It was all around the office. The two hot shots, senior agents Solo and Kuryakin had failed catastrophically in their last mission, and had been in the hospital for several days recovering. Their failure loomed ever greater over them, as the two agents sent in to take their place, junior agent Mark Slate and rookie April Dancer had cleared up the whole thing quickly. The Moonglow Affair, as it had been dubbed, had proven that a female agent had a very definite place at UNCLE. The ill-fated THRUSH attempt to sabotage the American and Russian space programs had been iced, and the villains captured.
Sitting up in their hospital beds, side by side, both Napoleon and Illya wore almost identical gloomy expressions. The relief that the mission had been saved was not in any way helped by the knowledge that it had been a rookie agent that had saved their bacon. Waverly raised his eyebrows at them at seeing their twin reactions at his news.
"I thought you would both be happy to know that The Moonglow Affair has been cleared up satisfactorily."
"Yes, we are sir. Very pleased indeed." Solo tried, and almost managed to look sincere. Kuryakin did not even deign to look up at his boss. He remained staring straight ahead, a black look on his face.
"Yes sir. Ecstatic!" he replied with no attempt to hide the sarcasm. Waverly's mouth twitched and he coughed to cover a slight laugh.
"Gentlemen, I would think you two would not be quite so piqued that someone else succeeded where you failed. No one is infallible you know."
"So we have discovered." Solo glanced up at Waverly, and then across at Illya, and suddenly he gave a rueful grin.
"I guess neither of us is accustomed to failure, sir. I am glad Mark and April succeeded though…especially in finding that antidote…perhaps we should thank them when we get out of here."
Waverly nodded in satisfaction.
"That's more like it. Slate and Dancer are at the other end of the corridor, waiting. I will send them in to visit you, and you can congratulate them in person."
When he was gone, Illya glanced darkly at his partner. Solo met his look with a grin.
"Well you have to admit it Illya, we did both fall flat on our faces with this one. But we still helped, anyway."
Illya looked very disbelieving.
"Really? And how does getting ourselves landed in hospital help?"
"Slate and Dancer had a better idea of what they were up against before they went in. They were better prepared and were able to come up with a plan. When we went in, we were fumbling in the dark after all."
The door opened and Illya looked up, and then back at Napoleon.
"Well then partner, here's your chance to tell them. Have fun. I'm going to sleep!"
