"Hello Willow, my name is Madeline," the woman stated pleasantly. "I hope your trip was okay."

"Oh yeah," Willow replied sarcastically. "I just love being taken out of my home at night and not told where I’m going. Just makes me feel so happy." Willow knew that she shouldn’t be so sarcastic, it wasn’t her normal behavior, but that didn’t bother her right now. The other woman just continued to smile at her.

"Yes, well, Michael and Nikita both told me that you didn’t bother arguing with them. In fact, you even packed a few things with you. I must saw, what you brought was rather interesting." Madeline had just come from looking over the things that Willow had packed and was surprised to see what appeared to magickal supplies and books in the trunk that the young girl had insisted on bringing.

"Yeah well, I’m an interesting girl," Willow stated, tired of the whole conversation. "So where am I and what do you want with me?"

Madeline contained the laugh that she felt coming. (My, my, my this girl is definitely going to be a handful, but she will be useful. I wonder if we underestimated her value to Section.)

"This is Section One." Madeline saw Willow take that information in. "We are a highly classified government anti-terrorist agency. Most of our agents have been taken from death row and other jail sentences. Occasionally we find someone, much like yourself, whom we believe would be a good recruit and we bring them in. Here you will be trained to help our operatives complete their missions."

"And what happens if I refuse?" Willow asked, already afraid of what that answer would be.

Madeline’s smile left her face. "If you refuse, you will die." Willow nodded. (Well, good thing I’m a Slayerette. Go with the flow. And it they are on the side of good, hey just like staking some vamps. Except these would be real people. Stop it Willow. Do or die.)

"Well, isn’t that just such a fine choice," Willow said sarcastically. "So when does my training start?"

"Tomorrow. Now why don’t you get some rest." With that said, Madeline left Willow in the room to ponder what was happening to her.

The next day came entirely too soon for Willow. She woke up to find Birkhoff standing over her. She gave him a weak smile.

"Morning already?"

"Yes. Why don’t you get changed and cleaned up and then your training will begin," he said, looking over Willow. He didn’t get a good look at her the night before and now that he saw her in the light, he couldn’t help but stare at her. Her red hair was messed up from the sleep and her eyes still had that drowsy look in them, but there was an intelligence there that he found intriguing. He left the room to give her some privacy. About 15 minutes later, the door opened and he found himself staring into a pair of green eyes that he thought he could lose himself in. (This is not usual for me. What is it about this girl that effects me this way?)

Birkhoff brought Willow to another room that was set up with various computer equipment. Willow though that she had died and gone to computer heaven. Birkhoff set her down at one of the terminals and brought up a mission profile.

"This is what I want to do," he began, knowing that this would be her first test. "Here is a mission profile that I want you to look over. I want you to go through the computer and pull up all relevant data that will be needed to make this mission feasible."

Willow nodded her head, never taking her eyes off the screen in front of her. (Okay, hacker girl, to the rescue.) She looked over the PDA that Birkhoff had given her, and quickly discovered what she would need to begin the mission profile. Birkhoff sat back, watching Willow get comfortable with the system, before beginning. He was the one who originally did the mission profile, so he had an idea of where she would need to go and how long it would take to get there. He also knew how difficult it would be to hack into some of the systems that she would need. He prepared himself for a long wait. She took a quick glance at him before starting. (Wonder if he realized how many systems I’ve truly hacked into already.)

"Okay, here ya go," Willow surprised him by saying. He looked at his watch. (An hour? How in the world did she do all that in an hour?) He went over to see what she accomplished and couldn’t believe that she had found, not only the information that he had for discovered for the mission, but also some other things that he hadn’t even thought about. "Out of curiosity, did this mission work?"

"Yes it did," he answered, wondering why she was asking.

Willow just nodded her head, "Cool. Wasn’t sure because the way you had it all worked out, it seemed like there was a high probability of losses to Section."

"There was a 65% survival rate," he replied trying to figure out what was going on in her mind. Willow just looked at him. She had a feeling that he was the one that had gathered the intel information for Section and she wasn’t sure if she should tell him what she discovered. That decision was taken from her when he asked his next question.

"Why were you wondering about survival?"

"Well, it just seems to me, that if you had one or two members of your team enter through this shaft in the basement, you could have taken out at least three or four of the guards without raising any alarms," Willow explained. :"That would bring up your survival rate to at least 85%."

Willow moved away from the computer allowing Birkhoff a chance to look over what she had pointed out. He saw what she was talking about and was surprised at how simple her plan was. (Simple, but damn if it wouldn’t have worked.) Birkhoff’s admiration for Willow increased as he realized that he had finally found someone who was his equal. (She’s gonna be competition. This will be fun.)

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