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Lisa Rogers - lovely, tall, sometimes a blonde, sometimes with dark auburn hair, but always coolly collected and highly efficient. She had been a part of the U.N.C.L.E. New York Headquarters for several years now. Her face was probably as well known as Alexander Waverly's. That made sense, of course, since she WAS Waverly's personal secretary; to get to him, you had to go past her desk. Moreover, to get to him, you had to get past HER, and that wasn't as easy as some might have thought. Her training was in far more than dictation, organization, file preparation. Though not many knew it, she'd gone through a course every bit as difficult as UNCLE's Survival School. Oh, not the Survival School itself, since her skills needed to remain a secret, but one very much like it. After all, she NEEDED those specialized skills for her tasks, her duties AWAY from that desk. When she was acting as Waverly's lover. His judge and jury. His assassin. No matter how much she hated part of that. The lover part, no, she had no problems with that. She loved the man he was, though perhaps it was as much the man she imagined him to be. She was well aware of the dichotomy, not only of that, but of a great deal more. The judge and jury portion - well, she had a cool analytical mind, the ability to separate out emotion from a decision, perhaps as much, even more than Waverly himself. That he trusted her judgement, at times more than his own, she appreciated. Not many men would, she knew. But acting as his assassin brought a few troubling moments, at least in the beginning. Killing brought her no particular pleasure. She'd made her peace with that, though. Anyway, she kept reading in Cosmo that there were aspects to ANY job that were less pleasant than others. So really, she was no different than any other enlightened working woman of the modern world, was she?She did find it amusing, in a detached sort of way, that while there were a few in the organization who suspected Waverly had someone do some discreet 'tidying up' for him, no one had ever even looked in her direction for that. Any speculation came down firmly on the blond head of the Russian, Illya Kuryakin. There were those who felt that was the primary reason Waverly had been so adamant about bringing him into the fold, someone to do Waverly's dirty work but someone who would never truly be a part of the group, someone who could be dumped with appropriate horror should anyone become aware of his actions. Some part of her found that amusing, but there was still some hidden resentment that Kuryakin was getting credit for being the one so trusted by their leader, not her.Well, she harbored resentment against Kuryakin on a couple of points, but then, she felt similar feelings about others too. The ones Alexander seemed to take a particular liking to. Oh, he tried not to show any preference, but she was close enough to see and wonder if he wasn't making a mistake in that regard. Napoleon Solo certainly led the group, Kuryakin was included in the select few. The young woman, April Dancer, was as well. SHE was one Lisa had mistrusted, even disliked, right from the beginning. Why that was so, Lisa had often wondered. You'd think having worked so hard to reach a rather exalted position in what was known to be a man's world, she'd be a solid supporter of another woman doing the same. But it WASN'T the same, of course. April Dancer was out there doing the same things as the male agents, but in the open, where her triumphs could be seen and appreciated. For Lisa Rogers, her most successful triumphs would be, must be forever hidden. But she was realist enough to know part of her dislike was the gruff affection Waverly showed the young woman. Lisa had no desire to be replaced, either in Waverly's affections or in her many roles in his life. Oh, she couldn't imagine the very mod April Dancer ever wanting to sit at a secretary's desk, but the other roles? Yes, April would fit in quite well there. IF the opportunity arose. Lisa Rogers was quite determined that opportunity would NOT arise.Of course, for the moment anyway, April seemed quite content with her role as an agent, as a partner to the slightly hapless Mark Slate. As long as that was the case, Lisa would try not to obsess overly much. It made Alexander uneasy when Lisa criticized any of his favorites, no matter circumspectly she did so.Mark Slate, now there was a young man both Lisa and Waverly found slightly annoying. There was a lack of seriousness that one simply could not like. Oh, he took his JOB seriously enough, at least on the surface, but he somehow managed to wring just a little too much frivolous pleasure out of the small details, which just didn't seem quite professional to the two people in that top office suite. In that regard, at least, Kuryakin came out far ahead in their opinion; there didn't seem to be any frivolity in the Russian at all. Though, when Lisa thought about it, Waverly's irritation with Slate had increased quite a bit once he'd made the odd partnership a fact. In fact, Alexander had confessed that, while he thought it was potentially a good field partnership, at least for long enough to give the young woman some serious experience in the field, Mark being good-natured enough and not having a chip on his shoulder to take offense at the idea of a female partner, he DID hope the young man didn't lead the fledgling April Dancer into taking her job too lightly. Knowing men as well as she did, Lisa thought there was a little bit of jealousy tucked in there somewhere, with Mark Slate, young and moderately attractive in a wiry sort of way, being off doing dangerous and exciting things with the lovely Miss Dancer. Waverly's comment seemed to point in that direction, the one about "keeping an eye on things there. If they show any signs of becoming more than field partners, that would be a pity. I'd hate to be obliged to have you take a hand, Lisa. You have so many other responsibilities." He never called her by her first name in front of any one else. Not even when they were alone when the conversation was in connection to her secretarial duties. She was 'Miss Rogers' then. Only when they were discussing private matters, or her 'extra' duties, was she 'Lisa'. The fact that Waverly had even considered having Lisa get involved, considering the rather fatal direction that might, oh alright, WOULD, take for young Mr. Slate, was telling, certainly a matter of concern. In any other partnership where things got too intimate or emotional in some other way, a simple reassignment would have been the logical reaction, not deadly intervention of the sort Lisa Rogers specialized in.Her mind went back to the prime favorite of the lot, Napoleon Solo. HE, to her mind, was perhaps the most dangerous of them all, though Alexander never saw it that way. Well, Alexander felt quite secure in his position, of course, but she was able to look at it a little more objectively. Solo was ostensibly being groomed to take Waverly's spot eventually. The key word was 'eventually'. Would he be content to wait til Waverly was ready to step aside, that was the question. After all, he was mature enough not to be discounted by the Council, a highly experienced agent, tops in Survival School scores (well, until Kuryakin hit the beach), personable, if you liked the type. If he ever decided to make a strong independent move upward, like a young male lion taking on the aging leader, he would probably have some strong support. Though enough people still disliked, distrusted his partner to hinder that more than a little. Having a Russian that close to the head of UNCLE New York? No, that wouldn't work. Of course, that was easy enough for someone like Solo to manage, a little accident in the field if he felt a simple dissolving of the partnership wasn't sufficient. Or, he might appreciate Lisa taking care of that little task for him. That would be one way to cement her place in the new hierarchy, if she decided that was what she wanted. After all, she was far younger than Alexander; if he was deposed, she could hardly be expected to spend the rest of her life knitting. Still, she'd deal with the possibilities when the time came; no sense worrying about it now.She glanced up at the clock. Time to prepare Alexander's afternoon tea, then she needed to finish those reports before she left for the day. That was that little 'odd job' she needed to take care of for Alexander later. Pity, too. She had rather liked Myerson.