By Curlly

Prelude

Curlly pushed her glasses up her nose. Whenever the visual came up during a briefing, Curlly always experienced a short shooting pain in her eyes. Blinking the pain went away and she was able to focus on what Operations was saying.

"We lost David Fanning on his first mission after making operative status. His wife killed him rather unpleasantly. Intel suggests that after seeing her husband die, Lisa Fanning went crazy. In the following years she started her own organization Green Rebel."

Michael was sitting to Curlly’s left and she noticed him stiffen slightly. Operations continued, "Green Rebel provides many services to anyone rich enough to pay, from assassinations to drug trafficking. The location is in White Cliffs, New South Wales, and Australia. It is an opal field and part of the city is underground. Intel suggests that the location is in one of the underground homes. Mentz and Johnson will gather intel upon arrival. Michael will carry out the hit, and Curlly will provide tactical on location."

"You are all on close quarters standby until further notice. Dismissed."

Part One

"Good luck, honey," said Walter handing Curlly her equipment.

"Thanx Walter," responded with a smile as she looked through her pack. The smile dimmed slightly, "Walter? Were is my gun?"

"The profile keeps you off field, so no gun."

Shaking her head, "Walter give me my gun."

"Besides, there is one in the van."

"Walter I want my gun."

"Comm’n sugar!"

"Give me my gun."

With a slightly disgruntled look, Walter gave Curlly a gun. Kissing him on the cheek Curlly put the gun in her pack. With a wave she was off.

Curlly was just about to round the last corner before van access when she ran into someone coming the other way.

"Oops, sorry Nikita." "You okay Curlly?" they said at the same time. Both women smiled then Nikita smile faded. Taking Curlly by the arm Nikita pulled her into the shadows.

"How much do you know about the Fannings?"

"Just what is on my PDA."

"The mission where we picked up Fanning involved Michael seducing Lisa. She thought he loved her. After Fanning’s training was over we all went on this mission. David kidnapped me and told Michael to bring him Lisa or he’d kill me. Michael again got Lisa to trust him and brought her to Fanning."

"He didn’t!"

"Shhhh! I don’t have much time. Michael gave her an isotope to kill Fanning with. And now Operations and Madeline want him to kill her. They took me off the mission so Michael would have to do it all himself. Please keep an eye on him for me."

Curlly gave her mentor’s hand a squeeze and said lightly, "Me, look after Michael?"

Smiling in gratitude, Nikita walked away. Curlly walked to van access were the rest of her team was assembling.

"Curlly where are your glasses?" asked Michael.

"Sheesh, they were bothering me so I just put in my contacts. I believe that is within mission parameters."

"Let’s go." Michael wished they’d stop giving Nikita new recruits.

Part Two

It was really cool how the miners of White Cliffs built their homes underground. Each one was unique and different. There was a whole field of solar dishes that gathered energy to run the homes. Some started with a mineshaft, others scraped into the sturdy limestone. If they were on the surface those homes would be mansions. On the surface those homes would be 120 degrees. Curlly moved over to sit in front of the fan.

Michael was sitting in front of the computer doing who knew what! Curlly was contemplating the little conversation she’d have with whomever was in charge of the van’s air conditioning. The white room did have its purposes.

Just then two dots appeared on her radar display.

"Hostiles?" asked Michael picking up his gun.

"Negative. Mentz and Johnson are returning."

The two men entered almost dripping. "Here is the data we’ve retrieved," said Mentz walking towards Curlly.

"Urghhh! Give it to Michael" shrieked Curlly. It was bad enough she was hot, but it was even worse that some hot, sweaty, stinky, dripping, and male op was actually going to touch her! {{shudder}}. Maybe Frick and Frack would have a little time to help Curlly talk to Mr. I-did-check-the-air conditioning!

Michael accepted the data from Mentz. Spyboy really wished that Madeline would be more careful the next time she gave Nikita a recruit.

The profile seemed simple enough. They would follow the solar dishes to where the power cords went underground. There was just enough room for well-built men to get through. How lucky! While Michael crawled through a tunnel, Mentz and Johnson would cause a diversion at the other end of the cavern. From the tunnel, Michael would take a mineshaft used to vent air into the Green Rebel headquarters. Michael had to place the charges precisely or the whole cavern ceiling would come down. "Well," Curlly thought ironically, "White Cliff is about to have the first house caving in it’s history. Curlly would monitor both teams.

Part Three

Curlly and the van were parked in the shadow of a dish by the hole the power cords were run through. The driver had already dropped the other two ops off. One of these days, Curlly was going to find out just who was driving the van. Michael was preparing to go into finial phase.

"Here is your comm unit Michael," said Curlly handing it over.

"Thank you," said Michael putting it in his ear.

"Are you sure you ready?"

Looking at her inquiringly, "Yes."

"Well, then. Good luck."

"Keep me posted on team two’s progress." Then Michael left the building.

Curlly watch Michael until he reached the airshaft. Michael’s voice came over B channel. "I’m entering the ventilation system. Tell team two to proceed." Switching over to C channel Curlly gave the command. Gee imagine two lucky tourists digging for opals and accidentally causing an explosion! What are the odds? And then finding one huge opal? She could hear the pandemonium all the way in the van. "Michael, proceed. The correct half of the security grid blew.

Curlly heard Michael open a grate and inter the building. The blunt sound of the silencer going off echoed into Curlly’s ear as Michael went from room to room placing the explosives and looking for Lisa.

 Then she heard a voice just after Michael entered the library. It was a woman’s voice.

"Michael! How lovely to see you again! But it’s probably just another mission, huh? But how silly of me, of course it’s a mission! I’m surprised it took Section so long to find me."

"I’m sorry Lisa," Michael must have his gun raised.

"Oh no Michael. Don’ be sorry, it’s too late for that."

Then Curlly heard a small explosion and Michael grunt. "Michael, status!" There was no response. "Michael, status!" Then she jerked her head as something hit the microphone on Michael’s headset, then a little static.

The static cleared and the woman’s voice came over, "I’m so sorry but Michael is unavailable," then insane laughter. "Is this Nikita?"

Part Four

Curlly grabbed the extra clip for her gun and shoot out of the van. She paused wondering if it would be faster to go through the tunnel or go through the main cavern. Curlly ran to the tunnel stuffing her gun in the back of her waistband. She felt the sting of the pebbles bite into her hands as she crawled along. Finally she saw the vent Michael cut open.

Jumping through the gap Curlly almost landed on a dead body. Rolling off and landing on her feet she mentally reviewed the houses blue print and the path Michael took. Then she stopped. They’d expect a rescue. From Nikita. Grabbing a chair, Curlly climbed back into the ventilation system.

*****

As the pain focused, Michael regained consciousness. They were on a catwalk surrounding the top of a solar dish. They were huge with a spiral absorber, reaching temperatures between 555 - 1000 ° C. Michael could hear the electric humm that the coil gave off. Two men held him while Lisa stood in front of him.

Lisa said, "You repeatedly gave me hope. I give you none. You repeatedly made me think you loved me. You love Nikita. Know when they find her, she’ll die too. You ripped out my heart. Repeatedly. Now I want to see what body parts the ground the rips from you." Brown hair flittered around her face. "I hope it’s your heart."

With a truly triumphant smile, "Good bye Michael. I’ll miss you." Just as Lisa prepared to give the signal to throw Michael over the railing a foot shot out from under the catwalk, skimming the floor of the catwalk, connecting with Lisa’s ankle. One of the men holding Michael let go to assist Lisa. This gave Curlly the time to pull herself from under the catwalk to onto it.

Once the SOTW helping Lisa realized his mistake, he went after Michael. Lisa pulled a knife and prepared to attach Michael. He was busy with the two men. Curlly launched herself at Lisa pinning her to the railing.

Now the fight that ensued was definitely a catfight. There was a lot of kicking, hitting, biting, and hair pulling. A shadow teased the edge of Curlly’s vision allowing Lisa to push Curlly into the railing, knocking the air from her lungs.

Feeling that Curlly was down, Lisa went after Michael who had just disposed of the two bodyguards. Well, she was wrong. One didn’t need to inhale in order to move; anyone who had ever done a hypoxic set knew that! Curlly realized that Michael wouldn’t hurt Lisa, he felt too guilty.

So Curlly swept Lisa right off her feet, via kicking her in the back of the knee. As Lisa fell to the floor, Curlly dove at her. The two women rolled. As Curlly pinned Lisa, Lisa wrapped her arm around Curlly’s waist to pull a fist full of hair and encountered her gun. Curlly knocked the gun from the other woman’s hand. They both scrambled after it.

Lisa reached it first, stood and aimed at Michael. Curlly rammed Lisa agaist the railing. One hand on Lisa’s wrist, and the other held a fist full of Lisa’s shirt. Curlly banged Lisa into the railing over and over trying to make her let go of the gun. After the third bang the railing gave way and both women started to fall.

Michael saw the bolts loosen and ran to Curlly. His arms wrapped around her feet just as her waist went over the edge of the catwalk. Again the air was driven from her lungs. Curlly reached her free had to hold onto Lisa, but the other woman’s shirt wasn’t up to it. Michael pulled Curlly up, pushing her face into his shoulder. Curlly heard a shriek cut off bluntly followed by a sizzling sound.

Part Five/End

Curlly waited outside Madeline’s office to debrief. Michael was inside. Finally Michael left, gave her the blank stare but said, "They really should give Nikita more recruits."

"Curlly, whenever you’re ready," came Operations voice from in the office. Curlly gave Michael a smile and went into the "den of iniquity".

They asked her all kinds of question then, "How did you know that Lisa would take Michael to the solar dishes?"

"Lisa is the type to like beautiful things. Now that she’s on her own, she’d protect them. Which means no blood on the carpet. If some guy screwed me over twice, not that there’d be a second, and I was Lisa… Well, she’d have to leave the cavern. So I waited and saw them heading towards the dishes and I followed."

"So in your opinion would Michael have killed Lisa?" asked Madeline.

"You told him to."

"That will be all, please be here at 10am," said Operations.

Curlly walked up to Birkoff the next day. "Birkoff do you know were my panel is? It is not in its dock."

"Your team leader wants you to run these sims, then you’ll receive your panel," said Birkoff handing Curlly a disk.

"Okay thanx," said Curlly taking the disk. "Bye the way, nice glasses!" She left comm and went to her station. Her attention kept wondering to the tall male with dark brown hair. When the light hit it there were hints of red. His back was to her for he was doing his own work. Hmmm, potential.

Just as she was finishing the last sim, Curlly felt the man walk towards her stopping just behind her chair. Now she was really focusing on her work waiting for the man to speak. The man’s arm came across her right shoulder placing her PDA on the left side of the keyboard. He said, "Nice work, I’ll look forward to having you on my team."

Her heart stopped and her fingers froze on the keyboard.

The End OR To be continued????