Ten sets of eyes looked to the door as it opened, allowing two men to enter.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to U.N.C.L.E. New York," the first man greeted, with a warm a smile. "My name is Peter Webster and I am Number 1, Section 6. In other words I head up security and personnel."
"And I am Rudolph Keller," the second man stated, with much less warmth than Webster. "I run Section 3. I trust I don't need to tell you what we do. One thing I will say is, we are not the second prize when it comes to being an U.N.C.L.E. agent. Section 2 may look like the glamour boys, but we work just as hard, for half the credit."
The ten new graduates, nine men and one woman, returned the greetings. They had all pushed themselves to almost breaking point in the hope of being assigned to New York and were beyond excited when their wishes had been granted. Although U.N.C.L.E. had headquarters and offices globally, New York was seen as the crème de la crème.
"Straight on to business," Webster stated, ignoring Keller's stubborn pride. "Three of you have been chosen to join Section 2 and will remain here until your partners come to collect you. I will warn you now though that the CEA, Illya Kuryakin, is looking for a partner himself. He is very particular, and won't entertain anyone who isn't willing to give their all to the job. The other seven will go with Mr Keller to join Section 3."
The graduates all looked to each other and wondered which one of them was going to be the unlucky one. None of them had met Illya Kuryakin but they were all aware of his reputation. He was known to be a stickler for procedure and discipline, which was no doubt a result of his Soviet upbringing. They'd all heard many tales of short temper and fear-inducing glare. His brand of leadership had been raised to an almost legendary status amongst the trainees at the Survival School. Jules Cutter wasn't a fan of Kuryakin, but he found it useful to allow the talk of the Russian's prowess to continue. The fact that Kuryakin held most of the schools records gave all the students a high bar to aim for. At least, he'd held them until Napoleon Solo came along.
"Okay," continued Webster. "Gil North, Napoleon Solo, and Bernice Fisher, you have been selected for Section 2. You may look glamorous, but you'll soon learn differently. Everyone else, go with Mr Keller."
The chosen three waited until they were left to themselves before postulating on which one of them would be assigned to the dreaded 'Ice Prince'.
"If it's me I'll be complaining to Alexander Waverly personally," Gil snarled. "I'm not working with a damned Russkie. My father would turn in his grave."
Solo frowned at the statement, but stayed silent. Given the political climate, the man's opinions were hardly unique.
"Even if you aren't partnered with him, he'll still be your boss," Bernice pointed out, trying to hide her disgust at his bigotry. "Besides, what does it matter if he's Russian? This is an international organisation and, last time I looked, Russia is a nation on this planet."
"He's a communist," Gil replied, speaking as though to a child. "He's probably spying for his Moscow Masters. You can't trust a single one of them."
"Oh don't be stupid, Gil. He wouldn't be in his position if there was any chance of him being a double agent. What do you think Napoleon?"
"Yeah,' Gil urged him. 'You were among the action in Korea, so you must hate commies."
Solo shrugged non-committedly.
"I fought many communists," he replied, making sure to use the full word. "I admit that I did hate them all."
"You see," Gil crowed.
Napoleon held his hand up to quiet him.
"I hated them at the time because they were trying to kill me, and I imagine they felt the same about me. I don't agree with communism in any way but, in my opinion, you can't judge an individual by the government which runs their lives. You can only judge a person by their own actions. I don't know Mr Kuryakin, but I seriously doubt he would be CEA if he hadn't proven himself to be a trustworthy man."
"So you'd be happy to be his partner?"
"I think that anyone wishing to advance their career could do worse than getting in with the CEA.
Gil huffed, but said nothing. He'd felt sure Solo would back his side of the argument.
…..
In a room a little way down the corridor, Alexander Waverly and Illya Kuryakin watched the three new agents on a monitor.
"As CEA I'm affording you the opportunity to choose for yourself, Mr Kuryakin," Waverly told the Russian, as he tamped down his pipe tobacco. "You have an interesting selection there."
"A small part of me is tempted to take North," Illya said in a voice of pure steel. "He is a man who needs a lesson in not judging before knowing the facts. However, I would suggest that he is not quite ready for Section 2."
"I agree," Waverly concurred. "I think he would benefit from a few months in Section 3. That leaves you with Miss Fisher and Mr Solo."
Illya glanced, once again, through the files of the two.
"Miss Fisher's conduct at Survival School was exemplary," he muttered, almost to himself. "And her scores were near perfect. However, there is something about Solo which makes me curious."
Waverly almost smiled. From the moment he'd heard of Napoleon Solo, and his breaking of Kuryakin's records, he felt sure that they would make an excellent team. He could have ordered his CEA to take Solo as his partner, but he'd been interested in seeing whether he would be drawn to the man himself.
"Solo will make an excellent agent," the Old Man told Kuryakin, "But, he does have a wandering eye for the ladies, and is often a little lax when it comes to discipline. You and he are very different people and my very well clash."
A smile briefly appeared on Illya's lips.
"I enjoy a challenge."