ENTRAPMENT
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
Napoleon set the perfect trap
An established relationship story.
Written: October 2007. Word count: 475.
During my years spent working for U.N.C.L.E. I have been caught in many traps.
However, none of them have been as deadly or as carefully planned and executed as the snare my partner set. The one he set to capture me for himself.
I confess that in many ways, despite my intimate knowledge of how to kill in more ways than most people, I was somewhat of an innocent when I arrived in America. Thus, at first I was not aware of what Napoleon was trying to do.
Once I did become aware of it, I dismissed it as an impossibility; he was not interested in men, that much was clear. He could not be. Therefore I was misreading the situation. I had to be.
However, the longer our partnership went on for, the more I began to wonder if indeed I was not misreading the situation. He did seem to be interested in me.
Once I had accepted that fact, I turned my mind to trying to ascertain just why he might be thus. I am a little ashamed to confess that I concluded that he was in fact setting a trap for me; that he had been instructed to do so; that he had been ordered to find out if his Russian partner was a homosexual.
I might be innocent in the ways of seduction; I was not, however, innocent in the ways of entrapment. Napoleon Solo would not find me an easy target. If U.N.C.L.E. wished to be rid of me, and I know there were some who opposed a Russian working for the organization, they would have to do so by some other means.
However, as the months slipped by and we moved into our second year as partners, I began, to question my own deductions. To assume that my partner was trying to trap me was to diminish our partnership; a partnership that had moved, more swiftly than I had believed possible, into more than just two men working together. We had become friends, close friends; very close friends. I did not wish to believe that Napoleon was merely playing a game with me, was merely following orders. I wanted to believe –
And it was at that moment that I knew I had fallen headlong into his snare; that he had trapped me and that he held me captive. He had let me believe that he was merely following orders, because he knew the day would come when I would question the validity of my belief. And he knew that when that day came, his trap was complete.
That was more than three decades ago, and I have still not managed to escape from my partner's snare. However it is safe to say that I have never actually attempted to do so; at least I have not tried very hard.
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