Story 2 in the Map Room Series

Mark Slate was looking for revenge. Illya Kuryakin had burst in upon him and one of the secretaries in the map room earlier that day. He'd been following Illya and one of the secretaries for the past half hour and the dewy eyes they were making at each other he felt sure they'd be looking for a short stay in the map room soon or somewhere equally secluded.

He looked away for a moment and lost sight of them. He wondered if Illya had somehow noticed the tail. After a good twenty minutes of trying to find them without success Mark was almost ready to give up. He spotted one of the secretaries outside the map room typing some papers.

"Did you see Illya and a girl go in there?" He asked, indicating the map room.

"Yes, but that was a good fifteen minutes ago and I haven't been here the whole time."

'Oh that didn't matter', he thought to himself and fifteen minutes should be enough time for them to get into an embarrassing predicament equal to his own that morning.

He burst in, shouting "Gotcha" as he did so.

The secretary looked up at hearing Illya and Napoleon talking as they walked along the corridor.

"I'm telling you Napoleon, I think there's a serious rodent problem in the map room. One of the secretaries showed me a couple of rats in there just a few minutes ago. She suggested that I bring it to your attention because you were so familiar with the tendencies of rats, you being one yourself." He repeated her words gleefully.

"Which secretary was that?" Napoleon asked in a somewhat hurt voice. He believed all the secretaries loved his manly charms.

"Wanda."

"Oh I see." He had stood her up on several occasions and Wanda didn't take kindly to being stood up. She'd been casting aspersions on his character ever since. Illya found it very amusing.

"Excuse me Mr Kuryakin, but I think Mr Slate was looking for you."

"Which way did he go?"

"Oh he went in there."

"The map room?" He exchanged a puzzled look with Napoleon.

Mark Slate stumbled out of the map room looking somewhat shell shocked. "I'm terribly sorry Mr Waverly, er Mrs Waverly…" The door closed behind him.

"Hello Mark," Illya and Napoleon said in unison.

"He's… she's…"

"Mark is there something wrong?" Illya asked concerned.

"They're… in the map room… Mr and Mrs Waverly…"

"Oh you've met Mrs Waverly?" Napoleon grinned, "a darling old lady isn't she? Er yes, she's visiting the headquarters today and Mr Waverly's office is being refurbished so I suggested they use the map room for a bit of privacy."

"But they're…"

"It's wonderful for an old couple like that to still be interested in that sort of thing isn't it? I hope I'm that active when I'm older. I expect you gave them quite a fright though. Come on Mark, I think you could use a drink. I've got a bottle of brandy in my office which I think you could use right now."

"What about the rats Napoleon?"

"We'll worry about that later. Or do you really want to burst in on Mr Waverly and his wife doing whatever it is they're doing?"

"Later is fine."

The End

and I'll pass your comments along to Kiki.