As the effects of the fragrance began to wear off, Illya noted his return to the present, and the manipulations his partner was working upon the situation. As long as they remained out of doors, they would be safe from the suggestive powers that might have been implemented had they remained under the influence of this latest weapon.
At least now they had solved the puzzles that brought them here. The front page fashion disasters that had first alerted Napoleon to this dangerous new tool was easily explained, if their reaction to the lily of the valley fragrance was any indication of its potential to warp a person's thoughts and actions. How easily Illya had succumbed to the intoxicating effect…
Napoleon was hovering over Agnès Ormond as he began to question her, unraveling the details of this affair. Chasing after loose threads, twisted threads of deception and clever scientific discoveries, Illya reckoned that they had stumbled upon this one almost blindly. Why hadn't anyone else investigated…?
"Who else has been here asking questions? I believe that you might have dissuaded them as you almost did us."
Illya had stumbled upon that one as well. Of course, with the power of this fragrance to manipulate thought and action, the others were probably merely steered in another direction and relieved of whatever impulses they might have had to investigate Agnès Ormond and her relationship with Frederic Vincent.
"M. Kuryakin, I assure you…"
Napoleon laughed, a little too intently, and returned his attention to the interrogation.
"You, mademoiselle, are a liar. This house of yours is the trap, and the means by which you caused the death of M. Vincent. I hold you entirely responsible, unless of course you wish to implicate the real force behind this…'
"It is a scientific marvel, and you, M. Solo, and your partner, are the real prey upon whom it was intended to work. What can you offer me in exchange for the information I have?"
Both agents were amazed at how quickly she was willing to give up her associates. Even Thrush usually held out for longer than this; she was giving up without a fight.
Napoleon was cool in his appraisal of the woman; her beauty would have been intoxicating enough without the addition of the mind altering fragrance. How was she connected, he wondered.
"All right, if you want to cooperate, I suppose we can work out some type of deal…set you up someplace away from the authorities who will otherwise deal with you."
She blanched at the inference of prison, a life devoid of the luxuries she had learned to depend on and embellish on herself. Her affect was demure and kitten-like as she practically purred to the American…
"Dr. Hans Von Etske…"
Both Napoleon and Illya were startled to hear the name of a man they believed to be dead. What could be the connection?
"He is dead, has been for more than a year. We were there when …"
She shook her head, cutting her eyes to see the effect on the two men, taking some pleasure in the shock she was administering to their egos.
"No. You only thought he was dead, you did not see a body. Est-ce exact?"
Napoleon looked at Illya, both men mentally asserting that she was correct. Illya sighed, his memories of that day, that mission, still disturbing as he considered what misery he had subjected his partner to during the masquerade he had performed as Nexor. Napoleon knew instinctively what the blond was thinking, and shuddered inwardly at the memories.
"So, you are telling us that Von Etske is still alive, and has concocted this little essence…for us? Why did he kill Vincent, if we were his targets?"
Agnès looked from one to the other of the two men in her garden. What use was it to lie? The man she knew as her father had barely cared for her until he had needed this … intervention. The wealth she enjoyed came from her mother, long dead but not forgotten. The little man who claimed her as his daughter had emerged from a prison…"bon dieu…a little rat of a man", she now remembered thinking.
"I will tell you what I know, mssrs. I have not very much allegiance to this man, except…he is my father.'
Once again the UNCLE agents exchanged looks, neither of them anticipating the details as they were hearing them from this woman. It was only a little difficult to believe the man they had met in San Rico could be the father to this beauty. Stranger things had come their way.
"Go on…"
She sighed, obviously ill at ease with this disclosure. She wasn't proud of her lineage, at least on this side. Her parents had married before the war, before the atrocities…
"I cooperated only with regard to the very slight affection that a daughter must have concerning such things. However, I did care for Frederic, and had no prior knowledge that he would be killed. The suggestion that he leap into the Seine was done without my cooperation…do you believe me?"
Napoleon did mostly believe her, his natural instincts prevailing when it came to beautiful women. Illya was not so easily convinced, and wondered if the tendency to evil intentions did not lie rather closer to the child of the scientist than she was admitting.
"Perhaps you can tell us why, in any event, you cooperated at all in a scheme that you must have known would have dire consequences. Just what did you think would happen by administering this mind-altering chemical to unsuspecting victims? Surely, you cannot expect us to believe you are entirely innocent in these evil events."
Illya wanted to understand completely the device and purpose behind this invention of Von Etske's. Perhaps, if she feared the worst, more information would be forthcoming. At the very least, they needed to confiscate the device and the fragrance for testing. The question was how, since to go back inside they might possibly be subjected to it again. They could not completely trust Agnès to help them.
"M. Kuryakin, I will do whatever you ask. The man has not been a part of my life…ever. He came to me with only partial information, and a plea for forgiveness. There was never the disclosure of evil, as you say it. I will tell you what I know of him, except I do not know where he is staying. That part, he has kept a secret."
Napoleon shut his eyes, trying to picture the situation in his mind. There was a way to capture Von Etske, he just had to figure it out.
His eyes popped open and he raised his hand, snapping his fingers as it came to him. He did know how, and they could begin now to put it into action.
Illya recognized that, and the wary perception of it somehow involving him and the words 'don't worry', crept over his expression, just as surely as the lily of the valley had summoned up his earlier pleasant memories.
"Here we go again…"
