’t come, the light in his eyes blinked out, and when he opened his eyes the next time, he awoke in another hell. A big man named Jurgen welcomed Michel to Section....

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

It was a rather unusual family gathering in the Section briefing room. A patriarchal Operations stood at the head of the table with his remote control held lightly in his hand. He surveyed his domain and took in each face that stared at him from around the table. Madeline’s warm eyes held his and he almost smiled, but he controlled his emotional response to her.

The next pair of eyes did cause him to smile. Rene glanced up at him from beneath his long dark lashes, his father’s green eyes so brilliant in his child’s face. It was chilling to see Michael’s son sitting so quietly in the chair usually occupied by Michael. Operations knew that he would do anything, say anything, risk anything to keep Rene’s good opinion of him. Michael’s rescue had become Operations’ primary mission since he had learned that Michael, his top operative, was still alive and in the hands of an old nemesis, Hugo. Somehow, Hugo had escaped the web woven by Operations and Michael when they had netted Philo. This time, Operations vowed to himself, he would not escape and Hugo would not take Michael with him.

Nikita, as always, glared at him from her position in the middle chair she sat in, next to Rene who had started to fidget nervously, swinging his father’s chair from side to side. Operations spared not one sympathetic glance her way. She still had the power to infuriate him, even when she kept her mouth shut, which seemed very unlikely today. The others ranged around the table included Walter, Birkoff, Davenport and at the end of the table next to Madeline sat Grace and Alex.

Strange, Operations thought, the friendship of those two. They were close in age and seemed to genuinely like each other, interesting when one thought of what had brought them together. Madeline had bartered Grace’s cooperation with young Rene. Grace had accepted the child when it became clear that it was the only way to ensure both the child’s safety as well as Michael’s. Madeline had won a point there, because Michael had never really been in danger as Grace had thought. He had not known that Rene was still alive until he had followed Madeline to the airport where she met Grace and had handed over Rene. Michael had been watching from the shadows, and had quietly watched his son leave with Grace. Operations had had Michael followed. His top op had been behaving strangely and Operations had wanted to know why. His informant had related Michael’s every move and reported back in detail Michael’s heart-breaking good-bye to his son and Grace, whispering to them to “go with God.” Operations had marveled that Michael had let them go so calmly, but then he knew the strong reserve of power and control that distinguished the man that he had often thought of as a son, even when he sent him into the face of death on so many missions. Operations had always known Michael would come back. This time when Birkoff had brought back a distraught Nikita and had described to him and showed him the video of Michael’s last moments, Operations had been shaken. The Michael he knew was indestructible...he couldn’t die. Operations had willed it not to be true and then, miraculously, Rene had stubbornly been proved correct. Michael was alive. Now, Operations began to speak, outlining the mission to bring Michael back to his family and back to Section.

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

Michael’s demons continued to haunt him. Louis looked on in amazement as the young man that he had sedated and moved to the hospital bed in the basement room, tossed and turned in agony. Louis was terrified that the man would tear loose the restraints tightly encircling his hands. Finally, the young man seemed to collapse in on himself. He violently threw his head backward into the pillow until Louis thought he would choke. The cords and veins in his neck stretched taut and then suddenly, the man on the bed went limp. Louis hurried over to check his pulse. He lay so still that Louis feared that the last paroxysm had killed him.

Louis exhaled noisily. The prisoner was still alive, at least for now.

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

Birkoff had tracked Michael to the outskirts of the city and had then lost the signal. “Sir,” he addressed a pacing Operations. “I lost the signal. It looks like electronic shielding of some kind, but I was able to pinpoint the area. Here, see?” Birkoff pointed to the monitor screen as Operations leaned over to look also.

“What’s there?” he asked, glancing down at Birkoff. “Landmarks, buildings?”

“Well, that is what is weird, Sir. The signal disappeared right in front of a hospital. Would they be that obvious? We know Michael is hurt and that Hugo was going to get medical treatment for him.”

“Who knows what Hugo would do? Why are you smiling, Birkoff? Do you find this situation funny?” Operations demanded testily. He was finding this entire situation extremely frustrating. Birkoff looked up into Operations icy blue eyes and faltered in his next words.

“Ah...uh...I....well, sir, the hospital....it’s....” Operations grabbed the back of Birkoff’s chair and spun it around. Birkoff almost fell out of the wildly spinning chair.

“Well!! What is it about the hospital? What is so damned funny to you.” Birkoff cringed under Operations’ malevolent stare.

“Sir, it’s a women’s hospital....wouldn’t Michael be rather conspicuous if he was taken there?” Despite his fear of the man standing over him, Birkoff grinned.

Operations stared back at him balefully. “Get this information to a profiler. I want Michael found and retrieved as soon as possible!”

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

‘Hmmmm, I just see one problem with your profile.” Grace spoke from her place at the opposite end of the table. She faced down Operations as he glowered at her criticism of the profile to rescue Michael. Rene bristled at the look on Operations’ face. Alex sat up straighter in his chair also, ready to speak up on his wife’s behalf. He had the feeling that Operations was not pleased to be questioned by someone who disagreed with him. That was nothing new. Rene spoke before Alex could protest.

“Don’t you frown at my Mom like that! She is in a delicate condition. That is what her doctor told her. And, I don’t think you should scold her like you do everyone else around here. I won’t stand for it and I don’t think my Daddy would either. And he will be back here soon!” Rene glared back at Operations, challenging him to rebuke Grace’s comment. The boy crossed his arms and settled back in his chair. There was a slight rustling of movement as others at the table moved around in an attempt to cover their smiles at Rene’s defiance. Nikita could not contain herself and laughed out loud. Operations shifted his glance down and to his side, and then brought his chin up and said as calmly as he could. “And what is your problem with this profile, Grace? It was worked out by our best profilers.”

***********

I sat up in my chair and leaned forward. “First of all, Hugo is not going to have Michael in plain sight in this hospital, even if Birkoff is correct and he is there. And second, you can’t just send operatives into this hospital to search it. They would be spotted in a New York minute. They wouldn’t exactly blend in.” I sat back and let this sink into the stubborn brain of Operations’. I knew he would do anything to get Michael back, if not for Section, then for Rene. He had a very soft spot in his heart for Rene and I encouraged it. Operations knew I knew that and yet he allowed it. The bond he had with Rene had only increased in its intensity since Paul’s own son had been killed several months ago. It was probably cold and calculating of me to try to use his emotions against him, but if it helped keep Michael and Rene together, it was worth it. I could rationalize just about anything that concerned Michael and Rene.

“Well, then, Grace. What would you do?” Operations stared down the table at me, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. The old wolf, I thought, he has me all figured out.

I took a deep breath and held on to Alex’s hand under the table. “I would send in someone with a perfect cover. Someone who couldn’t be found out to be in disguise. Can any of your other operatives pass muster as a pregnant lady? Who would suspect me? I could go in with whatever electronics gizmos that could pinpoint Michael’s location and then, you could send in a retrieval team.” Almost immediately, there were protests from all around the table.

“No way are you going in there!” Alex swung his chair around and gripped my arms, his eyes wild. “NO WAY!!”

Nikita reacted in much the same way as Walter and Birkoff. They sat forward in their chairs and protested my suggestion. Walter even sprang up out of his chair and yelled at me. “NO, Gracie! It will be over my dead body!” I felt myself starting to tear up at the concern shown for me. My family was definitely here around this table. Alex drew me into his arms and whispered frantically in my ear.

“Please, Grace. Don’t do this. I can’t lose you and our babies. This is foolish of you. Michael will hate it that you risk yourself so for him.” I kissed Alex and hugged him back. He knew me so well. I could feel that he had already accepted that I would have my way with this. He knew he came first in my life, but he also knew how stubborn I could be. It ran in my family.

I think I took even Madeline by surprise. She turned warm brown eyes to mine and said simply and calmly, “Grace, you are not an operative. You are not trained for this kind of thing. Think of your babies...” I listened to all of the protesting and reasons why I shouldn’t, couldn’t do this and then I looked down the table at my son, at Rene. He was sitting there in his father’s chair looking back at me with a smile in those green eyes of his.

When he spoke, everything came to a standstill in the room. “Yeah, she is thinking about them and about me....she wants my Daddy back for me and she wants a godfather for my little sisters. Isn’t that right, Mom?”

I was proud of my son, of Michael’s son. “Exactly, Rene. I won’t be in much danger...Alex will be with me and Nikita could go in as my loving daughter. We are the rights ages. These,” I said laying my hands on my basketball of a stomach, “are my late-in-life gifts.” I lifted my chin and waited for Operations to speak. All eyes shifted from me to him. “Well?” I said, challenging him to disagree with my reasoning.

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

Michael fought the doctor when he came in to examine his patient. The sedative had worn off and Michael was conscious but still in the grip of his delirium. Louis was there to assist Dr. Sorenson. Within an hour, the two of them had taken X-rays of Michael’s legs and chest with a portable X-ray machine and the doctor had sent Louis to get the necessary supplies to put casts on Michael’s legs and to wrap his broken and bruised ribs. Dr. Sorenson sat down and made notes as Hugo looked on.

“Well?” queried Hugo. “What is his condition? Will he live?”

Dr. Sorenson regarded Hugo with a disdainful glance and returned to his notes. “I am not in the habit of losing my patients.” He grinned at the double meaning of his words, pleased at his wit. “He will be all right eventually. His fever is still too high, but the drugs I will be administering should effectively knock that out.” He stopped writing and used his pen to point to Michael’s legs. “Who straightened and splinted the legs? They did a good job on that. Surely, if they had enough medical skill to do that, they could have figured out something to do for his fever. Why take the chance to bring him here? You have exposed yourself needlessly.” Sorenson glanced again at Hugo, waiting for an answer to his question.

“My medic said she didn’t have the medicine he needed. She said he would die without proper treatment. That is why I brought him to you. How long will the treatment take?” Hugo grimaced at the moans coming from the man on the bed. “I thought you gave him something to quiet him. Is he suffering much?”

Sorenson grinned. “Louis gave him enough to quiet a horse, but this young man is fighting the sedative. He probably is suffering, though not from physical pain. No, I’d say he is suffering greatly from a fever-induced delirium. He is punishing himself instead of giving himself up to the oblivion of the sedative. You wanted that, did you not? You enjoy his suffering? Did he do something so bad that you want to prolong what you have already done to him?” The doctor once again flicked his pen at Michael, who was again tossing and turning, his wrists chaffed and bleeding as he strained at the padded restraints.

Sorenson made a note to remember to bandage Michael’s wrists, and looked at his watch. “Louis will be back soon with the supplies and drugs that I need.” He arose from his chair and started for the door. “Why don’t you sit down and enjoy your handiwork. I’ll be back in a few minutes to continue my work on him. Are you sure you want me to break his fever? That will only give him relief. But then, I suppose you will think of something else to do to him when I make him healthy again, won’t you.” With one last contemptuous glance at Hugo, Dr. Sorenson turned and left the room.

Hugo sat down and peered into Michael’s face. He reached over and gripped Michael’s chin and pulled it roughly towards him. “What is it about you that makes people want to help you.” He pushed Michael’s face away from him violently and leaned back in the chair. What indeed, he asked himself, and then he wondered what was going on in Michael’s head that tormented him so. He was murmuring something that was unintelligible to Hugo, who leaned forward and tried to make out what Michael was saying.

“I won’t tell you, I won’t! I can’t tell you!” The twenty-year-old Section recruit hung his head down because he was just too exhausted to do anything else. He was enduring another long interrogation session with his trainer, Jurgen. The tall blond man was attempting to train Michael how to respond while being interrogated.

“You do not say anything to them. Be silent. Do....you....understand....me....?” Jurgen punctuated each word in the sentence with punishing blows to Michael’s mid-section. With the last bit of strength he had, Michael raised his head and Jurgen saw death in Michael’s eyes. He stepped back from where Michael hung with his hands and arms extended over his head and locked in chains attached to the ceiling of the white room. The look of death in Michael’s eyes quietly terrified Jurgen as he nodded his approval at Michael. The blank stare had been born of the pain and abuse visited on Michael by his trainer, Jurgen. “Good job, Michael! That will be all for today.”

Jurgen signaled his assistant with a quick flick of his head and the assistant released the mechanism which had been holding the chain taut over Michael’s head. The sudden release of his chains caused Michael to collapse on the floor. His legs had long ago become numb and useless to support him. The assistant then walked over and unlocked the manacles imprisoning Michael’s hands. He started to rub Michael’s arms to restore the circulation when Jurgen spoke to him curtly, dismissing him. He stared up at the older man and stood slowly, looked down at Michael with something akin to pity and left the room.

“I trust you can make it to Medlab on your own? Get yourself fixed up and I’ll see you at 5am tomorrow. We start all over again.” With those parting words, Jurgen pulled open the heavy door and walked out the door. On the floor, his hands and arms now wrapped around his mid-section, Michael knelt over until his head touched the cool floor. I can’t do this anymore, he told himself, I can’t. Then he remembered the last few cruel punches from Jurgen, and he raised his head to stare at the door. The look of pain dissolved from his green eyes and it was replaced by a blank stare as Michael got painfully to his feet and trudged out the door and down the corridor to Medlab. Jurgen would never again see a look of fear on his face, he vowed, and no one else would either.

Hugo stood and looked down into Michael’s face. He was quiet now and Hugo was curious as to what had brought on the change. Even as he stared down at Michael, Michael opened his eyes, and Hugo hurriedly stepped back. All Hugo saw in Michael’s blank green eyes was death.

***********

Hugo stumbled back from Michael’s bedside after seeing his own death in Michael’s eyes. He was startled when he backed directly into Dr. Sorenson, who has a IV bag in his hands with a collection of clear IV tubing and needles. Sorenson cursed and asked Hugo what he thought he was doing.

Hugo stared at him with eyes wide. He stammered, “He’s awake! He was staring at me....!”

The contempt that Sorenson had for Hugo was evident in his glance and in his words. “He couldn’t have stared at you. I told you Louis gave him enough sedative to floor a horse. And why are you so frightened. He’s strapped down. He couldn’t hurt you if he tried.” The doctor shouldered his way past Hugo and laid the medical supplies on the bed. “Louis will be here shortly and I will apply the plaster to his legs, but right now, I need to get these antibiotics and fluids nto him. Now, get out of my way, will you?” he spoke sharply because Hugo had come up behind him and was peering over Sorenson’s shoulder at Michael, whose eyes were once again closed. He was no longer restlessly, but lay there quietly, his face flushed from the fever.

As Sorenson busied himself with tying rubber tubing around Michael’s right arm and then searching for a vein into which he could insert the IV needle, Hugo stepped back and watched from the door. “When can I take him out of here?”

“Now, if you want to kill him. In a few days if you want him to live. I have to build his fluid level up and get some nutrients into him. You’ve already starved him and he is dehydrated. That alone could kill him, even if he didn’t have this fever. You are one piece of work, Hugo....I wouldn’t want to be on your bad list. Ahhh, got it!” His final attempt at finding a vein in Michael’s right hand met with success and he attached the tubing and made adjustments on the pump that would sent fluids, nutrients and antibiotics into his patient at just the right drip. He stepped back and smiled. “Well., young man, we may save you yet. What is his name, Hugo.” When Hugo told him that his patient’s name was Michael, the doctor put his cool hand on Michael’s brow and let his fingers glide down the side of Michael’s face. “He quite beautiful, isn’t he?’

Sorenson turned around and smiled at Hugo. “Why do you hate him so much, and why do you fear him even when you have brought him so low?” Sorenson waited a few seconds for an answer and when he saw that Hugo was going to ignore him, Sorenson shrugged his shoulders and left the room, telling Hugo he would return shortly.

Hugo approached Michael once more and stared down at him. He was still rattled by the last time he had looked at Michael and found him staring back. Michael’s eyes were closed and Hugo took a step back and sat down in the chair, never taking his eyes from Michael’s still form. Hugo watched the slow drip, drip, drip of the fluids from the IV bags as the life-saving solutions flowed into Michael’s veins.

Hugo resolved that if Michael survived, he would never again have the power to intimidate Hugo...never again. Hugo would kill him first....

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

Rene watched the world of Section revolve from his cubby hole beneath Walter’s work table. The caged-in area afforded him a comfy place from which he could watch the activity that hummed through Section. Every time the grownups wanted to discuss the rescue of his father, they sent him to go eat, or to stay with his Uncle Walter. He liked the second thing best. There were ALL sorts of things to play with at Uncle Walter’s workstation....

Later, Walter told him, they would go and load the mission van with the supplies that would be needed according to the profile to be used to rescue his father. Rene could help, Walter had also said. Rene was proud that he would get to help in some small way to aid in his father’s rescue. He pulled his knees up to his chin and laid his arms across his knees, sighing, and wishing that his Daddy was with him right now.

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

Deep in the basement of St. Michael’s Hospital for Women, Michael lay quietly. His face was no longer flushed, and a fine sheen of sweat now covered his face. The IV solutions had been refilled twice since they had been started and the antibiotics were beginning to work. Michael’s fever had peaked and he was more comfortable now. The delirium has passed and he had fallen into a restorative sleep, but the dreams and nightmares had not gone the way of the fever.

His bed was positioned directly under the air conditioning vents and the sounds from the nursery were carried along the length of the duct work. The life-affirming sounds made their way to Michael’s subconscious. Somewhere in his mind, Michael heard babies crying, and he thought of that wonderful day when he had seen his son for the first time. He had been on a tough mission and had been worried about Simone. The baby was a week overdue and she was miserable. She just couldn’t get comfortable and it pained him to think that she might deliver when he wasn’t there to be with her. He had been denied any information about her during the mission. Madeline and Operations had not wanted him distracted and so, they had instructed Comm to deny any of his requests regarding Simone.

When he had returned from the mission, Walter had been waiting for him at van access. A nervous Walter had quickly told him to get to Medlab, that Simone had been in labor for the past 4 hours and was close to delivering. Michael had pushed by both Operations and Madeline as they had approached him. It was the first time Michael had ignored their commands. Well, almost the first time. They had not been pleased when he had informed them of his and Simone’s marriage. He had been new to Section One, having been transferred there from Section Four, based on his newly acquired status as a level four operative and the reports of his prowess in the field in leading flawless missions.

He and Simone had been paired on several missions and Michael had fallen hard for her toughness, charm and sense of humor. He had been so overshadowed by the constant presence at Section Four of his former trainer and mentor, Jurgen, that his first months at Section One had seemed like heaven and a rebirth of his freedom. Michael blossomed under Simone’s caring and love. They were as happy as two people could be in Section. Their growing attachment and commitment to one another had concerned Operations and Madeline to the point that they had considered separating them permanently, and had even run a trial mission to test the waters. What they had found that separating Michael and Simone had resulted in a drop in the efficiency and focus of both operatives, so Madeline had suggested leaving them together.

It wasn’t long before Michael and Simone were sharing a home together, and then came the day when a tearful Simone had confided in Michael that she thought she was pregnant. Michael was supremely elated, for about five minutes. And then he began to think about this wonderful news in Section terms.

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

In the end, Michael and Simone had opted to get married outside of Section. Michael had found a parish priest to perform the simple ceremony and they had walked out of the church as husband and wife.

They first thing they did when they returned to Section was to go to Madeline and tell her what they had done. She had surprised them with her reaction. She had smiled that smile of hers and had told them that she would inform Operations, and that they should expect some anger on his part. Don’t worry, she told them, I will smooth the waters. She had been less happy about the news of Simone’s pregnancy, even going as far as suggesting an abortion. Simone had told her she would die first, and Michael had calmly made it known to Madeline that if anything happened to Simone, that Section would have to cancel him, because he would not go on without her. He had risen from his chair and quietly guided Simone out of Madeline’s office, leaving behind a perplexed Madeline. Michael smiled at Simone when they had walked out, clearly communicating to her that wherever she went, he would follow. And so, the two of them were allowed to watch their baby grow inside Simone. Operations had been angry at first, but had relented when told of Michael’s challenge. He had even smiled a bit at Michael’s attitude. He probably would have done the same thing. Michael was only a few years older than his own son, and Operations knew he would never know his own grandchildren, so he allowed the man who he knew would soon be his top operative his little corner of happiness. Then the smile turned grim. The happiness would last only as long as Michael’s efficiency lasted. Punishments and rewards, he thought, rewards and punishments....

Michael dreamed on. He had been in time to see his son emerge into the cold, hard world, the little boy was a bundle of screaming life. He had thick, black hair like his mother and his mouth was definitely his father’s. It would take a bit longer to know what color his eyes would be. At birth, they were that dark, dark blue that would shortly clear into his father’s beautiful green eyes. Michael took the newly cleaned baby from the nurse and laid him on Simone’s stomach. He looked into her eyes and saw his home. “I want to name him Rene. How does that sound to you?” he asked.

“Only if we also add your name to his....Rene Michel Samuelle.” She smiled up at him. He kissed her damp forehead.

“Well, only if you insist, ma cher.” The Section medical staff looked on for a few seconds and then left the small family alone together.

The surveillance cameras in MedLab sent the clear images of the happy family back to Operations’ eyrie where he and Madeline glanced at one another and hoped that this could continue, while knowing the odds were against it.

The crying of the babies in the nursery continued to lull Michael into a restful sleep, and as he slept, Hugo crept back into the room and once more watched Michael. The bain of Hugo’s existence lay there on that bed and slept on unaware of the cold eyes that watched him.

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

Rene opened his eyes slowly. I must have fallen asleep, he thought. He sat up quickly, concerned that he might have missed helping Walter load the van for the mission to rescue his father. All he succeeded in doing was bumping his head, yelping at the sudden pain, and alerting Birkoff to where he had been hiding.

“Rene? Is that you hiding down there?” Rene stuck his head out of his cubby-hole and came face to face with Birkoff. “Your Mom has been looking all over for you. She wants to see you before she and Alex leave.” Rene scrambled out of his hiding place and ran several steps before stopping and turning back to Birkoff.

“Uhhh, where is she, Birkoff?” Rene asked, blushing at being caught off-guard. This would never have happened to his Daddy, he told himself.

Birkoff smiled and told him that Grace was in their quarters. Rene beamed at him and took off running, only to skid to a stop and turn once more to Birkoff. “Thanks! And would you tell Walter I will be right back to help him load the van!” Rene waited for Birkoff to nod his assurance that the message would be delivered.

When Birkoff nodded, Rene took off running at full speed again. He ran into Walter, who caught him with both hands. “Hey, where’s the fire, young man?”

“Walter. I’ve got to go see Mom! I’ll be right back. Don’t load the van without me!!” And he was off running again.

Walter grinned as he walked up to Birkoff. “He never stops, does he?”

Birkoff laughed. “Not where his Mom is concerned. He knows that when she says Now, she means NOW!

The two men, young and old, leaned against each other as friends are apt to do and looked toward the corner that young Rene had just rounded at top speed.

Rene slid to an abrupt stop outside the quarters that had been assigned to him, his Mom and Alex. He quietly opened the door and peeked inside. His Mom was laying on the bed asleep, with Alex beside her. Rene started to leave when Alex’s deep voice called out to him. “Rene, come on in. We need to talk.” Rene closed the door silently and tiptoed over to Alex’s side of the bed. “I need to know that you know what is going to happen later on today when your Mom and I leave Section. You know I will take care of her, don’t you? I won’t let anything happen to her or to the babies. I promise you that. At the first sign of trouble, I will take her out of there. You trust me, don’t you?” Alex seemed to take comfort from the vigorous nodding of Rene’s head.

“I trust you almost as much as I trust my Daddy. I know how much you love my Mom, Alex. Is she okay? Are you sure she can do this?” Rene had carefully climbed up on the bed and sat cross-legged at the end of the bed, watching his adoptive mother sleep. Alex nodded and told Rene that his Mom could do anything once she set her mind to it. Rene grinned in agreement with Alex. His Mom could do anything. He certainly believed that. The roundness of her belly fascinated him. He had always wondered how the two babies could live inside of her without air to breath. Grace had explained it to him, but he still had a hard time understanding it. But his Mom and Alex had assured him that the babies were okay and he trusted their word.

“Have you and Mom decided what you are going to name the babies?” Rene asked with his head down, hiding the longing in his eyes. He would like to help name his new sisters, but as yet, his Mom and Alex had not asked his opinion.

“Actually, yes, we have decided to ask you what you want to name them.” Alex smiled at the surprise in Rene’s eyes as his head popped up to stare at Alex. That’s when he also saw me smiling sleepily at him from my place in Alex’s arms.

“Well, Rene, do you have any ideas?’ I asked my son. He laughed and bounced up to wriggle in between me and Alex, his small perfect hands on my belly, with fingers splayed out as if to have the most contact with his sisters inside of me.

He turned brilliant green eyes on first me and then Alex. “How about Alexis and Michelle? After my two favorite Daddys?” I heard a sound beside me and I turned just in time to see the tears gathering in Alex’s blue eyes.

Rene saw them too and he hugged Alex and said simply, “I love you, Alex. If I wasn’t my Daddy’s son, I would want to be yours. So, do you like my name choices? I DO! I guess you and Mom get to choose the middle names. I can’t hog all the name choices!” Rene wriggled a little bit more and soon he was tucked securely between me and his stepfather. Our little family group lay close together for a few more minutes until we were interrupted by Madeline’s disembodied voice, telling us that the mission to retrieve Michael was loading and would leave in one hour. Rene scrambled out from between us and jumped off the bed. “I gotta go help Walter! He told me I could help load the van!” Rene stopped at the door and ran back to the bed, stretching up to kiss me on the cheek. “I’ll see you before you leave, Mom! I love you! And you too, Alex!” Alex got up and walked around the foot of the bed and scooped Rene up into his arms.

He hugged Rene tightly and told him to be careful and not drop anything on Walter’s toes. Then he put Rene down and watched as Rene took off like a rocket intent on making sure that everything that was needed to rescue his father was in place. Little did we know just what he had in his mind when he left us....

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

Rene ran down the corridor and took a left that he knew would lead him to Walter’s workstation and was blind-sided as he rounded the corner at full-speed. The heavily muscled legs that he made contact with would have knocked him down but for two equally muscled arms that grabbed him and swung him up into the air.

“Put me down, put me down!!” he yelled, futilely squirming to free himself of the strong arms that held him tight.

“Calm down,” a deep voice said, “I’m not going to hurt you. Where are you going in such a rush?” Rene quit struggling and listened to the voice even as he looked into a familiar face. The kind dark eyes that stared back at him held a hint of amusement.

“Hey, you’re Davenport, aren’t you? You were at the briefing today. You’re a friend of my Daddy’s, aren’t you?” The dark eyes blinked, as if surprised to be accorded the honor of being taken for a friend of Michael’s. Rene smiled when the big man smiled at him. “You’re on the team to get my Daddy back, aren’t you?” Chris Davenport flinched at Rene’s statement.

‘Yes,” he said, “I’m on the retrieval team.” Chris also had orders to cancel Michael if he could not be retrieved, some thing he did not want to do, if it came to it. Trying to distract Rene from any more probing questions, Chris asked Rene again where he was going.

Davenport did not want to think about his second set of orders from Operations. He knew it was standard operating procedure when an operative was captured, but he could not even think of canceling Michael. Especially after he had gotten to know Michael in the last few months. When Ops had allowed himself to be drugged on the mission to lure Philo out of hiding so he could be captured, Davenport had been one of the first operatives to cross the line to Michael’s side when Michael had so publicly removed Ops from power. He knew he would follow Michael into the jaws of death if that happened to be Michael’s path. The quiet man in black inspired that kind of loyalty. He led by example, not by edict as Operations often did. Davenport knew that most of the other operatives would follow Michael at the drop of a hat. Michael was just that kind of leader. Ruthless and cunning yes, but also not one to waste lives as other team leaders had been wont to do.

Rene preened and said proudly, “I’m going to help Walter load the van. He said I could. Would you mind putting me down? I really have to go. The mission leaves in an hour.....oh, but you know that, don’t you?” Davenport gently set Rene down on his feet.

“Watch those corners,” he called to Rene as the little tornado whirled and disappeared down the hallway leading to Walter’s workstation. Davenport continued on his way to the ready room. Sleep, he thought, I need some sleep. This mission could turn out to be the toughest of his career. He didn’t want to be the one to cancel a friend. It won’t come to that, he vowed. I’ll find a way....I have to find a way.

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

“Hey,” Walter called to his assistant. “Have you seen that Beretta that was laying here a few minutes ago?” He ran his hand over his head, smoothing his thinning hair back and tucking a few errant strands back under his ever present bandanna. “I could have sworn it was here a few minutes ago.” He kept looking around, as if expecting the small handgun to magically appear.

“Maybe one of the Ops going out on the retrieval mission picked it up.” Walter’s assistant surmised.

“Yeah, maybe so, but I could have sworn it was just here. The extra clip is gone too. I must be getting old.” Walter laughed and put the missing gun and clip out of his mind. He would check on it later. He still had to make one more trip to the van before it left.

“Rene, are you hiding again? Come on out.” Walter bent over and peered under his work table. “We have one more thing to check in the van, and then you have to skedaddle off to see your Mom and Alex before they leave. Now, come on out of there, we’re burning daylight!” Rene came out of his hidey-hole under Walters’ worktable and carefully pulled down and smoothed the front of the sweater he was wearing. When Walter called to him, Rene quietly followed Walter who was headed down the hallway toward Van Access. About halfway there, Rene suddenly stopped and told Walter that he wanted to talk to his Mom and Alex. Walter nodded and continued on his way. Rene grinned mischievously and headed for Grace’s quarters. He wanted to see his Mom before she, Alex and Nikita left for the hospital. And then, he had things to do and places to go.

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

Michael could feel himself getting better. His fever had broken during the night and he had broken out in a sweat that Louis had gently wiped away. Louis had been with Michael throughout his delirium, often listening aghast at the tortuous path of Michael’s life. This man has suffered enough, he thought, but what could he do about it? Nothing. He could do nothing for this young man. He was the sole support of his family and the extra francs that Dr. Sorenson paid him for his off-the-clock work helped to make the ends meet. No, he told himself, as much as he wanted to help this sick young man, he could do nothing to jeopardize his job. So, he continued to gently bath Michael’s face and attend to his personal needs, just as he had for the last two days. He knew now that Michael would survive and that soon, Hugo, evil man that he was, would eventually take Michael away. Louis feared that when he did take Michael away that the young man would soon once again need medical treatment. Hugo was a madman....