Dangerous (Ethan Hunt x OC) **ongoing**

*chapter five*

"The lens might be a little uncomfortable," I told Brandt, helping him with the camera contact that Jane had given me while she went to finish getting ready. "It captures images and transmits them to the printer in the briefcase. All right?" Brandt hummed in response.

"I can't see out of one eye, it's fine," he grumbled, blinking a few times to adjust to the lens. I chuckled a bit, moving out of the way so Jane could further explain to Brandt how it worked.

I stood off the side near the window, not really knowing where else to go. Benji and Ethan were talking about how to track the papers when Benji asked aloud, "Is that Wistrom?" Benji leaned down to look at the laptop, Ethan following suit. I went over to look too, seeing him walking in the lobby with another man.

Ethan asked Benji who it was that was with him, to which Benji responded, "I don't know, we don't have an uplink so there's no facial recognition." Not wasting any time, Ethan picked up the laptop and took it over to Brandt, asking the same question.

Brandt studied the laptop screen for a minute before answering. "That's Leonid Lisenker, Polish-born cryptographer. He redesigned Russia's nuclear security after the Cold War."

"He's here to authenticate the launch codes," I said, voicing what everyone was thinking.

"Yes, he is and we are blown," Brandt muttered. Ethan tried to tell him we weren't, but Brandt cut in again. "Well we will be as soon as he sees the counterfeit launch codes."

Despite Brandt's logical conclusion, Ethan refused to give up. I could see the steely determination in his eyes as he quickly thought up a new plan. "We're not blown," he said, starting to pace.

"He's in the elevator," Benji told us, sounding worried.

"Delay them," was Ethan's response. Benji nodded and got to typing. "Benji, how long would it take you to reprogram the case?"

"Uh, a couple seconds, well what for?"

"To make an exact copy of the launch codes."

The room filled with choruses of "No," "You can't do that," and my response.

"Ethan, do you realize what could happen? I don't care what the hell kind of plan you're thinking of, but unless it goes perfectly, with no mistakes, you've just willingly handed nuclear codes to a terrorist."

Ethan didn't pay attention to any of us. Benji told him Wistrom was on 22, to which Ethan said to slow him down again. "I'll do what I can," Benji muttered, starting to get stressed out.

Brandt spoke up this time. "Oh wait, wait, Ethan, hang on now, hang on, just a second. You're- you're talking about handing over active nuclear launch codes to Wistrom?!"

Ethan had enough; his resolve was clear. He pointed to the case and told Benji, "Reprogram the case."

Brandt stood up, blocking Benji from getting the case. "No, listen, stop stop! You're saying, you're fixating, you're not thinking clearly!" As Ethan walked towards the case, Brandt was quicker and grabbed it, hanging it out the open window. "It's not gonna happen. I won't let it."

"33 and climbing!"

I sucked in a breath, sensing that a fight could break out at any minute. Brandt was standing uncomfortably close to the window. One wrong move from either one of them, and they could both end up dead. Tentatively, I started walking over to them, attempting to stand in the middle if need be.

Ethan, sensing Brandt's distress, spoke to him very calmly, as if he was trying to tame a wild animal. "Brandt, use your head now. The mission is not the codes, the mission is Hendricks."