Slowly she walked down the stairs. Careful not to fall and careful not to let go of the doll she held tightly to her chest. Fear ran throughout her body as she got closer and closer to her sister. The overwhelming fear almost stopped her from getting closer. But she had to see. She had to see what she had done for this little doll.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs she could see that her sister was definitely dead. There was no hope at all that the body lying before her could be alive. Her neck had contorted horribly. She could see a bone protruding from the delicate skin of the child. Blood had pooled all around the body staining the white dress she wore. A dress just likes that of her killer.
She stood over the body in shock. Not a word could be uttered from her lips. All she could do was stare at her sister with wide eyes. What she had done, what she was capable of doing brought fear into her heart.
Suddenly she heard something behind her. A door was shoved open violently and then a scream. She recognized the scream of her mother.
"Madeline, Madeline what have you done!" Mother yelled at the top of her lungs and ran towards the body of her dead child. She held the child in her arms crying over it. "Go get some help, hurry!"
She couldn’t do as her mother told her. All she could do was stand and stare at her sister. She couldn’t even tell her mother she was sorry. The words wouldn’t come to her
"Madeline can you hear me!" She screamed angrily glaring at her daughter.
"What have you done to her. How could you do this to me!"
Madeline awoke with a start. Her heart was racing and her body was covered with sweat. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked at the clock. Only three a.m. much earlier than she would have liked. But sleep wasn’t an option anymore. She couldn’t go back to those dreams.
Getting out of bed Madeline grabbed the robe she had thrown on the floor the night before. She put the robe on over her nightgown as she walked downstairs. Lazily she made some tea and sat on a sofa facing the window.
Looking out from her penthouse she could see the entire city. It was so
early in the morning yet it was very full of life. She yearned to be out
there enjoying all life had to offer. But that would never happen. Her
life of freedom was gone and it would never be back again
Nikita sat back on the bench and put her sunglasses on. Sitting on a hill overlooking the park she could see everything and everyone. There were children playing and people on their lunch break eating on the grass. Everything was so serene. Nikita just sat and enjoyed it.
Suddenly a voice interrupted her trance. "Nikita do you see him yet?" It was Birkoff getting impatient.
"No not yet." She scanned the park again to make sure. "I don’t think he’s gonna show up"
"Well why don’t you stay a little longer and maybe he will." Birkoff broke the communication and left Nikita in her own world.
Looking down on the park again she couldn’t see the man they wanted. He was a high ranking government official who had recently resigned from his office. Apparently just before he resigned he received a very large sum of money in his bank account. Section has suspected that he was selling information to an outside group. With the money they were sure of it. Nikita had to bring him in so they could find out what information was sold.
Out of the corner of her eye Nikita saw something. It was him, he was walking towards a park bench with his lunch in his hands. Not on time but he did show up just like he did every day.
"Birkoff I got him." To an outsider it would seem she was speaking to thin air. But if you looked very closely you could see she was talking to the Comm unit stuck in her ear.
"Ok Nikita. I’ll tell you when."
Her senses heightened and her heart started beating a little faster as she got ready. Nikita watched as he sat on his bench and started eating. It seemed he was oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn’t even notice the men in black coats wandering around him.
"Nikita go." She heard and started walking toward their man. He didn’t even look up as she sat next to him.
"Hello, beautiful day isn’t it?" Nikita said in a relaxed voice.
He looked up and smiled at her. "Oh yes it is. It’s very nice."
"It’s a shame you won’t get to enjoy the rest of it." She said as she pointed her gun at his ribs being careful not to reveal it to any onlookers. He looked at her confused for a moment then noticed the gun pointing at him. A realization of what was happening came over him. "Why don’t you come with us quietly."
Two men in black clothing appeared and took the man by his arms. He didn’t resist he just went with them. He knew that resisting would be futile.
"Where are you taking me?" His voice was shallow scared.
"You’ll find out soon. Don’t worry everything will be just fine." Nikita followed as he was taken into a van never to see the outside world again.
"Birkoff we’re coming in."
The heavy metal door swung open and Madeline walked into the white room. Sitting in the interrogation chair was a man. His eyes were bloodshot. He had obviously been crying. She could see sweat glistening on his forehead and soaking into his shirt. He was afraid, just as he should be.
"Mr. Loftus," She said with a soothing voice. "I have some questions to ask you."
His body was trembling as he watched her. He knew what was to come if he did not cooperate. "Why do you want me? I don’t know anything!"
Madeline smiled. "We know you have been selling information. We know you have received a great deal of money for it. What we don’t know is who you told and what exactly you revealed to them."
He calmed down a little bit as he realized he had been caught. "If you are so smart why can’t you find all this out for yourself!"
"We are going to find out Mr. Loftus. That is why you are here. We will do whatever it takes to get this information from you. I am very serious when I say that."
Loftus looked very sternly at her. "I won’t tell you a thing. They will kill me if I do."
"Yes you will tell me." Madeline walked behind the chair. "Or else we will kill you. There is no way around that."
"Well if your going to kill me anyway why should I tell you anything!" His fear was turning into anger as the conversation went on.
"Because Mr. Loftus if you don’t tell me your family might come to some harm." Madeline pointed a remote control to a monitor across from them. It blinked to life showing a white room just like the one they were in, but inside this one were two other figures. It was a woman and a child. They were both strapped to chairs just like that Loftus was in. The child was crying and the woman was talking trying to soothe him.
"What are you doing to them!" Loftus tried to get out of his restraints but it was futile he would never get out of them. "You wouldn’t hurt them! They’re my family!"
"Yes Mr. Loftus." Madeline turned the monitor off and stood in front of him again. "We will do whatever it takes to learn what you know. Even if it means killing your family."
"Please don’t hurt them." He looked at Madeline with sorrowful eyes.
"If you tell us what we want to know your family will go free. If you refuse us they will be tortured and killed." Madeline said bluntly.
"Ok, fine I will tell you everything you need to know. Just don’t hurt them." Loftus decided to resign to his fate.
"Very good."
There was a strange feeling in the air as Nikita came into section. As she strolled through the halls and into the heart of section she saw why it was so strange. There was nobody there. Only Birkoff working at his station. Not even Ops was watching over them.
"What’s going on?" Nikita asked as she sat next to Birkoff at his computer. "Where is everyone?"
"Michael went to Paraguay with his team. There is an emergency there and most of sections recourses have been sent there." He continued typing not even looking at Nikita. "Madeline wants to see you in her office."
"Do you know what this is about?"
"No." Birkoff said. "But I bet it is pretty important if you have been held behind from the Paraguay mission."
Nikita stood up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Ok I’ll see ya later Birkoff."
Thoughts raced through her head as Nikita walked to her meeting with Madeline. She couldn’t figure out why she would have been held behind from Paraguay. As far as she knew she wasn’t in abeyance. She pushed the thoughts away and decided it couldn’t be that bad if she had been called in.
The office door swooshed open and she saw Madeline and Ops sitting across from each other. Both of them had smiles on their faces. It was a strange sight for Nikita to see a smile on Ops face.
As soon as they noticed Nikita their smiles faded to the stern cold demeanor that was so common in section. "We’ve been expecting you." Madeline said.
"Is something wrong?" Nikita stood at the door waiting for the invitation to come any further.
"Come sit down Nikita." Ops stood up and gave Nikita his seat.
Nikita sat and watched both of them. Their faces were stolid. She couldn’t figure out what was going on. Ops took his place behind Madeline and put a hand on her shoulder.
"A matter of extreme urgency has come up." Ops began. "I doubt you’ve ever heard of the M9 project?"
"No I haven’t." Nikita gave them a confused look.
"The M9 project was created to program the perfect operatives." Madeline broke in. "They take juvenile offenders and train them much like you were trained. They are basically programmed to do all the things you do. They are raised in this environment and it is all they know. With these M9’s Nikita you would be outdated. They can do anything you can do but better."
Nikita’s mind raged at the thought of children being raised in this sort of environment. It was horrible and inhumane. Children being killers was not right. She chose not to say anything knowing it wouldn’t help the situation. She has known the ways of section long enough to know it wouldn’t help.
"For certain reasons the project had been shut down for twenty years." Ops said. "But according to Mr. Loftus it was reactivated without our knowledge."
"Ah so there are certain things you don’t know." Nikita stated with a little grin.
Ops just glared at her and continued. "Apparently Mr. Loftus and his cohorts took it upon themselves to reactivate the project. Only a handful of people knew about the project. But they are dead now. One of the subjects for the project has escaped and in the process of escaping destroyed the M9 compound and anyone having anything to do with the project. Mr. Loftus was the only one to survive."
"So you want me to go get the escapee?" It was more of a statement than a question. "And I guess you want him back alive so you can use him for your own needs."
"That’s enough Nikita!" He pounded his fist on the table. "It is none of your concern what is done with the subject. All I want you to do is get the subject back."
Nikita sat back in her chair knowing it was no use to fight section.
"There is one problem though." Ops straightened his shirt and went back to his calm demeanor. "Loftus has given the location of the subject to Logos. Now Logos is a relatively new terrorist group trying to make a name for themselves. It will help them a great deal to obtain this M9. We have to get the M9 before they do."
"Will I be working alone?"
"No, because of her expertise on the subject you and Madeline will be working together. I do not want any foul ups, and bring the M9 back alive!" Ops eyed Nikita as he walked out of the room.
Madeline who had been sitting silently the whole time gave Nikita a little smile as the door shut. "Well it looks like we will be working together again. I must tell you I have been looking forward to working with you."
Nikita smiled back but was weary. She knew there was always something behind what Madeline did and said. She had learned a lot of tricks from her but there was still a lot Madeline had up her sleeves.
"This is the M9 we are looking for." Madeline swiveled her monitor to face Nikita.
What Nikita saw shocked her. It was the face of a young girl. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen. She had brown hair and brown eyes almost what she would have thought Madeline looked like when she was younger. But the thought of this little girl killing so many people was something she could not fathom.
"Don’t judge her by her looks Nikita." Madeline knew exactly what she was thinking. "She is a very well trained killer and will kill you if she finds that necessary."
"She is just a child!" Nikita stood up her face was red with anger. "The Section would be so cruel as to have this child work for them? That is wrong!"
"Nikita sit down!" Madeline raised her voice, which was a very rare thing. "You don’t need to be worrying about what section does with her. All you have to worry about is getting her and coming back alive."
Nikita sat down but her anger did not subside. But she did manage to hide it. One of the things she had learned from Madeline and Michael. It was something you needed to know how to do in section. Mask your feelings. It was taking time but she was getting better at it.
"This M9 has been part of the project for ten years. She has excelled in everything she has done. Part of the reason we want her back. We do have a general location on her but Logos has a few days lead on us. We have to find her before they do." Madeline stared right into her eyes. "If they get her she will be the greatest threat we have ever faced. I do not want that to happen."
Nikita’s mind went back to the work at hand. "So where do we start looking?"
"The M9 compound was in the New England area. We think that she will still be around hiding out somewhere. We will be leaving within the hour to search."
Nikita got out of her seat and headed toward the door. Just as she was about to step through she paused and turned around. "By the way does she go by a name other than M9?"
"Yes," Madeline’s face changed almost saddened. "Her name is Sarah."