6.05 CLOSE YOUR EYES AND YOU'LL REALLY SEE
Springtime enriched the air with new smells and the French countryside was full of bright colours. Days were getting longer and the sun shone hot on the cities by letting people feel like hanging around again to enjoy the open air. Parks, show-rooms, fairs were going to open, as well as the concert season and the hotels of the capital were crowded by tourists. But the alternating of the seasons didn't seem to be important to the boys of Section, imprisoned in 200 metres under ground.
Quinn and Nikita were waiting for Jason's call with much impatience, there were few hours left before the attack and Section One still wondered what to do. Pols1 had been spending many hours in the White Room, trying hard to get some intel from the prisoner.
Jason: Here we are, girls. The contact came on Comm at last. From what I'm able to understand, he's unaware.
Nikita: What do you mean?
Jason: He was installed a timer about a year ago but it turned on just one hour ago"
"But, if he is unaware, who installed it, then?" Quinn said, confused.
Jason: it turned on automatically… it's clear it is a timer-code and, most important, a recall code.
Nikita: Recall to what?
Jason: To a missile, I think.
Nikita and Quinn looked at each other petrified: What mad terrorist could bring a missile in the middle of the day, in an unknown point in Paris?
As matter of fact, somebody was mad enough. Nikita put her hands on the table, swallowed and asked Jason for more details.
"Watch out, Jason, we must find that terrorist, ok?
"Of course, Nikita, I found the list of the recruits, but they're all code-names we haven't in our database. Difficult to find the one they chose, I'm working on that. At the moment, I can only tell you that the signal is from a zone in the North of Paris, I'm sending the dates for the sequence."
Nikita put the microphone on the desk and reached Pols1 who was coming through the large room.
"We have an intel at last. Did you get to know anything more?"
"No, unfortunately, Harry and Elisabeth couldn't upset him enough. His threshold of pain is very high. We'll have to use a different approach." Pols1 answered.
"Jason got to catch the signal, Quinn is recovering the team, we'll leaving immediately."
As they got out of the van, they looked around in a suspicious mood… they didn't know who they were looking for, the unaware-terrorist could be anybody.
Nikita guided the team, Horizon and Trent followed her walking behind, Quinn passed them Jason's possible comm. The second team moved from the opposite side, many operatives wearing some cameras in their sun glasses and the images were sent to Section command where Pols1 controlled them, hoping he could recognize someone.
Josephine entered the White Room, she hadn't got to know if Viktor had spoken or not, but she perfectly knew he couldn't live much longer, Section One didn't let the prisoners live but used to get rid of them soon and she wanted a chance to say goodbye. That boy gave her feelings of love and tenderness, the role of a terrorist wasn't suitable to him at all.
"I'm sorry it ended this way." Josephine said getting close to him.
"Don't care… if it wasn't up to Section, it would have been up to someone else… the only thing I'm sorry about is that they've stopped us". He touched her hand with his forefinger. He was imprisoned on the steel chair, he had got the twins' tortures and was aware of his eventual death but despite of that his body, his eyes, his lips were in an amazing fashion. Josephine unchained his wrists; it was risky but she couldn't watch him in that plight. She made him stand up and brought him to the Infirmary.
The second team was placed near the entry-gate of the greatest park in Europe while Nikita's team was scattered in the crowd.
Pols1 didn't stop watching the screen… he was the only one able to recognize a soldier of the collective but there were too many people and he decided to set the image in different screens, so that other operatives could help him, especially Walter.
"Pols1, can you hear me?"
"Yes Jason, go ahead."
"Another signal, the intel is now clear… you should be already able to see it, it's just there"
"Jason, here there are two signals, one of them is towards the opposite side"
"you must ignore one, Pols1, it's there to mislead the frequence. Call back the boys, they must go to east".
Pols1 analysed the origin of the two signals, one was from the Love Tunnel, the other from the area kept for Gran Canyon exploration. There was no time, he had to move by intuition-
"Nikita, we have less than one hour left" Pols1 said worried.
Nikita: "We're dividing into two groups, we're going to the Tunnel, Horizon to the other side. We can't see anything suspicious, is Jason able to tell us more?"
Pols1.: "No, unfortunately there's only a way to stop the timer, you must find and kill him!"
Nikita: "Is that the only way?"
Pols1: "yes, Nikita, if he dies before the fixed time, the countdown will stop!".
Meanwhile, Josephine was taking Viktor from the Infirmary to the White Room… she could do nothing else for him…Viktor got free from the girl and went close to one of the panels transmitting the mission. "THERE HE IS!" he said by showing the screen with his forefinger. "It's him!".
Josephine got close gazing but she couldn't recognize anybody, she looked at Viktor:
"which one? Tell me which one!"
"Too late, he got out of the screen but your team is upon him!"
Josephine ran looking for Walter, she had to re-load the sequences, Viktor had recognised the assailant.
Nikita and Trent were positioned at the Love Tunnel exit, four operatives guarded over them. Jason had got to catch the signal, the terrorist was hiding there inside, protected by the crowd of tourists but certainly one of the small ships that were ending their tour.
Quinn: Nikita, the signal is closer…10 metres… 7 metres… 5, 4, 3, 2 you should see him now…. Nikita? Nikita, are you there?
No, Nikita wasn't there… she had always hated her job, killing in cool blood wasn't the way she was, especially if she had to do it to him… Michael… her Michael who smiled while getting out of the ship with Adam.
Nikita couldn't believe that, Michael was the assailant… they looked at each other with such an intensity that they made everyone else disappear all around…their eyes fell in a vortex of feelings that went through out their lives had become…it was as if time had stopped. Nikita couldn't breathe while going towards him, Michael thought of the chance to escape, he didn't want to deal with Section again but Horizon kept him under control with his gun and there was Adam, he didn't want him to be involved in a shooting.
"Nikita, report!" Quinn asked.
"Call back the teams, Quinn, we've got him"
"Good, kill him, we have less than five minutes".
Her eyes were full of tears: how could it take her just five minutes to meet her lover, saying goodbye and kill him? Nobody in the world could do something like that but she was asked to do it. Life had been really cruel to her.
Michael got closer to her to dry her tears and touch her face like nobody else could do. He didn't say a word, he always let his eyes talk for him. Nikita kissed his cheek crying like a child and told Trent to take Adam to the van. Michael kissed his son goodbye even if didn't know Nikita's intention yet. His pride didn't allow him to make questions but he understood that the team was there for him. Nikita went behind and got free from Michael's body; it was the last thing she wanted to do but that was her job, she couldn't allow that signal to turn on, whatever the target was, whatever she felt, she had to be always able to face it… strange, she thought about Michael's words after her first mission at the restaurant. Nikita got to face it as better as possible: she asked Michael to close his eyes, got a little further and put her gun against him…
Quinn called her:
"Nikita, we got his file from Section… I've just downloaded him… it's terrible… it's…"
"Yes Quinn, I know".
The two didn't stop gazing each other. Michael couldn't believe he had a gun put against himself by Nikita… among all the innocents she had saved, did she have to kill just him?
She put her han on Michael's abdomen, she had to push out the shirt to control that he had the scar. She closed her eyes for a second, hoping that car didn't exist. And actually, it didn't. Michael's abdomen didn't have any scar, she checked out controlling in his back ad anywhere. Nikita's eyes went few metres long:
"TRENT, STOP!". She got close to Adam and looked at him. "I'm sorry, Adam" said to keep him calm. But the child looked at her as a stranger and said "who are you?". It was possible for Adam to forget her but they had spent much time together at Elena's place and the fact that he didn't recognize her at all was pretty strange. She pushed out Adam's shirt and did saw it: near his heart a distinct cut. She stood up and gave Trent a signal that made him understand he had to keep Michael quiet while she ended her dirty job.
"Nikita, 30 seconds, you must do it now, you have no more time left" Quinn said.
"He's just a kid….
"No, Nikita he isn't you must kill him now!"
Nikita held her Beretta 92F and shot once, straight to the heart, Adam's body fell down while Michael ran shouting his son's name. He tried a rescue but there was nothing to do. Nikita came to him and whispered touching his hair "I was killing you, I was killing you…"
Trent got close, took the child from Michael's arms and took him to the van. Michael was upset, he had suffered other times the loss of people he loved but now he couldn't understand what was happened.
M. "How could you do that to my child?"
N. "No, Michael, that wasn't Adam. I know it' hard for you to believe it now, but if I didn't do that, a missile would have destroyed the whole area in few seconds".
M."What does that mean? How can it deal with Adam?<br>
Nikita held Michael's face in her hands and pushed him to believe her:
"Do you really think I could kill Adam or any other innocent child?"
M. "Where's my son?"
N. "I don't know, but I know who will say it. Let's go…"
Never a team coming back from a mission had been followed by so many looks. It looked like an old image seen scene by scene: the door opening, the team scattering around, Michael and Nikita together… together again walking slowly, but the same way.
Hildita for Cynbythesea