My apologies for dropping this story midway through. I tend to get distracted when other story ideas pop up, but now this one will have my full attention until I can complete it. Thank you to MLaw for reminding me to finish it.

CHAPTER SIX

Holding the cards close.

There hadn't been a badge or a lanyard. None of the agents he encountered in the hall had any sort of club organization visible on their persons. Ethan would've counted it as a blessing in his favor if he hadn't been disappointed there wasn't a better way to make use of the ID his team had modified just for him. If Benji griped about no mask, Ethan took issue with wasting valuable resources.

Napoleon had warned him not to underestimate THRUSH.

THRUSH… what lethal organization bent on world domination chooses a bird? Pansy little leagues. Ethan coughed to conceal his scoff of disgust. They were better than this.

He caught Benji's eye, nodded and, as one, they entered the empty office. The technician wasted no time in moving to the desk and plugging his spyware into the computer.

"It's too quiet—I don't like it. No one's even noticed us. Do you think…?" he glanced up at Ethan, chin propped on one fist as he waited for the computer to load. "Could they have been right? Could we really be in our heads on this one? Any other mission, we'd have walked away with the prize by now."

Ethan gave a decisive shake of his head. "In and out, Benji. I'm not waiting to find out what these agents have in store for trespassers." Even if we could handle it without trying. No use playing up to a federal incident to prove a point.


Brandt caught onto the pocket radio quickly, leaving Illya with more time on his hands and even more suspicions. Perhaps Waverly had looked into the agent before, but neither Napoleon nor Illya himself had given the UNCLE leader enough time to have looked into much of anything with all the cases UNCLE had open now. New Orleans and the capsule had been a side project as far as Waverly had been concerned.

So what is Brandt hiding? Why had the IMF shown up when they did? Why had UNCLE never heard of them? If Ethan's infiltration proved successful, Illya and Brandt would enter THRUSH tomorrow. He looked up to see the other agent in question turn a corner at an intersection without even slowing down to consider direction.

"Are you worried already?"

Illya straightened in indignation, refusing to give Napoleon the satisfaction of seeing him look too concerned even if it was about Brandt and not THRUSH. "You are closer to Waverly than I am," he began slowly, regaining his composure "so tell me, in all these years, has he even recruited outside agents?"

"Not to my knowledge. You think he enlisted Brandt under the table?"

"I would not be surprised."

"Then why Brandt and not the rest of his team?"

"You do not take the entire company, Napoleon. You take one as the contact who in turn plays middleman for the rest. What puzzles me is that none of the others seem to know and Brandt himself does not just pretend to have a secret mission, but he pretends to know nothing."

Napoleon glanced back at Waverly's office. "I would ask…"

"But he will not admit anything," finished Illya. They both knew Waverly's tendencies well by now. "You keep your eye on Brandt and I will try another method."