6 months later
CIA headquarters, VA
"All right, everybody." Hunley called as he walked into the surveillance room. "Heads up. This is it."
He leaned in to watch the progress as his team's leader called from his position in Havana, Cuba: "Alpha team prep. Standing by."
"Execute." Hunley ordered, and the agent in charge of comms called: "Langley brimstone, go. I say again. We are a go."
They watched as Hunley's men exited their vehicles, watching the team's progress through Langley's eye cam as he lead the way into the cheap motel. His men kept their guns in front as they slowly and carefully made their way up to the room where Ethan Hunt would be.
Brandt slowly walked to join Hunley before the monitors, watching anxiously as the CIA agents got closer to the upstairs room. They reached the top of the stairs, and hearing Ethan's heavy breathing coming from down the hallway, Langley signaled for his men to move.
Hunley began to smile in anticipation as his men got closer and they all heard Ethan's breathing over the comms. Brandt swallowed, his hands fisting in the pockets of his dress pants as he watched the agents move in on the door. Ethan's breathing had gotten louder, and Langley counted down on his fingers.
They broke the door down, charging in with their guns pointed ahead... to find the room empty. Langley swiveled around, checking the tiny area to make sure Ethan really wasn't there. He stopped when he saw the small phone placed in the far corner of the room, and one of his men peered at it as they heard Ethan's heavy breathing across the line.
The phone shut off, and Langley sighed before he reported: "Langley, there's nobody here."
Hunley's face fell with disappointment, while Brandt hid a relieved smile. He paused, frowning as he watched the monitor and saw Langley turning away from the phone, and his eye cam briefly caught something interesting. Brandt reached over, activating the comms as he called: "Langley Brimstone? Face the north wall."
Langley did as he was told, turning back to look at what had caught Brandt's attention. Hunley's lips pursed and his eyes narrowed as they all stared at the map on the wall, marked in various areas with pictures and news articles. On the far right, beside the map, were about fifty photos of different agents from across the world, while on the left, more articles were arranged, all of various international 'accidents' over the past year or so.
Langley moved, glancing down at the desk and pausing as he stared at the two pencil drawings lying on the table.
********
Benji stared at his monitors intently, dramatic opera music blasting through his headphones as his eyes narrowed slightly. His fingers flew over the game console as he shot and ran through the action video game, before he glanced at the rearview mirror he'd strategically placed on his work desk. He saw a man walking towards him, and Benji quickly off his headphones, shutting off the game as he threw both the console and the headphones into a drawer.
He straightened up again, pretending to be working as the CIA agent walked passed, dropping Benji's mail on the corner of his desk as he did. Benji waited until the man was gone before checking his mail, frowning as he saw an unfamiliar envelope. He quickly tore the seal, checking the contents and his eyes widened in surprise and joy as he saw a pamphlet for the Vienna Opera with two tickets inside as it congratulated him on winning.
Benji beamed excitedly, before his mood and face fell when his office phone beeped.
"Dunn." He answered, before he grimaced, rubbing his face with his hands as he asked with a tired sigh: "Is it that time already? Okay."
********
"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.
"Hey, Kit-Kat." Benji greeted, and he was rewarded with a smile from the pretty brunette woman before her eyes shifted back to the director and her expression returned to an annoyed frown.
"You know, this is starting to get just a little old." Kat said dryly as she walked in, completely ignoring Brandt as her CIA escort led the way to the polygraph. Although by this point she knew how everything was done, so it was a moot gesture.
"Well, maybe if you cooperated, you could be done." Hunley returned with a mirthless smile.
"How's your day been, Benji?" Kat asked her friend as he was about to leave, and Benji gave her a wide smile, though he glanced once at Brandt.
"Dull, as usual." He replied loudly, not looking at Hunley although the comment was definitely pointed at the man.
Hunley frowned, but Benji ignored him as he asked Kat: "How's the 'boyfriend'?"
He nodded at her escort, who remained impassive as Kat replied lightly: "I don't know. We don't speak. But he's sweet enough to come and pick me up every Friday."
"Ah, 'date night'. That sounds nice. You guys do anything fun?" Benji asked casually, and Kat answered just as nonchalantly: "Oh sure. He takes me to the CIA."
"Lovely date spot." Benji tossed, and she tossed back as she was strapped into the polygraph: "Gets a bit dull after six months."
"Enough!" Hunley commanded, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. The pair had similar conversations every week when they met as they switched off for their polygraph test, and he knew it was to irritate him.
Brandt was just watching silently with a neutral expression, as usual, as Hunley ordered: "Dunn, you've got work to do."
"Enjoy 'work', Benji." Kat called after him, her tone clearly placing air quotations around the word. Hunley ground his teeth while Benji waved back at Kat as he left, leaving her to her misery.
"Now." The Asian woman at the computer began. "I'm going-"
"-To ask me a series of control questions." Kat sighed. "And you want me to answer truthfully and then lie intentionally. Why do we repeat this every week?"
"Miss Taylor." Hunley snapped, at the end of his patience after his failure with Benji and another week's round of mockery between Benji and Kat. Kat glanced at the man, before her eyes flickered very briefly over to Brandt and then she sighed.
"Fine." She waved at the other woman to begin, resigning herself to being at least somewhat co-operative.
"State your name." The woman began, and Kat sighed: "Katelyn Taylor."
"Occupation."
"Unemployed." Kat said tonelessly, and the polygraph showed the red lines that meant she was lying.
"I've been unemployed for sixty years," it continued to be red, "even though I look twenty-nine. It's because I'm actually a vampire-"
"Yes, enough!" Hunley snapped and Kat sighed. So maybe she hadn't been too co-operative but quite frankly, she was beginning to tire of the same tedious routine.
She'd finish work every Friday, to be met at her office door by the CIA agent (who was introduced as her boyfriend to her co-workers to avoid questions on why he showed up every week), and dragged for a polygraph test that never yielded any results because she really didn't know where Ethan was, and then she was dragged out and dropped off in front of her studio apartment.
Even the fact that she got to see Brandt every week didn't make it worth it because she was never able to speak with him. Not only because Hunley was there, but Brandt himself was also rather cold, barely even looking her way, and after her first two greetings were ignored, Kat got the hint. She started ignoring him as well, which was made easier by the fact that he was always silently standing in the far corner of the room while she was tested.
He might as well never be there, and when it came down to it, Kat wished he wasn't. It hurt, more than she was willing to admit to even herself, to be ignored by him. She knew exactly why he was doing it of course, but that knowledge did little to subdue the stabbing pain in her chest at having to endure his silence every week along with Hunley's annoying questions. Like now, for instance.
"Where is Hunt?" Hunley demanded and Kat sighed.
"I don't know." She replied flatly, as she had every week for the past six months.
"Has he contacted you?"
"No." She repeated the same answer she'd given every week. Really, it was starting to get very old.
"Do you-"
"I don't have clues as to where he is." Kat snapped, getting equally annoyed and impatient. "And I probably never will, because I can't lie to your polygraph, and Ethan knows that so he would never contact me. And even if he could, why would he? I'm not a spy."
She glared at him pointedly, but Hunley simply stared right back at her as he demanded: "But we all know where your loyalties lie, don't we, Miss Taylor?"
"I can tell you, it's not with you." Kat snapped back, annoyed.
"Then who is it with?" Hunley asked pointedly and Kat's eyes narrowed.
"Why do you ask pointless questions to which you already know the answer?" She shot back, and he demanded: "Answer the question. If Hunt contacted you, would you help him?"
"If he needed me," Kat replied seriously, "yes."
Hunley glanced at her polygraph to see the lines flickering green. She was telling the truth. What he missed was the fact that she had technically still not answered his original question- because if she was honest, she didn't want Hunley knowing her answer.
"Why? You are aware he is an international fugitive?" He asked, and Kat's eyes narrowed.
"Ethan is a man who saved not only my life but countless others. And I'll never forget it." Kat warned. "He certainly deserves my loyalties more than you, who keep wasting both our time looking for an answer you know I would and could never have, when you could be doing something more productive and actually useful."
Hunley stayed silent, watching her as she stared right back, meeting his gaze defiantly.
"One last question, Miss Taylor." Kat groaned but was caught by surprise as Hunley asked: "Do you consider Hunt your friend?"
Kat blinked, taken aback and she thought about it, missing the way Brandt had tensed minutely. She'd never really given it any thought – could you call someone you met through extreme circumstances and then never heard from again for over a year, a friend? But when she thought about it, the answer was clear and she couldn't and wouldn't lie about it.
"Yes." She replied as she looked Hunley right in the eye. "I'd say Ethan's my friend."
He stared at her before he nodded at the woman handling the equipment. Kat was surprised that he'd given up so quickly today but she wasn't going to complain. She sighed with relief as the wires and belt were removed, ignoring as Hunley, and Brandt after him, left the room without another word.
********
"Kat?"
Kat turned in surprise as she was leaving the CIA building to see Benji coming up behind her. He also looked surprised as he commented: "You're out much faster than I thought you would be."
"Yeah." She shrugged. "I guess Hunley finally got tired of repeating the same questions. Took him long enough."
Benji chuckled, before he eyed her thoughtfully.
"It bothers you." He said suddenly and Kat cocked her head to the side questioningly.
She then grimaced as Benji pointed out: "That Brandt never greets you."
"It's all right." She replied quickly. "I'd rather he keep his distance. Really."
She smiled at him in an attempt at lightheartedness, but Benji could easily see the cracks in her show. She was miserable- between Ethan's disappearance, the IMF shutting down, Jane's absence after she'd walked out on Hunley and disappeared, and Brandt's continual cold-shoulder, Kat was looking distinctly worse than when they'd brought her back from London. And that was saying something, considering she'd just made it out of a kidnapping situation.
Hunley was certainly not helping the situation as he insisted on Kat's forced co-operation every week. Benji thought it was ridiculous, but the CIA director was still convinced Ethan had been behind Kat's kidnapping in Ethan's so-called elaborate plan to keep up the façade that a group called the Syndicate existed. And while Ethan remained elusive to capture, he was determined to attempt to pry at every link to Ethan he could get a hold of.
Unfortunately, all it was doing was causing a strain on Brandt and Kat, and Benji by association. Benji hardly even got to speak to Brandt anymore- the analyst had drowned himself in work since Kat's return, and he hardly spoke outside of business situations. But Benji had caught the look that sometimes passed over Brandt's face each time he glanced at Kat when he thought no-one was looking- a look mixed with longing, regret, and something Benji had once seen on Ethan's face as he gazed at Julia.
Benji sighed as he looked down at Kat, whose face had slipped into an unhappy frown as she stared unseeingly into space.
"How about I give you a treat?" Benji asked, and Kat looked at him, blinking as she refocused on him.
"What?" She asked curiously and he lifted the two tickets he'd been holding.
Kat's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in excitement as Benji asked casually: "Want to go Vienna with me, Kit-Kat? Your 'boyfriend's' boss can pay for it."
"Oh, Benji!" Kat cried before she hugged him tightly in glee. He chuckled as she laughed: "Of course I want to go!"
"It'll have to be short." He told her regretfully. "I need to be back to work on Monday morning."
"Yeah, so do I." She pointed out. "It doesn't matter. But, Benji, are you sure? Don't you want to take someone else, maybe someone special?"
"Right." He snorted, before he placed an arm over her shoulder casually.
"You're the only girl I'll ever need, Kit-Kat." He said dramatically, making her laugh.
"Ooh, an English gentleman. How could I refuse?" She teased, and Benji smiled, glad that she was looking happier.
"Come on, then, milady." Benji announced with a dramatic flourish. "Your carriage awaits."
Kat laughed, elbowing Benji and making him chuckle with her as they left to get their things and head to the airport. Neither noticed Brandt watching from far above with a slightly forlorn expression, gazing down at the laughing woman with an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.