Mission: Impossible - The Hida Factor

[AN: The general disclaimer about not owning Digimon, Mission: Impossible, or any derived characters naturally still applies, even after all these years. Their use in the following is still for entertainment purposes only. I'll add an epilogue to this to tie up loose ends, sometime in this decade (maybe). Enjoy!]

Chapter 11: The Samurai's Triumphs

Delton Zane marveled at the destruction, at first. His robot ant had obviously stopped at nothing to track down the Hida brat. The one annoying thought in his sinister mind was that his toy or its havoc had already killed the child. Zane hoped he could find the Japanese whelp somewhere barely alive, all the better to maintain him as a comatose source of living genetic material. Of course, it would be possible to salvage DNA from the body of the Hida son and replicate it when needed for filtering Hunt's accursed blur from the Eden Device's sequencer. Continuous replications would degrade over time and become increasingly less effective, but one had to do what one had to do.

The killer savored the irony of actually maintaining a semblance of a boy's life for the express purpose of killing more people in the long run, but soon technology encroached upon his pleasure. The robot was programmed to seize its target and hold it for retrieval. Zane was using a device that both activated and traced a homing beacon built into the ant's head. The man couldn't understand why the signal was so choppy and not much stronger now than it had been when he'd turned it on. He also expected the signal to lead him past, or at least around the gnarled mass of scaffolding remains. Instead, the European directly faced the bulk of the ruined structure. Frustrated, Zane switched his tracer to its echolocation mode. It beeped steadily, and Zane listened for the return blips from his hunter in the alternating pauses. The blips responded, but they came from practically where the man stood ... and at his feet. Delton Zane looked down and saw a crumpled curve jutting from the edge of the debris. That curve was part of his robot's head! He felt the same sense of loss that one might mourn a favorite pet with if suddenly struck down. Yet the feeling was also deranged because the portion of ant wreckage that Zane saw should currently be engaged in firmly holding at least some piece of the Hida boy, and it currently was not. There was no boy, no body part, no blood, and no tissue, nothing! The mechanical beast had failed. Moreover, it had been destroyed - by a child?

Delton Zane checked his building rage only because the very idea constituted an impossible task for the Japanese runt, or rather an impossible mission. "Yes," and suspicions of the Impossible Missions Force led by Ethan Hunt snaked through the European's mind as the single word hissed out of his mouth. It finally dawned on Zane that Jace Randall had never returned to the base - that Hunt had replaced the American mercenary. That was almost impressive, especially since Hunt actually dared to operate without his team, and to bring the Hida brat along as his credentials. However, the assassin quickly discounted crediting Ethan Hunt all that much. After all, the limits of Zane's true use for Randall had obviously trapped the American agent in his adopted role. What had Hunt really been able to accomplish, but merely delaying the whelp's torture? Hunt had played the part long enough to gain access to the lab through the boy, but what of it? The dual menace of the mechanical ant and the traitorous Quint Morgan could only have forced Hunt to leverage his safety for the brat's. For all Zane knew Ethan Hunt was lying dead - either by Morgan's treachery or beneath the debris that claimed the robotic ant. Even if Hunt was still alive, he would be reeling, and still burdened with the protection of a terrified, helpless child. Delton Zane had proven, to his own immense satisfaction, that he was prepared for IMF, indeed he thrived on that kind of opposition as a true super-villain.

As Zane soothed himself with grandiose self-estimation, he was also watched. Ethan Hunt assessed his target from the seclusion of a catwalk both well above and across the floor. Zane was alone now, but Hunt wasn't. Cody Hida stood watching Zane through the railing instead of over it, the way any small boy might. However, Cody observed with stillness and quiet that few children would choose. The IMF agent's understanding of Cody Hida's inclinations originated with tactical psychology, but Ethan Hunt now appreciated that the boy's atypical behaviors were indeed choices Cody intentionally made - no longer responses to premature tragedy. The boy was knowingly, honestly the way he was just as surely as he watched Zane with a combination fear and determination to defeat the bad man's evil with justice.

"What are we going to do Ethan-san?" Cody asked, whispering. Cody's inquiry begged no question that the next step would include him, and Hunt mentally replayed Komi Nagamu's earlier warnings about maintaining the child's ethical boundaries much more loudly than the young Hida whispered. Ethan Hunt had already chosen the approach against Zane with a line of thinking that anticipated the assassin's own. Playing up the madman's assumption that Cody was a helpless child had been instrumental in secretly achieving the proximity to disable the Eden Device itself. Now, Ethan Hunt planned to destroy Zane's ego and disable any hint of that warped sanity by convincing him that he was helpless against the single-handed effort of the nine year-old Japanese boy.

Hunt finally replied, "Actually, I think we need to let you stop Zane all by yourself."

The small boy didn't realize what the American man meant. "I don't understand Ethan-san," Cody quietly admitted honestly, but the admission was also a challenge, politely and softly demanding a clearer response to his question.

Ethan Hunt had gotten Cody Hida to seek details that would subtly help the boy accept the strategy. "All along, We've had Zane thinking that you're helpless. Even destroying his robot ant has him thinking about me, not about you, because he doesn't believe you could have done that. He'll do everything he can think of to beat me or any grownup on my team. That makes you my key player again. You got to the Eden Device because Zane had no idea you could. Now, we're going to make him think that you're after him, and that he has no way that can stop you."

The boy pondered Ethan-san's objective until Hunt indicated they needed to get moving. Cody followed obediently, but he whispered the thoughtful hesitations that could not delay his steps, "I understand more now Ethan-san, thank you, but I'm not sure I'd believe it. If I can't believe it, then how can we make the bad man Zane believe it?"

"Zane will believe because we'll build the reality of it up for him. You can believe in it by participating in the steps that do that," Ethan-san advised. Cody silently supposed that was correct. He could believe enough to do what the American agent asked him to do in each part, that had to equal belief in the whole thing. The Child of both Faith and Knowledge matter-of-factly settled on that conclusion.

Zane was quickly heading for the the Eden Device, but Ethan Hunt led Cody Hida in the opposite direction with just as much speed. The IMF agent led the youngster to a rounded elevator shaft. Cody was already observing details about the elevator, and those details pointed to facts that didn't make the boy very happy. "Ethan-san, that elevator looks like a big straw coming right up through the floor." Hunt didn't say anything to evaluate Cody's comparison, so the young Hida asked, "What does this place look like on the outside Ethan-san? I couldn't really see it when you brought me here in the boat."

Ethan knew what Cody was really getting at, but he played the seriously simple game just to let the boy stay calm by thinking things out completely. "This is the biggest part of the Zane's compound, so he disguised it as an enclosed marina for storing boats - extending right over the channel in from the bay by resting on supports anchored into the ground - under the water. Those were the three words the man knew Cody didn't exactly want to hear.

"Oh," the boy noted in bothered monotone. "So, the elevator goes down under the water. Elevators go up too Ethan-san. Is there any chance that we're going to take this one up higher than we are now?"

Hunt looked at the boy in a way neither cruel nor comforting. "No, Cody. The master control room for this lab complex is a small bunker buried into the sea floor directly below us. We're going to go down there."

Cody almost asked Ethan Hunt to pull him into the elevator and close the door fast. Instead, the youngster silently stepped into the elevator beside Ethan and managed a brave face to go with the nod that allowed the adult to start the platform's descent. The elevator shaft became a sturdy but transparent tube completely surrounded by water as the young Hida and Hunt rode downward. Cody knew he'd explored deeper depths while piloting Submarimon, so he kept reminding himself that he wasn't afraid of deep water anymore, well at least not nearly as much as before. He told himself that being in this tube wasn't any different than being in Submarimon's cabin - if that cabin got really, really really long. The boy gripped tightly to the railing that curved behind the platform to fight the urge to ball up on its floor. Then suddenly - the ride was over, and a door opened to the underwater bunker. Cody got off the elevator quickly, but as good as it felt to get out of that tube, he felt even better about not giving in to panic.

Getting Cody Hida, who's fear of deep water was documented in school records, into a submersible elevator reminded Ethan Hunt of two pieces of advice that IMF agents shared like shop talk. The first was: if you start having trouble working past some of the things you have to do in the field, then you need to consider resigning from IMF. The second was: if you ever stop hating some of the things you had to do in the field, then you need to resign from IMF immediately. Still, Ethan Hunt correctly anticipated that Cody would occupy his mind with battling that individual fear rather than fearing the psychotic individual who had a fate worse than death planned for him.

From the elevator, Hunt led Cody to a machine than looked a little like the housing for one of those automated photo booths that malls had sometimes. The American agent wanted the boy to stand on the machine's platform and hold very still. Normally, following instructions and keeping still were two things Cody did very well, but the youngster hesitated. Even though he felt as safe as Hunt could make him, the boy had already seen the Eden Device, and his imagination of Zane's plans for torture by technology made interacting with anything in the lab feel like a very bad idea.

"It's a personal image scanner, it generates a three-dimensional representation of the scanned person for virtual reality meetings." Ethan Hunt explained in encyclopedic fashion. "Zane deals with a lot of people who he can't safely meet face to face, and people who definitely can't safely meet with him. This is one of the tools he uses in planning bad things, but now it's going to be a tool helping us stop Zane from ever doing bad things again." Cody Hida nodded in determined agreement, then dutifully entered the scanning area. Ethan Hunt engaged the scanning process and watched as its imager rendered a virtual boy, complete with intense stare and backpack. Once the scanning process was completed, the American agent processed the base image toward an increasingly realistic look. "Cody Hida, meet Cody Hologram."

Cody watched as his high-tech twin improved from video game quality to a mirror image. He knew that it was some form of projection, but he wondered how it could look so solid. Ethan-san answered the unasked question for him. "The small laser arrays in the imager constantly build the image on top of itself in a circular motion. If you penciled a bunch of dots in a small circle on a piece of paper really fast it wouldn't be long until you didn't see the paper."

The youngster nodded, but the answer led naturally to another question. "Oh, OK. But when there's no paper to dot, what does this thing use?"

"It uses a thinly sprayed mist of gas that reacts to the laser's light, the human eye does the rest of the work with the way it retains images and blends them together." Hunt explained to the observant Japanese boy

"I guess that's why it makes me look like I'm a red stoplight," Cody noted. "Ethan-san, it's not normal to be glowing red, so how will this copy of me fool the bad man Zane?"

Cody's questions progressed so systematically that the American agent was never delayed or distracted by answering them. "The lab's security lasers will create a grayish hologram of you, so between flooding the lab with steam and triggering its emergency lights, Zane won't realize the difference. Be ready to be leave the bunker just as soon as I establish control of the laser network for the lab. We have to get you back up there so Zane knows that you overload the pressure in the hydraulics, causing it to explode."

The assignment startled the youngster. "I have to do that, really? I thought the plan was to only make it look like I was doing stuff."

Ethan Hunt simply said, "We need a little truth to build our plan on. I haven't met anyone better at truth than you Cody."

Cody was glad to be described that way, but he matter-of-factly insisted on a respectful correction. "I'm young Ethan-san, but I'm not that little."

Elsewhere, but getting nearer and nearer to Delton Zane's compound, a rented boat plied its way through the water. The boat was being driven by Norman Teller, disguised as Inspector Iatsu from Interpol. A harsh scowl kept him clearly in charge, and freed Komi Nagamu to portray substitute teacher Kani Miro with more sympathy for the craft's two teenage passengers. Poor Joe Kido was obviously no more comfortable with high speeds on water than he was on land. On the other hand, finding Cody couldn't happen fast enough to suit Yolei Inoue. "Hey, I don't understand why we aren't just going to the place we have the map coordinates for. We need to get there and back before the sun goes down you know. We need to get Cody back!"

Although Norman Teller felt the familial angst behind the tall girl's words, the procedural nature of Iatsu's demeanor remained firm. "Getting the boy home safely is the goal of this entire investigation, young lady. Those coordinates of yours are well off the shipping lanes, but we'll get there. Other potential locations are closer and need to be checked out first. There's also the man with the jacket. He could be anywhere out here. The best thing - the only thing - you can do now is to keep quiet and leave things to me."

Yolei reacted to the Inspector's abrasive discounting with an insulted "Hmph!" that would have been enough for most other teenage girls, but she was quickly building toward an outraged storm of words churning with the growling "Urgh!" that was unmistakably hers.

Joe recognized the warning signs of Yolei's temper and pleaded with her, "Yolei, please don't rock the boat."

Yolei rolled her eyes briefly, but she sighed in frustration, "I'm sorry Joe. It's so hard not to stir up trouble if it can make finding Cody happen any faster!"

"I know." Joe sympathized while admitting, "Actually, I meant literally please don't make this boat rock any more than it has to. I'm trying to keep from turning green." He managed a strained smile at his own expense. Yolei actually managed a smirk, and felt as better as the ill-feeling collegian could encourage her to.

Any other conversation was cut short by Sensei Miro answering her cell phone, apparently set to vibrate rather than ring. She certainly answered the call casually enough, even though Komi Nagamu knew the phone's very ordinary appearance masked covert purposes. The device was only designed to ring out loud if the agent using it rang it by remote if necessary for any moment of a mission. However, if it vibrated - as it did now - that meant a high priority message impacting on the mission was being transmitted. If unanswered, the message would be vibrated out in an IMF' code. If an agent could answer, the response was framed in a spoken code that other listening IMF team members could pick up on. When Kani Miro pleasantly greeted the call with, "Hi, Mom," Norman Teller knew immediately that she was speaking to Paige Brooke.

"There are three heavily armored and well-armed speed boats that just left port from three separate locations around Odaiba. They are converging to head toward Zane's compound," Paige explained rapidly. "Zane's Japanese business contacts have decided to erase their association with him - completely! If those hit squads reach the island they won't leave a trace of anything or anyone there. You and Norman have to stop those boats."

"Mom, you know how I hate to be under the gun, but don't worry I'll be happy to take care of what you need. Are you sure three will be enough?" Kani Miro assured, instantly conveying from Nagamu to Teller an alert for the three-fold and armed situation coming their way.

"Verbal code acknowledged, Komi. Do not, repeat, do not involve the kids, and maintain your cover unless absolutely necessary not to," Brooke instructed.

"Sure Mom, I'll keep those plans under wraps for now. I'll call you later, bye." Sensei Miro-san hung up, and let a separating moment pass before addressing Yolei. "I noticed you got a map of the harbor when you signed this boat out. May I borrow it, please"

Yolei handed the folded map to the teacher, "Sure Ms. Miro-san "

Kani Miro took the map, "Thanks Yolei." Komi Nagamu purposely unfolded it out across both she and the girl. "My mother's always calling me with projects. This one is opportune and honestly, I feel so worried and helpless about Cody's situation that I could use the distraction."

Yolei knowingly took the misdirecting bait. "What are we looking for on the map? I think I could use the distraction too, so I don't go crazy - like maybe you noticed?"

Nagamu smiled through the character of Miro, "Maybe something like that. We're looking for the buoy locations around the perimeter of the harbor. Mom's heard that you can get one named after somebody, and my father's really into unusual gifts. She wants to make that his birthday gift. She wants three suggestions that make use of at least two fives in the I.D, number, because he's 55 this year."

Yolei blinked at the strangeness of the teacher's explanation, then shrugged. "That's weird ... and very sweet ... but still weird." Cody was still very much on her mind, so she remembered to include politeness, but blunt blurting just came naturally to Yolei

The substitute teacher sighed. "True on both counts."

With the Inoue girl diverted, Komi Nagamu covertly scanned the map for all the tactical information she needed to factor very quickly. She noted their own current location in the harbor, and correlated that to the three likeliest departure points for the three attacking crafts. She mentally worked out the speed at which such crafts could pursue at if the harbor patrols paid no attention, giving her an arrival time at the likeliest point of convergence. Nagamu did all this while casually feigning interest in Yolei's suggestions. "Those are great Yolei. Mom gave me four numbers to try for purchasing the naming rights, I'm going to see if I can't lock in a rate that targets her price range. She thinks they might be out of this world." Kani Miro's hint of family foibles passed more code from Komi Nagamu to Norm Teller on the manner of dealing with the approaching trouble.

Nagamu punched in three sets of numbers on Kani Miro's mundane-looking cell phone. With each attempted dial, the substitute teacher expressed frustration at either not getting an answer or just reaching voice mail. What she was actually doing was sending encrypted sequences that would temporarily, and simultaneously re-direct the transmission waves of three very powerful broadcast satellites to focus on a single point in the Odaiba harbor - at full signal strength. The effect would be to microwave the gas tank in one of the approaching boats ... the middle one. Kani Miro dialed the last number she was trying in her cell phone like she just wasn't sure if she had it right. The show at second guessing was enough to cover Komi Nagamu's countdown to triggering her blast. "That's got to be it," she announced firmly. She pressed the button. There was just enough time for Ms. Miro-san to show the annoyed look of not getting an answer again before a cascade of three quick booms caught their attention from across the water. Kani Miro assessed the disturbance with unsuspecting anxiety. "That sounds like thunder somewhere on the harbor."

Yolei Inoue leaned over to Joe Kido, who was sure that bad weather from behind them was suddenly making the water rougher. The tall girl sympathized, "I hope we don't run into that storm either Joe. My uncle's going to need his security deposit on this boat back."

**********

Delton Zane was satisfied by the Eden Device's system lights indicating that it still functioned perfectly, or would once the master sequencer was filtered. There was yet no victorious declaration from Quint Morgan, and that absence was increasingly convincing proof that Ethan Hunt still lived. Zane was just as sure that positioning himself near the Eden Device gave him the upper hand in an inevitable confrontation with Hunt. The IMF agent would not leave without the Eden Device, or securing its destruction. That would be the American agent's downfall. Once Ethan Hunt was dead, the European could use the ploy of bargaining for Hunt's life to lure the honorable Hida brat to his own fate.

However, at that very moment, Cody Hida was quietly moving across the darkened catwalks above and opposite the bad man Zane. The boy headed toward an upper level level of secondary control systems. Cody had to get to some big levers that opened the channels feeding the lab's hydraulics with water from the bay. The boy was being guided to his destination by Ethan-san through the special earpieces they both still had. Hunt had stayed back down in the underwater control bunker. Cody might have been scared to be physically alone in the current situation, but knowing that Upamon was with him comforted the boy past that fear, and the Digimon used the necessary quiet of his place in Cody's backpack to assist his young human. Upamon increased the energy that he and all other Digimon used to bond with human partners on an extra-sensory level. Upamon's hope for Cody's safety increased the youngster's sense of being safe just when he needed it most. The youngster reached the hydraulics control panel, and was dismayed to find the panel was too tall for him. If that wasn't enough of a problem, the shafts of the levers looked to be as big and heavy as large baseball bats. "Um, Ethan-san I don't think I can do this. I mean I don't think I'm big enough or strong enough to reach or move the levers." Cody admitted sub-vocally to the American agent.

Ethan-san didn't seem to hear to the boy's self-limiting assessment. "The first four levers need to be pulled all the way toward you. That will completely open all the hydraulic channels. Tell me when you've done that."

"But ..." Cody stopped his own objection. There simply was no one else to substitute for him, this was his task and he had to do it, that's what Ethan-san's non-listening answer meant. The young Hida turned what could have been stubbornness into determination instead. Cody positioned himself in front of the first lever, then he jumped up to grab hold of it with both hands. The boy dangled off the floor for a moment before setting his feet against the face of the control panel itself. Pushing against the panel, and the wall behind it, gave Cody the leverage he needed to pull the lever back like rowing with a big oar until it was as far toward him as it could go. The youngster let go of the lever, needing a couple of huffs and puffs to catch his breath before lining up to the second lever to do the whole thing again. One by one, all four levers came down. Cody gave his report, trying not to let his voice complain. "The levers are done Ethan-san. I mean they're down. I guess I mean both."

"Acknowledged." Hunt confirmed. Cody Hida certainly deserved a "thank you" and "nice job" for his effort but he wasn't going to get one, and the IMF team leader wasn't going to give the boy time to miss the courtesy. "There's a board of dials built into the facing of that control panel. The board pulls out and flips down. Turn all the dials on that board all the way to the right. Tell me when you've done that." Ethan Hunt heard a restrained sigh, and then the same type of effort-filled breathing that had gone into moving the levers. The American could mentally picture the small Japanese boy struggling to quietly slide the panel out and down. The retractable guide frame made it possible for Cody to handle the panel, but it was still wide and heavy. There was silence for a time as Cody obviously engaged in re-setting the dials. This time the youngster simply said he was done. Hunt confirmed, now every hydraulic device in the lab was set to maximum pressure. With all the controls where Hunt wanted them to be, the IMF team leader keyed in a security sequence from the underwater bunker to lock out the control panel that Cody had adjusted.

"What do I do now Ethan-san?" Cody asked.

Hunt responded, "Open the utility cabinet next to that control panel. Get out the tool box and the longest extension cord in there. There's a big switch on the wall next to that control panel. As quickly as you can, tie one end of the cord around the switch and the other end of the cord around the handle of the tool box. Tell me when you've done that."

The youngster heaved the heavy tool box, wrestled with the extension cord, then strained to loop one end of that cord through the y-shaped switch almost out of his reach. Cody tied the best knots he could in the cord very tightly, and he tested them both with firm tugs. "I'm done," he reported.

Ethan gave his next set of instructions urgently, "Hurry, push the closed toolbox off the ledge of the walkway you're on!" There was something about cause and effect that didn't make complete sense to Cody, but the boy was a little too tired from his recent efforts to require that it make complete sense, so he did as he was told. The toolbox fell, and quickly took all the slack in the cord with it. The switch ripped off the wall. The toolbox, the cord and the switch all slammed down on the lab's main floor in one very noisy crash.

The young Hida was nearly too panicked to speak in the way that Hunt could hear him. "Ethan-san, I must have made a terrible mistake. Now the bad man will know exactly where to come right away."

Hunt answered with a practiced calm. "That wasn't a mistake. You just tore that emergency pressure release switch off the wall, Now Zane won't be able to stop the hydraulic overload. You weren't going to be able to yank it out yourself. We want him to come there now, so you have to be someplace else. Find the nearest ladder. Go up two levels, then very quietly and slowly keep moving to the left until you are all the way across from where you came up from. Climb down the ladder there back to the floor, use the back side of the ladder and you won't be seen. Get going." The complex set of instructions, and the time they would take would effectively keep Cody out of the way while Hunt maneuvered Zane into disarming himself. As soon as the youngster was moving, Ethan released a thin cover of hydraulic steam from the floor level before systematically re-directing the increasing pressure toward the altered control panel above. Hunt kept the strained localized system just on the brink of rupturing. It would explode in a massive cloud of superheated steam the moment that Hunt allowed it to.

The treacherous European did not disappoint Hunt. Zane quickly abandoned proximity to the Eden Device, hoping he might snare the Hida brat in a clumsy, frightened moment. The assassin saw what caused the noise, a childish attempt at a "booby trap." Had the whelp actually planned to drop the tool box on him? No, that was nonsense. However, carelessly moving things to make a hiding place was much more likely, so Zane cunningly judged the drop's origin and climbed the nearest ladder to that level. Zane drew his sleek revolver and stalked his prey silently. A bullet wound would teach the Japanese runt obedience by pain and blood. Ethan Hunt wasn't going to disappoint Zane either. When the killer looked down to check his position above the fallen tool box, Hunt was ready. Cody had done more than he realized. The boy's rearrangement of the panel's dials let the American operative back feed a high charge of electricity directly into the console, which flashed brightly before flaming hot. Zane, momentarily blinded, lurched against the railing to avoid being burned. Hunt used that moment to project the hologram of Cody down on the floor. Enraged and visually disoriented, Delton Zane saw the Hida boy looking up at him, obviously motionless in fear. Zane extended his weapon to fire it, then Hunt let the hydraulic system explode. Delton Zane screamed in pain as scalding steam erupted from pipes all around him. He was knocked against the walkway railing, with a force that engaged instincts to protect his face and keep himself from falling. The revolver fell from his burnt hand, and dropped to lab floor, hidden under a heavy, super-heated cloud.

Cody Hida heard the terrible scream resound across the lab, and the boy knew that the bad man Zane was suffering. The youngster also knew that Ethan Hunt had used him to make hurting the bad man possible. "Ethan-san, stop it." There was no response. The small boy repeated himself, more precisely and firmly. "Don't hurt him anymore."

"He'll survive. Zane's fate is completely in his own hands." Hunt said in an uncomforting way. The IMF agent had pushed the boy toward this outburst - mild as it was - ever since they'd left the mall. Though small handprints and unsubtle dial adjustments showed Zane that Cody Hida had rigged the control panel, the European already discounted that as an instructed task, carried out well. In fact, if Cody had known he was enabling a painful ambush he would not have done it. Ethan Hunt needed Zane to believe that only Cody was confronting him. That required the boy to want to confront Zane. The youngster would willingly lecture Zane, especially if he thought doing so was better than causing him pain. "You want to stop Zane without hurting him?"

"Yes Ethan-san." Cody was glad that what he wanted seemed to matter again.

"Could you tell him anything that would really make him stop?" Hunt asked.

The boy thought in the obvious, clear-cut manner of a nine year-old pragmatic. "I think I'd tell him that the bad machine can't work any more. Since it doesn't work anymore then he doesn't need me. I can also tell him that the sooner he gives up, the sooner we can get him to a doctor. That would be the truth Ethan-san." Cody Hida wasn't asking or checking about that, only telling.

Hunt played at shaking the boy's nobility with realistic odds - knowing that Cody's inclination to stubbornly be noble would only grow. "It's just 50-50 that Zane won't kill you on sight because of the Eden Device. Without that it's 100% against. It could never be that simple."

A decisive moment of reflective silence ended with a small sigh. "Grownups always say things like that, and I know that grownups have to be right about most things ... but I believe." The purest certainty protected the youngster from being deliberately naive. "I believe grownups get sad with the way they usually treat each other, and being sad keeps them from knowing that it really might be that easy ... if they let it. Ethan-san, I want to tell him all that. I have to try to tell him that because I believe it. I'd like it if you would please help me do that, but if you can't ... or won't, then maybe you'll have to stay out of it while I do."

Ethan Hunt worked silently through hating his newest deception to begin it by saying, "We'll have to see things in a different light when it comes to Delton Zane."

The only thing that pushed Zane through the searing pain from his burns was his own seething anger. Getting down from the level where he'd been attacked proved excruciating, but he was going to get back to the Eden Device before Ethan Hunt had any more time to be clever. The European's appearance now fully reflected his true, monstrous nature. His hands were charred to the third degree. Their last truly useful service had been the imperfect protection of his face. The assassin's face was now marred forever with the open-fingered pattern of his own hands. The flesh of his face that found refuge under his hands was still pristine. The features left uncovered were little better than his hands. In result, he looked like he had been clawed by something terrible as a sign of the evil inside him. Zane took the last corner on his path badly, and he fell. He screamed again as he naturally tried to break his fall, and push himself up with his ruined hands. It had to be shock and delirium, but as his vision fixed on the Eden Device he saw the Hida brat standing in front of the machine. "It's time to give up, please." The boy said with his infuriating matter-of fact manners.

"Come to your senses about making your suffering brief, little boy Hida?" The Zane monster hissed.

Cody Hida shook his head with a mix of determination and pity. "No, I mean you. Please it's time for you to give up."

Delton Zane's mocking laughter was more hurtful to himself than to the child's attempted politeness. He lurched and staggered, but steadied himself. The killer could still win. He just needed to get his hands - his blackened, ragged hands - on the boy. How much trouble should it be for the cunning spider to draw in one more little fly. "Little boy Hida says his nicest pretty please, but the big bad man still won't listen."

"That's just it, please just listen to what I'm trying to tell you," Cody sighed and felt his own stubbornness putting more insistence in his voice. "You need help! You need a doctor! You need to give up!"

Zane snarled his response, "Don't dare to tell me what I need to do, you infant! Why would I possibly give up to you when you have just given me all that I want. I have the weapon, and now I have you!"

"The bad machine doesn't work anymore. I did something to make it stop working. Now you can't use me to make it do anything to anyone - ever." Cody spoke calmly and slowly to make the words clear, not to insult. For a second, the revelation hung between the two of them.

"You're lying!" The European accused both sharply and suddenly.

Cody shouted right back, "No I'm not!" His round little face reddened at the obviously insulting conclusion, and Zane believed he had touched the nerve that would provoke the Japanese runt into charging at him in anger - which would be the last thing he would live to consciously do.

Delton Zane twisted the words out of his mouth until they hid his pain behind a strong, disapproving tone. "It's a shame that such a small boy is such a big liar. Did you really expect me to believe that you could accomplish that? I'd no sooner believe that of you than I'd think that you destroyed my robot ant without Ethan Hunt's help, or that you lured me to that exploding console. No, you are a pathetic, helpless child. It's time to end all the charades, little boy Hida. It's time for you to stop lying!"

"I am not a liar!" The youngster was almost cutely furious. He balled his hands up into small fists rigidly straight down at his sides, and he leaned defiantly in Zane's direction. He even took a couple of steps forward, but stopped just as suddenly and backed up. The child settled for a fierce scowl.

If the European couldn't goad the young Hida quickly enough, maybe the boy's precious honor would be his undoing. Zane produced a remote control from one of the pockets of his smoldering suit coat. He worked a few dials before explaining, "I will prove you are lying little boy Hida, and you will regret the way I can. I'm going to set the Eden Device to fire. I did have my scientists make one special improvement. The machine is now capable of delivering its charge in a short range laser just in case some of my clients got grabby when I showed it off. The laser is now pointed straight at both of us. Thank you, little boy Hida for placing yourself between it and me. You clearly are your father's son. You'd never be fast enough to avoid being hit. Don't worry though, little boy Hida. If all you said is the truth, then nothing can happen. If you've been lying, maybe you'll live long enough to crawl to me and apologize." A click on one of the buttons on Zane's remote started a rapid processing response from the Eden Device. The killer was immensely satisfied "Goodbye, little boy Hida,"

Cody only had time to think one thought. Ethan-san had told him that the bad man's fate was in Zane's own hands. The boy's eyes narrowed with pondering, but suddenly widened to focus in the remote's direction. Delton Zane mistook the change in the brat's expression for fear as the laser fired. His own expression changed to surprise as the bioelectric charge passed through the boy - or rather the holographic image of the boy - without effect. Instead, it claimed Delton Zane in its path.

Down in the relative safety of the underwater control bunker, the real Cody Hida stared in numb disbelief at the image scanner's viewer that showed him what his holograph could see. The bad man Zane crumpled to the floor and, after a few violent twitches, he did not move at all. The boy could not make himself look away, but Ethan Hunt pulled him from the scanner platform. Cody only glared at Hunt, and the youngster's stormy look made his realizations painfully clear. Cody knew that he had done exactly what he'd been instructed to do earlier when he'd snuck into the lab and used the secret rope knot tool on the bad machine. Now, that could only mean that whatever he had been sent to do was never about keeping the machine from working. Someone had wanted - and planned for - the machine to work at least one more time. Even worse than that, the small boy's sincere appeal to the bad man about giving up was ... used ... on purpose ... to line the man up, and now that man was. "Is ... he ... d-dead? Is he ... going to die now, Mr. Hunt?" Cody's throat was so tight that croaking these questions out was a choking effort.

"No." Ethan really hoped the truth of that single, unvarnished word was tribute to the child's sense of mercy. "My friend Norman programmed a new one-time protocol for the Eden Device. The charge that hit Zane is going create a sort of loop in his memory. He'll know who he is and everything he did right up to the time he got zapped, but each time he sleeps and wakes up his memory will re-set to that point. He won't be able to remember anything he plans, and every day for the rest of his life is going to be his first day in a special jail. After that one shot the Eden Device fried itself for keeps.

"All that is what I made the machine ready to do, isn't it?" The young Hida challenged.

Hunt nodded, "Yes."

There was tense silence as Cody absorbed the blunt reality, "So it's all over?"

The IMF leader acknowledged. "That's right, It's time to go our separate ways. I'm going to take the boat and deliver Zane, Morgan, and what's left of the Eden Device to a follow-up team. In the meantime you're going to be rescued. I've got a cover story for you with all the truth you'll want to tell.

"I want two things even more than that, Mr. Hunt." Cody's non-use of any respectful name was as punishing as the boy could be to an adult.

Hunt likely already knew, but he asked, "What are they?"

"I want to go home and," Cody said, on the verge of tears, "I never want me or anyone I know to see you ever again, Mr. Hunt - no matter what you look like."

"OK," Ethan Hunt said as Cody wiped away the tears from his eyes, and the youngster knew it would be the truest thing this man had ever told him.

Cody Hida and Ethan Hunt left the lab together and made their way back to the little room that had been Cody's cell. As they went, the American agent told Cody what he could tell people about his kidnapping. He could say that he'd been locked in a room when he got there, and he'd been taken out of that room for a while. The man who had taken him from the mall had argued with his boss. After that, the kidnapper had put him back in the little room - where the rescuers would find him. All of those things were true. Of course, they didn't tell the whole story - but nobody would expect or believe the whole story from a nine year-old boy. Cody could also tell people that he honestly never knew what was really happening during his time as a prisoner. That would also be the truth, because Hunt had never been honest about what everything really meant. Cody listened and agreed to the things he could say, but he did it all without ever looking at Ethan Hunt. The youngster even kept his head down as the American easily removed the tiny earpieces Cody wore. The small boy silently turned away from Hunt to enter the room. Cody eased his backpack off and set it on the edge of the room's bed again, before lying down on it himself, curling up to face the wall. Ethan Hunt entered a triggering sequence in a calculator-like remote control just as he shut Cody in. The man watched the small room fill with anesthefog through the window in the door. Cody could get some of the rest he deserved. Meanwhile, he had sweep work to do back in the lab. Ethan couldn't blame the kid for his disdain. In fact, it was exactly how Cody should feel if he was going to grow up to value all the noble qualities that made him a remarkable child. Ethan Hunt had done more than physically protect the young Hida. He had also made sure that Cody would never admire or adopt the concept of good by deception. The boy had a chance to be truly good, always good for good reasons. That's what Ethan Hunt preserved too, and all it had cost the man was Cody's friendship.