Katy was alone at the computer terminal when Michael approached her. Birkoff had left a little while ago, after assigning her several tasks to be done before he returned.

Birkoff was an O.K. boss to have in Section One, she thought. He was cynical and demanding, but he treated her with a grudging respect. Especially since she had beaten him handily at Quake the last few times.

There were some perks to her job, after all. Birkoff was cute and sometimes he even had red licorice instead of black. He was the boss of your dreams, Katy thought, compared to what the cold ops had to put up with. She shuddered. Operations and Madeleine scared her. They filled her with cold dread. Mercifully, she had encountered them only a few times.

"Birkoff will be back in a hour, Sir," Katy said, looking up at Michael who had stopped next to her desk. "I can get him for you if you need him..." she said, reaching for the phone.

"I didn't come to see Birkoff," said Michael, returning her gaze with his intense green eyes. "Madeleine wants to see us. Now. In her office."

Katy froze for a minute. She tried to recall screwing up anything enough seriously enough to require a lecture from Madeleine and came up blank. Maybe Michael knew what this was about.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked.

"No," he said in his usual calm voice. "We're being briefed on a mission. Let's go." He allowed a note of impatience to come into his voice. Katy got up quickly and followed him down the hall.

"Please come in." Madeleine smiled at them as they stood before her desk. She looked at the younger woman appraisingly for a moment before speaking.

Katy was young, around nineteen, and very pretty in her own way. She did not have the overtly sexy and drop-dead gorgeous looks of Nikita, but with her flawless white skin, gray eyes, and glossy black hair, she too was beautiful in a more understated way.

Her shyness would also be a plus on this mission, thought Madeleine. She was perfect for it.

"You'll be working with Michael on this assignment. Our target is an arms dealer named Conrad Barons. We need to get close to him..."

Katy relaxed. "You want me to hack into his computer, then?" she asked. That was something she could manage, at any rate. Her computer skills were why she was recruited.

"No, we need to bring him in," answered Madeleine. "But we need to entice him with a weakness of his..."

"A weakness?" Katy was totally confused now. She couldn't imagine what Madeleine needed her for. Did Barons have a weakness for playing Quake? Katy wondered.

"Yes," responded Madeleine. "He has a fondness for hookers. You'll pose as one; Michael will be your pimp..."

Katy didn't have time to recoup from the shock of this statement before she received another one, just as great.

Looking from Michael to Katy, Madeleine ordered,"Let's see you two kiss..."

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

Michael, too, had been surprised by this assignment, but had stood impassively next to Katy so far. Now, at Madeleine's order he moved toward Katy and put his hand across the back of the stunned girl's shoulder. She stood frozen in shock but jumped back away from him when he leaned his face close to hers for the kiss.

Katy took a few more steps backward and looked at Madeleine. "Look, I'm not the one you need to do this. Nikita...."

Madeleine cut her off. "Nikita is not Barons' type. She is frankly too mature and too obviously...experienced for his taste."

Madeleine got up from her desk and walked toward Katy. She touched her lightly on the shoulder and smiled. "He prefers his partners to be pristine and untouched. He wants virgins."

Madeleine lifted Katy's chin up with her hand and looked into her face. "Like you," she said.

Katy's gasp of panic and her tears confirmed Madeleine's suspicions. "That's true, isn't it?" she pressed.

Katy just looked at the floor, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Answer the question," Madeleine said quietly when Katy didn't respond.

"Uh....yes..." the girl barely whispered.

"Are you gay?" Madeleine went on.

"No. No I'm not." Katy looked up at Madeleine. Anywhere but at Michael. She took a breath and said defensively, before Madeleine could embarass her further, "....and I'm not frigid, or hung up, or anything like that. I had chances to...I had offers..." She paused, then said,"I just didn't take anyone up on them..." She finished, this time daring to dart a quick glance at Michael, and then looking away.

"What about since you were recruited in Section?" Madeleine quizzed her. "Have you formed any attachments here?"

Katy thought, if I wasn't so afraid of the consequences, I'd slap her. She let the anger show in her voice. "I thought getting attached could get me killed...Me and whoever I cared about..."

She looked at Michael, thinking about how hard it must be for him and Nikita. "Madeleine, please," she begged, "do we have to discuss this in front of Michael?"

"Yes, we do." Madeleine tilted her head, observing her. "You're right, relationships aren't allowed. But a casual, purely physical contact is another thing..."

Katy looked at her, her defiance comming from her desparation. "Madeleine, obviously I don't know how to do 'casual'. I don't want to know how to do 'casual'. And I especially don't want to learn how with this creep Barons..."

Michael watched her admiringly. Not many people stood up to Madeleine. Katy would still have to obey. Section would try to break her, like they tried to break him and Nikita. He thought this was a particularly cruel way to do it; have her innocence taken by their sadistic target, Barons. Michael had no taste for his part in this assignment.

Madeleine surprised them both when she said, "Barons won't teach you. Michael will."

Katy looked at him. His eyes were widened in surprise and his face had lost color. She knew he was as shocked as she was.

"Barons will expect someone with some skills in seduction..." Madeleine continued. "He doesn't actually require a technical virgin; just a close approximation will do."

Katy startled. Had Madeleine told her what she had earlier to get her to confess? What kind of game was she playing?

"Michael," ordered Madeleine, "You'll prepare for the mission in room four. See that Katy's...problem is allieviated before you leave on your mission tomorrow night."

The couple stood rooted to the spot until Madeleine finally said, "You're dismissed," with a little smile.

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

Room four was like an elegantly appointed apartment. It had no windows, but other than that, the room could have come from a decorating magazine.

Katy glanced quickly away from the door to the bedroom and leaned against the back of the couch, warily watching Michael.

He settled himself on the other end of the couch, perching on the arm. He looked at her sympathetically. He didn't want to make her any more nervous than she already was.

"Katy," he began, "tell me about....."

"About how I got to be such a loser? A reject?" Katy interjected, her voice choked with tears. "Why? so you can report to Madeleine all about it? So everyone in Section can have a good laugh?" She looked around the apartment. "Are you video-taping this so everyone can enjoy the big joke?"

Michael answered quietly, his voice low and intense. "No one's video-taping anything. No one will know anything about this. Just you and me. I give you my word."

Katy looked at him. If she could believe him, having a secret that only Michael and Madeleine knew about could mean her chances were good that he was right. Maybe no one would know.

Michael finished the question he had tried to ask before. "Tell me about the boy. What was his name?"

Katy looked and him, startled, and answered automatically. "Peter. His name was Peter. And he had green eyes and curly brown hair, like you..." She said, looking at these same features on Michael. "Honest!" She smiled a little.

He smiled back. "Go on. Tell me about Peter."

She sighed. "It was love at first sight. For me. I was seven years old. We went all through school together as best friends. Only trouble was, he thought of me not as his true love, but as..."

"A sister," said Michael.

"Yes. It was O.K. until he was about fifteen and he discovered other girls. He dated all my friends. I got to hear all about how romantic he was from them..." Katy said, her eyes filled with pain.

Michael could guess the rest. "But you waited for him to notice you. And one day, he did? He was the one to offer you the chance to..."

"Yes." Katy nodded. "I guess he was between girlfriends then. Maybe he was bored that day, I don't know..." She looked down at the floor. "He didn't ask me out or anything. He just said, didn't I want to? Like he was God's gift. He took it for granted I would just leap at the chance. He was so surprised when I turned him down.."

Michael pursed his mouth in a grim line. He respected her for her loyalty and devotion. He was also thinking that Peter sounded like a total jerk.

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

"Didn't you still want him, then?" asked Michael.

"Yes. I mean, no..." She looked at Michael and continued earnestly. "See, it's one thing if I had been first on his list. Or second, or even fifth... But twentieth was hard to take. I wanted to be number one to him, like he was to me. I wanted to be the one and only one, not just..." Katy struggled to finish.

"Just what?"

"I didn't want to be just more material, O.K.?" Michael startled at her words. Katy continued. "Oh, I know that's what they call us. The material. We're.....stuff to be used, that's all." She shook her head. "I don't like being material..."

"I'm sorry," said Michael.

"No, Michael, I'm sorry." She looked up at him. "I know I'm not the material you want. I know I'm not Nikita. Not even close. Nikita is deep sapphire blue velvet, and I'm....corduroy or something. Maybe cheesecloth..." She laughed ruefully.

Michael stood up and went to stand before her, taking her hand gently in his and looking into her eyes.

He appreciated her sensitivity toward his feelings when he knew she was terrified and humiliated. He admired her bravery and strength. He let the admiration show in his eyes.

"Katy, you're not those things to me..." he said softly, caressing her fingers with his. "You're not cheesecloth or corduroy; nothing so plain or so ordinary." He kissed her fingers lightly.

"You are beautiful, Katy. You are special.." He kissed her then on the lips, even more lightly and gently than he had kissed her fingers.

"To me, tonight, you are ...pure white satin..."

She stood perfectly still, looking at him. She didn't know what to do. She trembled. "Michael...." she sobbed.

He very slowly put his arms around her and held her tenderly, stroking her hair comfortingly. "Shhh," he said. "It's O.K....." He held her that way against his chest for a long time until her trembling stopped.

He lifted her face up to his and kissed her softly again. "Katy," Michael said, "would you do me the honor of being my one and only tonight?"

He kissed her on both cheeks lightly, then on her mouth again, this time more deeply. "Please..." he begged, his arms tightening around her.

She answered him by kissing him back. Shyly at first, but then more eagerly.

He lifted her up and carried her to the bed. She broke the kiss to bury her face in his glossy hair. Mmmmm, Michael, she thought. You'll be my favorite "material" tonight..... Black silk... She laughed to herself.

It was the last coherent thought she had before they landed together on the bed, Michael on top of her. Then all her capacity for reason was completely lost when he began kissing her again, first on her mouth, and then lower.....

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

Katy stepped warily into the hall and headed toward her work station. Inexplicably, she had not been sent on the mission to get Barons after all. According to Madeleine, he had been killed by some associate of his whom he had double-crossed in an arms deal. Or so she had been told.

Katy suspected she had been lied to and set up, but she wasn't sure. It was hard to know the truth in Section One.

One truth she did know, however. Michael HAD appreciated her last night. In several different ways. And more than once. She smiled.

Katy had awakened this morning, nestled against Michael's chest, feeling not cheapened, or degraded, or used, but beautifu, desirable, womanly.

She sighed. With some trepidation, she took her seat at the computer terminal. She'd find out now if Michael had kept his word about not telling anyone.

"Katy," Birkoff said distractedly. "Good. You're here. I need you to finish these...." He shoved some disks her way and went back to eating his licorice, ignoring her.

Katy sighed. No one knew. She looked over at Birkoff speculatively. Mmmm, she wondered, taking a piece of licorice for herself, maybe I'll try to get Birkoff's crushed brown velvet to 'quake'.... She laughed.

She allowed herself to twirl one full circle around in her chair before she got to work.

"What's so funny?" Birkoff asked.

"Oh, nothing," Katy answered. To herself, she smiled and said, Nothing, Darling. You're just next on my list.....

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