Chapter 88 Chapter 88 Underground Garage! They kidnapped Ai...
Of course, the IMF has more than just Ethan Hunt and Benjy Dunn agents, even if they were disbanded.
Ethan, who was wanted for tracking down the syndicate, naturally ran far away and slipped away quickly, without being caught at all; Henry, the CIA director who advocated for the disbanding of the IMF and actually succeeded in disbanding it, shifted his focus to Benji, who seemed to be an easier target. Unexpectedly, this soft and furry former clerk was deceived by the world's most wanted criminal Ethan Hunt into buying an opera invitation, and happily followed him to bear the crime of treason.
Chief Henry couldn't believe it. Who on earth could have sworn in a polygraph that they were absolutely not Ethan Hunt's friends?
The pressure was put on William Brandt, a former IMF staff member who remained in the system.
But this staff agent who came from the field was extremely cunning. He had previously rebutted the Secretary's statement at the hearing, "Without the Secretary's permission, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the operation" (everyone knew that another one of their Secretary's had died!). Now he was slacking off under the guise of assistance, and was unwilling to put in any real effort. He said he was tracking Ethan Hunt, but when questioned, he would only answer with a series of clichés, "I'm checking, I'm checking." This was even less credible than Director Henry's own reply to the President, "I'm doing it, I'm doing it."
Wait, speaking of William Brant...
"Where is Brent?" Director Henry noticed something was wrong.
Little did they know that Brandt was also frantically searching for someone, "Where the hell is Ethan?"
While resisting pressure from the CIA, Brandt also quietly searched for Ethan, striving to find him before the CIA. He specifically recruited Ethan's old teammate, Luther Stickle, known as the "Net Ranger" and "Wizard Phineus," and managed to convince Luther, who had only met him a few times and was skeptical, to help him find Ethan. Luther, however, proved to know Ethan all too well. With only a single photograph of Ilsa at immigration control, he tracked her all the way to Morocco, but upon arrival, they found a deserted cottage.
After searching around and even counting how many people had been here, Brent walked out listlessly. "Ethan and Benjy both stayed here. There are also traces of two other people, a man and a woman. The woman stayed here for a couple of days, and the man stayed for about the same amount of time as Ethan and the others."
Luther sat in the chair Benji had been sitting in, opening his laptop. "Looks like they've found a new teammate."
Brent looked through the half-eaten snacks on the table. From the traces of them being hastily swept away, he could tell they had left in a hurry, for some unknown reason. As he pondered this, he casually asked, "Can you find out where Ethan and the others went?"
Finding Ethan this time might have been a stroke of luck; there was no telling when they would find any trace of him again. Brent felt a little annoyed, worried about what the CIA might do to him if they found Ethan earlier. But Luther looked up at him with a look that said, "Who do you think I am?" and said, "London."
"What?"
"They went to London." Luther turned the computer screen around. "Look, right after Ilsa Faust."
As usual, Luther checked the places Ilsa had been to, and then found the video records of entering and leaving London Airport. Next, he checked the flight identity information. It was a little more complicated than looking for Ilsa, but for him it was just the difference between one plus one and one plus two. In no time, he circled out the suspicious information of Ethan and Benjy.
"This is Ethan and Benjy." Brent looked at his two friends who had changed drastically after being disguised. "This is..."
Brent frowned at their companions. Luther had already started looking for flights, ready to fly to London immediately to support Ethan. "It must be their new teammate. Anyway, we'll know when we get there."
"This is Elliot Smith." Within seconds of Luther booking the ticket, the IMF's chief data analyst quickly dug through the relevant files in his memory, which contained countless pieces of information. "A professional assassin from Gotham, USA. The day he first became known, he sank a small island in Blüdhaven. He's never been caught in the act, but it's speculated that he's behind the mysterious deaths of many wealthy and powerful figures around the world."
Luther's eyes widened. "You know him?"
"What? No." Brent straightened up and closed the laptop for him. "I just know. You bought the tickets? Let's go."
Luther quickly packed up his things. "I still don't understand how you recognized him."
"I don't understand why Ethan would hang out with him either," Brant mused. "But like you said, we'll find out when we get there."
And so, the two agents who had pursued Ethan and his group from Langley, USA to Casablanca, Morocco, then traveled all the way to London, England, and quickly found Ethan and his group's temporary residence (Brant: "We don't have direct access to local cameras..."). (Luther: "That's why I didn't ask. Are you still looking for Ethan?" (Brant: "...Yes."). But after knocking on the door several times without receiving a response, Luther and Brant couldn't help but exchange a glance.
"Break down the door?" Luther asked.
"Break in." Brent confirmed.
Then, not surprisingly, they discovered the place was deserted again. Luther sighed deeply, realizing for the first time that his long-time friend was as hard to find as a rabbit. Resignedly, he pushed the things on his desk aside and unfolded his computer. But Brent, after a quick search, quickly returned to his side. "They just left!"
At this time, Ethan and his three companions, who had just left, stopped Ilsa at a busy intersection.
Frankly, Ilsa could have just left. But she didn't. When Ethan gestured toward the coffee shop at the intersection, the British agent in a trench coat followed him and sat under an outdoor umbrella.
The shadow gently fell over her face, obscuring her expression. But her willingness to sit down and talk was a good start, Elio thought; after all, she was probably their only way to contact Ryan, assuming she was still in the Syndicate. He and Benjy listened patiently as Ethan and Ilsa exchanged a few pleasantries before getting down to business.
"From my perspective," Ilsa said, "you have three choices. First, hand me over to the Americans. I'll prove the existence of the Syndicate and make Ryan their problem."
"If Elio wasn't going to die tonight," Benjy muttered, "I'd think this plan was a good one."
“She doesn’t know,” Elio said. “We didn’t tell her.”
But Ethan didn't say anything. He just looked at Ilsa, and Ilsa looked at him. "But you know, the Americans will just charge you all with treason and end the case."
"Well," said Benjy, "that makes sense."
"What about the second option?" Ethan asked.
"You let me go," Ilsa said, "and let me face the unknown, and you face Ryan yourself, just like you planned from the beginning."
Ethan still didn't speak.
"But you know how difficult it is to track him down," Ilsa continued, "and to confront him head-on. Deep down, you know you missed your chance to capture him, just like every other time before. Will future operations be any different? You don't know."
"Why didn't she mention the USB drive?" Benjy wondered. "Doesn't she know we can use it to lure Ryan into the trap?"
“We have a USB drive, Ilsa,” Ethan said. “Ryan’s going to want it.”
Ilsa looked confused. "USB drive?"
"That USB drive," Ethan said doubtfully, "we got it from the power plant."
"Oh," Ilsa finally understood, "I thought... well, no wonder it's empty."
"Wait," Elio interrupted. "What's empty?"
"That's a smart move." Ilsa shrugged, as if answering from a distance, even though she couldn't hear what Elio said in Ethan's earphones.
“I’m pretty sure there’s something there,” Elio said. “It just has nothing to do with the Syndicate.”
"Did you ever let that USB drive out of your sight?" Ethan said.
Ilsa paused for a moment, then sank in. She had been carefully guarding the hard drive, escaping several waves of syndicates and making her way back to London in a panic; she guarded the hard drive as if it were her hard-earned freedom, and there was no way she would let the USB drive leave her hands.
Except for that moment. That moment when she handed the USB drive to her superiors in MI6.
It was Atri who had asked her to return to the Syndicate and use the USB drive to "verify Ryan's trust," even threatening to deny her undercover status and turn her into a stateless wanted criminal. He had known what she would face when she handed Ryan the blank USB drive, because it was Atri who had created it.
Ilsa should have been furious, but she was just exhausted. So, she just let out a soft sigh.
“…They didn’t care if you lived or died,” she said. “I should have known better.”
"What?" Elio asked. "Who did it?"
"It must be her boss at MI6." Benji sighed.
Elio fell silent. He'd expected the leadership of these intelligence agencies to be cruel, but not this cruel. Sending Ilsa back to the Syndicate with an empty USB drive was like sending her to her death.
The agents present all realized this. Ethan's expression did not change, he just looked at Ilsa calmly, with an expression of understanding but not pity.
"So you're going to use that USB drive against Ryan?" Ilsa quickly composed herself.
Ethan nodded.
"You want me to join." Ilsa understood.
This was Elio and Benjy's idea, and it was also what they had discussed at the beginning. But Ethan looked at Ilsa quietly for a moment, and then, to everyone's surprise, shook his head.
"No?" Ilsa wondered. "You know why I'm here. You know why I'm still alive."
"I know," Ethan said. "I know the only reason you're still alive is because Ryan asked you to pass on a message to me. I knew Ryan would know when I told you we had the USB drive, and that naturally led you to join us."
"But you just said no."
"Because I want you to step away from all this." Ethan looked at her and said, "I hope you can. I just... I hope."
For a moment, Ethan and Ilsa stared at each other, lost in silence. Only the crowds of people moved past them, each busy with their own affairs, creating a cacophony of noise. Amidst the sea of colors created by their clothes, backpacks, and shoes, and amidst the human music of their voices, laughter, and humming, there were only Ethan and Ilsa, those two pairs of green eyes, gazing at each other in serene silence, as if they could peer into each other's souls.
Those two souls are so similar, yet so regrettably born in two completely different lands.
"…Is he serious?" Benjy broke the silence in his earpiece. "Or is he just…?"
"Are you playing the emotional card with me?" Ilsa laughed. "Seriously?"
Ethan also smiled. He didn't admit yes or no, but just asked gently, "What's the third option?"
"Forget it," but Ilsa shook her head. "I can see you've made your decision."
She pulled out a cell phone and pushed it over. Ethan knew it was a message from Ryan. He looked at it silently for a moment, as if making up his mind; but before he could raise any doubts, Ethan held out his hand.
He touched the phone and turned it on.
Benjy covered his ears.
Then, a violent electric shock pierced the earphones of Ethan and the other two along the communication channel. Benjy couldn't help but feel dizzy and squatted on the ground with gritted teeth, almost unable to hear anything. After about a few seconds, he vaguely heard Ethan calling his name, "Benjy! Underground garage! They kidnapped Elio!"
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