We Need To Talk

[Narrator]

Two men in black suits and sunglasses approached Natalya's office.

They did NOT have an appointment.

[Natalya Romanov]

A blast of cold air washed out of the door as it was opened, "Can I help you gentlemen?"

[Narrator]

"Possibly, possibly. I'm Agent Madd, and this is Agent Fite. We understand the headmistress is out of town?" the smaller of the two men said.

[Natalya Romanov]

"She isn't available at the moment. What is this about?" She crossed her arms... not a good sign.

[Narrator]

"You have a student here... a so-called 'William Stanton'. Are you familiar with his recent visa issues?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"I am aware that there was some incorrect information in your system, yes," Natalya said. "What agency did you say you were with again?"

[Narrator]

"We're here today on behalf of the home department in charge of immigration, though we're actually not directly affiliated.

The university did some work on behalf of the Princess last year, so you can consider this a courtesy."

[Natalya Romanov]

"A courtesy is making an appointment. ID, gentlemen, let me see it. Now."

[Narrator]

They produced two cards, identifying them as Donald Fite and Ishido Madd, both working for Military Intelligence, Section 6.

"Normally, we don't get involved in cases like this, but, these aren't normal circumstances."

[Natalya Romanov]

Natalya actually went through the charade of taking the cards and scrutinizing them, "This is somewhat outside MI-6's jurisdiction, gentlemen."

[Narrator]

"Why do you say that?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"MI-6 is a *foreign* intelligence agency, gentlemen, though I'm sure they taught you that in the orientation where they printed up those neato ID cards. As we are currently standing on British soil, this is a domestic matter in my eyes."

[Narrator]

"Then you don't have all the facts.

This is a copy of William Stanton's birth certificate, as provided to the immigration department. It is listed as from the State of New York.

The State of New York does not have any records of a William Stanton being born on this date. The only Will Stanton they have was born in 1824. Is your student over 100 years old?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"I can't tell you that for certain. Student records are, of course, confidential, but I can tell you that his unique physiology could make age determinations difficult."

[Narrator]

"A fair point.

His driver's license does not correspond to anything in the New York database -- the number on the copy of the card he provided belongs to a Timothy Hazel. The passport, also, uses a number assigned to someone else. There is no record of him registering in elementary school, middle school, either high school. His library cards don't register an account. His bank account in the US is registered only to his parents; his one in the UK is registered only to Sara Evans.

As I said, not a usual case. We are indebted to X-Corp for tracking down some of this information on the colonial side, of course."

[Natalya Romanov]

"And we appreciate you bringing it to our attention. We'll endeavor to get to the bottom of this and clear it all up. I'm sure there's an explanation for everything, but given the nature of the school, I hope you can see why I don't necessarily expect the explanation to be reasonable."

[Narrator]

"Reasonable or not, we need an explanation, and we need it fast. We're willing to give you a lot of slack here, but we need some sort of resolution.

Your headmistress seemed to believe this had a connection to a former government group called Black Air, which we can neither confirm nor deny existed or still exists. If so, you're going to need to explain this," he said, handing over an old school year book -- five or six years old, from the looks of it.

"This is from Will Stanton's freshman year at high school. This is directly from their library."

The names went straight from Elmer Stanley to Janette Stark, with no space for anyone else.

"We'll go to bat for whatever you come up with, as long as we can make it plausible. But you need to make sure you know what you're talking about before we do.

The last thing we want is to have to deport the leader of the X-Teams in these...delicate times of human-mutant relations. But if we can't get some sort of answer, in the next week -- two at the most -- we'll have to ask him to at least come in for questioning.

We need some sort of documentation on him. Something to work with to spin into a reason for him to stay here in the UK. If this were anyone else, we'd assume identity theft."

[Natalya Romanov]

"And I'm just lobbing this out there, but I've had my share of experience with agencies that I can 'neither confirm nor deny exist' and I have to say that they're not above fabricating a slew of evidence to get what they want, so until we give you something, I'd take just about everything you've found with a least a small grain of salt."

[Narrator]

"We do, believe me. And if this were a simple case of forgery, we'd give you the full benefit of the doubt.

We don't have access to the American files, but the British ones show no signs of being tampered with electronically. It's your good reputation, and the favor of the royal family, that is causing us to give you THIS much slack."

[Natalya Romanov]

"I'll personally dig into it and make sure that I convey to the Headmistress the time sensitive nature of your request."

[Narrator]

"Thank you. And if there's anything you need, here's my card," he said, handing her a card with contact information on it.

"I saw one of his commercials once, by the way. The dancing, singing toothpaste. Seems like a nice enough guy. Try to get this sorted, would you?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"I'll do my best," she said, making mental notes of their names.

[Narrator]

They nodded, and left Natalya alone in her office.

[Natalya Romanov]

Natalya sat back down at her computer, keying up the security camera footage to follow them and make sure they left with no detours.

[Narrator]

They did! They had apparently done what they came to do.

[Natalya Romanov]

She flipped the card around in her hands, inspecting it before dropping it into a metal box she kept on her desk, dropping the lid in place. She picked up the phone and punched in a few numbers to page Will to her office.

After paging Will, she dialed up Dee in the garage.

[Will Stanton]

About fifteen minutes later, Will showed up.

"Everything alright, Natalya? Did the clown princes of crime show up again?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"Clowns showed up," she said, "but not the circus type. I got a 'friendly' visit from MI-6 regarding your visa."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, has that gone through yet?" Will asked, innocently.

[Natalya Romanov]

"Well, no," Natalya said. "It seems there's quite a bit of evidence being drummed up that says you don't have proper claim to the name Will Stanton."

[Will Stanton]

"...come again?"

[Deirdre Quinn]

Dee's phone had gone to voicemail when Natalya called, but Natalya's phone soon rang.

[Natalya Romanov]

"Rains, it pours," Natalya said, looking at the caller ID. "Hold that thought for a second," she said to Will as she picked up the phone. "Dee, thanks for calling me back."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Sorry about that. Was arse-deep in a project. What's up?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"We've got a bit of a situation. You worked for Wisdom's squad. Do you have any contacts in MI-6 that you could use to check out a couple of alleged agents for me?"

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Haven't burned my bridges there. Who do you need me to look into?"

[Natalya Romanov]

"Donald Fite and Ishido Madd. I'd take this through normal channels, but if they're in any way involved in what I suspect they might be involved in, they'll have the official channels covered, especially if I'm the one doing the fishing."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"...I can tell you right now those two aren't MI-6, unless they've been transferred."

[Natalya Romanov]

"Who did they work for?" Natalya started rubbing the bridge of her nose.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Those are Wisdom's men, Romanov. Or at least they were when I was MI-13."