Just a quick note.  I've just got back into The Man From UNCLE after forgetting it existed for a few years.  I've forgotten huge amounts of details that I used to know, so if I've got anything wrong, I'm sorry.

Also, this is not slash, but a friend of mine has told me that some of it reads as very slightly slashy, so read into it what you will.

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The Open Book Affair

Act 1: A Nasty Surprise

The California sun was beating down on his head and beads of sweat beginning to fall into his eyes.  It was too hot for Illya's liking, he wasn't cut out for heat, you only had to look at his complexion to tell.  Still, he had coped with worse.

He was crouched out of sight uncomfortably behind a small hedge that concealed him from view from the window of the tall building.  He wiped his hand across his brow and adjusted his position to get a better view of the door.  It was still shut, locked tightly and he had no way to get in other than sitting and waiting until some unsuspecting THRUSH agent walked out and didn't realise what hit him.  He had been waiting for nearly two hours in the midday sun of one of the hottest days of the year.

The assignment was supposed to be easy.  Follow the THRUSH agents to find out where they were keeping the boy, overpower a few guards, rescue the child and report back to Waverly. Napoleon was crouched next to him, looking cool as a cucumber.  Illya treated him to an irritated stare and Napoleon smiled back cheerfully.

 The boy in question, Karl Jung, was an unusual child.  If the reports were to be believed, he had abilities Illya would not have thought possible.  Despite the heat he shivered slightly, then hoped that it was because of the thought he had just had and not the beginning of heat stroke. 

Privacy was important to Illya, he didn't like the idea of someone knowing things about him that he didn't care to share.  He had experienced things that he sometimes wished he could forget, he certainly wouldn't want to talk about them, and if someone could simply look inside your mind and see them for themselves… It was something that the Russian did not want to think about.  In THRUSH's hands the boy could prove deadly.  Not only could he see your thoughts, he could alter things.  Your mind was his playground, he could do what he liked.  There was little wonder THRUSH wanted him, and little wonder UNCLE planned on keeping him from them.  The boy's mother just wanted him home safely, but Illya suspected UNCLE's long term plans might involve using the boy for themselves.  It was what he would have done.

Finally the door opened and a single, uniformed THRUSH guard walked out.  Illya quickly and quietly disarmed him and knocked him out, then they crept through the door, hearing the lock click shut behind them.  The sudden, acute change in temperature was a huge relief.  It was good to be cool again.

******

Several floors above, a boy nodded to a dark grey haired man in an expensive suit, "He took the bait." He said in German.

The man nodded back with a slight smile.  "Keep watching until he arrives," he told him.

Karl closed his eyes and watched as the two haired UNCLE agents overpowered another guard and entered the lift.  They had no idea which floor they needed, and decided to split up and check one at a time.  "This will take a while." Karl told the man.

******

Napoleon Solo crept along the deserted corridor, opening each door and checking inside.  Each one was empty except for the occasional old desk or cardboard box.  Surfaces were covered with dust, it felt as though he was the first one to walk there in years.  The supposed THRUSH base was an old, unused office building.  He began to wonder whether they were in the right place.  Something about the whole thing didn't feel right.

The day before, they had returned from meeting the boy's mother in Bremen, Germany.  Michael Jung, the boy's grandfather on his mother's side had apparently worked for UNCLE for almost thirty years.  He had died seven years ago, killed in action.  The boy's father had been killed in a robbery at work before his son was born and before he married the child's mother.  The boy, now aged 15 had apparently managed to keep his strange abilities from his mother.

When he disappeared she didn't know who else to turn to but UNCLE, she had had no idea how to contact them, only knowing they existed because of her father, and by the time she did, her son had been missing for almost two months.  In all that time she had never contacted anybody else about his disappearance, not even the local police.

It had been unusually easy to track down the boy, and that was when they heard the rumour about what he could do.  It had all been too simple, and that was what had Napoleon worried.  He had mentioned that anyone who went to California was probably walking into a trap, but Waverly had insisted they had to check it out, they had no real reason to doubt the story, and if THRUSH were involved in the kidnapping they had to stop them.

******

"One of them has reached floor 9, the Russian."  Karl informed the suited man, who moved his head slightly in acknowledgement.  He didn't really need to give any outward sign that he had heard.  The child would know, THRUSH's genetic manipulation had seen to that.  This whole exercise was as much a test of the boy's abilities as a way of letting UNCLE know that they were in trouble.  To him it seemed like a waste of time, but he didn't get to make those kind of decisions.  Someone higher up had decided scare tactics was the way forward.  Making UNCLE realise the weapon that they had and the ways it could be used against them would hopefully also make them realise they could not win and perhaps convince them to stop trying.  If anything, Mr. Uebel thought, it would anger them and make them step up their efforts against THRUSH.  But it was not up to him to decide.  He did what he was told.

"Excellent, he will be here soon.  What can you tell me about this agent?"

The boy quickly told Mr. Uebel everything he could about Illya Kuryakin and Uebel made a decision, gave the boy his instructions, so the UNCLE agent would not hear the plan, then sat calmly down in the chair behind his desk and waited.

The guards at the other side of the room tensed, realising it was almost time, and the door opened a crack.  "Come in, Mr. Kuryakin," said Uebel in a welcoming voice, not wanting to seem as though they had been taken by surprise.

Illya, on the other side of the door, had been taken by surprise, he froze for a second, amazed that he had finally found an inhabited room and shocked to realise that he had been identified.  Then remembered who he was dealing with. 

'It must be true, the boy can read my thoughts.' He thought to himself, then realised that thought had probably been heard too  He suddenly felt a surge of anger, he felt violated and vulnerable and he didn't like it.

He opened the door fully, his gun drawn, ready to fight.  Immediately the two guards ran at him.  Illya ducked out of the way of one, deliberately putting his foot in the other's way.  They landed, one on top of the other, on the floor behind him.  One guard got up and gave Illya a hard punch in the face.  He retaliated and as the guard was about to hit again, Illya blocked then hit him hard on the back of his head with his gun.  The guard went down.

"Most impressive, Mr Kuryakin," the THRUSH agent in the suit told him. 

Illya pointed his gun at the man.  "Let the boy go." He ordered. 

Uebel shook his head, "No, I don't think so, Mr Kuryakin, you see the boy would much prefer to stay with us.  Wouldn't you Karl?"  Karl nodded.  "And despite your little display with my guards there, I think you will find there is very little you can do about it."

Illya took a step forwards, his gun still ready to fire.  He kept his eye firmly on Uebel but spoke to the boy, "Karl, whatever he has offered you, it is not worth it.  You belong at home, with your mother.  She is worried."

Uebel sighed.  "I have had enough of this," he told Karl, "end it."  Illya found his hand dropping to his side against his will, he tried to move it back but found that it wouldn't go.  He could not move any part of his body.  "That's better," said Uebel, "I really don't enjoy having guns aimed at me."  He looked the blond man up and down carefully, "Now then Mr. Kuryakin, it seems you have managed to acquire one of our uniforms, I assume some poor guard as been deprived of his clothes?"

"Not all of them." Illya assured him.

Uebel sighed, "Let's get to business.  We have known you were in the building since you walked through the door, yet we did nothing about it.  Why would that be?"  Illya made no reply so Uebel continued.  "We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival, we have a demonstration to make.  You see, the boy here has some unique talents, he can read your thoughts, he can prevent you from pointing guns at me, he could drive you insane with a single thought.  We needed to lure an UNCLE agent here to give UNCLE a little demonstration."  He paused for a second before continuing, "Don't worry, Mr. Kuryakin, this won't hurt, it may just prove to be a nasty little surprise for you when you wake up." 

Uebel looked at Karl and the boy looked back, then turned his gaze towards Illya, who managed to say "Don't…" before he lost consciousness.

******

Illya woke up with a groan and rubbed his head, it felt like it had hit the floor when he passed out.  He has expected to be in some THRUSH prison, but a quick look around proved that he was in the same room he had been in before, only it was empty.  Before there had been a desk, chairs, papers, a photograph, a potted plant, all the usual clutter associated with an office where someone spends a lot of time.  Now it was all gone as if it had never been there.  He got up and left the office, trying the next room.  It was empty too, no surprise there, all the other rooms in the building had been empty.  His watch told him that he had been unconscious for less than fifteen minutes, yet they had managed to clear the entire room and disappear.

He checked his pocket for his communicator, it was still there, and called Napoleon.

******

"Which floor have you reached?" he asked. 

Napoleon answered that he was about to begin searching floor fourteen.  He had been searching the even numbered floors, Illya had taken the odd numbers.  "It's strange, there's no one here." He said, "It's like no one has been here for years.  If THRUSH are here they're keeping quiet about it."

"They are here," Illya told him.  "I have just woken up on floor nine, the boy was here.  They have gone now.  We seem to have walked into some kind of trap."

Not a huge surprise to Napoleon.  "What happened, are you all right?" he asked, concerned.

"I think so," Illya told him, rubbing the back of his head again, "but I am not certain, I was promised an unpleasant surprise."

That couldn't be good, thought Napoleon as he headed for the stairs.  THRUSH rarely failed to deliver on a promise like that.  "I'll be right down" he told Illya.

He met Illya in the corridor of floor nine and rushed towards him.  "Are you all right?" he asked again.

Illya nodded but he wasn't sure whether he was telling the truth.  Something didn't feel right, he just didn't know what it was.  He was worried.  They could have done anything to him without his knowing it.  Mind control was not a fun idea.  "I have a headache, but I blame that on a combination of sun and hitting my head."  He said.

"You Russians weren't built for heat, were you?" said Napoleon, trying to keep the atmosphere light.  Still, until they found out what, if anything had been done to Illya, Napoleon was going to watch his back.  He didn't want any unpleasant surprises either.