"He's now over an hour late," Napoleon muttered, as he sipped his coffee, and glanced at his watch for the fifth time. "We'll give him another half hour. If he is not here by then, new arrangements will have to be made."
Illya nodded in agreement. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he was unable to answer properly because of the spoonful of gelato he was shovelling into his mouth. The café they had chosen for the meeting had very much earned his approval and he was happily taking advantage of the long wait. The various foodstuffs on offer in Rome were never safe from the ever-hungry Russian, even in the middle of a rendezvous. Solo simply shook his head. He had long since stopped being amazed at how much food his partner could put away. Illya had grown up in a time and place when he ate as much as he could whenever the opportunity arose. He never knew when the next chance would come, and it was a habit he hadn't quite managed to break.
Two more coffees and further gelato later, the man the pair were waiting for finally arrived. As arrange, Samuele Donati greeted them with an expression of surprise at having bumped into them. He accepted Napoleon's scripted response of an invitation to join them. The Italian made a play of reading the menu before telling Napoleon and Illya something they didn't want to hear.
"I had to abandon the item," he said, before waving over the waiter and ordering a coffee.
"What do you mean?" Illya asked, with an edge to his voice. "It is vital for the plans."
"I was being followed by a birdie," Donati explained. "I managed to dispose of them, but thought it prudent to hide the coin."
The coin in question was more than what it appeared to be. To anyone who had hold of it there was nothing to say that it wasn't a 50 Lire coin. It looked identical to a genuine one, and even weighed the same. However, to those in the know, the coin could be pulled apart to reveal a hidden microdot. This particular coin held the details of the security arrangements for the next Summit-Five conference. It was imperative that it was retrieved quickly.
"Given our location, I have a sinking feeling about just where you put it," said Napoleon.
"Sinking is the perfect word," Donati replied. "I would wait until tonight if I were you. There will be fewer people about."
…...
A few hours later, Napoleon and Illya stood in front of the Trevi Fountain. They were both dressed like the city's municipal workers so that they, hopefully, wouldn't attract too much attention. Although it was late at night, Rome still had many tourists on its streets.
"I can understand why Samuele chose to hide the coin amongst many others, but he could have chosen somewhere a little less time consuming," Illya commented, as he used a net to start fishing coins out.
"It could be worse, Tovarisch," Solo told him. "He could have thrown it in without any care. The tradition is to throw coins with your right hand over your left shoulder. At least he placed it carefully and told us its general position."
As Illya retrieved the coins, Napoleon sifted through them and picked out the 50 Lire ones; attempting to open each one in turn. Thankfully, it only took twenty minutes for him to find their prize.
"Got it," he announced, tucking it safely into his pocket. "Put the others back and let's get out of here."
"EHI! (HEY!)"
The agents turned at the sound of the voice and, due to leaning into the fountain, Illya overbalanced and fell headfirst into the water. The owner of the voice was a member of the local police force and he was striding towards them with serious intent.
"There is only one," Illya pointed out as he rubbed water from his hair. "You go and I'll hold him off."
…
It was another four hours before Illya finally arrived back at U.N.C.L.E.'s Rome headquarters. To give Napoleon a chance to get back, he had allowed himself to be arrested and processed before admitting his identity and who he worked for. Even then, it had taken several phone calls to secure Illya's release. The authorities took very dim view of people taking money from the fountain; especially when no explanation for it was forthcoming. The police had eventually accepted Illya's credentials without ever discovering the reason for taking coins from the fountain.
"Is the microdot safe?" he asked his partner after showering and changing.
"Oh, it safe," Napoleon told him. "It just isn't usable."
Illya raised a questioning eyebrow.
"There was a fault with the coin and water got in," Solo explained. "It may have been saved had we gone back for it right away. Unfortunately, after several hours in the water, it became corrupted."
The Russian shrugged dismissively, never one to worry about that which couldn't be changed.
"Back to the drawing board after all."