It's Never Over Before it's Finished
A James Bond 007 story
Jess Starfire
Disclaimer: All familiar James Bond Characters belong to Ian Fleming and United Artist. Original Characters belong to me.
Summary: Bond is sent to complete a mission in the Middle East. There he uncovers a sinister plot. With the help of a mysterious agent and some old friends Bond saves the world (yet again)
Prologue:
Wang-se village, Tibet. 01:00 hrs
A dark figure in black crept through the quiet village located on the edge of the cliff over looking the Wang-se, a large tributary with many rapids that hundreds of miles downstream joined the Yangtze River. As the figure stole along in the shadows he paused to listen for any movement from the nearby houses. All was silent, the town must be all asleep, the man thought.
The houses down the street he was traveling were very dilapidated and ill- kept. As he paused in a shadowy alleyway to check his GPS guiding system to verify that he was on the right course, a cat jumped from the shadows, meowing. The man, caught unaware jumped, upsetting a trashcan. He cringed as it fell with a resounding crash and rolled out into the street. He jumped behind some crates and waited for lights in nearby houses to flick on and heads to appear at windows- nothing happened.
Minutes ticked by as he waited. Deciding at last that it was safe to emerge from his hiding spot, he stood and continued down the street. He reached the end of the street where he saw the silhouette of a single roomed shack perched at the edge of the cliff, a full moon hanging behind it. He approached the shack, as he prepared to knock down the door; he noticed that the wood around the lock had all but rotted away.
He let himself into the room, closing the door silently behind him. It took his eyes and minute to adjust to the dim light of the room. The man wrinkled his nose the air in the room while certainly several degrees below comfort level smelled of mildew and of something worse. He picked up the kerosene lamp that was on the floor of the cabin and was providing the light in the room.
He expertly explored the room opening the few cabinets, looking through the rubbish on the floor, under the mildewed mattress on the floor, and checked for hidden floorboards.
There was absolutely nothing of value in the room. There was barely any food except for a few tined foods and a bag of something that smell suspiciously of rotting meat.
He was just about to give up his search when he noticed to papers on a small table that looked hopeful. He ambled over and found that they were indeed. A Chinese passport and a plane from Beijing to- he squinted he couldn't quite make out the Chinese figures it was too dark. He whipped out his tiny spy camera and quickly flicked on the flash and aimed as best he could and snapped several pictures of the papers and then started taking pictures of the room.
The door suddenly burst open, and the century old hinges finally gave way a bright light shone in the man's face just as he took a picture of the figure in the doorway.
"Mr. Bond!" A heavily accented voice spoke from behind the light. Bond blinked rapidly temporarily blinded by the bright light. As his vision cleared Bond saw that the intruder was a tall, wiry, nerdy looking Asian man.
"Mr. Bond!" the shocked Asian man repeated, "what are you doing here?"
Bond leaned casually over the table, fist resting lightly on the desk, "So this is what you've come to, Hung Lo? Living in a rotting shack, sleeping on a filthy mattress and eating food out of tins?" Hung Lo remained silent, trembling slightly, seemly frozen in place.
Bond calmly raised his Walther and leveled it at the other man, "You made the chemicals and you can tell me where you shipped them to."
It was these words that unfroze Hung Lo he turned and ran out of the shack and into the darkness of the night. Bond let loose a shot, hoping to kill the man before he got too far, or to at least injure him enough so that he could interrogate him. The shot, however, went wide and impaled itself in the ground.
Cursing, Bond pelted after him in the dark, the reflector on his watch guiding his way. He came to a skidding halt when he saw the Asian standing at the edge of the precipice.
Once again Bond raised his weapon, "WHERE ARE THE CHEMIALS?" He yelled at the Asian from his distance of 10 meters from the cliffs edge and the man. The other man edged closer to the cliffs edge so that some earth crumbled and fell into the river 100 meters below. "DON'T MOVE!" Bond yelled brandishing his gun at the Asian. But the man kept backing up, he was so far back that it was a miracle that he didn't fall to his watery death.
The man smiled benignly at Bond "I think you will find that out for yourself soon enough." And, in one fluid motion he pulled out of his shirt a cord which Bond saw was fastened together with a rather large metallic looking snap. He looked up and he grinned at Bond, "Good night Mr. Bond." He yanked hard at the cord and the snap broke. Within seconds Bond could hear a rumbling behind him. As he quickly turned his head he saw buildings collapsing from the epicenter of the explosion as though a nuclear weapon had been detonated. But Bond didn't hear any screams, not crying of babies, nobody rushing from their houses in panic –nothing.
Bond turned back around "WHERE ARE THE VILLAGERS?" he screamed over the din of the explosion. The Asian's answer sounded like a whisper to Bond's ears, "they've all gone, as you will be...soon."
Bond raised his gun; he felt the ground sway beneath him as the force of the explosion reached him. He could feel himself falling as the ledge he was standing on broke off from the cliff.
As Bond free fell, he could fell the edges of panic over taking his mind as he hurtled pass falling rocks. He could see the water rising up to greet him.
...90 meters...
Bond knew that at the speed he was falling, the second he hit the water he was a dead man.
...80 meters....
He was falling faster and faster. He HAD to think of something.
...70 meters....
THINK DAMN IT... THINK
He forced himself to turn around so that his back was facing the river below. Fighting to raise his arm he took as careful of an aim as he could and fired a thin wire hook at the top of the cliff. Bond could feel air whooshing pass him as the wire unreeled from his watch.
He felt a sudden jerk as the hook caught the rocks on the cliffs edge. The sudden stop of velocity knocked the wind out of Bond. Bond swung around and around as he tried to pull himself together. Bond realized that he was gripping something thin in his right hand. (The one that isn't connected to the watch) He opened his hand and much to his surprise he found the cord with metallic clasp dangling from the palm of his hand.
And as Bond hung there watching the rising sun fill the canyon with color he, found him self thinking of the irony of his situation, "hanging between Life and Death."