Mission Impossible-The jokes on you
The weapon of the future is not the gun or bomb it is the computer. IMF chief programmer Markus Drey has been murdered leaving an infiltrating program shutting down IMF systems.
A still recovering Ethan finds himself up against anenemy he cannot see and does not understand. The only key to finding out answers seemingly rests in familiar hands.
Set after Ghost Protocol and including team Ethan, (Jane ,Benji, Brandt). Special appearance by Luther
I do not own the IMF ,just having fun. All records of my actions will be disavowed this message will self destruct in….
Chapter 1.
Master of pretense
Dropping his house keys into the plant pot Ethan Hunt sat down on a tall high chair. He had just come home after a 10 mile jog. Getting back into shape after injuring himself during Ghost protocol had been harder than he'd expected. The new secretary had even given him some less than subtle hints that perhaps he should start to consider applying for a non field based job. There were a range of other positions suitable for someone with his experience. One of the jobs on offer was giving advice and training to IMFs newest recruits. One look at them had for an instant made Ethan feel lke he was getting old. Maybe he should think of retiring from active missions. It was better to go out on top than to either die or suddenly realize you had lost your touch and were compromising a mission. But thinking through the pros and cons Ethan came to one conclusion, he was not ready to give it all up yet. He believed he had what it took to be in the field a few years longer. The secretary accepted his response but made it clear that remaining in the field was acceptable if he passed all the physical tests. Those tests contained some elements that were physically challenging .That did not give Ethan any anxiety instead he vowed to pass all the tests with the highest grade possible.
He was about to get up and pour himself a cold drink when his 'normal' phone rang. Picking it up Ethan answered quite breezily "hello". " Good morning this is Eat right Pizza your order number 121 is ready for pick up , click". A coldness that had nothing to do with his body cooling off after his run began to fill him, the call had been from IMF and not come through the usual channels. Order number 121 meant do not attempt to make contact under any circumstances. It was the same order other agents would have received during ghost protocol when IMF was disavowed. Something very similar must have happened now. Normally he would have to lay low and wait until things returned to normal. However the message of 'pick up' indicated he needed to attend a meeting. To obtain the location all he had to do was arrange "eat right pizza" into a set of coordinates. That took him hardly two seconds then he was off out of his apartment again not knowing when or even if he'd return.
The dilapidated building he arrived at 1 hour later smelt of rotting garbage and worse. This was a remote part of town where many buildings were being demolished to make way for new freeways. There was no sign of any cars in the vicinity but Ethan knew that meant nothing. His senses tuned to high alert as he climbed over the barriers around the building warning "danger do not enter" . Broken bottles and rotting food lay all over the ground and the smell almost had him gagging. Large pieces of broken glass in his path meant he had to constantly change his movement through the building . A half rotten carcass of a dead dog lay before him now. It had no eyes and its body had been eaten away by little teeth leaving a gaping hole out of where intestines trailed. Any sensible person would turn back now. Ethan just ignored the surroundings knowing they were there to put off any nosy people. Ahead of him now was a door that looked like it may fall off its hinges at any moment. When pushing the door did not yield any results he knew that appearances were deceptive and this door was a lot stronger than it looked. Running his hands down the frame he found a small button which he pushed to reveal a retinal scanner.
After his identity was confirmed he entered into the room beyond. A large space devoid of any of the equipment that was usually part of any IMF mission greeted him. In fact all the room did feature was two rickety looking chairs and a desk that was propped up by four large bricks. On one chair sat a very worried looking secretary. Ethan felt his concern etch up another notch, this was definitely not normal. He kept his face impassive as he came to stand before the secretary. "Please sit Mr Hunt, I do not wish to waste any further time", the secretary requested. A loud creaking sound from the chair filled the air as he sat carefully. The secretary pulled out a laptop, "had you tried to contact IMF Mr Hunt, this is what would have happened". As Ethan watched the IMF logo appeared, so far nothing out of the ordinary. However seconds later the logo vanished to be replaced by 5 large pink rabbits singing 'run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run ,run', in off key voices and dancing a high energy rapid dance. It was almost funny until the secretary told him, "this program has infiltrated our entire system effectively bringing our computer based services to a standstill. Our best programmers have all tried to get into the IMF system without success."We believe this program to be some type of virus. It does not appear to be affecting the systems other than denying access. But we do not know if this will change in the future. Naturally without our systems IMF is completely blind".
Now Ethan understood why the secretary was so pale with our network down all of field agents would be without any types support or communication during their missions. If they got into trouble they would be on their own. He knew that shutting down during ghost protocol had cost several agents their lives. IMF could not afford to have their network down again for any extended period of time. The secretary began speaking again telling him, "you were amongst the few agents whose present location is 100 percent accurate without relying on computer data and the only one contactable with short notice." I realize you have yet to requalify for full mission status but we need you agent Hunt."
This secretary was new to the job and had only just got operations up to their full capacity after ghost protocol. Now months later IMF systems were again being compromised. It was a scenario Ethan would not wish on anyone. Ethan preferred a gun fight to a battle waged through a computer.
It was not something he could easily understand, yet he still need to help. It was always best to start with the easy questions.
"Do we know what happened sir, was it some sort of attack", he asked. For a reply the secretary tapped another button on his computer and showed Ethan a particularly gruesome photo of a deceased man. His features were barely recognizable and a mass of wounds traversed his body. None of the wounds would have been immediately fatal on there own however in combination the blood loss would have been significant. "Local authorities found the body outside their front door early this morning. Blood tests have determined that he is Mr Markus Drey who was our chief programmer ,responsible for maintaining everything that requires computerized control. He is a brilliant man who knew how protect IMF from any sort of computer based attack, unfortunately the same knowledge could be used against us . The singing bunny program has his unique signature all over it. Drey always did have a rather warped sense of humor. It looks very much like he may have been compromised by persons unknown who have forced him to activate this program. These people have then killed him so he cannot undo the damage". Drey writes shut down codes into all programs of this type. All we can do is try and find the people responsible hoping they hold the deactivation codes. Naturally our own programmers will continue to try and gain access. To try and solve the puzzle of what happened we must follow Drey's trail."
"Since our IMF internal security cameras are not linked to our networks we can still access them and obtain a picture of his movements up until 7pm last night." More buttons were clicked and Ethan found himself watching footage of a typical day in the 'control room' of IMF headquarters.
This large circular room was where technicians, programmers and analysts worked side by side to bring together all of the elements needed to run and maintain the average IMF mission as well as all the other essential parts of a covert agency. It was a busy place but Ethan quickly picked out Markus Drey tapping away at a console on the far side of the room.
"He is just undertaking his regular work, nothing out of the ordinary", the secretary reported. As the minutes passed watching soon became tedious . Ethan could hardly say 'hey this is boring' so just maintained his observation. "The day continued like this, an average typical day". At approximately 5 minutes to 7 Markus met up with his body guard agent Harrison Xander".
Xander was about 56 with graying blonde hair. 'Ethan's mind began to whirr, if someone had set up Markus Drey then a bodyguard must be top of the list. He did not even hesitate in thinking up betrayal from with IMFs own ranks, he had experienced it himself. "Did Xander report any unusual activity regarding Drey", he asked. "No Agent Hunt and before you ask there was no sign of Xander having contact with any undesirables", the secretary obviously thought along the same lines. "Xander had been Markus's bodyguard for 4 years now. He was pulled off activity duty due to injury and reassigned". I am sure that at first being relegated to a minder was difficult. But he became very close to Markus Drey. The two were planning to have a drink to celebrate his birthday ."
"The closeness could have been a ploy", Ethan stubbornly held Xander in the 'suspect box". Perhaps that was because he knew he would feel resentful if he had been forcibly sidelined. But no matter how he felt he would never betray IMF or his country. Maybe though Xander was not like him.
"It could have been , but I doubt it was", the secretary told him firmly. "I do not consider Xander as a suspect".
The video footage continued now showing IMF's car park. Markus Drey was moving around to the left rear side of a car while Xander was heading for the drivers side. 'That brought another question to mind, why was Drey in the back and sitting on the far side from his guard. 'Hold on a minute", Ethan thought he had the answer to the question. As he watched he saw another hand reach out and grasp the handle of the right rear side door. The video footage had not at any time shown another person but clearly someone else had been with them. "Do we know the identity of the third person", he asked the secretary. In his mind anyone who was good enough not to get noticed by IMF security had to be suspect number one.
"Keep watching", the tone of that request sent an icy shiver down Ethan's spine. The hand pulled the door open and then the rest of the previously unseen man's body followed. For a split second he froze looking up at the camera. Ethan's heart almost stopped on the spot as he clearly identified William Brandt. "Analyst Brandt's agent status had yet to be activated and thus we have made use of his expertise to get back to full function after our ghost protocol shut down". He is a friend of Markus Drey and was invited to join Xander and he for drinks", the secretary announced softly.
Ethan's mouth was dry as suspicion faded from his mind. He may have not known Brandt that long but there was no way he would ever betray them by setting up another man. It was his reaction to believing he had killed his wife that cemented that thought in Ethans' mind, Brandt would not be able to live with the guilt. But even though he dismissed Brandt's involvement did the secretary agree with him. "I hope you do not consider that Brandt could be responsible", he asked. The head shake he got lifted a weight from his mind. "Brandts movements have been monitored and he is cleared of any suspicion".
Blowing out an audible sigh of relief Ethan moved onto the harder questions, "do we have a status on Brandt and Xander", he asked. "As you know all official cars are fitted with their own cameras. However all we have recovered at this stage is Drey's body. By dumping it on the door of the local authorities whoever is responsible is making sure the murder receives attention. This naturally makes it harder for us to investigate without drawing unwanted attention."
Ethan ignored that problem for the moment remaining focused on the agents and Xander would have both had their IMF phones. "What about fixing a location through GPS", he asked.
"We are not getting a signal Agent Hunt". "It seems this is not going to be that easy. I suggest we start with Drey's apartment . The local authorites have already searched but do not look at things through the same eyes as you do Hunt. If there is any information on the singing bunnies it may be hidden somewhere."Help us find out who is responsible for this and bring our systems back on line". It sounded almost like the secretary was begging.
To Ethan there was never any question of choosing to accept this mission, he needed to find out what had happened to his newest team mate.
Unfortunately there were very few reasons for anyone to want to take Brandt or Xander captive. Yes they undoubtedly knew classified information but being trained agents meant they would die before they would reveal anything. Also with the dancing bunny program being activated IMF was at a standstill anyway and all agents were at risk. Therefore keeping Brandt and Xander captive would gain an enemy nothing.
His mind did not want to carry that thought any further. But that did not stop him seeing it in the secretary's eyes. Then the man just had to go and make things worse by saying it, "I am sorry agent Hunt but I believe that Agents Xander and Brandt are also dead".