Ch. 4: Out of The Dark

First thing in the morning, Ethan headed to the medical station at HQ to find it empty. Benji was nowhere to be found. Upon question the medic, the man informed him that Benji had checked himself out a few hours earlier. Ethan quickly left the room, heading back to the bullpen and finding the team talking amongst themselves. When they spotted Ethan, they turned their attention to him.

"Hunley gave Carbone an earful and basically rained hellfire on his office until he agreed to a meeting. He should be getting back soon," Brandt informed him.

Benji was in a desk chair, spinning himself back and forth, deep in thought, then stopped when he made eye-contact with Ethan. Ethan smiled lightly at Benji, who allowed a smile back. Jane's eyes went from one man to the other before meeting Brandt's, the two coming to the same conclusion together.

"What do we have on Kane?" Ethan asked, turning to Bandt.

"Not much more than what Hunley told us. He was tracked to Scotland for their mission, but it's unlikely he's still within reach after last night. According to Rand, Kane said he has 'work elsewhere.' I don't think Rand knows where."

"Better not to tell him in case we could get him to talk," Zhen agreed.

"So all we're left with is Rand," Ethan sighed.

Benji perked up, "Not necessarily." The team turned their attention to him, "I mean, the other guards besides the three agents were just mercenaries for hire. Lower-level guys. Anyone with money could get them, certainly. Any shady deal, the right interest groups, sure, but the tranq dart? I ran some scripts on it this morning. I thought I had seen it before. It's the NightFangXRS. The CIA sometimes like to use it."

"Well that makes sense, those three being CIA and all," Brandt replied.

"Except there are other types used by agents. This stuff, very very hard to get ahold of. Agents or not, they wouldn't be permitted to use this for a recon mission, you need a special type of clearance for it, because it barely registers on a blood test. You can be drugged out of your mind and a tox screen nearly won't show it. It's some very very black-ops stuff. Meaning that either the mission was way more in-depth than we thought, or more likely-"

"They got it from someone else," Ethan finished.

Benji nodded, "And if they got it from someone else…"

"Kane might have recruited other agents."

"Exactly," Benji concluded before slumping back in his chair.

Ethan mulled over the information for a few minutes, "Were there any other agents supposedly gone missing?"

"None reported. These were the first," Jane said, thumbing through papers on her desk.

"What about dead?"

Brandt nodded, thinking. "Yeah...yeah, maybe."

"Cross-check with any ex or dead CIA agents, see what pops up."

Just then Hunley entered the room, looking frustrated. The team turned towards him. He looked apologetically at Ethan. "A few months back the CIA got word that Kane broke out of the facility in Scotland, but had stayed in the country. The team was sent to observe and report back. A few months in, no problems, until they went 'missing'..." He let out a sigh, "The CIA want custody of Rand, in exchange for their cooperation with our investigation. We are taking point. I had to do a lot of arguing to get this one, but ultimately the committee sided with us given that the CIA created this problem and sent us to fix it in the first place." He paused, turning to the team, "What have we got?"

Brandt began filling Hunley in when Benji stood up and walked over to Ethan, "Can I talk to you alone a moment?" Ethan nodded and followed Benji out into the hall. Jane and Zhen watched them leave, but returned to their work. Once out in the hall, Benji let out a long sigh.

"Look, I wanted to apologize for last night. It was unprofessional," he began.

"It's okay, Benji," Ethan told him, thinking about how sudden the kiss had been.

"No, no it wasn't. I made a mistake…"

Ethan would be lying if he said those words didn't hurt a little.

"I...wouldn't go that far. It wasn't that bad, you were drugged."

"It's no excuse. I am an agent and shouldn't have let it happen…"

"You weren't fully in control…"

"I-wait, what?" Benji asked, stopping, "What are you talking about?"

Ethan paused, "What are you talking about?"

"Letting those soldiers get the jump on me. I should have been mindful of my surroundings or it wouldn't have happened. What were you talking about?"

Ethan's eyes widened slightly in realization. "That...I was talking about that."

Benji eyed him suspiciously, "Did something happen while I was drugged?"

"You don't remember anything?"

Benji's eyes widened, "What did I do?"

"Nothing," Ethan lied, "You were giving out compliments to the agents. It was nothing bad. You were just loopy. Called us your heroes."

"Oh," Benji replied, grimacing.

"It wasn't any big deal. We all understand."

He patted Benji on the shoulder. Benji smiled weakly.

"We should get back," Ethan told him, heading back to the bullpen.

"Yeah," Benji replied softly, nodding and following him out.

"Yanik Heimler," Jane declared as soon as the men returned to the room. "Officially dead six years ago. He's looking pretty good for a dead guy," she handed Ethan a photo of a man with a scraggly beard and piercing blue eyes. "Apparently he hits up a gentleman's club in Germany every third Thursday of the month."

"Even Thanksgiving?" Benji asked with a laugh.

"Well, he's German, so I don't think he really cares…" Jane replied.

"Isn't Thanksgiving the...fourth Thursday?" Brandt asked, uncertain.

"I'm English, I also don't really care," Benji shrugged.

Ethan looked over the picture. "Cologne, Germany…"