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Mr. Solo and Mr. Kuryakin did not arrive for the Monday Section Heads meeting. Neither were answering their phone and Mr. Kuryakin was also ignoring his communicator. I dispatched agents to both of their apartments with orders to enter cautiously if knocking on the door produces no results.
The report from Mr. Solo’s apartment is that he simply is not there. Nothing was out of place in the living room, except for a black lace brassiere under the sofa cushions and an empty bottle of Glenfiddich on the coffee table. I had the bottle tested for drugs, but it contained nothing except good Scotch. In the bedroom, a number of Mr. Solo’s clothes were scattered around as if someone were packing in a hurry.
The agent dispatched to Mr. Kuryakin’s apartment was forced to call for reinforcements. It seems that Mr. Kuryakin has an additional security system in the persons of his neighbors. When Mr. Cristostomo tried to enter the apartment, he was attacked by two elderly ladies welding kitchen implements, three lap dogs, a very pregnant young lady armed with a broom, and a toddler. I had to send Miss Dancer, who is known to the landlady, to rescue him.
Once Miss Dancer had sorted out the brouhaha, she examined the apartment and was unable to find anything suggesting trouble. It showed the same minimalism and order that are typical of Mr. Kuryakin. Nothing was obviously missing aside from a few toiletries and possibly some items of clothing. She asked the landlady to take a quick look and was told that a small lacquer box, decorated in the Ukrainian style, was missing from the top of the bureau.
In place of the box were two envelopes. The one addressed to the landlady contained two months’ rent in cash and a courteous letter terminating his lease due to a sudden emergency and asking her to allow my representative to remove his effects. The other was addressed to me and contained his UNCLE ID and communicator pen along with a rather terse letter of resignation.
To say that I am disappointed by this unprofessional conduct by two senior agents is an understatement. I take personal responsibility for not foreseeing this. I don’t believe I missed any basic character flaws, but I may have driven them too hard. There is always a major crisis somewhere and because this team was the best they were assigned too often with not enough recovery time in between. Medical has been warning me for months that their injuries were becoming more frequent and that their stress levels were rising. Personnel has also issued periodic warnings about excessive accrued vacation time.
However, I don’t have time for regrets at the moment. I have two agents in the wind. For their own safety, as well as UNCLE’s, they need to be brought in. They will be targets for THRUSH and any other enemy who recognizes them. If the USSR learns of Mr. Kuryakin’s resignation, there will be repercussions for their membership in UNCLE as well as deadly consequences for Mr. Kuryakin.