The train rumbled along the track, seating over five hundred
passengers in its hull. The area it passed through was cold and gray. Snow
covered the ground outside the train. Everything seemed normal to the
untrained eye but through closer inspection one would have noticed gray
covered bodies lying in the snow. There were twelve in all and one turned
to the other and said, " Boris. Boris are you awake?"
The man he was talking to shook, startled, and turned to his boss. "Yeah, Rigby I'm awake. What's happening? The train coming yet?"
"Yeah it just passed for the first time. You were asleep. It would be good for you to get out your rocket launcher, they'll pass again in about," he checked his watch, "Ten minutes."
"Okay, okay. Are you sure this guy's going to pay us," Boris said as he brushed the snow away from his rocket launcher, "I mean it just seems to easy."
Boris's boss laughed at the younger mercenary and said, "This guy better pay us. If he doesn't we'll kill him. We have nothing to worry about. We destroy the engine and kill the girl, what was her name again?"
"Zuber, Lauren Zuber."
"Well we kill her and we get out of there. There should be no force of resistance, our surveillance made sure of that."
"Okay, just making sure. I mean this just seems to easy," Boris replied as he placed a rocket inside the launching tube.
"I know what you mean, but when these idiots come offering five hundred thousand to kill a member of the Parliament you take it no questions asked. You don't always get these jobs. Though I find it interesting that he wants her body in his possession."
"I guess he just doesn't want us to blow the whole thing up. Maybe it's a test to see if we'll be good in the future."
"Well we'll do the job anyway he wants it. Right now though I have to get ready to get into the train."
"See ya on the flip side Rigby," Boris called as his boss ducked into the snow to pull up his rifle.
"That is if we don't all get killed," Rigby joked.
Boris laughed. Rigby ran through the snow following another of his team into a cave in the mountain. Inside there were hundreds of tunnels and walkways. It was once used as a strong hold in the Cold War, along with other huge caverns. Rigby had settled his forces into these caves and now held over thirty of them. He used them as bases for operations. Some of the more broken caves were used as ammunition depots.
Rigby followed one tunnel at his right and walked its length before it broke off into to more tunnels. All of the tunnels were man made and all were known to Rigby. He took the one to the left and it began to travel up hill. It went uphill for about a fourth of a mile before it opened up onto a ledge above the track. Seven others of his team waited at the area.
One turned to Rigby as the rumbling of the train began to be heard and said, "What kind of opposition will we face?"
"If surveillance is right, none."
Unbeknownst to the mercenary's outside there was some form of resistance. It was not in the form of a guard, or for that matter anyone who even knew that Lauren Zuber was on the train. He sat in his booth and sipped on his martini. The man looked out the window and wondered where his next mission would take him. It had become some of a game. Sure it was dangerous but if not danger what else to live for? Just because he was a member of one of the most extreme secret societies in the history of the world, he still like enjoying the pleasures of wondering. Everyday had brought something exciting and all he could do was wait for today's. He was just about to take another sip of his vodka martini when something exploded near the front of the train.
He bolted from his seat and pulled a Walther P99 from the inside of his jacket. He had finally talked M into buying him the new Walther. Compared to the PPK it was a major advancement with a larger magazine. The only downside to it was that it was bigger than the PPK.
He slid the door open and exited his booth. The first thing he noticed when he entered the hall was the large cloud of smoke and burning metal. The explosion came from the front of the train and-he just realized it wasn't moving-so whoever had caused the blast had taken out the engine. He laughed to himself; well at least he had gotten to the excitement of that day. Before he could take a step further he heard footsteps behind him. A man in a gray parka approached and looked strangely at him and his outstretched P99.
The man was none other than Rigby. Rigby stared at the man before common thought came to him and he brought his AK-47 to bear. The man in front of him took a step closer and placed the pistol to his chest. Time seemed to stop as he heard the bullet explode from its chamber heading directly towards his chest. A searing pain shot through Rigby's chest as the bullet penetrated it. His body fell to the floor and he sat against the wall slumped over, his rifle dropped, wondering who the hell this man was. He reached a hand to his chest and felt the blood stain the cloth. Egg whites, he thought for a second in a moment of levity, that's what gets out bloodstains. There was supposed to be no force of resistance on the train. Well he needed to find out who the man was so he could look him up some time and put a bullet through his head. Rigby looked up at the mysterious man, "Who are you?" he asked curiously.
"Bond, James Bond."
Rigby thought a second. Hadn't he heard that name before? Some where yes in- "Holy-Bloody Hell your-am I right or are you with MI-6."
"Your correct. Now I'm going to ask you a question, will you point me to where your target is? I mean if you have a target I like to get the saving of the day over with."
"I see, I don't want to bore your and I surely don't want to keep you any longer then you need to be," he glanced down and checked his watch, "But you'll never get that information out of me."
"Sorry to hear that," Bond replied lowering the gun.
"Three, two, one."
Just as James's finger began to depress the trigger another explosion shook the train. Something else happened. Along with the explosion came a great creaking sound and the train rocked off the tracks at an angle. This caused Bond to stumble and fall back into his booth and crash through the window. Glass shards flew everywhere cutting deep into James's coat and shirt also in places shredding his skin. Blood began to soak his clothes. Bond didn't need to look down to remember that they were skating on the edge of the mountainside. With that knowledge he quickly looked for a something to grab onto. A long bar stretched down the side of the car exactly the right thing to grab. The shock from the cold almost shook James from the bar. He dropped one arm and looked down off the cliff. It had to be at least a three hundred-foot drop. He reached up for his watch and clicked a button on the edge. A long laser shot from the Omega thawing the bar and warming Bond's fingers. He brought both hands back to the bar and shimmied himself down. If that guy were still conscious he would be waiting at that window for James to come back in. A scream rocked Bond from his state of wonder. "Fifty pounds says that's what their after," Bond said to himself as he neared his window. Although working alone had it's advantages being with a partner made betting more fun, and more reasonable.
He hurried down to the window and another great creak rocked the train again which made it fall over completely on its side leaving Bond upside down about four feet off the cliff. He forced himself down the bar and reached the window, which was now above his head. He brought his watch up and hit the laser setting again now moving it across the edge of the window. At the end of the line the large piece of glass fell out. Bond pulled himself up and took a look at his surroundings. There were two bewildered men in gray parkas holding AK-47's at a female, and the female who looked desperate to get out of the situation. "Hello, people," Bond greeted, "how are you?"
With that he got to his feet and walked over to the nearest terrorists. There wasn't much room considering the floor was now the right wall of the train. They were avoiding the hole like the plague and seemed not to want Bond to do anything. Something hit his mind as he thought what he would dispatch the pair with. His P99 had fallen from his hand when he was tossed from the window. James stood up and walked over to one of the men. "Felix shoot him!"
The man Bond was approaching turned and aimed the rifle at the Bond. Bond was close enough that he grabbed the barrel and pulled the gun out of the man's hand. James took the AK-47 and slammed it into his jaw knocking him against the floor/wall and giving Bond enough time to spin the gun around and aim it at the other parka enclothed terrorist. A three shot burst issued forth from the weapon and the man slumped down onto the floor other then two other holes one in his head. Bond dropped the gun and grabbed the terrorist who he had given a concussion and tossed him out the window headfirst. The man let out a scream that lasted about two seconds before he hit ground. The girl looked pale and about to faint. "Miss, are you all right?" Bond asked offering his hand.
"Who in bloody hell are you?" she asked.
"My name's Bond, James Bond. I work with MI6."
"You're with MI-6?"
"Of course. 007 at your service."
"007!?" she felt her jaw drop. Working as one in the Parliament she had heard of his exploits. She grabbed his hand; "My name is Lauren Zuber."
Her hair was almond colored and her eyes were a deep brown. She stood at about five feet five inches. Judging by her smeared mascara Bond decided that she had been crying. Under other circumstances should would have been more attractive, but still there was something that Bond saw shine from her.
Another explosion shook the train. "Miss Zuber it's about time to get out of this train. I need to stop back at my booth and get some things. Uh, can you wait here for a second."
He grabbed up the rifle and walked to the doorway, which was now horizontal. The man he had tangoed with before had managed to get himself up and had hobbled about a foot from where he had first fallen. Bond took the gun in his hand and slung it at the hobbling man knocking him down and sending him sliding backwards past the door to James's booth.
Bond crawled through the doorway and walked cautiously along the wall/floor to his booth. He got inside and removed a brief case from a pile of junk in the room. He then hurried back to the woman's booth. He climbed in before the tell tale creaking began. Lauren was in hysterics when Bond grabbed her. His feet slipped forward and he fell onto his back sliding down towards the window hole with Lauren right behind him.
Zuber let out a long scream as they plunged down. Bond worked quick using his free hand to open the brief case and taking out its only object. It was a fountain pen. He dropped the briefcase and took the pen up in his hand twisting the top around twice. He then hurled it into the mountainside.
It exploded into balls of flames and reduced the stone to rubble knocking a major hole into the system of caves used by Rigby and his men. He rotated a dial on his watch and a grapple shot from it smashing into the ceiling of the cave. The angle of the line when it hit the cave ceiling caused Bond and Zuber to swing into the rock twenty feet below the cave. Lauren stopped her screaming and said something legible, "Oh my-you saved me Mr. Bond."
"We're not out of the frying pan yet, oh and call me James." he said as he pushed in the dial that had propelled the grappling hook.
A second later the twine began winding itself back into the watch. They got to the top of the cave and Bond swung over to the smoldering floor. The grapple detached and found it's rightful place inside of the watch.
"James, what are we going to do in this cave?"
"I'd call it more of a cavern. You see there must be thousands of caves here, which would make sense how the terrorists got onto the train while they.they must have been firing from the ground or there would be more damage. So they came into the train from here. Which means they must have some sort of," he went silent.
His hand went into his coat and fell on his secondary weapon, his Walther PPK before he started off down a tunnel. Lauren watched as he walked away and said, "James, where are you going?"
"To make a collect call."
Rigby felt weak. When the train had first shifted he had slid and snapped his leg in half. Then that AK-47 to the head. He felt dizzy too. A creak, the last, issued from the train causing it to fall completely from the mountain. Rigby slid back and his head smashed against a wall. Blackness encased him. The trains falling caused Rigby's body to slide into a booth and slam into a window. His limp head prevented him from exiting just until the train hit where he regained some consciousness and fell through into the snow, just as the train hit. The snow around his body turned red with blood.
Bond crouched at an entrance to another inner cave, waiting for something to tell him that this was the right room. Two beeps and a high pitch squeal were the something. He took a step and entered the cave, his Walther going directly up aiming at the first man he saw in his sites. It was what looked to be an electrician working on some kind of radio system. On second look Bond noticed the man was a guard who had a Israeli Uzi aimed up at him. The crack of his PPK sounded and the guard slammed into the radio and slid down it as his body fell into blackness.
James ran to the radio and hit in a secure number. Seconds later a familiar voice came over the system. "007, where the hell are you."
"I'm on the edge of a mountain, or wait no, in the edge of the mountain. The place looks like a strong hold of some sort. My exact coordinates are."
The man he was talking to shook, startled, and turned to his boss. "Yeah, Rigby I'm awake. What's happening? The train coming yet?"
"Yeah it just passed for the first time. You were asleep. It would be good for you to get out your rocket launcher, they'll pass again in about," he checked his watch, "Ten minutes."
"Okay, okay. Are you sure this guy's going to pay us," Boris said as he brushed the snow away from his rocket launcher, "I mean it just seems to easy."
Boris's boss laughed at the younger mercenary and said, "This guy better pay us. If he doesn't we'll kill him. We have nothing to worry about. We destroy the engine and kill the girl, what was her name again?"
"Zuber, Lauren Zuber."
"Well we kill her and we get out of there. There should be no force of resistance, our surveillance made sure of that."
"Okay, just making sure. I mean this just seems to easy," Boris replied as he placed a rocket inside the launching tube.
"I know what you mean, but when these idiots come offering five hundred thousand to kill a member of the Parliament you take it no questions asked. You don't always get these jobs. Though I find it interesting that he wants her body in his possession."
"I guess he just doesn't want us to blow the whole thing up. Maybe it's a test to see if we'll be good in the future."
"Well we'll do the job anyway he wants it. Right now though I have to get ready to get into the train."
"See ya on the flip side Rigby," Boris called as his boss ducked into the snow to pull up his rifle.
"That is if we don't all get killed," Rigby joked.
Boris laughed. Rigby ran through the snow following another of his team into a cave in the mountain. Inside there were hundreds of tunnels and walkways. It was once used as a strong hold in the Cold War, along with other huge caverns. Rigby had settled his forces into these caves and now held over thirty of them. He used them as bases for operations. Some of the more broken caves were used as ammunition depots.
Rigby followed one tunnel at his right and walked its length before it broke off into to more tunnels. All of the tunnels were man made and all were known to Rigby. He took the one to the left and it began to travel up hill. It went uphill for about a fourth of a mile before it opened up onto a ledge above the track. Seven others of his team waited at the area.
One turned to Rigby as the rumbling of the train began to be heard and said, "What kind of opposition will we face?"
"If surveillance is right, none."
Unbeknownst to the mercenary's outside there was some form of resistance. It was not in the form of a guard, or for that matter anyone who even knew that Lauren Zuber was on the train. He sat in his booth and sipped on his martini. The man looked out the window and wondered where his next mission would take him. It had become some of a game. Sure it was dangerous but if not danger what else to live for? Just because he was a member of one of the most extreme secret societies in the history of the world, he still like enjoying the pleasures of wondering. Everyday had brought something exciting and all he could do was wait for today's. He was just about to take another sip of his vodka martini when something exploded near the front of the train.
He bolted from his seat and pulled a Walther P99 from the inside of his jacket. He had finally talked M into buying him the new Walther. Compared to the PPK it was a major advancement with a larger magazine. The only downside to it was that it was bigger than the PPK.
He slid the door open and exited his booth. The first thing he noticed when he entered the hall was the large cloud of smoke and burning metal. The explosion came from the front of the train and-he just realized it wasn't moving-so whoever had caused the blast had taken out the engine. He laughed to himself; well at least he had gotten to the excitement of that day. Before he could take a step further he heard footsteps behind him. A man in a gray parka approached and looked strangely at him and his outstretched P99.
The man was none other than Rigby. Rigby stared at the man before common thought came to him and he brought his AK-47 to bear. The man in front of him took a step closer and placed the pistol to his chest. Time seemed to stop as he heard the bullet explode from its chamber heading directly towards his chest. A searing pain shot through Rigby's chest as the bullet penetrated it. His body fell to the floor and he sat against the wall slumped over, his rifle dropped, wondering who the hell this man was. He reached a hand to his chest and felt the blood stain the cloth. Egg whites, he thought for a second in a moment of levity, that's what gets out bloodstains. There was supposed to be no force of resistance on the train. Well he needed to find out who the man was so he could look him up some time and put a bullet through his head. Rigby looked up at the mysterious man, "Who are you?" he asked curiously.
"Bond, James Bond."
Rigby thought a second. Hadn't he heard that name before? Some where yes in- "Holy-Bloody Hell your-am I right or are you with MI-6."
"Your correct. Now I'm going to ask you a question, will you point me to where your target is? I mean if you have a target I like to get the saving of the day over with."
"I see, I don't want to bore your and I surely don't want to keep you any longer then you need to be," he glanced down and checked his watch, "But you'll never get that information out of me."
"Sorry to hear that," Bond replied lowering the gun.
"Three, two, one."
Just as James's finger began to depress the trigger another explosion shook the train. Something else happened. Along with the explosion came a great creaking sound and the train rocked off the tracks at an angle. This caused Bond to stumble and fall back into his booth and crash through the window. Glass shards flew everywhere cutting deep into James's coat and shirt also in places shredding his skin. Blood began to soak his clothes. Bond didn't need to look down to remember that they were skating on the edge of the mountainside. With that knowledge he quickly looked for a something to grab onto. A long bar stretched down the side of the car exactly the right thing to grab. The shock from the cold almost shook James from the bar. He dropped one arm and looked down off the cliff. It had to be at least a three hundred-foot drop. He reached up for his watch and clicked a button on the edge. A long laser shot from the Omega thawing the bar and warming Bond's fingers. He brought both hands back to the bar and shimmied himself down. If that guy were still conscious he would be waiting at that window for James to come back in. A scream rocked Bond from his state of wonder. "Fifty pounds says that's what their after," Bond said to himself as he neared his window. Although working alone had it's advantages being with a partner made betting more fun, and more reasonable.
He hurried down to the window and another great creak rocked the train again which made it fall over completely on its side leaving Bond upside down about four feet off the cliff. He forced himself down the bar and reached the window, which was now above his head. He brought his watch up and hit the laser setting again now moving it across the edge of the window. At the end of the line the large piece of glass fell out. Bond pulled himself up and took a look at his surroundings. There were two bewildered men in gray parkas holding AK-47's at a female, and the female who looked desperate to get out of the situation. "Hello, people," Bond greeted, "how are you?"
With that he got to his feet and walked over to the nearest terrorists. There wasn't much room considering the floor was now the right wall of the train. They were avoiding the hole like the plague and seemed not to want Bond to do anything. Something hit his mind as he thought what he would dispatch the pair with. His P99 had fallen from his hand when he was tossed from the window. James stood up and walked over to one of the men. "Felix shoot him!"
The man Bond was approaching turned and aimed the rifle at the Bond. Bond was close enough that he grabbed the barrel and pulled the gun out of the man's hand. James took the AK-47 and slammed it into his jaw knocking him against the floor/wall and giving Bond enough time to spin the gun around and aim it at the other parka enclothed terrorist. A three shot burst issued forth from the weapon and the man slumped down onto the floor other then two other holes one in his head. Bond dropped the gun and grabbed the terrorist who he had given a concussion and tossed him out the window headfirst. The man let out a scream that lasted about two seconds before he hit ground. The girl looked pale and about to faint. "Miss, are you all right?" Bond asked offering his hand.
"Who in bloody hell are you?" she asked.
"My name's Bond, James Bond. I work with MI6."
"You're with MI-6?"
"Of course. 007 at your service."
"007!?" she felt her jaw drop. Working as one in the Parliament she had heard of his exploits. She grabbed his hand; "My name is Lauren Zuber."
Her hair was almond colored and her eyes were a deep brown. She stood at about five feet five inches. Judging by her smeared mascara Bond decided that she had been crying. Under other circumstances should would have been more attractive, but still there was something that Bond saw shine from her.
Another explosion shook the train. "Miss Zuber it's about time to get out of this train. I need to stop back at my booth and get some things. Uh, can you wait here for a second."
He grabbed up the rifle and walked to the doorway, which was now horizontal. The man he had tangoed with before had managed to get himself up and had hobbled about a foot from where he had first fallen. Bond took the gun in his hand and slung it at the hobbling man knocking him down and sending him sliding backwards past the door to James's booth.
Bond crawled through the doorway and walked cautiously along the wall/floor to his booth. He got inside and removed a brief case from a pile of junk in the room. He then hurried back to the woman's booth. He climbed in before the tell tale creaking began. Lauren was in hysterics when Bond grabbed her. His feet slipped forward and he fell onto his back sliding down towards the window hole with Lauren right behind him.
Zuber let out a long scream as they plunged down. Bond worked quick using his free hand to open the brief case and taking out its only object. It was a fountain pen. He dropped the briefcase and took the pen up in his hand twisting the top around twice. He then hurled it into the mountainside.
It exploded into balls of flames and reduced the stone to rubble knocking a major hole into the system of caves used by Rigby and his men. He rotated a dial on his watch and a grapple shot from it smashing into the ceiling of the cave. The angle of the line when it hit the cave ceiling caused Bond and Zuber to swing into the rock twenty feet below the cave. Lauren stopped her screaming and said something legible, "Oh my-you saved me Mr. Bond."
"We're not out of the frying pan yet, oh and call me James." he said as he pushed in the dial that had propelled the grappling hook.
A second later the twine began winding itself back into the watch. They got to the top of the cave and Bond swung over to the smoldering floor. The grapple detached and found it's rightful place inside of the watch.
"James, what are we going to do in this cave?"
"I'd call it more of a cavern. You see there must be thousands of caves here, which would make sense how the terrorists got onto the train while they.they must have been firing from the ground or there would be more damage. So they came into the train from here. Which means they must have some sort of," he went silent.
His hand went into his coat and fell on his secondary weapon, his Walther PPK before he started off down a tunnel. Lauren watched as he walked away and said, "James, where are you going?"
"To make a collect call."
Rigby felt weak. When the train had first shifted he had slid and snapped his leg in half. Then that AK-47 to the head. He felt dizzy too. A creak, the last, issued from the train causing it to fall completely from the mountain. Rigby slid back and his head smashed against a wall. Blackness encased him. The trains falling caused Rigby's body to slide into a booth and slam into a window. His limp head prevented him from exiting just until the train hit where he regained some consciousness and fell through into the snow, just as the train hit. The snow around his body turned red with blood.
Bond crouched at an entrance to another inner cave, waiting for something to tell him that this was the right room. Two beeps and a high pitch squeal were the something. He took a step and entered the cave, his Walther going directly up aiming at the first man he saw in his sites. It was what looked to be an electrician working on some kind of radio system. On second look Bond noticed the man was a guard who had a Israeli Uzi aimed up at him. The crack of his PPK sounded and the guard slammed into the radio and slid down it as his body fell into blackness.
James ran to the radio and hit in a secure number. Seconds later a familiar voice came over the system. "007, where the hell are you."
"I'm on the edge of a mountain, or wait no, in the edge of the mountain. The place looks like a strong hold of some sort. My exact coordinates are."