Rogue Nation: Meet the IMF

Chapter 4: Weekly Date

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"I'm going to ask you a series of control questions." The Asian agent he met with every week began as she finished setting him up, and Benji replied flatly: "I know and I'm gonna answer truthfully. And then you're gonna ask me to lie intentionally."

She sat down at the computer, watching the screen as she began: "State your name."

"The King of Norway." Benji replied, looking at her before glancing at the screen and watching as the lines on the polygraph went red.

"See, that's a lie." He pointed out. "I'm actually third in line to the throne." The graph continued to go red. "My brother was-"

He stopped quickly as the door to the conference room opened and Director Hunley walked in, Brandt following silently behind the CIA director.

"Has Ethan Hunt contacted you?" Hunley asked immediately as he walked over towards them while Brandt stayed where he was by the door.

"Why would he contact me?" Benji demanded, and Hunley replied shortly: "Hunt has resurfaced. This time in Cuba. He uh," he brought out a large pile of papers in plastic folders, "left these behind."

He tossed the files onto the table before Benji, who frowned as he looked at them.

"Tell me what you make of them." Hunley ordered, and Benji shrugged as he shuffled through the news articles: "I don't know. He's taken up scrap booking?"

"Look at the photographs, Dunn." Hunley ordered and Benji did. "All of them are either missing or dead, everyone."

Benji paused as he saw a picture of Vinter, glancing covertly at Brandt who was leaning against the far wall with one hand in his pocket. Brandt just met Benji's gaze evenly as Hunly continued: "All of them were government agents. Russian, French, British, Israelis, you name it."

Benji turned back to the photos as Hunley continued pointedly: "These are highly classified files and yet Hunt had no problem collecting them. And he always seems to be a step ahead of us. I wonder how?"

"Are you suggesting I'm helping him?" Benji demanded, and Hunley replied dryly: "That thought had cross my mind."

Brandt watched, his blue eyes betraying nothing as Benji snapped in annoyance: "Six months, I have been here. Sifting through mountains of metadata and exabytes of encoded excrement. I have decrypted, processed, passed more data than anyone in my section."

Hunley covertly leaned over to check Benji's polygraph readings which showed green, perfectly normal and stable lines.

"And yet every week," Benji was still ranting, "you hole me in here. And you ask me the same question, just in a different way."

"And today," Hunley interrupted pointedly as he moved to face Benji himself, "you haven't answered it."

Benji met his gaze defiantly as he replied darkly: "You seem to thinks I have some kind of obligation to him. Okay, nothing could be further from the truth. Ethan Hunt," he gestured out the windows, "is still out there in the field, and I'm stuck here," he glared at Hunley, "answering for it. We're not friends."

His jaw clenched and he turned away, aggravated as he finished firmly: "I owe him nothing."

Hunley glanced at his agent, and she nodded, confirming that Benji's polygraph supported his words. Hunley sighed before he dismissed: "That'll be all, Dunn."

As Benji removed the many wires and attachments, there was a knock on the door.

'Right on time. As usual.' He thought with a sigh as the Director gave permission while he gathered up his files, and the door opened to reveal Kat, looking extremely fed up.