Once Michael, DeLeah and Genie were occupied by looking around the room at the special equipment that had been set up, Rita touched the Comm link behind her ear. "Now!" she ordered.

Mentz, Davenport and Snow entered the room with guns drawn. Mentz handed Sherry a weapon and Davenport handed Rita one.

Sherry smiled at them. "Thanks, guys. Now," she said as she and Rita turned their guns on the trio, "if you three will each take a seat in one of the chairs, Davenport will strap you in. And please don't make us shoot any of you. It will create too much paperwork for us to deal with."

Just then Sherry's cellphone rang. "Hello."

"Yes, sir. Right away sir." She hung up the phone and turned to Mentz. "Mentz, you, Davenport and Snow stand guard here. If they even attempt to make a move, forget what I just said. Shoot them in the foot or something. Rita and I have to attend to some business right away. We'll be back as soon as we can."

Mentz nodded. "Sure, Sherry, no problem."

Sherry and Rita left the room. "What's up?" Rita asked. Sherry sighed. "We've been summoned to the perch."

"Ah. I wondered how long it would take for him to call us on the carpet. This should be interesting." Sherry laughed. "Yeah, let's go get it over with."

Once they arrived in Operations' office, he motioned for them to have a seat. "I understand that you two ladies have been having quite a day. You've been employing Section resources and personnel in your own personal vendetta against a couple of lower level operatives. You should both know better. What do you say for yourselves?"

Rita and Sherry exchanged glances and Sherry spoke. "As usual, sir, you don't have all the facts and are jumping to the wrong conclusions again."

Rita rolled her eyes. Leave it up to Sherry to tick him off even more. "What she's trying to say, sir," Rita began.

"I think I understood her perfectly, thank you," he snapped. "Would you care to explain yourself?" he turned to Sherry.

"Of course. As I said, you don't have all the facts. We have a situation in CLHQ that needs to be handled immediately. Rita and I are the only ones that know what is happening and we can't tell anyone at the moment. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is."

Operations paced back and forth in front of them. He studied their faces. He knew these were two of his best, outside of Michael. If they said something was up, he knew they were on to something. "I'm head of Section. If there is a problem, I should know."

Sherry sighed. She was tired of playing these games. "I'm sorry. You will know when we have a confirmation and everyone finds out. Until such time, we can't let on that we know what's happening." Rita nodded in agreement.

Operations considered their explanation for a few minutes and then nodded. "Fine. Sherry, you've never let me down yet when something like this happened. And I know you have your own sources that let you in on things. So I'll go along with you. But you had better get it wrapped up quickly. I can't have you utilizing all my people."

Sherry nodded. "Thank you, sir. We will finish this as soon as we can."

Operations nodded. "Dismissed."

Rita jumped up and walked out the office, followed by Sherry. "Well, that wasn't too bad," Rita laughed.

Sherry smirked. "Nope. You just gotta know how to handle him, and have sources that he can't touch."

Rita nodded. "So what say we go get our man and get this over with." Sherry nodded and the two headed for their offices. They quickly met back out in the hallway, each dressed in full mission gear. "You ready?" Sherry asked.

"Yeah, let's go." As they headed out of Section, they stopped by Comm. "Birkoff, Sherry and I are needed on a quick in and out. We'll be back soon. Don't let anyone in or out of CLHQ until we get back."

Birkoff nodded, totally confused. They were ordering a total lockdown of CLHQ? What was up with them now?

The girls returned to CLHQ 45 minutes later. They entered through a back entrance in the basement, an entrance not too many people were aware of. They had a third party with them. They quickly and quietly made their way to the "Stay Away From Michael Room." Telling the third party to wait
outside, Sherry and Rita entered the room.

DeLeah, Genie and Michael were looking less than enthusiastic. They immediately noticed the two women were dressed in mission gear. "Uh oh," Genie whispered.

Sherry and Rita smiled at one another and Sherry walked over behind their "guests." "So, you three don't look very comfortable." Then she turned to Davenport. "Have they behaved themselves?" Davenport nodded.

"Good," she said as she stopped behind Michael. He decided to speak.

"I thought you loved me, Sherry. You know we will never be able to be together again after this, don't you? I could never trust you again."

Sherry moved close to him and caressed his face. "I know. I'm sorry about that too, because I'll never be able to trust you again either. It is a shame. I thought what we had was special."

Genie and DeLeah were happy with the way this was going. One of the moms was out of the way now. He was certain to tell Rita the same thing. That would clear the way for them.

Rita moved in closer. "Michael, you know, you should have never started this. We completely understand that you have to have lunch and dinner with the others occasionally, but you've been downright rude to us. You've berated us in front of the others, especially the lower level operatives. You know better than that. You've betrayed us. You know I could never trust you again either."

Michael nodded. "I know. But you girls were just a bit too possessive."

Rita nodded and stepped back to the door. Sherry put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in to him. "So, I guess this is goodbye," she said as she ripped the latex mask off of him and revealed David Fanning underneath.

Rita opened the door and the real Michael entered. Genie and DeLeah gasped. "What's going on?" DeLeah demanded.

Sherry moved to stand with Rita and Michael. Michael spoke.

"It was a test, ladies. It seems you need to work a little more on detection skills. Anyone who has been around CLHQ for any length of time knows that I would never, ever treat Sherry and Rita the way David did. You should have been able to pick up on the clues that it wasn't really me.

Sherry and Rita figured it out almost instantly. Of course, they know me so well. Once they knew what was going on, I brought them in and explained. I would never berate them in front of others. I would never pull weapons on them unless it was absolutely necessary. And I would never take sides against them. I know better."

He nodded to Davenport who released the three operatives. "David, Northstar wants to see you. DeLeah and Genie, you are free to return to your quarters, but Madeline will want to speak to you about putting all those male operatives in medlab. Mentz, Davenport and Snow, thanks. You can return to your stations now.

After everyone was gone, Sherry sighed. "Man, am I glad that's over. It was beginning to wear on my nerves. I hate putting them through this stuff. These are my friends."

Rita nodded. "Yeah, I know. It's awful."

Michael kissed both of them on the cheek and said, "Well, ladies, how about we have a nice quiet dinner, just the three of us to help you feel better. I'll cook." The girls quickly agreed and the trio headed to Michael's quarters.

"By the way," Michael said as they were walking down the hallway, "I understand you have a new nickname. The Twisted Moms."

Rita laughed. "Yeah. Where would they ever come up with something like that?" Sherry shrugged. "I haven't the faintest idea."

The end