Chapter Nine

Wyatt's photo showed a man with a very warm smile but whose eyes were devoid of any emotion. Melanie noticed that his hair was cut far too short, making his ears appear to stick out and his head awkwardly disproportionate from the rest of his body.

"Yup, that's Wyatt all right. No one has a bigger head," Melanie giggled.

"Wyatt was always trying to live up to his brother's success and always falling short. He’s spent most of his life trying to get out from under that "Silver Boy" label I gave him in high school," Stuart explained. "It seemed that everything his brother Jack touched turned to gold, while everything Wyatt put his slimy fingers on turned to ashes."

"And he never took responsibility for his failures as I recall," Melanie said. "Wyatt always had some rational excuse for his shortcomings and they were always someone else's fault. Even while playing high school sports. If he missed a basket, he'd say the floor was too slippery. Miss a forward pass and it was the quarterback's bad throw, or the sun got in his eyes. Have a sexual indiscretion and it was the woman who came onto him, he was just an innocent bystander."

Melanie tried not to remember that very personal excuse she had experienced first hand.

"I remember he was always getting into trouble with the police for one thing or another," Katie said, "And his daddy would always show up to rescue his prodigal son. I don't think his father was doing him any favors."

"Yes, it's not a pretty story."

Melanie was starting to feel a bit of sympathy for the boy she thought was her friend. A boy whose body was still very much alive, but whose soul had died a very long time ago.

"Or, a pretty picture for that matter," Katie said, pointing to Wyatt's photo.

"That's for sure." Melanie sighed.

Don continued with the briefing.

"We were still watching the Gaynes paper mill and unfortunately we weren't paying too much attention to Wyatt."

"That was your first mistake." Melanie said.

"We know that now, but back then the only thing we knew was that Wyatt returned to Abbeyville a few years after Ted retired and opened a print shop and stationery store in the heart of town. Above ground it was a nice little retail establishment, and below ground, although we didn't know it at the time, Wyatt was rebuilding T.H.R.U.S.H."

The image on the screen changed to a man with very dark features and small, deep set eyes. Neither woman recognized him, but they both found the image to be quite threatening

"This is Sepheran. We never found out if that was his first or last name. He was the last remaining leader of the old T.H.R.U.S.H. organization and Wyatt's right hand man, until his body washed up on Cap d'Agde in France a few years ago."

"Don, you don't think Wyatt had anything to do with his death do you?" Melanie said.

"Not unless Wyatt had a passion for nude beaches," Don smiled. "No, our agents didn't find anything suspicious, at least nothing connected to Wyatt."

He hit the button again and the faces of Charles and Eric appeared underneath Wyatt's.

"As we've mentioned, these two have been working with Wyatt for a number of years. You can read the details on pages 27 and 35 when you have time."

"When, exactly will that be?" Katie said sarcastically.

Ignoring her comment, Don continued.

"In January of this year, the Euro became the chief currency in thirteen European countries. It's taken Wyatt all this time to collect the right paper, machinery and the right ink to perfect the method to counterfeit, not only U.S. currency, but all of the new Euro paper money as well."

"Stu, this is unbelievable," Melanie said. "I knew Wyatt was a deceitful creep, but I thought that he restricted that character trait to his relationships with women. This elevates him to an entirely different level of bastard."

"We should have known that when we caught him with those stolen math tests all those years ago," Katie said. "And that includes his two co-horts."

Katie's voice didn't hide her contempt. "I would have expected Chuck to have a bit more integrity. I really feel sorry for his wife and kids."

"Don't feel too sorry, Katie. Charles is the computer expert whose program you're going to hack for us," Stuart said.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Stu. If what you say is true about Wyatt, this sounds very dangerous."

"Don't worry," Don said, "You'll be working inside U.N.C.L.E. headquarters with me. It's perfectly safe."

"I'm still not so sure," Katie said. "I know Wyatt's not the most honest guy in the world, but you haven't shown me any evidence he's actually hurt anyone. I can understand why you would want to put all of them in jail, Don and I hate to sound selfish, but all of this really doesn't have anything to do with me."

"You're not being selfish Katie, and we completely understand," Don said. "But there is one more player in Wyatt's game we haven't shown you yet."

Don hit the button on the console and the faces of Charles and Eric were replaced by a 2000 re-election campaign poster of Minnesota State Senator James T. O'Brien.