A Valentine Surprise

By Aries

Part One

Aries was walking out of her office happy that she's finally getting a break from the workload that managed to find it's way to her desk. She headed down to the cafeteria to grab a quick snack and then to her room to lie down for a while.

Aries had been lying down in her room for about an hour when her cell phone rang. Aries groaned and reached for it knowing that if she didn't, there'd be hell to pay.

"Yes?" Aries answered weary.

"Meet me in an hour." A voice responded that Aries didn't quite recognize.

"Who is this?" Aries responded instantly on guard.

"If you want to know that you'll have to meet me in an hour." The voice responded.

"I can't do that." Aries responded knowing that it would be against Section protocol.

"Yes you can." The voice responded patiently.

"Who is this?" Aries demanded getting angry.

"You know what to do to find out." The voice responded again very patiently. The patience in the voice was very clear and was irritating Aries to say the least.

"Look, I told you that I can't do that now either tell me who you are or I will find out on my own!" Aries demanded angrily.

"The only way you'll find out is to meet me. I've taken measures to make sure that you can't find out any other way." The voice responded smugly.

"There's always a way." Aries responded smartly. She knew there were ways around that to find out who he was and she intended to use every one of them to find out. She was not going to walk into a trap.

"Not this time." The voice responded. "Meet me."

"No." Aries responded and hung up her cell phone. She was tired of the games but also intrigued by the caller. Who could have gotten hold of her cell phone number since the only ones who knew it were Section operatives and she knew all of the voices of the people who would be calling her.

Determined to find out whom it was, Aries quickly got up and dressed in mission attire and headed to Section. If anyone could trace that call, it would be Birkoff.

Aries walked up to Comm and sat down in a chair next to Birkoff and smiled sweetly.

"What's up Aries?" Birkoff responded knowing that smile.

"Can you do me a really big favor?" Aries asked sweetly. She knew just how to charm Birkoff.

"You know I can't keep doing these favors for you guys! Operations is already on my back about going against Section protocol for you guys!" Birkoff said exasperated.

"I know but I don't think he'll mind this one. Plus there's something in it for you." Aries responded smiling even more at seeing the curiosity written all over Birkoff's face.

"Really? What?" Birkoff asked eager to find out what Aries could possibly offer him.

"How about a tour around the Oreo cookie factory?" Aries responded knowing that Birkoff would love that.

"No way!" Birkoff exclaimed not believing his ears. "How did you manage that?"

"I called in a few favors. So how about it? You gonna help me out?" Aries asked showing him the day pass for a tour at the factory.

"What do you need?" Birkoff asked reaching for the pass.

"I just got a call on my cell phone. I want you to trace it. Do everything that you can think of to find where the call came from and who made it." Aries responded.

"You don't know who called you on your cell phone?" Birkoff questioned surprised.

"Yeah, that's a big problem because if Operations finds out I'm receiving non-Section related calls on my phone, I'm toast!" Aries responded knowing Birkoff knew how bad of a situation that could be.

"I'll find out who it was and where they called from if I can. I'll be as discrete as I possibly can so that Operations doesn't find out. I'll also work as quickly as possible." Birkoff said turning to his computer and beginning to type. Aries reached over and slid the pass under the keyboard.

"Thanks." Birkoff said distractedly.

"No. Thank you." Aries said, planted a kiss square on Birkoff's cheek and walked towards Walter's station. Birkoff just looked up and smiled. He loved his job no matter what image he tried to present.

Part 2

Aries walked into Walter's station to find the man busily perfecting some new gadget that he'd created. He looked up at the sound of footsteps and smiled brightly.

"Well hello sweetness! What brings you here? I didn't know that you had a mission on deck." Walter asked somewhat surprised to see one of the higher operatives enter. One who rarely came to him for advice or help.

"Well, I have a problem but I need complete secrecy about it." Aries began looking around to make sure there was no one listening.

"What's up?" Walter asked knowing by the look on her face that it was serious.

"I got a call on my cell phone a few minutes ago from someone that I don't know who it is telling me to meet them in an hour. I didn't recognize the voice." Aries emphasized the part of her not knowing who it was meaning it was someone outside of Section.

"Have you talked to Birkoff?" Walter asked worried.

"Yes. He's working on tracing the call now and finding out who it was but the person who called said that the call couldn't be traced and that there was no way to find out who he was without me meeting him." Aries replied to Walter sounding a bit more urgent. The last thing she needed was to be put in abeyance for something that wasn't her fault to begin with.

"Now that could be a problem. Are you sure it isn't someone inside of Section disguising his or her voice? You know that we have voice modulators around here." Walter said thinking.

"Yeah, that's part of why I'm here. Have you handed out any of the voice modulators to anyone within the last few days that haven't been returned yet?" Aries asked looking around. She didn't know where Walter kept them.

"Let me check to make sure they're all there but I didn't give one out for use. If someone has one, it's because they took it without my knowledge." Walter replied heading over to the case that held the modulators. He opened it and sure enough, there was one missing.

"How in the hell?!" Walter exclaimed. "It was there this morning when I did inventory…"

"Well at least I know that it's someone inside of Section hopefully. I'll tell Birkoff so that it might help him out. Thanks Walter." Aries said, kissing Walter lightly on the cheek and headed off to Comm again to let Birkoff know what she'd found.

As Aries walked up to Comm, Birkoff looked up slightly worried. "I'm not finding anything. You're cell phone isn't even showing that you received a call."

"What?" Aries responded pulling out her phone. She found the call in her caller id and showed it to Birkoff. "See, I know I'm not delusional like Sherry is!"

Birkoff looked at it thoughtfully. The unknown name, unknown number was quite usual to be found on the caller ids of Section operatives’ phones but the time for this call wasn't showing up in her incoming call log. That was highly irregular.

"How could it be?" Birkoff wondered to himself.

"Could it be someone inside of Section?" Aries asked thoughtfully and remembered what she'd found out at munitions. "Hey, Walter's missing a voice modulator! I wonder if that could be tied to this!" Aries said to Birkoff in a rather hushed tone due to the operatives walking around them.

"That might be but why isn't the call showing up on your log?" Birkoff asked thoughtfully.

"I have no idea, you're the computer genius, figure it out! I've gotta get back to my office and get some work done or Operations is going to figure out that something's wrong." Aries responded standing straight up from her leaning position.

"Yeah, you'd better get back to your office. I'll let you know what I find." Birkoff responded beginning to type again.

Aries managed to make it back to her office when DeLeah caught up with her.

"Hey! How are things going? What's wrong?" DeLeah was rather cheerful as she approached her friend and superior until she saw the look on her friend's face.

"Come on." Aries said and motioned DeLeah into her office.

The entered and closed the door. Aries turned off surveillance then sat down in her chair looking at DeLeah.

"I've got one hell of a problem. I got a call on my cell phone a little bit ago and I didn't recognize the voice of the caller. They said the only way to find out who it was is to meet them (Aries looked at her watch) right about now. I have Birkoff looking into it but the call I received isn't even showing up on my incoming call log. Plus Walter's missing a voice modulator. So right now it could be someone inside or outside of Section and I don't know." Aries said rubbing her hand across her forehead worried.

"Yeah, I'd say you have a problem. Anything that I can do?" DeLeah asked willing to help her friend.

"Yeah, find out where Michael is now and was at the time the call was placed. He's the only one I can think of who would do this." Aries responded looking up at DeLeah.

"Are you sure it was Michael? I thought he was spending Valentine's with Sherry." DeLeah responded.

"No, he was spending it with me. We have plans to attend the dance together remember?" Aries responded.

"Oh yeah, that's right! Sorry!" DeLeah couldn't believe that she'd forgotten that. Maybe she was just too preoccupied with Antonio lately.

"No problem. Will you do that for me?" Aries asked.

"Yeah, I'm on it. I'll let you know what I find out soon!" DeLeah said and headed out of the door.

Just as the door shut behind DeLeah, Aries' cell phone rang.


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