Only Hope {Ethan Hunt/OC}

* Some Assembly Acquired *

If Laura knew she'd be on a high-speed train with a dangerous Frenchman, a muscular African-American male, a beautiful French woman, and an old school colleague, she would have packed a lot more weapons than what she had currently. She didn't trust anyone, but Ethan at this point. That being said, she chose to sit next to Ethan, unfortunately as did Claire, which bugged Laura a bit. Something was off about that woman, and while it frustrated Laura, she knew she shouldn't cause rifts over something she couldn't place.

"Simple game," Ethan began, "Five players. Exfil opens the pocket, cyber ops lifts the wallet."

The Frenchman holding the cigarette, also known as Franz Krieger, questioned if it was a bank.

Laura shook her head slowly just as Ethan stated, "IMF mainframe."

"Where exactly?" Krieger asked.

Laura noticed in the corner of her eye that Ethan was grinning like an idiot, or for those who knew him well, he grinned like a man who knew what he wanted, and knew he was going to get it.

"In Langley."

The dark-skinned man, Luther Stickell, and Krieger turned to one another before looking back at Ethan.

Luther inquired, "In Langley? The one in Virginia, Langley?"

"Inside CIA headquarters at Langley?" Krieger questioned as well before turning to Claire, "Is he serious?"

With a small smile and a thick accent, she replied, "Always."

Krieger scoffed at the current nonsense he was hearing, and Laura could see why. It was indeed the craziest plan she had ever heard of, but then again what was crazy was the fact that she believed Ethan could actually pull it off.

"If we're going to Virginia, why don't we drop by Fort Knox?" Krieger said, standing up for a brief moment, "I can fly a helicopter right in through the lobby and set it down inside the vault and it will be a hell of a lot easier than breaking into the CIA."

"What are we downloading?"

Ethan replied, "Information."

"What kind?" inquired Luther.

Laura spoke softly, "The profitable kind."

"Payment on delivery," Claire added.

Luther removed his sunglasses, and placed them into his beige jacket before saying, "I don't know. I just don't know."

Ethan leaned forward, folding his hands, "Well, this doesn't sound like the Luther Stickell I heard of. What did they call you? The Net Ranger? Phineas Phreak? The only man alive who actually hacked NATO Ghostcom."

"There was never any physical evidence that I had anything to do with that," Luther pointed at Ethan, "With that exceptional piece of work."

Smiling, Ethan leaned back into his seat, comfortably as he continued talking to Luther. "You don't know what you're missing. This is the Mt. Everest of hacks."

"Y'all kidding yourselves," Luther stated with a small smirk, "Even with top of the line crypto. Cray access. STU 3's-"

"Krieger can get it, right?" Claire questioned the Frenchman in front of her.

"May take a little time," Krieger admitted before Ethan busted him for it.

"What the hell do you mean a little time? That's not what Claire tells me about you."

Luther continued on, "Thinking machine laptops, I'm talking about the 686 prototypes with artificial intelligence risk chip-"

"Twenty-four hours," Krieger decided as Luther chuckled.