Illya claimed he felt no guilt; she had been warned and paid the ultimate price for not listening. In spite of what was said, Napoleon suspected her loss weighed heavily upon his friend's weary shoulders, but the Russian was a master of masking his feelings, showing no outward signs of what was churning within him.

When Illya was an agent with the GRU he'd been taught not to care about the deaths of others, they were merely collateral damage and simply to be dismissed. His fellow operatives did that, or seemed to, but Illya Kuryakin felt the forbidden feelings of regret and grief. Innocents were his weakness. Napoleon knew that was one of his weaknesses as well, but a weakness he'd never give up.

Illya Kuryakin had grown up surrounded by death, as it followed him everywhere. This time it took an innocent instead of him and that was something he would never become accustomed to. Perhaps that was why he was offered to U.N.C.L.E...he cared. Though he tried to hide it from his superiors as he suspected they sensed it. He was an unseasoned agent and his shortcomings in their eyes made him more expendable.

Alexander Waverly's words to him when he accepted the position with U.N.C.L.E. really didn't sink in at the time; the man telling him they would prove his Russian superiors wrong about him. *

He had been given a choice, go to America or stay with GRU, or at least it appeared like a choice. If he said no, it would have meant the gulag or simply death, if he said yes it meant giving up his country, and no doubt being a Russian in a America would mean eventual death as well. It was a matter of do it or die, that was not a choice. He went with U.N.C.L.E. thinking at least his odds of survival were slightly better.

He was pleasantly surprised upon joining U.N.C.L.E. and Waverly's instincts were right about Illya; he flourished to become the number two agent in Section II behind his partner and friend Napoleon Solo.

.

Illya was still out of sorts as he limped down the two flights of stairs in his apartment building to the street below. He hailed a taxi with a loud whistle and climbed into it with a long sigh, mumbling the address of Napoleon's building to the driver.

.

* ref "The Last Goodbye"