"Benji."
Brandt heard Skye's voice in his ear, but couldn't follow. He was still looking at Ethan and the woman who apparently intended to leave the station. But that didn't make any sense. That wasn't in accordance with any plan they had considered.
"They're taking Benji!" Skye suddenly shouted.
Brandt spun around and just caught a glimpse of Skye running. Without thinking about it, his instincts took over and he followed her at top speed before she'd be out of sight.
Within a minute he was a level lower in the parking garage, Skye ahead of him, suddenly stopping in the middle of the driving lane, taking aim with her gun at a white van that was speeding away.
She hit the top left corner of the back door, then it was already out of sight.
For a moment both agents stood there, staring after the van.
"No," Skye then said tonelessly and started shaking her head. Then she raised her voice. "No, they're not getting away with this!"
Brandt felt her frustration. Deeply. "She set us up," he murmured.
"No, they did! Her and Ethan. What the hell was he doing back there?" she kept shouting.
Despite his own feelings Brandt felt the need to defend him. "He must have a plan of his own."
"No!" Skye said fiercely. "You know what, I'm done with Ethan's solo runs. For all I know he could be in with Lane at this point."
"Maybe-"
"I lost them," Luther suddenly said behind them. "But she left this on the table."
Brandt turned around to him, feeling the need to shout at him, even though he knew that would be equally unfair and unproductive. The other man was holding a phone in his hand.
"If anything happens to Benji, it's his fault, an his fault alone," Skye hissed full of hatred.
That moment, the phone in Luther's hand started ringing. For a second he considered, then he accepted the call. He had barely heard the first words of the caller when Skye started towards him.
"Give me that," she hissed. Luther surrendered the phone. Neither he nor Brandt had ever seen the expression in her eyes, but her voice was perfectly, almost eerily calm. "Lane?"
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Who the hell is this?" Solomon Lane asked when he suddenly heard a female voice on the other end. "Where is Hunt?"
"I don't give a damn about where Hunt is right now," she answered. "Where are you taking Benji?"
Lane thought about it for a moment.
"Tell me where he is!"
"If you want to see your friend alive and well, you'll have to do a job for me." She didn't answer but he knew she was listening, so he continued. "I want you to bring me the unlocked disc by midnight tonight. And bring me Ethan Hunt. Now say the wor-"
"I will get you the disc," she said. "But if I find Hunt before you do there won't be much of him left."
Lane looked at the phone. Curiously. Intrigued. She had hung up on him.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Where are you going?" Luther called after Skye when she turned around and walked away.
"I'm going to get him that disc and get Benji back," she said matter-of-factly.
"Skye, there's only one person on earth who can unlock that disc," Luther put in.
"The Prime Minister. I know."
Brandt felt his exasperation grow. A half hysteric, half desperate chuckle was fighting its way up inside him. "Let's just think about that for a minute."
Skye kept walking. Brandt went to catch up with her.
"If we go along with that we're doing exactly what Lane wants us to do," he tried to reason.
Skye sharply turned around to him. "Brandt, if this is what it takes to get him back then I'm going to do it. We can't count on Ethan anymore. Feel free to help me."
His fury suddenly took over. "So what's your brilliant plan then?!"
Skye held his gaze for a second, and he got to the point where he wasn't sure if he could take it to hear her say that she didn't know, because his own mind, while working on high-speed, came up with nothing. Then the woman blinked. "You're going to have to inform on us."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"I have a car ready," Ilsa said while Ethan tried to keep up with her fast pace. "Passports too, we can be at Heathrow in..." She cut herself off when she saw his face.
"Ilsa," he said gently.
She understood at once. He wouldn't come with her. Like every other person in her life, he had betrayed her.
"You need to tell me where Lane is," he went on.
Ilsa couldn't bear looking at him. How stupid she had been to believe for one second he would... she felt the gun in her coat pocket. Slowly, she looked back at Ethan.
