Chapter 5
Chet and Jo followed their contact into the old building on Marine Drive behind Louis Allis Manufacture LTD. Most people didn't know the street existed, and the abandoned building hadn't been used in years.
As they pulled over on the bike, Jo stopped Chet from getting off.
"When we go in if something goes wrong disown me. Do not support me at all. Just get out and get help. These men do not blink at killing people who they think are no longer useful to them."
"Same for me, deal?"
After shaking hands, the two followed Greenwald up the stairs of the old warehouse.
….
The slamming door behind them had Jo reaching for her gun, but stopped as she felt the cold barrel of a gun pressing against her ear. "Don't move Kuryakin."
"I'm afraid you have made a mistake."
"Really, turn around." As she did, she recognized Wincen, a Thrush agent she had run into during her last assignment.
"Fancy meeting you here," she said beginning to raise her hands to the top of her head but grabbed her shoulder as a metal bar was smashed against it that he had picked up from the desk.
"I believe I owed you a broken arm from our last meeting," he said as he brought it down once more.
"What the hell is going on here?" Chet demanded in an effort to attempt to gain some control of the situation.
"Is this your woman?" Wincen asked turning his attention to the motorcycle leader the bar he held waving at him.
"My friend's actually, but he asked me to take care of her until he got out of the cooler. The pigs picked him up on drug charges. Who the hell is Kuryakin? Her name is Jo Nicholas."
"Your little girlfriend here name is Josephina Kuryakin. She's an UNCLE agent. Bind her." He ordered.
Her hands were pulled roughly behind her a small moan of pain as her injured arm joined her other one and ropes were tighten around her wrists as she forced to sit on a stool.
"Could you loosen these a little?" she asked innocently with teeth clenched in pain.
"Now Chet what do you have to say about this?" Wincen demanded.
Chet stood in front of Jo, his hand curled in a fist. A small nod from her indication he should do it. With her encouragement, he went to backhanded her, but was stopped by Wincen.
"You'll be sorry that you decided to play this game-Kuryakin is it?" Chet spit out.
"Don't worry about her, Thrush and I have plans for her. Give me those papers you were supposed to bring and get out of here?"
Holding out the papers, Chet kept glaring at Jo. "What do you plan on doing with her?"
"That's not your concern."
"Just go back to your house, Greenwald will let you know what we need you to do next."
"You expect me to listen to him."
"We'll talk about this later, now get going before I make you a permanent guest in the lake over there," Wincen using the bar to point the lake outside the window.
"Okay, okay. I go, but we need to have a discussion about who is in charge of my gang."
Chet left with a final glance at Jo.
...
After the motorcycle leader left, Wincen looked over the formula.
"What is this?" he yelled waving the papers in Jo's face.
She smiled at him.
Backhanding her, he demanded, "Where is the formula?"
"Isn't that what you are holding?" She answered with a smirk.
"What did you do with the correct formula? Greenwald, where is the formula the scientist got for you?" he turned angry on the cyclist.
"Those are the papers she got from him." Greenwald said backing away from him.
"She got what do you mean she got?"
"Well the doc was handling them to Chet when the girl bumped into him knocking them on the ground. She picked them up and handed them to him."
"You fool, she switched the papers." The Thrush leader was now fuming, and before the man could get out of the way, he brought the bar down continuously on the cyclist.
"Get this fool out of here and finish him off. Now Kuryakin where are my papers? And who else from UNCLE is working with you?"
Jo shook her head no, preparing for the beating that she knew would be coming.
...
Chet quickly left the building heading toward his cycle and a phone he had seen a few blocks from there. When he reached the phone, he dialed the number Napoleon had given him the day before.
"I need to talk to Solo," he demanded of the voice answering him.
"I'm sorry, sir I don't know who you're talking about," the voice said.
"Look I know this is UNCLE. He gave me this number and told me to call if we were separated. I need him now before they kill Jo Kuryakin."
"One second sir, I'll see what I can do."
He paced the small booth as he waited for someone to come back on.
After a number of click, Chet heard Napoleon voice. "Where are you?"
"In a phone booth at Becker and KinnicKinnic. Some guy named Wincen recognized Jo and was beginning to beat her. She made me promise to leave and get help if something went wrong. I'm not sure it was the right thing to do, so I'm going back in the factory."
"NO! We're close and will be there in a few minutes. Then we need you to show us where she is and how to get in," Napoleon said.
Chet could hear tires squealing as he said, "You've five minutes then I'm going back after her."
Two minutes later the car carrying the two agents pulled to stop in front of Chet.
"What happened to you two, you were supposed to be following us?"
"We were blocked by the bikers leaving when we tried to follow you. Get in and give us some directions."
...
They arrived a block away from the factory where Jo was being held. Parking the car, they waited for backup and the police assault force. Once everyone was assembled, Chet, Napoleon, Illya and Grainer the head of the Milwaukee section of UNCLE headed toward the shrubs and small trees on both sides of the railroad tracks that ran alongside the building.
The parking lot was empty and the building had seen better days.
"What will we find?" Illya asked as he handed his binoculars to Napoleon.
"Almost all the men were on the first floor in the back. Jo's in a second floor office toward the front."
"Okay Grainer, take your men with the police and secure the first floor. We'll go up to the second and get our agent back," Napoleon ordered.