Tech 101

Chapter Three- Things aren't going As Planned

Nikita and Owen parked their SUV outside of the apartment building.  “Where the hell are we?” Owen looked around at the empty fields surrounding the apartment building on the far side of the campus.

            Rolling her eyes, Nikita walked towards the lobby for the campus apartment building.  It had been a drive from the airport to get there and the campus was on the very edge of town boarding farm fields as far as the eyes could see.  “Shut up Owen.  We’re here on business.”

            Making sure no one was around, Nikita used the card deice Birkhoff had crafted for them to get into the building.  Sliding it into the card reader, she held it there until it created a correct ID for them to unlock the door.  The door popped open and they casually walked into the building.  Nikita was surprised at how few people were around- the apartment building halls were completely empty and quiet.  “Does anyone actually go to school here?” Owen asked.

            “I guess everyone went home for winter break.” Nikita watched the room numbers as they walked down the hall.  “Birkhoff,” she keyed her earpiece.  “What number room are we looking for?”

            “Ah,” Birkhoff double check the notes as his voice greeted them over their ear pieces. “117. Should be at the far end of the hall from where you are now.”

            “Here.” Owen pointed to a door as they got there.

            Nikita swiped the device again to get into the room.  The room wasn’t very big- a tiny living room with cheap furniture, a small kitchen that was part of the same room and a small hallway that lead to the bathroom and bedrooms.  The apartment was silent, there didn’t appear to be anywhere there.  As Nikita looked around for any sign of the girl being in the room, Owen disappeared down the small hallway to look in the bedrooms and bathroom.  “She’s not here.” Nikita reported back to everyone waiting in operations.  “Birkhoff, can you figure out where she is?”

            “She’s not there?” Birkhoff sounded surprised.  “She’s supposed to be there.  I’ve checked their scans for the last two months and she is just about always there at this time.  Her roommate too.”

            “Nikita!” Owen called her from the other room.

            Walking down the hall, Nikita saw the light in the bathroom on and went in to find Owen kneeling next to the tub.  When she got closer, she realized that Owen was closely studying the bottom of the tub.  “What is it?” she asked him.

            “Acid.” Owen showed her the wetness on the bottom of the tub, eating through the toweling he had used to wipe it up.

            “We have a problem.” Nikita reported back to Operations.

            “What kind of problem?” Michael asked.

            “Acid in the tub.” Nikita walked back in the living room looking for any signs of a struggle.  “Birkhoff, are there any cameras here?”

            “Only on the outside of the building.  I’ll have Sonya check the videos.” Birkhoff replied, as Sonya nodded in confirmation that she heard him, heading over to her station to begin her search.  “I checked through the ID card swipes, and both her and her roommate had swiped in the last hour.”

            Back at Division, Sonya was quickly reviewing the video feeds from the front of the apartment building.  Suddenly, her eye caught something.  “I got it.” Sonya shouted, “Amanda and an accomplice left with a huge trunk about a half hour ago.”

            Birkhoff and Michael rushed over to the monitor and looked at the image on the screen.  Sure enough Amanda had not done anything to hide that she was abducting the young woman.  “The tub must have been the roommate.” Nikita guessed with disappointment in her voice.

            “Alright.” Michael finally decided.  “Get back here.  We’ll have to find out where Amanda has taken her and regroup.

            “What if she doesn’t move her very far?  Amanda is awfully desperate right now and she’s acting in an awful hurry.  She may try to get the father to Green Bay since he may know his daughter is here rather than move her and make him try to find them.“ Nikita suggested, wanting to make sure they were accounting for everything that could happen.

            “She’s got a point.” Ryan finally made a statement after having stood back to watch for the first part of the mission.  “Nikita and Owen, hold in Green Bay.  We’ll get back to you when we find something out.”

            “Great.” Owen rolled his eyes.  “We get to stay in the middle of nowhere.”

            Nikita rolled her eyes again, walking back towards the SUV.  Her resolve to rescue Jaymee had only grown greater now that an innocent victim- her roommate, got caught in the middle.  This job got harder and harder the further that they went.  She wanted to end this game with Amanda once and for all before more innocent people got hurt. 

            Meanwhile Birkhoff and Sonya worked desperately to find Amanda and the young girl.  They used the video of Amanda leaving the campus and ran searches for the vehicle.  They worked checking traffic cameras, although Green Bay didn’t have a lot of them, and check the business parking lots to try to find Amanda.  Birkhoff was chugging another energy drink as he worked at his computer as quickly as possible.  “I got it!” Sonya shouted!

            Birkhoff, Michael and Ryan ran quickly over to Sonya’s station.  “I just did a 40 mile radius search from the campus for vehicles matching that description.  Heat signature shows three people in the car.” Sonya reported.

            “Excellent work.” Michael told her.

            Birkhoff had to fight the urge to kiss her right in front of everyone.  It was exciting to see her work her magic with the computer.  “Great job.” He whispered in her ear.

            Sonya smiled as Ryan asked, “So where are we??”

            “Oh, I thought Green Bay was the middle of nowhere.” Owen complained, stepping out of their SUV.

            They had driven about half-an-hour outside of Green Bay to a small town called Luxembourg.  The whole drive had been farm fields and so far that was all the small town had been to.  “So where are they?” Nikita asked Birkhoff through her earpiece.

            “A warehouse about a block east of you.” Birkhoff replied to her.

            “How many guards are there?” Owen asked, still in disbelief over the tiny town they were in.

            “Only four, two on both sides- North and South.” Birkhoff reported back.

            “Well that’s good.  They won’t see us approaching.” Nikita commented.

            Owen took his gun out of the back of the SUV and racked it.  Nikita grabbed her and they headed towards the warehouse to rescue the young girl.