And things were likely to go from bad to worse in the
days to come.  He had been pleased to be assigned to
the UNCLE since he would have the opportunity to
work with skilled professionals in a noble cause.  But
now to learn that there was a KGB mole in UNCLE
New York was disconcerting.  It was also somewhat ironic,
he thought, that he who was legitimately working for
UNCLE should be the target of hostility and suspicion,
while the KGB agent who had just left was apparently passing
successfully as a trusted American and secretly spying on
his coworkers.  It did not speak well for UNCLE's
internal security. Nor did it bode well for his future with
the command.  The rivalry and intrigues between the KGB and
his own service, the GRU, all too often exceeded those between
either service and their Cold War enemies the CIA and MI5.


And now only a few weeks into his stay in America he was
faced with an unanticipated conflict of loyalties.  The
Soviet government had assigned him to work for UNCLE not
spy on it, so he had anticipated no problem in serving both
simultaneously.  But now he faced a dilemma.  As a loyal
UNCLE agent, he owed a duty to apprise UNCLE of the
existence of the KGB mole in its midst.  But to do so
would be to betray a countryman and his loyalty to the Soviet
people.  The Soviet people had been good to him.  Orphaned
by the war, he had been clothed, fed, housed and well educated
by the Soviet system, and he had sworn to serve them to the
best of his abilities.  He could not betray his own country.
It was a matter of loyalty not fear.  Though the consequences
of betrayal were certainly something to fear, at best
permanent exile in a land where he was not welcome, at
worst a traitor's death at any moment at the hands of a KGB
avenger.


As he was pondering his options, there was another knock on
the door. That would be Solo.  He resolved for the moment to
say nothing to Solo about the mole. The cheerful American had
told him to "make certain you're hungry", but the incident
of the morning had deprived him of any appetite, a very
rare occurrence.

-----

Napoleon drove slowly down the street checking for the
Russian's address.  Just as he identified the correct
building a man emerged from the front door, looking
carefully around him as though checking to make sure he was
not under surveillance, and then hurrying off.  Solo had only
a quick glance at the man but thought his face was familiar,
someone from the office.  But what would he be doing here?
It wasn't likely that someone else from the office lived
in the same building as it did not seem particularly
appealing, and given the Russian's unpopularity, it was
unlikely he would have been visiting Kuryakin at this time
of the morning.  Something about this sighting disturbed him,
he wasn't sure why, he made a mental note to check out who
the man was later at the office.

After a brief hunt for a vacant space, he parked the car and
returned to the Russian's apartment building.  It was a rather
run down old building, not particularly large, with no elevator.
Napoleon climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.

---

This page is an unofficial site that exists only for the fun of it. All characters and situations from the television show "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." are property of Norman Felton and Warner Bros. Nothing ill is intended by this use of any television characters in these amateur efforts. Any fiction linked to these pages is the intellectual property of the amateur author who created it and is not presented here for profit.