"The instant I saw the Oxcart mapping the area I knew we could finally fight back."
        "The plane is here?" asked Solo.
        "Very well hidden and don�t ask where. For all I know you could be under her influence. You wouldn�t know. Illya is the only one I have known to fight back, the others, well�" Joe broke off and looked out of the tiny panes of glass that made up his window. He picked up a photograph, one of many that adorned the large wooden windowsill. Solo could only judge by the others what this picture portrayed. All the pictures on the flower-strewn sill were of children. Joe began to tell his story although Solo wasn�t sure if it was him that was being told or the photograph clutched lovingly in the man�s hand.
        "At first we thought they were just city idiots when they bought the lower field, it�s marsh land you see. We never built there, just used it to graze the animals. But our flood defenses made it possible for these people to build. There's a warren of underground rooms, each set for this terrible experiment that could end up by causing another war."
        "What experiment?" asked Solo softly as if he were frightened of breaking the still air.
        "Brainwashing. It�s as simple as that and the experiment is working. Sometimes they go too far and the poor victim literally dies of shock but mostly you don�t even know it�s been done. Young Illya is the only one I have known who has managed to resist and he has given us the courage to fight."
        "Illya speaks to you?"
        "I know that look. Hope is a wonderful thing but he has not started to recover. My father was Russian so I know the language well. Illya can tell me most things apart from where the Musician is and who she is. Somehow she has control over what he says. Remove her and the battle can begin."
        "We only have a few clues to her identity. I have an agent going back over Illya�s last mission�"
        "And so far he has found nothing and I suspect he won�t. If he has had the treatment he will subconsciously avoid seeing what is under his nose. But he will be drawn back to her for more programming or so she can gain more information. At the moment he is probably working for her. Illya has told me he has tried to prevent agents going to her but some have been brainwashed too much and have no control."
        A deep frown furrowed Solo�s brow, Slate was working for THRUSH! It seemed an impossibility but things did add up. Slate had been in charge of Kuryakin�s safety. He was the one to have planned the route. This route took Kuryakin right through THRUSH owned ground and they were waiting for him. Slate had a small map area to search and so far had turned up nothing. He knew where Solo and Crawshaw were and if so then so did THRUSH. Was this why Kuryakin didn�t want them to follow?
        "Anyone you know could be under her influence, even you, Mr Solo."
        The frown deepened, the two snipers in the haystack must have been there a while and therefore had him and Crawshaw full in their sites. Two THRUSH marksmen not having a pot shot at two U.N.C.L.E. agents? They couldn�t have missed. How would he know whose side he was on?
        "Ok, you had better not tell me your plans. All I want to know is, those children?"
        "They are kept at the farmhouse and are the children of this village."
        Solo sadly shook his head. Somehow those children had to be got to safety before any attack was made on the THRUSH Satrap. He needed to know what Kuryakin had planned, if anything. Yes! A full smile removed all sign of stress from his face causing years to fall away. Illya is still U.N.C.L.E. The ten uncle missions he was carrying and the Thrush missions are identical. Uncle and other organisations were guarding the Oxcart. Those that did the guarding were brainwashed into perhaps stealing it. Illya removed them and hid the plane. Each mission Solo ran through could easily have been reversed to help THRUSH and Kuryakin's interference had stopped the plan. If this was the experiment then America could be the real target. Brainwash staff at the Pentagon, get to the President who could antagonize other countries like Russia and boom, the cold war would become very hot.
        "Tell me everything you know about the Musician, then perhaps together we can help Illya," said Joe replacing the photograph gentle in its place among the others.
        "Unfortunately we don�t know much. The place could be Rome or Roman. The Sweeny which we at first took for being the law�"
        "Did he say this word or did you suggest it? I say this because he has never mentioned this word to me."
        "At first he was angry at Mark Slate and called him the Barber, I suggested Sweeny Todd."
        "In that case both are applicable. He did manage to say the word barber to me. A barber by the name of Sweeny perhaps? This would explain Illya�s nasty habit of shaving people."
        "Of course! Mark had one of his haircuts, so have most of the agents at Uncle London. So simple, why did we miss it?"
        "Anything else?"
        "Only the codename he gave to his last mission, that of Risen Foam."
        "I know that. This is another name for Aphrodite. Think hard, Mr Solo, you are blocking something out? I think you know who the Musician is. One other thing, don�t trust Crawshaw, he is out to kill Illya."
        "Did Illya tell you this?"
        "No, I knew this young man. Ten years ago he was at a rally. There was a meeting of friends and family of those who during the war were captured and killed by the Russians. Crawshaw�s father spent time at a camp in Siberia, this is where he died. Crawshaw swore that he would get so high in law enforcement that he could legally kill Russians. He�s done this hasn�t he? All he lives for is revenge."

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