Chapter Four
Kuryakin felt slightly woozy after having endured the surgery to place Augustine's device in and on his head. Still in handcuffs, he was led back to the room he started in. This time, Lane was in the other bed, restrained and not looking very happy. It reminded him of when she was in UNCLE's infirmary.
He was released from the handcuffs just long enough to be placed in the other bed and then restrained again to prevent much movement. Davis came into the room, nodded to the both of them, and began to look at the charts one at a time.
"Mr. Kuryakin, you behaved very well during your procedure."
"It is easy when I was handcuffed, restrained, and have a gun pointed to my chest at all times. You're not very trusting."
Davis just smiled darkly, eyeing him over his glasses, and then turned to Lane.
"We'll start the next step first with Miss Smyth, so you can see how she reacts initially and how effective it is. The reaction happens rather quickly and then we introduce a suggestive voice that will be the only one the subject will follow from then on. Most intriguing don't you think?"
"Is it not rude to talk about Miss Smyth while she is in the room with us?" Kuryakin asked as he flicked a quick glance towards her, wanting to hear Lexi talk to know if she was okay or at least give him a signal. Her eyes didn't move as she intently focused on restraints that held her ankles.
"Our Miss Smyth doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk or look at anyone since her awkward wake up after her procedure. Quite the reversal from the forum don't you say? Even you barely got a look, Mr. Kuryakin, when they brought you back for your surgery."
On that last comment, Professor Augustine came through the door. He'd changed from the scrubs that he had on in the operating room to a basic suit and dirty lab coat.
"Professor, perfect timing as always, I was just about to say it was time to get started. Do you have the drug with you?"
"I want to check the devices first and yes, I have it with me. Hopefully, by tomorrow, with luck, I can get Miss Smyth here to whip up another batch with me. I'd like to see how she performs in the lab. Then she can show me what other kind of goodies are in that unique brain of hers and Mr. Kuryakin's."
First, Augustine went to Kuryakin's side and turned his head gently as he looked at the reservoir and stitches. He nodded happily and then walked over to Lane's bed. She didn't move her eyes or head as he came close to her side.
"My dear?"
Augustine asked pleasantly as he tried to turn her head, but she flinched from his touch and turned it even further away and downward. Finally, he had to firmly take a hold her jaw to turn it where he wanted it. She pulled at her restraints and hissed out from his fingers digging into her skin and the back of her neck.
"Yes, a little tender from your attempted escape? Some slight swelling, but nothing to stop us from giving her the medication."
He then pulled her head back even further to look her in the eyes, without letting go of her head. A blush started to rise in her cheeks.
"I see there's still some of the tranquilizer's effect in her system, but no matter. We will all be great friends soon."
Illya could see that Lexi wanted to scream out a barrage of colorful and well deserving words at him when he released her, but dryly swallowed them instead. Augustine merely chuckled to himself as he stood where he was, pulled out a vial of dark purple medicine out of pocket, shook it, and drew it up in a syringe.
"It's purple with ionic markers so we can trace it on x-ray. At least in the first dose or two we give you."
Augustine simply informed the test subjects and then he waved for two male orderlies to come closer. His eyes focusing intensely on the syringe to draw up just the right amount of fluid and repeated this action with a second syringe. He then pulled out two devices that looked like small remotes out of his lab pocket; checked the numbers on the dials. He gave one to Davis and repocketed the second one.
"Hold her head and shoulders!"
Lane struggled, but lost. She barely could see the syringe out of the corner of her eye and felt the cold wipe of alcohol on her ear lobe by the port of the reservoir. The pressure from the syringe being injected into the port hit a tender spot, causing her to jump involuntarily.
The medicine filled the reservoir in less the twenty seconds and the needle removed. The orderlies release their hold on Lane and everyone waited, watching for any sign of change.
Slowly, as Lexi had stayed in the same position where she had been released by the orderlies, her eyes started to close and her face become pale as she began to tremble. She pulled on her restraints while she twisted slowly to her side and then straightened out.
Augustine watched with fascination, standing by her bed and then leaned in close to her ear. "Are you able to hear me?"
Lexi nodded, but didn't open her eyes.
"Open your eyes."
She opened her eyes, straightforward and unfocused. Her face was drawn as if she was trying to figure out the thoughts inside of her head.
"You'll listen only to my voice and obey. Do you understand?"
Lane nodded, but didn't say a word.
"Now, my angel, what is your real name?"
"…Janice…Smyth."
"It can't be, Janice Smyth doesn't exist," Davis said in startled confusion.
"Let's try something that she may know." Augustine shrugged at the surprise answer Lexi gave. "State for me the first chemical formula you learned."
The female UNCLE agent stated what they wanted to hear in a bare whisper. It was the formula to make Morphine for the Nazis. She helped her mother mix in the concentration camp. The only thing was it was stated all in a mix of Russian and German.
Davis and Augustine looked at each other before looking over to a smug Section Two agent. They didn't know Russian or German and the only one who did, wasn't going to help them as him watched in rigid fascination.
"Get an interpreter up here that speaks Russian. We might need it for Kuryakin as well."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, while we try to figure this out, I suggest that we now start with you, Mr. Kuryakin." Green walked up to him and took the second syringe from Augustine. "You're mine to control. Hold him down."
"If it didn't work on her, why do you think it's going to work on me?"
"Oh, it's working on chickadee over there. We just have to find a way for us to understand her. Isn't very odd that she has many similar qualities that you have and that her first language is Russian? The spy world is a small place, especially in the Soviet Union. I know you're aquatinted with her."
"I told you that's classified and I'm going to kill you."
Kuryakin promised intently. He was held still by two bulky orderlies; one roughly held his shoulders down. The other one pulled his head back by grabbing his light blond hair back to expose the side of his head that the port was on.
Davis moved forward, jabbing the needle home and filled the reservoir. Finally, Illya felt the syringe being pulled out of the port, Davis stepped back to closely watch his reaction.
As the orderlies released him, he could feel an itching start behind his eyes and squeezed them shut. His hearing became muffled while the usual whirling of thoughts and ideas in his mind started to slow down. Kuryakin felt as if he was swimming in heavy water. His lips were dry and he shivered as he tried to focus on what he was currently thinking.
He smiled inwardly, after several years of working for UNCLE, his system had gotten used to the vast array of THRUSH brain washing drugs which Lexi and Fellows had not. He hoped that this drug would be the same, except for the blinding headaches at the end.
"Mr. Kuryakin? Open your eyes and tell me your name and UNCLE identification."
Davis' voice registered in his head and he was pulled to do what the voice wanted.
"Illya Kuryakin, Section Two, Number Two," Illya repeat in his usual basic response.
"Do you know who is in the bed next to you?"
"Yes."
"What is her name?"
Again, Illya could feel the pull to tell Davis who Lexi was, but he still was able maintain control over his thoughts.
"Hmmm…"
"Don't worry, Mr. Kuryakin. It will come to you. Now it is time for you to rest and eat. You did very well for the first day. Tomorrow, it will be easier after your second dose."
Augustine had stayed by Lane during this time talking to her softly and sweetly. Encouraging her to talk to him, but all he could get was a mixture of foreign languages and her insistence that her name was Janice Smyth. He stroked her cheek and held her hand.
Lexi didn't return his tenderness and trembled as he leaned over her bed.
"Professor, tell her to eat and get some rest for tonight. We'll have her go to the lab tomorrow and hopefully by then, Cryptology has a better understanding of her notes or maybe we can find a way to get her to speak enough English to tell us herself."
Augustine whispered words to his new puppet that only she could hear and she slowly nodded, but didn't say a word. Her eyes stayed hauntingly blank as they tracked him out of the room when he left with Davis.
After the two men left, all that remained was an orderly who was bringing trays of food to place in front of Kuryakin and Lane. One wrist was released for them to eat only when a second orderly came into the room holding a gun.
Illya looked at the food and cringed. He hated hospital food and pushed it away even though his stomach was growling. All he could tolerate at the moment was a drink of water. He looked up at the monitors to see that the red light was on and knew that they were being constantly being monitored.
After awhile, he looked over to Lexi and tried to talk to her in Russian to ask if she was well, but she didn't respond. He tried to get her attention by greeting her in German. Still no response to anything he tried.
Illya didn't want to give up any information about Lexi to Augustine or Davis by saying too much, but he needed her to respond.
"I see that you are not eating? Aren't you hungry? Can I have it?" He finally asked in English.
She looked back over at him and smiled dully, but she didn't say a word and closed her eyes as she began to tremble slightly.
"Miss Smyth! Janice!" Illya shouted and Lexi popped her eyes open. "Eat! You were told to eat. The drug will be too strong for you if you don't eat. I know that you haven't eaten since lunch and that was only half a sandwich. Eat! Please."
"I do not want to obey him. Do not make me go with him..."
"No, Janice!" Illya whispered harshly, but she just turned her head and didn't respond any more.
"Mr. Solo, anything to report about Mr. Kuryakin and Miss Lane?"
Solo sat down at the table with coffee in his hand.
"I figured out that Lexi wanted to let us know about the old tracking device that was placed by the KGB, its frequency, and I hope that the battery still works. We've teams spread over New York trying to find out where they might be."
"And Miss Dancer and Mr. Slate, how are they doing in London?"
"They have followed Wallace to a small THRUSH facility. We believe that Fellows is there. It appears that they are packing up to go somewhere in the next day or two."
"Interesting, keep a watchful eye on them and see where they go. Hopefully it's back here and to Professor Augustine or THRUSH."
"Yes, sir."
Illya woke up the next morning more tired than when he started the night before. He couldn't sleep because of his concern for Lexi. She refused to look or talk to him every time he tried and was fighting the dullness the medication made in his mind. He was still able to override the feelings to obey Davis's order to eat and rest, but it was hard. Being restrained in the same position for hours didn't help his feelings of helplessness.
Breakfast was handled like the meal the night before. This time, Kuryakin ate some of his food to settle his aching stomach, but it wasn't very appetizing to him. Most of the time, he waited and watched her from the corner of his eye.
She just lay quietly on the bed with her head still turned away from Illya, staring blankly at the far wall. The only time she moved was to flinch when the orderlies brought her food on a tray table and loosened one of her arms, but then she went back to staring at the opposite wall.
After about twenty minutes of the food lay mostly untouched, Davis and Augustine walked into the room. The doctor made a straight line to Lexi and started to remove the rest of her restraints.
"My dear, it's time for you to perform."
He treated her like someone mentally incapable of taking care of herself as she accepted this treatment without complaint.
"Good morning." Davis said as he chose to ignore Augustine's excitement. "From what I heard about last night and this morning, neither of you are eating very well. I'd hoped for better. I have to warn you two, that I'll take matters into my own hands to keep you healthy."
"You try eating this slop! Where is he taking her?"
Augustine had pulled Lexi off the bed and helped her stand. He spun her in front of him and pulled her hair back to expose the port of the reservoir as he wrapped his arm around her neck. Daftly, he plunged in the syringe with the medicine and refilled the device.
The only reaction that came out of her was a quick intake of breath, falling back into him.
"The Professor is going to test out his theory that our chickadee here is who he thinks she is. Care to join them before we have our own little talk about UNCLE?"
"I haven't got anything else to do this morning."
"Then it's settled, Mr. Kuryakin, but first, I have to give you a dose of medicine. I think that we need to increase your amount though, you're far too rebellious this morning and I'm afraid that you'll have to be handcuffed as well; far too clever for your own good."
"I've been told that before." Illya cringed as the medicine was injected into the port while the orderlies held him down.
"I'm sure you have, Mr. Kuryakin, but be warned, that I won't be as tolerant of your silences today. You'll either tell us what we want and help us with chickadee here or there will be dire consequences."
Illya started to feel the itching behind his eyes again grow even stronger than last night. Davis' voice drew Illya to him. The weighted water he was swimming in before now felt like Jell-O.
"Mr. Kuryakin? You will help me, won't you?"
"Da."
"English, please."
"…Yes."
"Excellent, now on to the lab."
Once in the Chemistry lab, Augustine placed Lane by the one of the tables and opened her notebook in front of her. She looked down, but didn't say or do anything as her hands trembled at her sides.
Davis and Kuryakin stood at the far end of the table and watched her. He was handcuffed as Davis had promised. There were a couple of other people in the room, two THRUSH guards, a lab tech, and a Russian interpreter.
"I want you to read your notes."
Augustine talked softly into Lexi's ear as he stood right behind her with his hand on the back of her neck. She paused for a moment and then slowly started to read her notes out loud, but in a mixed language that only her and Illya new.
Davis looked to the interpreter who only shrugged and shook his head in confusion. He then looked to the blond agent and then back at the doctor's new pet.
"Mr. Kuryakin, you said yesterday that you knew Miss Smyth. Where do you know her from?"
He hesitated as he tried to control the voice in his head wanting him to answer.
"I'm going to add a little incentive." Davis pulled out his gun and leveled it at Lane. "Where do you know her from?"
"From a German concentration camp when we were children. We worked in the lab mixing medications for her mother until the Nazis were defeated."
"See. Ask the right questions and you get the correct answers."
"Is she Janice Smyth?
"Yes."
"Do you know what language she's speaking?"
"Yes."
"I want you to ask her to read her notes out loud in English."
Illya moved closer to Lexi so he could talk to her softly. Augustine looked suspiciously at him as if he was going to lose control over her to the pompous UNCLE agent.
While he talked, her eyes closed for a moment and she tilted her head toward him. Her hands began to still ever so slightly and then she opened her eyes.
In a quivering, weak voice, Lane read her notes in English without infliction, but in a strong Russian accent. Augustine had been right in that they contained colorful comments on what was going on around her in the lecture hall and made commentaries on all of the scientists in the room, including the professor standing next to her. She thought he was a vulgar, no talent chemist that stole from others, and most of his formulas were pathetic. Hers were far superior.
The young woman began to state the rules of a game she was inventing that took the formulas on the overhead, improved them, and rated them compared to hers. The Professor's skills were antiquated and inferior.
Augustine became infuriated as Davis stared in awe at first and then started to laugh at the shocking euphemisms that peppered her notes. Before she could finish reading her notes, Augustine turned her around by her shoulders, shook her hard, and then slapped her forcibly on both of her cheeks.
Kuryakin started to take a step closer to Augustine, but was stopped by Davis taking a hold of his arm and pulled him back to where he stood. All he could was to clinch his fists that were locked behind his back as Davis kept a firm grip on his gun close to Kuryakin's side.
Lexi fell to her knees, still in a daze. Then Augustine roughly grabbed her by the arms and pulled up in front of him to glare at her.
"You little, bitch! You will pay for your insolence!"
She just stared at him blankly.
"Professor! Put her down. You wanted to know what was in her notes and now you have. I can't help it that she doesn't think much of you and your formulas. What we do know it that Fellows was right about this little chickadee."
"Now, she needs to prove what her notes have said." Augustine grumbled, but let go of Lexi as she swayed unsteadily under her own weight. "I want you to make one of your formulas right now."
Lane looked up with far away eyes at Augustine and then to Kuryakin.
"Ah, Professor, another blow to your over inflated ego and your formula. I do believe that Miss Smyth prefers to listen to Mr. Kuryakin than you. This is all quite interesting change."
In shock and blinded anger, Augustine set down the reeling agent, ready to strike her again.
"In fact, I do think that THRUSH Central won't have much need for you either Professor, if you can't get her to follow your orders without beating her to death. Let's hope she can improve on your, what did she call them, antiquated, and stolen formulas?"
Augustine looked up from Lane to Davis. Without looking, Lexi simply put out her hand for Davis' gun and he gave it to her on a whim. She then turned back to Augustine, aimed with a hard smile, and shot him in the chest. Then in quick succession, she turned around and shot the guards and lab tech in less than two seconds.
Before she could finish turning towards Davis and a shot quizzed by his shoulder, he had another gun out, shot her in the arm and she fell on top of Augustine in a heap. He then pointed the gun at Kuryakin's chest while his hand still firmly gripped his arm. An alarm rang out and two guards entered the lab with their guns raised.
"Don't try anything, Kuryakin or you won't live to regret it and neither will she."
Davis shoved him over to the end of the table to look at Lane laying face down on the tiled floor.
"Well, she sure is a piece of work!" Davis said angrily as he waved the guards towards Lexi and her bleeding arm. "He's going to get his revenge on her for tranquilizing him at point blank range and the others won't be too happy either. What she did was professional. Where did she learn to shoot like that, Mr. Kuryakin?"
Kuryakin closed his eyes as he tried not answer, but couldn't help it.
"…KGB."
"I'll have to keep that in mind. Not so much an innocent bystander as we thought. We'll get her arm taken care of so she can come back later and mix something up. I am growing short of time and patience with her. You, Mr. Kuryakin are to come with me. I want a list of what UNCLE's research and development projects they are working on."
"Channel D open, Solo here."
"Napoleon, its April. How goes the hunt?"
"Not much has changed here. No sign of them in New York proper, we've started to canvass the areas around the city. How is it going on your end?"
"We followed Wallace to a warehouse south of London and we think that Fellows was there and she picked him up. Looks like they staying in a hotel by the airport and are planning to fly out tonight. Mark is checking with the airlines to see if it's a private flight or commercial. The London branch has quietly taken the warehouse and those in it captive. We don't know if any warnings got sent out or not. Wallace hasn't seemed to notice that she is being watched at this point."
"Good, keep it that way. How does Fellows look?"
"Kind of funny actually, he's got a dazed look about him and only seems talk to Wallace. Weird, huh?"
"Yeah, weird. Thanks, April. Keep in touch when you and Mark find out more at the airport. Solo, out."
As the day wore on, Kuryakin's mind began to clear a little more with every passing hour, even with the increased dose of medicine. His trained mind automatically answered Davis' questions without truly giving him vital UNCLE information. Davis seemed satisfied with what he was telling him and started to relax his guard a little.
Kuryakin even had to begrudge him a certain level of respect for how tightly controlled the security was around him and partner in this assignment. That made his job harder, but not unmanageable. Now that the antidote that Lexi had given the night before last night had finally started to kick in, he needed to get to the lab to find out what they have to work with to destroy it.
"Hopefully, Lexi," Illya said to himself. "You and I can find something to whip up a good bomb in a short amount of time. Napoleon should be close to finding us by now."
"Mr. Kuryakin." Davis said pleasantly as he walked back into the office where the UNCLE agent was handcuffed to the chair. "You've done well. I think that we should check on Miss Smyth. See if she has started to make one of her formulas for us. The bullet just grazed her arm and we pumped her full of glucose to improve her energy stores. The dose she was given was too strong for her to function properly. She's much more receptive in following orders now."
"Yes, sir."
Davis unlocked the handcuffs from the chair and cuffed Kuryakin's hand in front of him, but hadn't bothered to have an extra guard on him. He noticed the simple change in Davis' level of trust and inwardly smiled at that error in judgment.
In the lab, Illya noticed a big difference in Lexi's behavior. She was busily making a formula in her usual fashion. Her concentration was so intense, that she didn't notice them coming into the room. Her hands weren't restrained, but he did notice that she had been cuffed round an ankle as it scrapped noisily over the cement floor.
As she tried to walk away from the table to the exhaust chamber with a couple of beakers, when she came to the end of the chain and tugged at it angrily.
"I need to use the hood." Lexi sighed in frustration to no one in particular.
She set the beakers down on the table, grabbed a loose wire, bent it, unlocked her handcuff with amazing skill, picked up the beakers, and proceeded to the exhaust chamber without even worrying that that the guards in the room drew their guns and pointed them at her.
After she was done under the vacuum hood, she went back to the table and continued on mixing chemicals together.
"Well, Augustine, I see that things are going much smoother now. How soon before it is done?"
"I would think shortly." He said, watching her like a hawk, trying to learn her processes to formula making. He attempted to pick up a flask and Lane slapped his hand away, reached for a syringe, filled it, and presented it him.
"Ready." Lexi looked around, pointed to the interpreter in the room, and motioned him forward.
Swallowing hard, the nervous man came forward and pulled up his sleeve. With the precision of a medical doctor, Lexi injected a small amount of her drug just under the skin and covered the spot with a cotton ball.
"Five, four, three, two, and one."
After the countdown, she drew the dazed man closed to her and whispered in his ear softly in Russian. He just stared forward as he listened and then slightly nodded as she moved away from him with a smug smile.
The interpreter stood up straight, pulled his shoulders back, and started to sing his favorite song loudly and rather poorly in Russian. Davis, Augustine, and the guards watched in amazement and tried to talk to the man to see if he would stop, but he didn't waver a single note or phrase even when he was ordered to stop.
Kuryakin took this time to look around the room to find out where certain chemicals and storage cupboards were. He also looked at Lexi to see her already setting up to mix up another formula, oblivious to his searching stare.
"How long does this last?"
"About five minutes," she answered plainly to no one in particular.
"What will he remember?"
"Not much. I want to see your notes on your formula. I'll to make it better and an antidote."
"An antidote, that quickly?" Davis asked in surprise and he turned from the singing interpreter to the female chemist while she continued to look at Augustine as if Davis hadn't spoken at all.
"An antidote, my dear?"
"I always make an antidote specific to the drugs I make to prevent from being used on the wrong person or an overdose. Don't you?"
"Well…no, I don't. I think that you should just mix up the formula as I dictate to you. Let me worry about the antidote."
"Fool!" Lexi shook her head, shrugged, and just put her hand up again for the formula
"Not so fast." Davis cut in as he thought about it. The interpreter had stopped singing and looked around, wondering why he was singing. "Could this help Fellows?"
"I don't know." Augustine rubbed the back of his head with his huge hand as if to release the tension and frustration at Lane's relative ease caused in designing powerful hypnotics.
"We could continue to use him if it works..."
Lexi waited impatiently for Augustine to give her the formula with her hand still raised.
"Very well," He shrugged and handed her the sheet with his formula and notes on it. "Make the drug and its antidote, Miss Smyth. How long will it take you?"
Lane looked at the formula and laughed at it. Augustine started to get angry, grabbed her hurt arm tightly, and pulled her up to him.
"Do you have any idea how long it took for me to develop that formula?"
Lexi looked at Augustine blankly as she waited him to finish his own question while trying to ignore the intense pain he was causing her.
"Four hours."
"What!"
"Four hours to make it better and the antidote."
Augustine stared down at her in pure hatred for her natural abilities as he pushed her into the table with a crash of glass falling to the floor.
"I'll need to see the device up close" Lane pointed to her head once she gained her footing.
"Why?" Davis asked, watching the Professor try to control his anger by turning from his tormentor, this idiot savant.
"To calculate total volume versus concentration to avoid overdose."
"Look at his."
Augustine pointed to Kuryakin with a backward wave of his hand. He wasn't quite sure if he should believe her in what she said she could do. Kuryakin looked to Davis, who gave his permission for her to proceed as well. He nodded; Illya moved closer to Lexi and let her look at the device screwed to the side of his head.
Lexi leaned forward enough to touch the device at its reservoir and trace some of the tubing that was sutured down. Illya felt the slightest tug and pinch,
"How many milliliters to fill the reservoir?"
"Twenty to twenty-five."
"Flow rate?"
"0. 6mls per hour."
"Do you increase or decrease doses by concentration or dial adjustment?"
"Remote controlled dial adjustment."
"Thank you. That's all I need."
Lexi went back to the task of setting up the table to start her work, totally ignoring everyone in the room and Augustine's notes as she threw them ruthlessly into the trash.
"I will take Mr. Kuryakin with me. Dr. Augustine, make sure she eats and gets some rest when she's done. I don't want a repeat of this morning."
Solo met Dancer and Slate at the airport just as their plane had landed in New York. They'd followed Julie Wallace and Nigel Fellows from London.
"Hey beautiful," Solo said pleasantly to one of his favorite female UNCLE agents.
"Napoleon, I didn't know you thought I was good looking?"
"Well, you know how I like my agents, Mark."
"Do you two need a room or can we get back to business?" April jumped in with a tired sigh. "I have been sitting in an airplane for hours and need a bath."
"Sorry, April. I'll tail our target while you take some time off."
"Thanks, Mark. You're the best partner ever."
"Speaking of partners, Napoleon," Slate asked as they walked several yards behind their target. "Find Illya or Lexi yet?"
"No, I was hoping that your little Thrushies would point the way. I haven't been able to locate the tracking device that Lexi has in her. My guess is that you have to be within the same building to use it. Have they noticed they are being followed?"
"I don't think so. I know that they called in just before they left for the airport."
"And how is Fellows acting?"
"The same, zombeeish appearance. Same as at the hotel lobby if you ask me."
"Mark, you'll find out where they go and report back to UNCLE. Then we will organize an invasion party with plenty of explosives. Illya'll like that even if he can't set them himself. April, freshen up and be ready to go to the bombing party. You've a few hours while Mark and I follow them."
"Thanks, Napoleon. I won't forget this."
April gave him a quick kiss as she grabbed her bag and headed home to shower and change.
"Don't forget the marshmallows."
"Yes, thanks Napoleon, she would've been a bear if she couldn't have a chance to get cleaned up. She had the last watch and can be rather surly if she feels tired and unclean."
"You sound as if you have had that happen before?"
"Several times, but I wouldn't have it any other way. There's something about working with a female agent that's never dull."
"Yes…" Napoleon said softly to Mark as he wondered if Illya would agree from previous experience. This train of thought made him nervous. Would Illya prefer Lexi to him as a partner? Maybe Waverly was testing them again to see just how far each of them would go or is she going to be able to float between them as needed? He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he watched Mark leave in a UNCLE taxi to follow Wallace and Fellows.
Illya had spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening with Davis walking through the rest of the different lab sections within the building. One particularly interesting lab was the mechanical gadgetry department. He couldn't help himself and readjusted the timing of an experimental tracking device's frequency strength. He'd read about this model just last week in one of his journals. He hadn't had a chance to start to develop his own one yet.
They had shared a meal and a one-side conversation about Davis' plans for the UNCLE agent, the capture chemist, and possible cure for Fellows. But, sadly, Davis said that he could only keep him for a short time before THRUSH Central would want him at headquarters.
That let Illya know that this lab wasn't in THRUSH'S New York headquarters and that Davis was working on his own before telling THRUSH Central about this experiment in full detail. It was smart of him to kidnap them and start conditioning them first. This would lessen the risks to Central and their organization from attack. That way Davis could get one more step higher on the career ladder at THRUSH.
Illya had to be patient. There was several times where he would've liked to speak his mind, laugh at Lexi's rudeness, or be able to eat a proper meal. He hated to eat the food in front of him, but he choked it down without so much as a comment or show of disgust on his face.
There was not much for Illya to do after he was "tucked in" his bed and restrained other than to stare at the red light on the camera focused on him. Lexi wasn't back from the lab yet. It was getting late and her bed was empty. This concerned him greatly.
Suddenly the door slammed open with Augustine dragging the female agent by her arm and throwing to the floor by her bed. She was smart enough to stay where she was on the floor. Her lip was split and bleeding. A black eye was beginning to take shape on the right side. Her clothes were in disarray with other noticeable bruises showing through. The final thing that he saw was that her arm wound was bleeding again.
"Clean her up and get her to bed!" Augustine spatted angrily out to the orderly that had come in from the observation room and walked away.
As the orderly started to help Lexi to her feet, she gave him a slight smile, pointed up with her index finger, and then brought it down to pantomime the professor's lack of sexual ability. She groaned out lightly in pain as she let the aide lift her up and lead to the bathroom.
Kuryakin's eyes widened with merriment from her sign language about the doctor's inability to perform, after he knew that she was relatively in good health despite the continual abuse from Augustine. He wished that he could be more help, but Napoleon and he knew that Lexi needed to draw their attention away from him by taking center stage in this mission.
April Dancer walked into UNCLE headquarters feeling more like herself. She was still tired, but felt better. Luckily, she and Mark had slept on the plane, because she knew there would be no sleep tonight.
After a quick stop at her desk, she went to Mr. Waverly's office with a cup of hot coffee in her hands.
"Are you feeling better, Miss Dancer?"
"Yes, sir, thank you."
"What have you found out Mr. Solo?"
"Sir, Mr. Slate followed Wallace and Fellows to the warehouse district in south New Jersey by the docks. About forty miles north of here, he noticed several THRUSH employees and lab techs leave and enter from a hidden entrance on the back side of a three story building. As he got closer, he started to pick up faint noise on Miss Lane's tracking device."
"Plans, Mr. Solo?"
"Mr. Slate, Miss Dancer, and I will infiltrate the lab, find Mr. Kuryakin, Miss Lane, and Mr. Fellows, then blow up the building. I think that we should put our plan in action within the next three hours."
"Good, reinforcements?"
"Yes, we have Agents Dewall, Sauceda, Francis, and Yang from Section Three already in route and taking their positions in the neighborhood."
"Excellent, get to work, I want my agents back and that lab destroyed. Good luck."
"Yes, sir."