"Don't you think that if they found you right in front of the vault room, he's moved whatever is inside? Speaking of which, what is inside?" Holt asked. Curiously she glanced at the game board in the middle of the table, but didn't say anything about the weird constellation of playing items – or the fact that there was a game of Cluedo set up in their hideout.

"A hard drive. We recently observed an exchange where it was handed over against a sum of money that seemed a little too high," Ethan said. "Anti-God and all that."

"Anti-God?" Skye asked, puzzled.

Benji blushed.

"Benji has this theory about the destruction of earth," Luther explained.

Skye frowned expectantly at the Brit.

He was caught off guard. "I used to have this professor, who, um... Well, he liked to talk about this idea of how technology would eventually overpower everything and..." His cheeks flushed even more. "Doesn't matter. I'll tell you some other time."

Her lips curled into a smile.

"Also I doubt they moved the hard drive," Ethan continued. "The safe is pretty indestructible, and they're lacking the time for a transport."

"So basically all we need is that guy's hand print?" Skye inquired, because she couldn't quite believe that the combination of Benjamin Dunn, Luther Stickell and Ethan Hunt had failed to acquire just that.

"Exactly," Ethan confirmed.

"Can't you hack into their system and upload someone else's hand print?"

"It's not always as simple as that, kid," Luther said, but with a smile on his face.

Skye shrugged at him and smiled back.

"It's out of the question," he got serious again. "Separate server, completely isolated system, titanium-proof-"

"Okay, I got it," Skye cut him off. "So say, we get that hand print, how do you plan on getting in?"

"Last time I went through the ventilation shaft," Ethan recounted. "Simple and classic."

Skye nodded knowingly, and somewhat approvingly, which amused Benji.

"But the plans we've taken from their own security system were wrong," the Brit explained to Skye. She focused her attention on him and suddenly Ethan and Luther felt strangely redundant. "Either they're smart enough to upload false plans for people like us, or, which I find much more likely, it was a simple mistake."

"This time I'll just surprise them without falling out of the ceiling," the team leader stated. "We've got that covered, the print is the only thing that's missing."

"So we drug him," she suggested with a shrugging motion.

"We had that," Luther threw in, but Hunt simply talked over him.

"We can't do that. He's never alone. He never leaves the house without his four bodyguards, and on top of that he basically never leaves the house at all."

"He's kind of nuts in that respect," Luther added.

"The only event we can go near him is when he's holding one of his receptions." Luther made a picture of a modern looking building appear on the screen. "His new gallery, opening tonight," Ethan continued, as the picture shifted to a three-dimensional graphic of the interior. "He's gonna be there and tonight is going to be the only chance."

"So if you're saying that we can't just discreetly knock him out and get him out of the way," she looked at Luther, "what is your plan?"

Benji looked at the floor.

"Well," Ethan began.

"Oh, I see," it finally dawned on her. "I'm going to be needing a dress, I guess."

"Good thing I planned ahead," Luther said and got up in order to cross the room to the corner where a couple of inconspicuous bags were lined up. He threw Holt a bundle of black fabric.

She caught it and held it out in front of her. "It looks kinda tight," she said, frowning.

"It has to be," Luther replied. "If there were any ruffles it wouldn't work. That dress is a prototype. It transmits the print straight to this little fella," he shook a tablet in front of the team, which he had also produced out of the bag, "and within a second we have access to the safe."

Holt rubbed the fabric between her fingers. "You mean he just has to touch the dress and that's it?"

"That's it, girl."

"Hold on a second," Benji commented on this unforeseen turn of events. He'd had a version in mind that was more among the lines of Beautiful Woman Lures Target Somewhere Dark and Quiet Where She Can Kick His Ass. No one had said anything about touching.

Skye just looked from Luther to Ethan, at the dress, and back to Luther. "That's brilliant," she acknowledged plainly. "So do you always carry short black dresses with you?"

Luther ignored her smirk. "I had assumed that we'd do it the smooth way right from the beginning. Only then it turned out that we were one woman short and Benji refused to wear it."

Benji opened his mouth indignantly. Only he couldn't think of any response.

Skye chuckled. "When do we leave?"

"An hour," Ethan decided.

"All right." She put the dress over her shoulder and picked up the grey sportsbag. "I'll be in the bathroom."

The moment she closed the door behind her, Ethan turned around to Benji with a huge grin on his face.

"What?" the techie asked.

"Were you planning on telling us?"

"Not that you could be more obvious," Luther said.

Their technician looked honestly confused. "What do you mean?"

"You and Skye," Ethan elaborated.

"What? We're just – we're friends."

There was a bit of silence filled with Benji being stared at by his team mates, before Luther finally said, "Yeah, right."

"No, really, we met again two weeks ago when the briefcase resurfaced and we spent a week covering our tracks when we tried to shake Caulfield off."

"Covering your tracks?" Ethan repeated incredulously.

"How did you crack her like that?" Luther wanted to know. "I haven't seen her this happy in ages. Last time I saw her she wouldn't even let anyone use her first name."

"It was a breeze after that, really," Benji smirked.

Ethan seemed to think of something. He got serious again. "That's not gonna cause trouble, is it?"

"What isn't?" Benji adopted his confused look from earlier again.

"The two of you, on the same team. The last thing we can use now is any kind of distraction."

"Of course not!" He sounded offended. Well, as offended as Benji could manage to sound if it didn't concern his computer skills.

"I don't know, man, about you and the kid," Luther said.

"We're just friends. And we've worked together before," Benji pointed out.

"He's right," Ethan supported, apparently already convinced. "After all it was these two who managed to recover the documents that now keep half the IMF busy taking down what's left of Davian."

Ethan knew about what had happened, mainly from Benji's excited tales of his last two missions, but also because he had read the reports. He'd felt a bit guilty when he had seen the cast on his friend's arm, because he had been convinced he'd assigned Benji a nice quiet mission with that protection job in Toronto, and not triggered the possibly biggest job since Shanghai. Not that he doubted Benji's abilities as a field agent. He had just thought it would be nice, after Ghost Protocol, to get used to the field in a way that was a bit less... End of the World.

But it had turned out fine, he told himself, and considering Agent Holt he had probably done Benji a favour. It was obvious that the techie had a thing for her. And vice versa, as far as he could tell.

Luther looked at Ethan knowingly, something that Benji misinterpreted as remaining doubt.

"Plus, it's not like I could do anything while being locked inside a van."

"You're not gonna be in the van," Ethan said. "We need you on the inside."

"Wait, what? I thought you would -"

"Theoretically it doesn't matter which one of us is at the computer," Luther admitted. "But think about it, Benji. We can't pull the thing with the bodyguard again, and we're in Sweden. Who is going to be less remarkable: me or the blond guy?"

The Brit looked from him to Ethan. "So what am I supposed to do, exactly?"

"You're our back-up in case one of us needs assistance." Ethan grinned widely. "You're the helper."

In that moment the bathroom door opened and Skye reappeared. Benji's eyes grew wide. He'd known that she was attractive, but he had never seen her like this before. She had tidied up her hair, letting it fall in soft waves onto her shoulders which made it look light and feathery. Enhanced by make-up her eyes looked incredibly big, and there was a trace of green in them that he had never noticed before. Also she had been right: The dress did not only look tight, it was. Ending a bit above her knees it was still long enough to look elegant. Then again it might have been made for taller people, so one couldn't tell if that was actually intended.

"I'm not sure about the shoes," she said, putting a black pair of unadorned high heels on the table which she had dug out of her own bag. They looked almost plain, but the red soles caught a slight gleam in the light. "But I guess these will have to do. Although I'd kind of hoped I'd never have to wear these again."

"Believe me," Luther said, "no one is gonna look at your shoes. You might wanna close your mouth," he added in Benji's direction. For a split second he looked at Luther and took his advice before looking back at Skye.

"You look stunning," he said. He noticed the small scar on her shoulder that was not entirely visible under the strap of the dress.

Skye blushed slightly. "Thank you."

"You were saying about distraction?" Luther muttered to their team leader.

"Stun him is exactly what we had in mind," Ethan ignored his friend, leaning back over the board game that was still set up between them. "Now, the plan..."