section7mfu | The ABC Affair- Stonehenge. Chapter 1- letter A

Prompts: archaeology, ancient

Alexander Waverly looked up as the doors to his conference room opened with a gentle whoosh.

“Ah Mister Kuryakin, good of you to arrive so quickly.”

“I was already on my way here when I was paged sir.”

“Oh?” The Old Man’s bushy eyebrows raised slightly.”You were coming to see me?”

“Not exactly sir, I umm, was coming to speak to Miss Kirov,” he blushed ever so slightly.

“Ah yes,” Waverly smiled as he tapped the contents of the bowl of his pipe into his crystal ashtray,” the young lady speaks Russian, doesn’t she?”

“Yes sir. It is nice to hear my native language, and converse in it from time to time.”

Waverly nodded his approval,”I imagine it saves on traveling time rather than going to Brighton Beach. Though you will miss out on eating at your favorite restaurant there…”

“Yes sir.” Illya hesitated, though it never surprised him as to how much the Old Man knew about his agent’s personal lives. It was as though Waverly had eyes in the back of his head 24/7. Nothing was sacred in the spy business, and no one in the Command had private lives, perhaps execpt for Alexander Waverly and the other Continental Chiefs.

Illya seated himself at the table and attempted to change the subject. “You called me here sir.”

“Ahem,” Waverly cleared his throat,”yes quite,” he looked at his wristwatch. “Unfortunately Mister Solo isn’t always as punctual in responding to my…”

At that exact moment the doors opened and Napoleon Solo sauntered into the conference room. He always had an air of confidence about him, regardless of whether he was late or not.

“Mister Solo, please endeavor to come straight here when I have you paged, and no lollygagging with the secretaries along the way. Who was it this time...Miss Jones?”

Illya couldn’t help but smile ever so slightly.

Napoleon said nothing and merely walked to the table, seating himself beside his partner, though he wondered to himself how the Old Man knew he was chatting up Dawn Jones. Then again, Waverly always seemed to have eyes in the back of his head...who knew how many secret cameras there were all over headquarters to which only Number 1 Section 1 had access.

Waverly flicked a toggle switch on his console and a view screen descended from the ceiling. An image appeared, one with which both agents were familiar.

“This gentlemen is Stonehenge.”

An ancient site in Great Britain,”Illya said. “ I have read it is at least five-thousand years old.”

“And what is UNCLE’s interest in this archeological site?” Napoleon asked.

“Not our interest in it Mister Solo, but others seemed to have found some significance in the site.”

“THRUSH?” Both agents chimed in simultaneously.

“For once, I think not, though we’re not completely sure. There have been rather strange goings but the local constabulary have been unable to discover who has been coming to the site. They’ve been described as being like phantasms…”

“Ghosts?”Napoleon asked while looking at his partner whose face remained unreadable. “Sir, wasn’t the site just renovated? Could it be people playing pranks?"

“Pranks? Definitely not. It was renovated; a long-running excavation program concluded, ending a period of intensive investigation. Conservation and management works followed, including a new hard-wearing surface and gravel within the central stone setting. This was done to accommodate the visitors that have been growing in number.”

“Is this really a job for UNCLE?” Illya asked.

“Yes it is. In addition to these so-called apparitions a number of bodies have been found at the site, but that has been kept under wraps. News of it hasn’t been released to the public and tourists have been banned temporarily from visiting Stonehenge.”

“Still, is this not within the purview of Scotland Yard?” Kuryakin asked.

“Well yes and no. You see gentlemen the bodies discovered were not exactly from this century, rather they’ve been dated to be thousands of years old.”

“So they’re skeletons?” Napoleon looked rather confused.

“No Mister Solo, they’re quite fresh corpses and they look to be the victims of some sort of ritual sacrifice. You’ll be working with a paleoanthropologist named Doctor Ellery Goodwin-Walker from our London branch.”

“I didn’t know the Command employed paleoanthropologists,” Napoleon refrained from snickering.

"As well as a qualified medical examiner, Doctor Goodwin-Walker is on loan from the University of Edinburgh and has already visited the site and examined the bodies. You two will be brought up to snuff when you arrive at the site in Salisbury. Here’s your plane tickets. Good luck gentlemen; I expect prompt reports. Now dismissed.”

Solo tucked the envelope inside his breast pocket and together he and Illya left side by side.

“This is going to be a strange one, "Napoleon mumbled. "...I mean investigating freshly dead cave men, or maybe Neaderthats?”

“Not Neanderthats, homosapiens from the Neolithic period which ran from 5500 BC to 1900 BC.”

“I stand corrected tovarisch, either way as I said this is going to be a strange one.”

“Agreed,” Kuryakin nodded.

CHAPTER 2