Before the journey to Singapore

"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?" Ilsa asked as Brandt kept the unactivated bomb in his coat.

"For the last time, Ilsa, yes," Brandt answered. "Just make sure you get away from the bomb as quickly as possible. I'll give us five minutes."

"Sure," Ilsa and Brendan replied.

"Okay, let's go."

<During the search in the abandoned base>

"What exactly are we looking for?" Brandt asked.

"The cure, obviously," Ilsa answered as a matter-of-fact.

"Right," Brandt replied, followed by a silence between them. In that moment of silence, however, Brandt planted the bomb. He then asked another question.

"Do we even know what the cure looks like?"

"Blue substance in a small vial," Ilsa replied.

After another short conversation about Mycroft, they walked to Ethan, Benji and Brendan.

<Presently>

Ethan's POV

"So that was why he took a few steps away from the base," I said as I recalled the moment he did so. "I understand you guys were doing your jobs, but I need to know what he's doing, why he did it."

Brendan hesitated before replying, "We don't know. He never told us, never wanted to. Even if he did, he couldn't."

<Before the journey to Singapore>

"Okay, let's go."

"Before we go, can you tell us why you need to do this?" Brendan asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't. Mycroft said I couldn't. He said that I couldn't tell you guys no matter how much I wanted to. I'm sorry," Brandt replied.

"But I thought you two didn't trust each other," Ilsa urged.

"Yeah, we don't. But it doesn't mean I don't have to follow his orders, and orders are orders anyway. I have to follow them until they get a new secretary to replace him." Brandt reluctantly explained. "I'm sorry.

"But, he might let me off the hook if I tell you it's something about August Walker. Security footage picked up his facial recognition. He's very much alive."

"But Ethan killed him," Ilsa said in disbelief.

"Seems like Walker outsmarted him, or maybe Walter's the one that came up with the 'let's fake your death' plan," Brandt shrugged.

<Presently>

Ethan's POV

"But I killed Walker," I insisted. "How the hell's he still alive?"

"I don't know. He faked his death. That's the best explanation I can give you," Brendan replied.

"Who's Walter?"

"He's the leader of the Underworld. He's an extremely skilled agent, from what we heard. He's really good in combat, handling firearms, hacking and is very intelligent. He's practically also the brains of the Underworld," Brendan explained. "Only Brandt and I had met him before, but not under the best circumstances. Ilsa hasn't though."

"We also suspect that he's the one that shot Luther," Ilsa added.

I just found it strange, the name Walter seemed so familiar, I just couldn't grasp the memory.

"And who's Mycroft?" I asked. Surely he wasn't the fictional character.

"It's his alias, he forces everyone to call him that," Ilsa explained. "Honestly, it's annoying."

"He got the alias from Mycroft Holmes, I presume?" Benji guessed and Ilsa grudgingly nodded.

"So before when you claimed you didn't know Brendan, you actually did," I guessed and Ilsa nodded again. "You guys don't like this uh, Mycroft?"

Brendan did the nodding this time. "Brandt doesn't trust him and we don't like him," He added. "It's like after we heard that Secretary Hunley was dead, the IMF just brought in Mycroft as a replacement like his death meant nothing. "Just a setback," I quote."

"And I guess you really were certain to the fact that the last base is in Portugal," Benji stated.

"We've already infiltrated the base in Nigeria," Brendan answered.

Thankfully, our helicopter was far enough not to get affected by the explosion but it was conveniently near enough. Benji wrapped my arm around his shoulder and walked us to the transport.

"Thank you," I told Benji after he sat me down in the helicopter, making him nod back as he sat next to me. "Are we going to Portugal?"

Brendan, who was already sat on the pilot seat, turned around to face me. "Are you kidding me, Ethan? We're going to the IMF headquarters in Malaysia so that they could mend your wounds."

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This chapter, once again in Ethan's POV, is just a short filler chapter. There might be a few filler chapters until the team flies to Portugal, where the main action begins. I also managed to create this GIF banner (below) and I love it because of its simplicity. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do!

Oh, before I forget, I've just published an Icon Shop that sells (in my opinion) trashy icons. I honestly don't even know why I've posted it in the first place. I hope you'll check it out though. 😂😂😂

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