PicFic Challenge for 9/30/14 - Terminus, Pt. 3

[avirra.livejournal.com]

Terminus, Part 1 - Terminus, Pt 2

Early the next morning, Napoleon and Illya were entering the small garage of the gas station owned by Stuart Dixon, the last known contact the Derivaux and Kemp had made. Illya remained his usual quiet self as Napoleon smiled broadly and made the introductions.

"Mister Dixon? I'm Napoleon Solo. This is my partner, Mister Kuryakin. Would you mind answering a few questions?'

"No, no. Not at all. Shame about those other two agents. Real shame. How can I help you?"

"For a start, could you tell us what the three of you spoke about?"

"Not much of anything really, Mister Solo. They had some interest in the new water tower, but I really didn't have much information for them other than it was built a little over a year ago."

"I see. That's something we'll check into. Have you heard any rumors of unusual activity?"

"No, no. Can't say as I have. Few boys from another county came through and caused a ruckus, but that happens every year when harvesting starts up, so nothing unusual about that."

Illya spoke up, causing Dixon to jump. He'd forgotten the quiet man was in the room.

"Could you give us directions to the water tower?"

Dixon blinked and pointed.

"You can see it from here."

It took a mighty effort, but Illya managed to avoid rolling his eyes.

"Yes, but unless there is a road directly from your window to the base of it, we do not know how to reach it without trial and error. Directions would save us a great deal of time."

"Oh - yeah sure. Guess I forgot for a minute that you fellows don't know all the back roads around here. Let me write those out for you."

"You are most kind. Napoleon? I am still feeling a bit under the weather. If you do not mind, I will go lay down in the back seat of our car and wait for you."

Napoleon covered his confusion with the ease that came from years of practice of covering for whatever move it was that Illya had in mind.

"Sure thing, chum. We'll get to the motel next and get you settled down. I can do the initial look around by myself in an area this quiet."

Dixon didn't speak again until Illya was out of sight, followed by the sound of a car door opening and shutting.

"Your partner's not got anything serious wrong with him, does he?"

Napoleon waved that away.

"Nothing serious. Poor guy gets motion sickness in airplanes and he didn't have time to refill his prescription before we had to fly here. Which meant the plane hit turbulence."

"Yeah, that always seems to be the way, doesn't it? Sure he won't need to see a doc?"

"We've been through this before. I'll get him to our room and he'll pass out like a dead man for a couple of hours, but after that, you'll never even know he'd been sick."

"That's good. Say, where are you fellows staying? That way if something comes up, I can leave a message."

"Good idea. We're staying at the Dewdrop."

"Nice little place. Nothing fancy, but clean and well-run. Karen will take good care of you. And - here you go. So, heading there this evening?"

"Not until close to sundown. I want to make sure Mister Kuryakin is settled, grab a shower and change out of my traveling clothes first."

"Good idea. If you fellows need anything else, you know where to find me."

Napoleon smiled again and gestured with the hand holding the instructions.

"Right. Thanks for your help."

As Napoleon headed to the driver's side, he glanced in the rear window. As expected, Illya wasn't inside. Climbing in as if everything was normal, Napoleon started up the car, gave a wave through the window and drove off. Fortunately, the road was thickly wooded and Napoleon pulled off to wait once he was certain he couldn't be seen any longer from Dixon's garage. He left the car running as the noise of restarting it might draw attention.

It was about twenty minutes before Illya emerged from the woods and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Well? Anything?"

"Yes. we must inform headquarters that Dixon is a mole as we suspected. Once I opened and shut the car door, I went back and positioned myself beneath his office window. Once you drove off, he immediately called someone he called Señor Bedoya. He informed him that you will be at the water tower around sunset and that I will be alone at the Dewdrop Inn."

"I take it you noticed his remarks about Derivaux and Kemp as well?"

"I did. And since Mister Waverly ordered the matter not to be spoken of, he should not have known."

"Let's go take a quick look at this water tower before we head to the motel."

The directions were fairly straight forward and both men exited the car when they arrived. The tower was very tall and very new. Napoleon looked up at it, but then noticed that Illya was looking past him.

"Something wrong?"

"How many water towers would you say an area with this small of a population would require?"

"Only one."

"Then I wonder why they would have spent the money to build a second one when that one does not appear to be very old."

Turning, Napoleon saw what Illya was looking at. Obviously another water tower, but it was painted a dull gray and so didn't stand out as much as the one they were under.

"That, tovarich, is a very good question. Let's look around some, shall we?"

There were no signs of a fight, but there had been plenty of time to remove any traces. In fact, it appeared that the area around the tower had been mowed very recently. When they met again by the car, Illya shook his head.

"I do not like this, Napoleon. The area is so open, there will be nowhere for you to take cover. You will be a sitting goose."

"That's duck."

"Duck- goose. What difference will it make?"

"Not much, I must admit. We need to make serious plans and we need to make them fast. I don't trust that our room is going to be bug free."

"Then let us get back in the car and I will make a few calls while you drive."

"Good idea."

tbc . . .

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Excellent chapter and very canon-esque. Great use of the prompt. I'm really enjoying this story.

So did you see the double prompts posted yesterday for the PicFic? Hopefully one clicks for you in the TBC.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Ah the clever Russian once again outsmarts the bad guy. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[jkkitty.livejournal.com]

Danger ahead, even if it's a sitting 'goose' Good luck guys

[lindafishes8.livejournal.com]

Clever Russian! It's a dangerous mission the men are undertaking in your story. I would say well done, but it's not done yet. Can't wait for part 2.