"A New Dawn"
	Safehouse 1/The Baha Bar March 10th 2008 A few hours after arriving back at the Baha bar safehouse and endless supplies of beer and free drinks, had meant they had relaxed and were more than a little inebriated. It was just nice for once, not to care about what happened next, just to raise another cold beer. Paige had disappeared first, with Gray and then a few hours later so had Jordan, and Bruce. Which left just herself and Baz on the couches, but she wasn't worried, Gray had explained that all of them would be taken to their new base one by one. Saf excused herself to get some fresh air, she felt restless and needed some time alone. Happy as she was in the present company, she was hiding behind a mask, but when darkness had fallen, she had felt all the familiar uncertainties flooding her core. She took the stairs up to the roof, slowly savouring the moment when she emerged out onto the roof, smelling the never sleeping city far below and watched as the first rays of light heralded a new dawn. The unspoken fears that she had pushed deep inside herself, that her services were no longer required emerged with a vengeance and she felt the bile rise in the back of her throat. She stood up and silently returned to the seated area, Baz was sleeping quietly, she walked over to the water machine and filled a cup with chilled water, drinking deeply before returning to her seat. March 11th 2008, 07.00hrs A tap on her should made her start "Sara if you have a moment?" she nodded her throat too tight for words and she followed Gray to the office, taking a seat and trying not to let her knees tremble. Gray laughed softly, but it wasn't mocking "Don't look so concerned, I just want to go through the details of your new cover for you and then I will take you to your new accommodation." Saf allowed herself a ghost of a smile while inwardly cursing her inability to keep her face blank `Where was Michael when I need an example?" "Anything discussed in this office, stays here, no discussions with anyone outside," he put up his hand to stop her protestations, "Yes, I know it sounds a little unnecessary, but I am just following orders." She nodded and gave him her full concentration. "Your cover is Sara Churchill, known as Saf to her friends. You will be starting work on the first of the month at the Wolfe Research Facility, as a research assistant to Dr William Miller. Your speciality will be forensic pathology as you have a degree in Osteoarchaeology from the University of London, it is a part-time post and you will be spending only 3 days a week at the lab, the rest of your time will officially be doing private research from home. Dr Miller will be understanding of your need for time off as he realises that your research will necessarily involve a fair amount of travel, and you will submit work electronically to the lab when you are away for any length of time. Sounds good so far?" he asked. Saf was arguing in an instant, "What do I know about forensic pathology? My speciality is communications and languages, why not use those skills instead of setting me up for something I will struggle to do?" Gray smiled "Rebecca thought that might be your reaction. She asked me to show you this if you tried to find a way around it." He turned the screen towards her and showed her the information on it. It read very simply `If you refuse our assignment, you will be returned to Section'. Gray took her silence as agreement to the assignment, and continued "I have arranged an apartment near the Labs which are in Perth Amboy, if you have any further questions I will be glad to answer them on the way." He stood up, and she followed him silently, aware that there was a very fine line between herself and the apparent freedom that was being offered. On the one hand, she was given a new life, while being shown how close she was to the old one. Gray walked towards the elevator that had taken them to an underground garage when they had set off for Phase II, he punched in a sequence of buttons and it slid silently down the shaft. When the doors opened, a soft-top jeep was parked in front, and Gray slid into the passenger seat and indicated for her to take the drivers seat. Saf sat down and adjusted the seat to suit her style, and unable to help herself, she smiled, receiving a warm smile in return from Gray. She drove down the freeways following Gray's instructions and was enjoying the sensations of driving such a fun vehicle, it had a large engine and when she pressed the accelerator, the engine roared in return. All too soon Gray instructed her to pull off the major road onto a minor road alongside the bay around Perth Amboy. Finally he told her to turn into a block of apartments, facing the bay and he pressed a key which opened a garage beneath. She drove in and the door shut smoothly behind them. Switching off the engine, she noticed a tarpaulin covering a large object at the side of the now stationary jeep and she pulled it sharply, revealing a black and silver motorbike, a Harley-Davidson, something she had dreamed about but never thought for one moment that she would have the opportunity of riding one. Gray tugged at her and pointed her towards some stairs, indicating that she was to go up. A door at the top opened to reveal a hallway, decorated in pale cream and yellows. She wandered along the corridor and bit back a gasp of admiration at the view from the windows in the lounge, two large picture windows dominated the room and provided a view out over the bay, with doors to a balcony large enough to seat four people comfortably around a table. She turned to Gray "This is beautiful, but .." she didn't finish, Gray interrupted, "This is yours," he handed her a leather portfolio, "inside you will find credit cards, bank details, insurance numbers, all you need for your new life. You will receive a set amount of money each month to cover necessary expenditure, and of course you will receive a salary from your job. The apartment is leased and the bills are sent directly to the Wolfe facility who have included it in their employment package. Any further finance you require, please let me know, although I would suggest that you don't request it too frequently." Gray gestured "Take a look around upstairs, while I put the kettle on, we still have a lot to discuss." Saf couldn't help the smile she gave, it was so unlike Section, there her first apartment had been on the Rue de Universite and was small and cramped. Then, following the Corellia/Stratus mission, she had got the loft which was open and air, but this….this was something else. She explored upstairs, there was a master bedroom with the same views as the lounge, including a smaller balcony, and additionally had an en-suite bathroom. A smaller bedroom occupied the rear of the apartment alongside an even smaller room, outfitted with the most modern up to date computer equipment she had seen outside of Section. Birkoff would eat his heart out to be here, she thought, wondering if he had survived the remoulding of Section. The furniture was wooden and well built and she could conceal much of the equipment from casual view. On one wall, stood shelving and she noted idly that it contained materials relating to forensics, pathology and osteoarchaeology, she groaned at the amount of reading she would have to do before she would feel comfortable with the subject. A step behind her, made her turn, reaching for a non-existent weapon, but it was only Gray with a cup of fresh coffee. He handed it to her and asked "Well, does it suit? I am afraid we couldn't quite get a tall loft space here, but hopefully you won't feel too shut in." Saf paled a bit at his last statement, sure she knew that her weakness would be on her record, but where Section would exploit it, these people were almost being sympathetic. "I am sorry, that was a sensitive issue, I can assure you, we don't mean to blunder in, but your fear of confined spaces was on your record." She nodded, her throat tight with emotion, but she gestured around. "It's lovely, but what's the drawback? What else do you want out of me?" Gray smiled, and indicated they step out onto the balcony, Saf opened the doors and stepped out the fresh salty air finally clearing her head of alcohol. A bench ran along one side and she sat down and looked up at Gray "So what's the deal?.." Gray smiled, and looked out over the bay, "Rebecca has requested that you set up the communications between the SIA and the various liaison officers, while we have an adequate security system supplied by Centre, Rebecca would have more confidence if we `adapted' it to ensure that communications between the different liaison officers was totally secure. She feels that you have the skills and the knowledge to be able to adapt it without anyone being aware that it has been tampered with." She knew he was watching her closely, and she was careful not to show any emotion on her face, "Why?" Gray smiled, "The SIA wants to ensure that we have full governance over our communications, we cannot do that unless we have control and currently we don't." He looked down at her "Rebecca wants someone like you to ensure that happens, you can have whatever you need to do it, but you cannot afford to let anyone, either in the SIA or outside, find out the details of what you are doing. You will only discuss this matter with myself or Rebecca, and tell anyone who asks that you are running communication checks, otherwise you will have free reign in setting it up. Requests for hardware can be run by me, and anything else you need." She was silent, Gray had sold her on the deal as soon as he had mentioned it, but she wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. She looked out over the water, the spring mists rose off the water like ghosts. "I still don't understand. If I have skills you need, why put me into a job where I don't use my skills?" Gray looked at her solemnly, "Rebecca and I discussed it for some time, we don't have a communications expert on staff, we have some tech staff, but not up to your standard. If all you do is communications and computers, won't you be bored?" She thought about it for a long while, still looking out over the water, he was right. Once she had got the system up and running, she wouldn't really have any challenges. She had a degree in communications, yet Section had used her as a field op, and she had relished the opportunities that had given her despite the dangers inherent in that path. The only difference that she could see was that Section had given her no choices, and no freedom while this organisation were giving her both, so why didn't she just grab it with both hands? Part of her wanted to, badly, but having been used by Section in the past, she was less trusting now. When she turned to Gray, who hadn't moved at all in the long time she had thought, he was just waiting. "You know, you make it sound too good to be true. I guess, working with a computer all day, will just make me a dull person. Let's hope that I can learn enough in a few weeks to pass me off as a research assistant." He smiled in return "I am sure you can, and there are plenty of materials in your study to assist you." They chatted amiably for a good hour, Gray handed over a piece of paper with a number of addresses and telephone numbers on it, casually mentioning which one belonged to whom Paige was situated only a little way off and Jordan not too far away either. She was a little surprised at the emphasis that he put on maintaining contacts with other agents, but slowly she was getting more comfortable with how amenable the SIA were. The rest of the time they spent talking about minor details and personal likes and dislikes, Saf enjoyed his company, he was well read and they enjoyed many of the same writers and plays. Finally the coffee was drunk and they returned downstairs to the lower floor and the kitchen. Gray demonstrated the large kitchen, complete with the latest gadgets including a remote control for most of the devices so it could be programmed from outside by a simple phone call to start cooking, or turn the lights on. The security system was also sophisticated and was also linked up to the communications system and could be controlled or interrogated outside, she noted some changes she would like to make to that but didn't voice them. Gray spoke "Before we head back to the SIA, do you want any of your furnishings from Section or would you prefer to go shopping for new?" she frowned, one thing she hated was shopping, but she didn't want anything from her old life, she wanted it left behind her as far as possible. "I don't suppose you know anyone who would like to go shopping for me?" she smiled, hoping against hope that he did, but he nodded. "Just give me a list of what you want and I will arrange it." They drove back speaking little, Saf had put the roof down and the cold spring air made Gray retreat into his thick coat. She loved it, totally unpractical but fun. Gray led the way back upstairs, and Saf looked at the systems installation and was soon buried deep in blueprints and specifications supplied with the system. Gray had given up trying to get a full list from her, and had said "I'll get something and if you don't like it, tough." Busy trying to work out where a comms line routed, she had replied "Whatever" and he had gone away. March 12th 2008 Hours later or so she thought, though it was more like a day and a half, and she crawled out of a duct in the basement, dusty and dirty, but finally having worked out the details of the system and she now knew how she wanted to adjust it. Gray was waiting for her. "How did you know where to find me?" he smiled "I guess I just hit lucky," he replied, "Have you got a moment?" She nodded, suddenly aware of just how hungry and thirsty she was. He led the way to the elevator and pushed the buttons, it was a short ride, and instead of offices, the floor contained some boxes with medical names on. Clearly an inhouse medcentre she thought as he led the way to a small room "James here, is going to remove the tracker from your arm." A tall thin man, wearing metal rimmed glasses, nodded. "Take a seat, I'll be right back." Saf turned to Gray "What about the secondary one, in the neck?" He frowned for a moment and then consulted a small handheld PDA, "Can I get back to you on that?" She felt slightly uneasy but as she had no choice, she nodded. Gray left the room as James returned and didn't return until the procedure was complete and a small metallic tracker sat bloodily on a petrie dish. Saf had felt very little, James had proved quite competent and had inserted stitches that laid flat and would be removed in a week. He placed a dressing over the wound and then tape to hold it down. She took the spare dressings he offered so that she could shower without worrying about getting it wet. Gray showed her the way back to the elevator and then to his office, "Take a seat. Would you like tea?," he smiled "Rebecca has given me a taste for tea, especially Assam." She shook her head, "No thanks, not right now." He inclined his head and drummed his fingers together before speaking "That tracker in your neck is going to have to stay put. It is not an option at the moment to retrieve it." Return