Benji held on to Skye when the floor they were standing on moved downwards. He quickly regained his balance and looked up at Ethan.

"Shorting out safe houses now, are we?" Skye teased. There was something in her voice that made Benji believe in a way she was enjoying this.

"Welcome to my life," Ethan said, and jumped to the lower level of the boat.

"How long have you been living here?" Skye asked when she saw the hidden room. All stainless steel, tiny but practical, with a few personal belongings here and there.

"Ever since I got to Vienna." The door closed behind them as the small room lit up. He didn't waste any time. "New identities. Passports, cash, move map. There's a change of clothes in that bag right there, everything you need to make it to D.C. undetected. Once you're there, you'll have to inform on me."

"I'm supposed-" Benji began.

"No way, Ethan," Skye said at the same time.

"What, sorry, what?" Benji finished voicing his thoughts.

"Tell the truth," Ethan clarified and leaned against the desk to face the two of them. "You came to Vienna believing you won two tickets to the opera. And I attempted to recruit you into assassinating the chancellor. You refused."

"That is not the truth," Benji said forcefully.

"Your lives depend on them believing you, Benji," Ethan explained patiently. "It will go easier if you tell them what they wanna hear."

"Ethan," Benji tried to reason, "at least tell me what this is all about."

"We could help you," Skye added when he hesitated.

Finally Ethan picked up a small remote control and pressed a button. Two computer screens on the opposite wall lit up, showing a line-up of pictures, causing Skye and Benji to turn their heads. "You recognise anyone?"

Benji stepped closer as the faces went by one by one. He felt Skye following, eyes fixed on the screen.

"Him," he suddenly said. It would take a while to get that face out of his memories.

"That's the guy I stabbed earlier," Skye said astonished.

"How did you bring that knife in, anyway?" Benji wanted to know.

"It was your Christmas present, remember? The untraceable knife. I had it in the casing under my dress."

"But why, how did you know this would happen?"

"I didn't. The dress just felt wrong without it." Skye shrugged. "And I thought I wouldn't get a chance to try it out again very soon. I never planned on using it before you showed up," she said to Ethan. She nodded back at the screen. "So who is he?"

"Former KSA, German Intelligence. Missing, presumed dead."

"But... he was at the opera tonight," Benji tried to follow.

"Very much alive," Skye added.

"This one, too," Ethan said and skipped one photo ahead. "Former Mossad."

"Let me guess, presumed dead," Benji said drily.

"Tonight I made it official." Ethan skipped another photo, to the drawing he made of the man he had seen in London. "I was after him in the Bosporus. The same day a car accident killed the visiting president of Malawi." Ethan began to recount his actions from the past six months, backed up by collected photos and newspaper articles. He told them about all the times the man with the glasses had slipped away, and the trail of death and destruction he had left behind. The entire time he couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"They're links in a chain," Ethan said. "The work of a single organisation, the Syndicate. A rogue nation, trained to do what we do, imbued with a new sense of purpose: destroy the system that created them, regardless of who's in the way."

"An anti-IMF," Benji muttered, flustered.

Ethan nodded. "And since Hunley shut us down they've been escalating unchecked. Killing the chancellor tonight was a statement, the start of a new phase."

"Or," Benji said, "they could just be a series of random disasters."

"Don't be ridiculous," Skye said as gently as she could. She was still looking at the photos of the gassed village on screen. "If he was there every time there has to be a connection at the very least. Especially if he was at the opera tonight as well."

Again Ethan nodded. "I don't know who he is, where he's from, how he's funded... but I know he's the key."

Benji suddenly straightened. "Ethan, this is what I signed up for. Let me help you find him."

"That's why I brought you here in the first place, and look what happened," Ethan said vehemently. "I can't protect you. That's why I need you to leave."

Skye sighed, and was about to try and reason with him, when Benji suddenly started yelling.

"That's not your decision to make, Ethan! I am a field agent. I know the risks. More than that, I am your friend, no matter what I tell the polygraph every week. Now you called me, because you needed my help. And you still do," he threw the words into Ethan's face. "So we're staying. And that's all we're gonna say about that."

Skye stared at her boyfriend. She had never seen him break his calmness like that, especially not towards Ethan. Finally she had proof that all this time he had been feeling just the same as her, furious below the surface that he was ripped out of field work like that. And deep down it made her incredibly happy to see it.

Ethan was just as stunned. It took him a few seconds to find his voice, and even then all he managed was, "...okay."

"Good," Benji said, apparently equally surprised by his speech as the others were. He straightened his jacket and relaxed. "Where do we start?"

"Ilsa," Ethan said.

"Right. And how do we find her?"

Ethan allowed himself a smile. "She said we have everything we need."

Benji looked at the lipstick his friend had taken out of his jacket pocket. Curious, he took it and opened it. A normal lipstick in a shade of deep red. Benji frowned. Something about the length of it bothered him. He turned it over and sure enough there was a second way to open it. It revealed a flash-drive. Skye raised her eyebrows in appreciation.

"I can work with that," Benji said. "Do you happen to have a computer I can use?"

Ethan grinned. "Of course."

Benji's frown returned when he saw the initial encryption. "Give me a minute..."

"So how are you guys?" Ethan turned to Skye.

"Good," she said. "Wasting away at Langley."

Ethan chuckled.

"The boys back home are telling me wild stories about you hanging on to a plane during take-off."

Ethan grinned. "You know you can't believe everything you hear."

"Well, that's interesting," Benji suddenly said as his typing ceased.

Ethan immediately snapped back into agent-mode. "What is it?"

"It's a SCIF. Secure Computer Facility. Offline, ultra-contained, impossible to hack in from the outside. It's essentially a digital safety-deposit box. Very strange thing for a young lady to be carrying in her sundries."

Skye and Ethan stepped behind him to see the screen.

"Where is it located?" he asked.

"Um... Morocco."

Ethan smiled. "Morocco..."

"So we go there?" Benji asked hopefully, like a little kid.

"We stay here for the night, leave first thing tomorrow morning," Ethan decided.

"Sounds good to me," Skye said happily. "I'm not gonna travel in this dress though." She smiled back and turned to Benji. "Would you?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Sure." Benji unclasped the small hook and pulled the zipper down just enough so that she could reach it.

"Tak," she said, took her share of fresh clothes out of the bag and disappeared into the miniature bathroom of the boat.

Ethan saw Benji look after her for a second too long, and again felt slightly bad for dragging them into all this. It was obvious that Benji had had different plans for opening that dress.

"Thanks, Ethan," the Brit said unexpectedly.

"Thanks?" he repeated disbelievingly.

"I thought I was gonna lose her." He turned around and started to unravel his bow tie, suddenly grinning. "It's good to be back on the road."