Ch. 3: Questions

Jason Rand sat, arm bandaged, in a chair in an isolated interrogation room. He stared intensely at the two-way mirror, behind which Hunley, Brandt, Jane, and Zhen stood staring back. Brandt made a move to exit the observation room and go question him when Ethan burst into the interrogation room and took a seat across the table from Rand.

Brandt looked from Ethan to Hunley, but the director seemed too transfixed with the CIA agent. Jane made eye-contact with Brandt and shrugged.

"You're pretty well off for a captured guy, Rand," Ethan began, "So I have a few questions for you, starting with priority one: who are you working for? Carbone?"

Rand snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Something funny?"

Rand leaned forward in his seat, "Yeah, I think it's a little funny that not six months ago you were the most wanted man at your department and you just get to come in here like you own the place."

Ethan sat back in his chair, "You were on the team sent to catch me?"

"Didn't Hunley tell you?" Rand paused, looking to the mirror, "I'd watch that new Director of yours."

"Feeling a little betrayed? Mad Hunley left the CIA to work for us?"

Rand smirked, "Yeah, you could say that."

Ethan opened a file on the table and spread out the papers and pictures. On it showed the intel gathered by the CIA. The trio tied up and lead into trucks. Armed guards pushing the men around. Schematics of the warehouses. Then pictures of the aftermath of that night. Rand glared at the pictures of the two other CIA agents.

"See, what I think is that the CIA has no idea what you are doing," Ethan began, "You're an agent. You'd know how they work. Where they look, how they find people. You three would know just what to fake to catch your boss's eye."

Rand said nothing.

"The question is why…" Ethan locked eyes with the agent, "Did your op go bad? Are you just wasting the CIA's time? Clearly you weren't just trying to leave the organization or you wouldn't have left a trail to find. You wanted to be found. Your plan went off without a hitch. Draw us in. Take the van in all the fighting, but it wasn't just the equipment or you wouldn't have kept Benji alive."

"You really don't know anything," Rand smirked before leaning back. "I guess we underestimated Carbone's ability to do his job and keep things secret. He didn't tell you what we were doing in Scotland. Who we were observing."

"Then you tell me."

Rand leaned back in his chair, tipping it back on the rear legs. He faced the mirror again, and peered in exactly the spot Hunley stood. The director felt a chill run down his spine.

"Ask Hunley about Agent Kane."

Hunley's eyes widened slightly. Brandt and the other agents looked from him to each other.

"Sir, who's Kane?" Brandt asked softly.

Hunley turned to leave the room, but Brandt grabbed his arm. "Who is Kane?"

Hunley looked back at Rand, then made eye-contact with Brandt. "He's my fault."

Back in the other room, Rand continued to recline casually.

"Kane?" Ethan asked, "Who is Kane?"

"Normally I'm told not to tell my captors anything, but we were instructed, if captured, to tell you this, Ethan Hunt: you tore his life apart, now he's going to do the same thing to you."

"What does this have to do with Benji?" Ethan's voice had dropped to a deadly low.

Rand smirked again, "Kane was right about him…"

Ethan stood quickly, crossing the table and kicked Rand's chair, tipping it the rest of the way until the man crashed backwards onto the floor with a thud. He put a foot on Rand's wounded arm and pressed down, pulling a yell from the agent.

Brandt quickly ran from the observation room and ran to stop Ethan.

"What does he want with Benji?" Ethan yelled, stomping on the man's arm.

Brandt burst into the room and grabbed Ethan from behind, pulling him away. Rand grabbed his wounded arm with his good hand and let out a breath of relief before grinning at Ethan.

"He's your weakness…" Rand replied with a smile.

Brandt pulled Ethan out of the room and shut the door.

"Ethan, you can't let him get to you like that."

"We need answers."

"We're not going to get any from him. You know that. He will only tell you what he wants to. You just want someone to answer for what happened."

Ethan stopped and looked away.

Hunley was exiting the observation room and Ethan rushed up to him.

"Who is Kane?" Ethan demanded.

"Ethan," Hunley began, raising his hands defensively.

"No, tell me right now who he is. I am done being in the dark on this. They are playing us and I want answers, cut the need-to-know bullshit."

Hunley let out a breath.

"He's an ex-agent. He was part of my team that traveled to all the ends of the Earth searching for you during the whole Syndicate mess. We didn't know you were innocent. I put a lot of pressure on my team to find you. One agent, Kane, his wife had ailing mental health. He wanted more time off to be with her. I didn't grant it to him…" he paused.

"His wife killed herself," Hunley continued, "She drove her car into oncoming traffic. Kane had a complete break. He was unstable, reckless, a danger. He was put into a psychiatric facility for treatment and was discharged from service. To my knowledge he's still supposed to be there."

"He's clearly not," Ethan retorted.

"What do you want to bet he was their mission?" Brandt added.

Ethan turned and looked back at the door. "Kane convinced his old teammates to join him."

"Payback," Brandt nodded.

"You have to understand," Hunley began, "They were encouraged to pursue you relentlessly for months. They hated you."

"And now you've joined our team. I doubt you're popular at Langley," Ethan supposed.

Hunley nodded gravely.

Jane exited the observation room flanked by Zhen. "I just got off the phone with Carbone. He wanted to know the status of our operation. I told him it was a bit more complicated and that my director will have to have a word."

"Oh, I'll have many," Hunley hissed.

Hunley and Jane started to head away, but the director turned back, looked at Ethan apologetically, but then turned back away and walked quickly.

Zhen's phone buzzed. She looked at it and nodded. "Ethan, medic says Benji is resting. He'll be his old self by morning. Why don't you go home and rest?"

Ethan started to shake his head, but Brant cut him off.

"We should all get some rest. This is far from over, and I don't think any aspect of this will be pretty."