"It's where?" Napoleon gasped, "that can't be right."
Illya re-read the note, "it is correct, the statue is in the tiger enclosure."
Both turned and watched as the Bengal Tiger paced the perimeter of its pen, shining yellow eyes focused on the agents.
"It looks hungry, tovarisch."
"It could be worse."
"In what way could it be worse? That's a man eating tiger," Solo remarked incredulously.
"It is a young one and not so dangerous, but its parents could have been in there too."
"Take you point, I think. So are you going in there then?"
Illya turned and stared at his partner, "me? Why me?"
"It only seems natural, you are the cat lover after all."
"Domestic cats, yes. This is far from a domesticated feline Napoleon."
"And you've had experience with them before, in the 'Tigers Are Coming Affair' as I remember."
Kuryakin shook his head in exasperation, "yes, and if you remember correctly, I happened to have been the bait."
Solo sighed, "okay, if not you, then who?"
The tiger had given up prowling and was now lying by a rocky part of his enclosure. Standing not far from it was the statue containing the microfilm they needed to recover, the buff coloured stone of the rampant tiger almost camouflaging it against the wall
"See, it looks friendly enough now," the American noted.
"Then you go in there."
April came strolling up to Illya and Napoleon, a beaming smile on her face as she approached them, her partner not far behind.
"Oh, you two. Haven't you got it yet? Looks like we're going to have to do it, Mark," she grinned.
The Brit came strolling up with a rifle slung over one shoulder, "Hi mates, what you doing standing here?"
"They're deciding who's going in to retrieve the statue, darling," April smiled with glee.
"So it's down to us then luv."
Mark took his rifle and pointed it at the animal. Illya looked aghast and pushed the muzzle away.
"Mark you cannot shoot the poor creature, it is unacceptable."
"I'm not using bullets, old man, it's a tranquilizer dart."
Mark once more took aim and pulled the trigger, the dart lodged in the tigers hind quarters, it leapt up, snarled and swiped it paws at the chain fencing separating it from the people who'd shot it, then staggered a bit and finally collapsed unconscious to the floor.
"It's okay, it's been separated from the others because it needs some dental work doing and needed to be knocked out."
Just as Slate was explaining, a white coated veterinarian entered the enclosure and prepared the tiger for surgery. As they watched, they saw April cautiously enter, after an all clear from the zoo staff, April crossed the pen and collected the statue before quickly making her way back out and rejoining the others.
"Well, looks like we won this round, darlings. What's next on Waverly's treasure hunt?"
Illya shot a look to his partner: someone was going to have to tell the chief of New York there were better refresher courses for his agents and now they'd better find the last two items before their colleagues did…..
Illya and Napoleon didn't like to be beaten at anything .