section7mfu | Devious Device - Short Affair

Prompts - Exact/ Yellow
Word Count (approx.) - 396

Alexander Waverly carefully picked up the object which sat on the table in front of him. It was a yellow metal sphere, slightly smaller than a soccer ball. There seemed to be something which looked like a sort of lid, but there was no obvious way of opening it. Strangely, it seemed to be weighted so that the apparent opening always stayed facing up.

“Have you been able to ascertain its exact purpose?” he asked the two men sitting opposite him.

Napoleon Solo merely shrugged and looked to his partner to provide what they knew.

“All we can say is that we don’t think it poses any danger,” Illya told his boss.

“But you aren’t certain?”

“No Sir,” Kuryakin confirmed. “Since it was delivered to Del Floria’s, we have performed all the tests we can without opening it. The next step is to attempt to gain entry. This of course will be done down in the concrete sub-basements.”

“I’m sure I don’t need to ask you to take every precaution,” Waverly commented, as he slowly turned the ball over in his hands.

“Don’t worry, Sir, Mr Kuryakin is a safe pair of hands,” Napoleon assured the Old Man, while throwing a wink at Illya.

Unfortunately, Solo’s reassuring statement wasn’t quite as accurate as he’d expected. As Waverly handed the object to the Russian, Illya fumbled slightly and it slipped from his grip. All three men watched in horror as time seemed to slow and the ball fell to floor. It only took Illya a second to recover himself, and he dived to try and catch it.

Too late, it hit the floor and rolled rapidly towards the wall. It was brought to a sudden halt by the wall and began to make the worrying sound of clockwork.

“Step away, Mr Kuryakin,” Waverly instructed.

As quickly as they dared, they headed for the door. However, they weren’t quite fast enough and the yellow ball opened up.

A clown doll popped out, holding a piece of card.

Napoleon edged towards the object and pulled the card free. He read it, frowned, and handed it to Mr Waverly.

“It seems to be from Victor Marton,”

“Well,” Waverly began, after pondering the message. “I don’t know what this was designed to distract us from, but it’s seems we will have to be on alert.”

“Yes, Sir,” the two agents responded.

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