DOWN A CROOKED PATH (2000-03-12)

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Airlock Penetration, everyone scrambles for gas masks as a cloud of vapor infiltrates Section One. Operations orders the air vents inverted and moments later the atmosphere is once again safe. George calls to tell Operations that a Bio-Med Tech team is on the way to test everyone, starting with dept. heads and key operatives (gotta wonder what all the low ops are doing without any orders). Operations is immediately suspicious that George orchestrated the event. He tells Madeline that he's fine but after she leaves he darkens the perch and is clearly ill.

Nikita and Michael are researching to find possible leads to who caused the airlock penetration. The Bio-Med team arrives and takes over the Infirmary. Birkoff goes to see Walter, who appears to be feeling sick. Walter gets paged to report to the Infirmary. He's gets an IV for sedation and the two techs began a 'Neural Scrape'. During the process Walter has flashbacks of happy memories, curiously none of Belinda. As the process completes a tech removes a disc from the machine and stores it. Operations arrives and questions Walters' health - he's told Walter's memory is gone. Operations demands the data on his desk. Operations returns to the darkened perch and Madeline visits. Operations tells her of Walter's status and suspects George has, "...finally found a way to get rid of us." Nikita gets her neural scrape and flashes to memories of her arrival at Section, memories of Michael, and telling Walter that she was framed and brought to Section for a reason.

Madeline and Operations conference with Michael about their suspicion that George is trying to erase all their minds. Paul gets paged, and must go to avoid alerting George. He orders Michael to, "Find out if George is behind this and proceed accordingly." "Of course." Operations flashes to memories of time with Madeline, being shot in Vietnam, and his son being killed despite his efforts to protect him. Michael enters the Infirmary and spends a brief moment with a motionless Nikita. Then goes to Birkoff in Tactical. Birkoff suggests killing the techs. Michael replies, "What we need are answers." Then sends Birkoff to reroute power to the Bio-Med computer so they can access the files. Birkoff returns shortly to find Michael and Madeline waiting. He begins reading the data in the files. There's no serious virus, only a bug to make them feel sick for 24-36 hours. Then finds a Black Directive - a cancellation order for everyone. Michael asks, "Why the ruse?" Birkoff continues, "He's ordered a neural download." "they're stealing our minds." Birkoff reports that the process is reversible. Madeline elaborates that George would be able to create the 'perfect' operative with the collective knowledge of years of training. Then she gets paged. Before leaving she tells Birkoff and Michael the codes to access Operations personal databank and retrieve the formula to construct a neural blocker. It was developed during the Gelman Process but will need modified to have a chance to work.

Birkoff accesses the file then meets Michael in a lab. "we could have a field day with the filenames I saw in there..." They start working on the formula. Meanwhile, Madeline is subjected the neural scrape and flashes to memories of time with Nikita, Operations, and a short meeting with her mother. Birkoff is the next to go, Michael has to push the reluctant Birkoff. "you're our only help." he says as he leaves for the Infirmary. Birkoff flashes to many shots of Nikita and his attraction to her, as well as an intimate encounter with a fake Nikita, and some memories of Walter. Michael is still working in the lab when he gets paged. Apparently he injects himself with the blocker before going. He's hooked to the machine and starts flashing to memories of Simone, Elana and Adam, a little of Nikita. - then something is going awry. The techs are confused, "He's red-lining." "Pull the plug." The second tech finds Birkoff's interface just as Michael stands up and shoots him. The first tech blurts, "I was given orders." Michael responds, "So was I."

George is given a successful report and heads for Section One. When he arrives he questions where Michael is. His answer comes from a tranquilizer delivered by Michael. Michael, apparently, subjects George to some kind of mind reprogramming before uploading the rest of Section. They slowly awake and Operations asks, "Were our suspicions correct? Does George know we/he failed?" Michael reports, "Yes, I've taken care of it." Later, Madeline and Operations speak to an unusually cooperative George.

I wasn't sure if Operations said 'we' or 'he' in that one line. I understand 'he' but not 'we'. Because Section didn't screw up George did.