Wicked Games
Chapter 7
On her way to the Perch Madeline stopped at Comm. to give Birkoff the names of McKinsey's guardian and godfather. Birkoff, looked up from his monitors and asked, "uhh, what do you want me to do with this, I mean I've got 2 missions to run and I'm still trying to break that encryption off that disk you sent me."
Madeline not used to being questioned, especially from Birkoff spit out..."turn over all of your duties here to Hillenger for now; I want this people located as soon as possible! She leaned in closer to the hapless computer genius and said, “Till you have them, Hillenger will run comm, this is top priority! Do you understand me...Seymour?"
"Uhh, yeah...whatever you want Madeline."
Madeline with a terse "Good, notify me as soon as you have the intel I want," continued on to the Perch.
Hillenger, sitting behind Birkoff, grinned gleefully to himself. As he rubbed his hands together, he envisioned himself personally pulling the trigger when Birkoff was cancelled. He was positive he could easily break the encryption code on the disk. Running 2 missions simultaneously was going to be child's play. He straightened up and rolled his chair over to Birkoff’s station and in a sarcastic voice said, "Move over Seymour, let the resident genius get to work."
Birkoff ripped the com unit out of his ear and threw it down in disgust, as he stood up and kicked his chair away. Stalking away, he headed for systems seeking the relative peace and quiet to complete his new task leaving Greg in charge of comm.
Walter over in Munitions, witnessed the entire scene and shook his head in disgust at the games he had just seen; before he grabbed another semi-automatic and a rag plying it with a vigor he did not really feel. ‘One of these days,’ he thought. ‘They’re gonna push that boy too far.’
Madeline stopped at the stairs to the Perch to compose herself. She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders in preparation for the battle she knew was to come. Operations was likely to go ballistic after he received her intel, but when he heard that she didn't have the encryption codes....she did not look forward to that explosion.
"Well," she thought, "perhaps Hillenger can come up with them in the aftermath of Birkoff’s failure. Sometimes a little motivation in the right direction will get things back on track."
She knew when she put Greg in charge of comm instead of giving him the assignment to track down McKinsey's guardian and godfather would put a kernel of doubt in Birkoff's mind as to his usefulness. Fear has always been a great motivator, especially in Section. To give Hillenger a little power as he tended to follow his own agenda, gave her more ammunition that she would need to finally get rid of him once and for all. Give Greg a little rope and he would definitely hang himself. "Yes," she thought, "this day is finally looking up." With a smile to herself, she climbed the stairs prepared to do battle.
In Med Bay, McKinsey looked up at Michael's face, a chill of dread teasing her spine. His expression didn't bode well at all. As rapidly as she could, leaving out nothing, she repeated everything she told Madeline and answered Michael's questions as best as she could.
Finally he asked, "Can you reach your guardian and godfather by phone?" When she nodded yes, he pulled out his cell phone and handed it to her, after giving her some instructions on what he needed her to say, he took a small silver device out of his pocket and placed it below the camera mounted on the wall and said..."you have 10 minutes."
Nikita sat silent throughout the entire exchange between Michael and McKinsey started to speak, but Michael with a slight shake of his head looked at her asking her to trust him with his eyes. Letting his mask slip briefly, he let his love for her show. That was all she needed; she settled back in her chair. She waited and listened to McKinsey talk to her family.
McKinsey, after a brief conversation with her godfather Lynn told him she loved him and to wait for her guardian Duncan to contact him. Closing the phone she looked at Michael and said, "He’ll be okay, he can take care of himself… Now comes the hard one.. .Duncan won't be as easy to deal with. He's going to be very pissed off at me for not listening to him about getting involved in this mess to begin with. When he finds out that I fought Suba knowing I couldn't beat him, I'm going to wish the bastard had killed me, 'cause once Duncan gets his hands on me I'm gonna wish I were dead." With that she opened the phone and dialed the number. With one ring she was connected with her guardian, closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Forcing a note of cheerfulness she didn't feel McKinsey said, "Hi, Duncan...it's me. No, I'm okay, chill out for a sec. I need you to listen carefully to what I have to tell you, alright?” Pausing to listen to her guardian's reply McKinsey launched into her speech. After giving Michael's instructions. Then, she answered several questions trying to put the worried man at ease. Finally, telling him she loved him, she closed the phone and handed it to Michael. Laying back on her pillow, she l ooked from Michael to Nikita and back again saying, "It looks like I've jumped from the frying pan into the fire, doesn't it?"
“Yes. “ Michael answered grimly, "Yes, you have."
Nikita, finally asked, "What do we do now?"
Michael glanced at her as he removed the scrambling device from the wall said; "now we wait."