Chapter Text
‘There’s got to be a way of doing it,’ Ethan insisted, hands on hips. They were stood in Ethan’s office (basically a room with a window, a bare desk and a pile of climbing equipment. Just a place to hang out in-between missions) He studied the diagram on the screen of the very top secret, very tall building he and Luther were trying to break into. ‘Look, maybe if I swing across…’
He scribbled some notes on a scrap of paper. Luther sighed. The kid had always had a sideways trick of thinking, but since Nyah left, and all Ethan’s fantasies over what exactly had happened in that mission collapsed into dust, his ideas had got more and more wild. As if he were trying to prove something to himself, become the mythological figure he had been trying to be to Nyah – an all powerful protecting angel. He was pushing his body harder, his muscles noticeably growing, he was taking on more and more missions, and his plans were getting more and more reckless. Luther would never leave his side (somehow Ethan had managed to trigger a fundamental and deep streak of loyalty in Luther) but goddamn, he needed help.
And right now, what he needed was a rope that could go rigid and swing through 90 degrees and then somehow, become loose again, all without getting tangled.
‘Luther, you’re a genius, you must be able to think of something,’ Ethan insisted, with that unshakeable faith that Luther never wanted to let down.
‘It’s not really my kind of tech,’ Luther said. ‘And you know that, so don’t give me that look. Tell you what, let me dig around the stores, see what I find.’
The IMF stores were a mess. All kinds of gear was dumped down here and left to rot. There was an entire aisle devoted to mask makers. There were shelves of fake ID (Luther pocketed a few for future use) and bits of chunky silver equipment left over from the sixties and some nifty little lockpicks and compasses and microphones hidden in cufflinks (Luther pocketed a few of those too.)
And there, right at the back, in a dusty little corner, was a coil of rope. Curious, Luther picked it up, and snapped it like a whip – it went rigid. Then, as he twisted it around, it became loose again.
Exactly what Ethan needed. Luther looked around. The rope was spilling out of a box marked ‘Dunn’s failures.’ In the box was a jumble of gear, none of it IMF issue, all of it looking somehow home made.
‘Huh,’ Luther said to himself. ‘Let’s try a few of these things out.’
An hour later, he dumped the rope, and a few of the other things onto Ethan’s desk. Ethan grinned up at him.
‘See, I knew you could do it!’
‘Wasn’t me,’ Luther said, hitching up one hip to perch on Ethan’s desk. ‘Found a box down in the basement marked ‘Dunn’s failures.’ Had this in there, plus a few other interesting things.’
Ethan sorted through the detritus, eventually coming up, delighted, with some sort of compass/altimeter thing. Luther watched him carefully as he played with it for a few minutes, then stuck it into a desk drawer.
‘We’re keeping that,’ Ethan said firmly. ‘We’re keeping all of this. Who is this Dunn?’
‘Going down to the tech lab to find him now,’ Luther said. ‘Not you,’ he added, as Ethan stood up. Ethan sat down, looking a little hurt. ‘You can be a little overwhelming, and the tech guys are a little sheltered. Give me time to prepare the way.’
‘You’re not overwhelmed by me,’ Ethan objected.
‘Yeah, that’s because I’m Phineas Freak, and not some lab tech with a box of failures in the basement. Sit there, sit still, you’d better still be here when I get back.’
‘Yes, Luther,’ Ethan said meekly. Luther sighed. There was a good chance Ethan would be hanging off the building when he got back. He really needed some help with Ethan, a team that would stick around and watch his back. Not someone to stop him doing the wild things as such – even knowing Julia was at home wasn’t managing that – but someone to remind him to do it safer. Watch his back when he jumped, guide him when he ran. Luther did his best, but Ethan’s missions tended to be tech heavy (unlike other agents who avoided the tech) and Luther already had enough to keep an eye on. What Ethan needed was a guardian of his own.
Which Luther was unlikely to find in the tech lab. But maybe he could find some useful gear.
When he got down to the tech lab – a bright shiny room, with lots of flashing lights and so many screens Luther had a headache within five minutes and wanted to run away screaming after ten – he asked around for ‘Dunn’. He asked five people before one of them said;
‘Yeah, that’s him over there. Be careful though, he’s British.’
Luther, who shared Ethan’s deep and abiding love for London, and specifically its enormous number of pubs, turned and looked at the speaker.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Well, he’s a bit weird,’ she said, suddenly aware she’d made a faux pas, and was wilting beneath Luther’s withering gaze. ‘He’s – you know – odd.’
‘Sounds exactly what I need,’ Luther said, firmly turning his back on her. He walked across to the man currently absorbed in his screen.
He had headphones on and he looked like he was typing – but Luther knew that look. He didn’t game himself, but he had plenty of friends who did, and he recognised the stare, the finger movements, the reactions. He was playing a game on IMF computers – which meant he’d hacked into the computers, re-programmed the surveillance to ignore him, and probably modified the equipment.
Luther only knew of one person who could do that and that was himself – or so he thought. There were some skills here, that he hadn’t been aware of. He read the nameplate on the desk – Benjamin Dunn. Which was when the man noticed him.
‘Oh shit!’ he cried, jumping and somehow entangling himself on his headphones and knocking over half his desk as he did so. He scrambled to put it together again, as Luther watched impassively.
Hmm. The man looked like a complete disaster zone – but then again, so had Ethan when Luther met him. He had seen something in the kid, and now, in this stammering blushing young man in front of him, he saw the same thing.
Hope, perhaps? A clever, corkscrew mind? An intense loyalty not to country or company, but to friends?
Whatever it was, Luther looked at him and had one thought.
You’re the one.
‘Benjamin Dunn? I’m Luther Stickell,’ he said.
‘I know! I know, everyone knows who you are. I’m Benji – Benji, really, everyone calls me Benji…’
His voice trailed off as Luther studied him.
‘I found a box of your stuff in the stores – marked Dunn’s failures?’
‘Oh yeah – yeah – they’re just ideas I had – bit stupid really – all people really want is guns and better mask makers – you can throw them out or recycle them or something…’
Oh, they have no idea what they have in you, do they?
‘We wanna use them.’
‘We?’
‘Ethan Hunt and me.’
If it was possible, Benji blushed even more fiercely.
‘Ethan Hunt? Ethan Hunt wants to use my stuff?’
‘He does. And whatever else you come up with, run it by me first, ok?’
‘But – but no one wants my stuff,’ Benji blurted. ‘It’s too – I don’t – it’s not right. It’s not what agents want.’
‘Never mind, it’s what Ethan wants,’ Luther said. ‘I can get him down here to tell you himself if you like…’
‘No! I mean – I’d make a fool of myself,’ Benji said quickly. ‘I mean – I’ve read his files – I wouldn’t know what to say. I’d behave like an idiot. Even more than I am now…’ he added, crestfallen.
‘You’re doing fine,’ Luther told him, struck by a sudden need to protect him. ‘Just remember – whatever you come up with, we want to see it first.’
‘Ok, I can do that,’ Benji said, breathlessly.
‘Just Ethan and me – no one else.’
I don’t want anyone else knowing what tricks Ethan has up his sleeve. Not after that whole business with Phelps.
‘I can do that,’ Benji repeated. ‘No one pays much attention to me anyway.’
Hmmmm….
Luther stood there and studied Benji. He looked at the desk – it looked messy, but he could see how everything had its place, everything was planned in relation to everything else, everything was reachable from the chair, in the order it would be needed.
Uh-huh. Yeah – he’s definitely the one.
‘Ethan – he’s got a trick of thinking,’ Luther explained.’ Not the way other people do. Sort of – sideways and round the corner and then up in the air. You seem to have the same trick.’
‘It’s been mentioned,’ Benji agreed. ‘Not always as a good thing.’
‘Well, we like it. Work on those climbing gloves that were in the box. Ethan likes to climb.’
Benji nodded, and Luther turned away.
Then he turned back.
‘I occasionally have to bring work down here to be done,’ he said, looking around the lab. ‘I don’t like to, but some stuff I can’t do alone, retrieving data, unlocking drives, that sort of thing. Ok if I bring it directly to you?’
Benji nodded fervently.
‘I won’t let you down,’ he promised.
‘And – we may not always want those in charge to know about it. I’m not asking you to lie just – not quite tell the whole truth. Is that ok for you?’
This is it….
Benji looked round at the lab, at the people staring at him curiously, at the game on his computer.
‘You know, no-one thinks I can lie,’ Benji said softly. ‘They think I’ll just babble away and I’ll just accidentally let slip the whole truth or give away the plan. They’ve said I’ll never get out into the field because I can’t keep my mouth shut.’
He looked at Luther, and he smiled, a very different smile, sure and certain.
‘As it happens, I can lie exceptionally well. So if you and Ethan need me to – I can keep my work for you hidden.’
Oh yes – there’s something to you.
‘Good to hear it. I’ll get back to you.’
As it happened, Ethan couldn’t be kept away from Benji. He cross-examined Luther ruthlessly on who Benji was, and what he could do, and what he had said.
Collecting this one too, are you? Before you’ve even met him?
He’d asked Luther about a few things from the box and Luther had gone back to Benji, refusing to let Ethan follow him. Ethan in full ‘tell me things’ mode could be a lot and Luther didn’t want to spook Benji.
However, one afternoon, when Luther wasn’t paying attention, Ethan just followed him down to one of the testing rooms in the basement. Luther had no idea until Benji turned to say hello and just stared open mouthed at the man behind Luther.
Luther was well aware of the effect Ethan could have on both men and women. Even he found himself giving into Ethan’s charm when Ethan wanted something (although he had never been struck dumb by Ethan’s looks, as so many were). And now Ethan had it turned full force onto Benji, who looked like he’d been hit by a very attractive and charismatic ten-ton truck.
Fine, we’re doing this then.
‘Benji Dunn, this is Ethan Hunt. Ethan, this is Benji, don’t scare him.’
‘You’ve been doing fantastic work for us,’ Ethan said, holding out a hand to shake. ‘Really impressed by the trackers.’
‘Ummm,’ Benji said, and then he hurried forward and took Ethan’s hand and started to shake it vigorously. ‘My pleasure, honestly, it really is, to make something for someone who – well – Luther says you get the way I think.’
‘And you get the way I think, which frankly is a relief, I was beginning to think I was the only one in here.’
Something’s changed.
‘No – no I get it,’ Benji said, and then his excitement took over. ‘Luther said you were saying something about the camera? The one in the jacket? I made a few adjustments – come and have a look.’
Luther watched as Benji led Ethan over to a table where a dinner jacket was laid out and started to talk. He started to excitedly explain the tech, and the changes he’d made and how it worked, talking nineteen to the dozen, and Ethan was starting to look a little dazed.
Luther started to say that Ethan didn’t need to know all that, when Benji interrupted himself.
‘You don’t need to know how it works, though, do you? Just – left for focus, right for shutter.’
Which was the perfect way to give instructions to Ethan. It had taken Luther days to learn that trick. Ethan listened intently, and made suggestions, and a few moments later, Benji was helping Ethan put on the jacket, and make adjustments, without even a trace of his former nervousness.
This works. They work, together.
For five afternoons, they all went down the testing room and worked on the equipment Ethan needed for the mission. Luther watched them throw ideas back and forth, excitedly discussing tech, Benji getting more and more self-assured, Ethan trusting him completely. They began to move smoothly as a pair, Benji throwing equipment at Ethan, trusting he’d be there to catch it, Ethan moving exactly where Benji needed him to be. It looked smooth, and co-ordinated and almost instinctive.
Sometimes at those moments, Luther would catch a look on Ethan’s face, a second of sadness, and then it was gone.
Was this what it was like for him with Jack?
But a moment later, Benji would order Ethan to stand still so he could shoot him (armour testing) and Ethan would do it, and it amused Luther, to see Ethan bending so easily to Benji’s will.
There’s a lot more to this Dunn then I realised. And Ethan saw it right away, didn’t he?
That was the last afternoon – the mission was tomorrow. As they left, Ethan thanked Benji sincerely for the help and then walked away, answering a phone call from Julia. Luther turned to see Benji looking forlornly after him.
You’re worried, aren’t you? Yeah, me too.
‘He’ll be ok,’ Luther reassured him.
‘Yeah! Yeah, I know,’ Benji said, with an edge of brittleness. ‘Just wish I was going too, you know? To look after him – the equipment. To look after the equipment.’
Oh, I see. He’s got hold of you, hasn’t he?
As they walked upstairs, Ethan was silent and thoughtful. Then he turned to Luther.
‘When we get back, we should let Benji know how it went, and then talk about what we need for the next mission.’
‘Oh, we’re keeping him, are we?’
‘Yeah, I think he’s useful, don’t you? And he gets how I think, which is a first.’
Uh-huh. And Benji Dunn has got a hold of you too, hasn’t he? That’s new…
Wonder where this will end up.