Waverly handed the scrawled note to Napoleon, Illya peered at the message over his partners shoulder and read it out loud.
"Red, green, yellow or blue; choose the wrong one and it'll be the end of you."
"Any idea what it means?" Solo asked The Old Man.
"We haven't the slightest idea; it arrived this afternoon, addressed simply to 'U.N.C.L.E.'"
"Red, green, yellow or blue. What could that be referring to, was there not anything else with the note?" Illya enquired as he took the paper from Napoleon and sat at the table studying it.
"No Mr. Kuryakin, I am afraid not."
"It could be somebody having a joke." Solo mused.
"It might be a possibility; there is nothing to go on at the moment. But may I suggest we go on alert, just in case this does turn into something serious?" The Russian suggested.
"Hmm, Yes I think that would be a good idea, I will make a general announcement for all staff to keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Waverly agreed.
He dismissed the two agents and resumed his perusal of the reports waiting on his desk.
"I suppose we'll have to wait and see what happens then, tovarisch." Solo said as they walked towards their office.
"Da, that is all we can do for the moment, until we find out what the significance of the colors are."
Two days later a small package was waiting on Napoleon's desk.
"What's this, have I forgotten something? You shouldn't have Illya, whatever it is." Napoleon said as he picked up the package.
"Napoleon, it is not from me. May I suggest you open it very carefully?" Illya advised him, alarm clearly written on his face.
"You think it may be something to do with that note we received a few days ago?" Solo queried as he put the offending object down, suddenly not wanting to handle it.
"Maybe," the Russian picked it up and examined the brown paper wrapping, finding no markings apart from Napoleon's name written in the same untidy handwriting as the previous message.
Illya carefully unwrapped it, inside was a small bottle of yellow liquid.
"What is that?" Solo wondered aloud.
"I do not know. What I would like to know is how it passed security."
April and Mark came into their office, they each had a parcel wrapped up in brown paper, their names in the same handwriting.
"We're not sure about these and though it was best to bring them here," April said.
"Yeah mate, what with that weird message, we thought it best," Mark added.
"You did right, Napoleon received one as well," Illya indicated the bottle sat on Solo's blotter.
"Do you know what it is?" Dancer asked.
"Nyet, but it seems we have two more to add to our collection, red and green."
"What colours did the note mention? Red, green, yellow….."
"And blue," Slate finished Napoleons sentence.
"So there's probably a blue one somewhere." April mused.
Just then Solo's phone rang; it was Waverly requesting Napoleon and Illya see him immediately. A brown paper parcel had appeared in his office….
Illya examined the bottle containing blue liquid before placing it alongside the three others that stood next to the note.
"I believe this is getting more serious." The Old Man said as he picked up one of the bottles, then looking at his agents with a serious expression continued, "I want our security systems examined; we cannot allow breaches like this. Mr. Solo I want you to look into that, Mr. Kuryakin I want you to identify these liquids so we know what we could be dealing with."
"Yes Sir," both said together before leaving the office.
Napoleon spent the rest of the day reviewing current security procedures and viewing recordings from the cameras placed in strageic locations around HQ, hoping to find out how the objects had arrived, but so far hadn't found anything.
Illya retreated to his lab and set about identifying the different coloured liquids. The blue was just water with colouring in it and was completely safe, he put his finger in the middle of it and watched the rings ripple to the edge of the dish it was in, hoping the remaining substances were just as benign.
The green, he found, was Ascorbic Acid. The red contained Sodium Pentothal and the yellow was Strychnine, all with food colouring added to give them their hue.
The results sill left more questions than they answered. It was getting late and Napoleon stopped by Illya's office before leaving for the night.
"Found out anything?"
"Da, I have identified the liquids, they are relatively harmless apart from the Strychnine, but what they have to do with the message… I do not know. What has your day been like?"
"I've come to the conclusion that it's an inside job," he sighed, "I've never been so bored, I've sat watching recordings from our security cameras for more hours than I care to think of, trying see if I could identify who delivered those bottles."
"Did you have any luck?"
"No, whoever it is, knows how to be 'invisible'. Are you ready to call it a day, tovarisch?"
"Da, there is nothing more I can do for the moment."
The Russian locked the bottles away for the night and closed up his lab, before following Napoleon through the warren of corridors to the elevator and down into the carpark.
The next morning Illya made his way to the office he shared with Napoleon, the American was already there, going through yet more security footage on a portable TV, coffee cup in hand.
"Good morning Napoleon, have you found anything?"
"No, still nothing suspicious, I just don't understand how it's being done."
Just then Waverly called them into his office, he'd just received another note….
"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink," Solo read out.
"Chyort, the water. , make an announcement for nobody to drink anything from the taps or made with the water from them, if I am right it has been tampered with."
"Damn Illya, I've had a coffee this morning, what's going to happen to me?"
"I do not know, I need to test the water and find out what it has been contaminated with."
"I suggest you get onto it right away Mr. Kuryakin and Mr Solo, get down to Medical," noticing his CEA's look, he added,"and that's an order Mr. Solo."
"Yes sir," both responded and left.
Waverly made a general announcement; hoping, as it was still quite early, not too many people had had a drink yet.
Twenty minutes later, Illya had identified the contaminant and immediately went to report to The Old Man.
"I have discovered Cicutoxin has been added to the water; it is a chemical found in plants, most notably Water Hemlock. Nausea and stomach pains usually develop within the first hour followed by tremors and seizures, then death within six hours if not treated."
"We have four people in Medical showing the first of those symptoms, what can be done? Is there an antidote?"
"Yes sir, the red bottle contains Sodium Pentothal which is used in the treatment of Cicutoxin poisioning."
"Good, I suggest we inform the doctors what is ailing our agents."
"Sir, how is Napoleon?"
"I'm afraid he is one of the four Mr. Kuryakin."
They both made their way down to Medical and informed the staff what they were dealing with. Illya went to check on Solo and found him in the middle of a seizure; the doctor, armed with the new information, immediately prescribed a benzodiazepine treatment to halt the seizure. The Russian looked on, worry etched in his eyes as he willed his friend to respond to the treatment.
Slowly the tremors slowed and ceased and Kuryakin breathed a sigh of relief. Napoleon suddenly started gagging and the nurse turned him on his side so he could be sick, stomach emptied he was rolled back and fell into an exhausted sleep.
"We need to put him on dialysis to filter out the toxin and start an infusion of the Sodium Pentathol," the doctor informed the nurses. He turned to Waverly and Illya,"He'll be okay now, in a couple of weeks he'll be fit enough for duty."
"That's good to hear, how are the others Dr Benton?"
"I've been told they're also responding well to treatment and should make a full recovery."
"Excellent," Waverly turned to Kuryakin, "I think it will be a while before Mr. Solo wakes up, so I want you to try and identify who is responsible for all this."
"Yes Mr. Waverly."
Taking a last look at his friend, he left the room and went to review the security footage and records in the office he shared with his partner. After a few hours and drawing a blank, he thought of another way to try and catch the culprit.
It was a long shot, but he hoped the person had been careless with the bottles and left fingerprints behind. Kuryakin went back to his lab and tested the bottles and sure enough, he found a couple of good prints on one of them. Running it through their database he finally had a name.
"You wanted to see me Mr. Kuryakin? I presume you have found something."
"Yes sir, I know who was behind all this."
"Oh? Please go on."
"It was Philip Sanders in Security. He is currently being held in one of our cells."
"I see, and has he told you why he did all this?"
"Yes, he was unhappy with his job and believed he was always being passed over for promotion and decided to show his irritation by carrying out this demonstration."
"So how did he avoid being captured on our cameras?"
Illya smiled slightly, "by 'smoke and mirrors' he used his knowledge of magic to utilize mirrors to deceive the cameras and make it appear no one was in the corridors. He always made sure he was the only one present each time or the illusion wouldn't work."
"Hmm, clever," the old man looked towards his agent, "You will, of course, find a way to prevent this 'smoke and mirrors' from happening again."
"Yes sir. I can also inform you that the water system has been flushed and it is now safe to drink again."
"Good work, Mr. Kuryakin. I suggest you go and check on your partner."
"Thank you."
Waverly smiled briefly as Illya turned to leave.
Napoleon was sitting up when Illya arrived back in Medical.
"Did we win?"
"Da, we won, how are you feeling?"
"Like hell, and not a THRUSH in sight," he grinned.
The Russian spent the rest of the day with his friend, filling him in on everything Solo had missed and the culprit responsible.
After two weeks, Napoleon was declared fit and was back on duty, much to the relief of the doctors and nurses in Medical.