section7mfu | The Double Blond Affair~chapter 12~ " Seeing Double"

link to chapter 11: http://section7mfu.livejournal.com/198380.html

Mallard received a call back on the payphone that help was indeed on the way. There was nothing to it but to sit and wait. At least he was at the diner and reached to his inside breast pocket, finding his wallet still there along with his passport.

“Oh good God,” he blurted out, if those idiots had only looked at his British passport, then all of this nonsense could have been avoided. Then again, if they really found out he wasn’t this Kuryakin fellow, who knew what they might have done with him. He’d been kidnapped, and the reality of it was they would have most likely killed him, and returned to their search for the Russian.

He opened the billfold and happily found his American currency intact, and decided a good cup of Earl Grey was in order.
The interior of the diner was just as dingy as the outside, and Ducky put a paper napkin opened up in front of him on the not so clean looking counter as he sat on a stool. He tried not to stare at the motley crew lined up along beside him.   Though chuckling to himself, he realized he’d seen worst rejects in the Sheeps Heid Inn, in Edinburgh during his medical school days.

“Those were wonderful times,” he reminisced in his head, as his thoughts drifted to his former paramour, Aileen Abernathy.

A woman dressed in a while blouse and black skirt, seemingly the waitress, approached him while snapping a wad of gum in her mouth. “What’ll you have mister?”

“Ah yes my good woman, a lovely cup of Earl Grey would do nicely if you please?”

“Earl Grey? What’s a Earl Grey?”

Ducky sighed, as he’d forgotten their savage ways here, no Earl Grey. Just something called “Lipton’s”...by his estimation, it was ‘tea dust’ in a bag, and quite appalling. Then again beggars couldn't be choosers.”

“Tea then please,” he asked quietly.

Several more cups of not so pleasing tea, and a pastrami on rye sandwich passed the time until two men walked into the diner. One dark-haired and handsomely dressed, and the other wearing a simple black suit and turtleneck was the blond, Ducky recognized instantly as his double.

He stood, walking over to them, holding out his hand in greeting.

“Ah, Mr. Kuryakin we meet at last.”

Both he and Illya stared at each other intently, eying the goods so to speak. Illya slowly raised his right hand, palm facing Ducky. Ducky for some odd reason made the same gesture but with his left hand...placing it against Illyas.

Napoleon stood by watching as the two men rotated their hands, making them look as though they were a single person looking at his reflection while polishing a mirror. They leaned in at the same time, staring into each others eyes, then smiled. The spell was broken when they laughed.

“I see you indeed do not have a gap between your front teeth, “Ducky noted.

“Ah yes, that was the observation Shirley made,” Illya responded dryly, letting his thoughts drift back just for a secont to her kiss.

“Well it’s good to know we’re not exactly alike, as I found the thought of it a bit unnerving.” Ducky shook his head. “And now the truth has set us free.”

“Ahem,” Napoleon cleared his throat, feeling ignored.”

“Oh dear, I am sorry,” Duck apologized, again reaching out to shake Napoleon’s hand.

“Dr. Donald Mallard, Captain in her Her Majesties Royal Army Medical Corps," he said with a barely perceptible Scottish burr.

“Napoleon Solo, and of course you’ve met Illya Kuryakin, “ he shook Mallard’s hand. “ We’re with an organization called U.N.C.L.E. the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. We’re sorry your resemblance to Mr. Kuryakin has gotten you pulled into a very dangerous game Doctor.”

“Indeed it has, but I do have to admit, my escape from those thugs was rather exciting.”

“Those thugs,” Illya interjected, “are members of an evil organization called the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesireables and the Subjugation of Humanity.”

“Ah yes they did use the name Thrush, now that I recall. That is quite a mouthful, and the name does indeed sound threatening. They asked me if the sleeping drug they injected me with gave me a headache, and told me, thinking I was you Mr. Kuryakin, were prone to terrible ones from it, is that true? I had no idea that organizations existed like yours and this Thrush, though I suppose they are a counterpoint to the UK’s MI6...

Illya interrupted the Scotsman's mild ramblings. Dr. Mallard unlike the Russian, was an obvious 'talker.'

“Yes I do get those headaches very much so, and call me Illya please?”

"And you must call me Ducky." He noted Illya's perplexed look," The nickname I earned at Edinburgh Medical School, and a story for another time perhaps."

They walked out from the diner still chatting together like long lost brothers as Illya filled Ducky in with more details of T.H.R.U.S.H. Ducky warned Illya of their plans for him, and just as they neared a silver convertible, he spotted the Thrushmen.

“That’s the men who kidnapped me,” Ducky pointed across the parkinglot.

The Thrush charged after the U.N.C.L.E. agents and Mallard, firing their weapons, and in amazement there were indeed two Illya Kuryakins.

Napoleon, knowing Ducky was a military man, tossed him a back-up pistol. Though he was an innocent, he figured the man was being shot at too and he might as well be able to defend himself.

Ducky caught the weapon, and instantly tossed it back to the agent.

“Sorry dear boy, I’m a doctor. I save lives and don’t take them.”