Just something I came up with to pass the time ;)
James, Bill, Eve and M all arrived safely in Texas about half past nine in the evening. They were all extremely tired after the ten hour flight from London, but at least Bill and Eve were excited to be in the states even if it was for a butt numbingly boring security conference. Each of them had their respective jobs to do. First and foremost M had to attend the most boring of all lectures on leadership. "Christ" she thought "I could probably teach this myself". Bill was to go along and take copious notes, which usually amounted to a bunch of mysterious doodles. Eve was along in case someone at MI6 needed to get in touch with M, plus she had saved some holiday time and thought the trip would be "Fun" and James was along for security naturally.
As they cleared customs James immediately went in search of the car rental desk while Eve, Bill and M went in search of their luggage.
"Whose bloody brilliant idea was it to fly commercial?" snapped M as she watched the baggage carousel go around yet again with no sign of their bags
"Ma'am in the interest of saving money you decided not to charter a private jet"
"Oh did I?" she replied rolling her eyes
"There's my bag" shouted Eve who was standing a few feet away
"I've got mine and Bonds" said Bill hoisting the bags off the moving Carousel
"That leaves mine" said M in a sort of disgusted tone
A few minutes later her bag did in fact appear and they were ready to go, all they needed now was James and the car. It had been quite a while since they had seen James so they decided to go in search of the car rental desk and when they found him it was none to pleasant of a sight. James was doing his best to explain to the pimply faced child behind the desk that a small economy vehicle simply would not do.
"It looks like a clown car. We would never all fit even if we were midgets" he said rather heatedly
"Sir. This is what you requested, an economy car so that's what you have" replied the young man behind the counter
"What seems to be the problem?" asked M as she went to stand beside James
"This idiot seems to think that we and our luggage can all fit into a car the size of a sardine can" replied James as calmly as he could
"I see" she said "Step aside James. Let me handle this" "Young man. Do you really see four grown adults traveling any distance in a contraption of this size?" she asked
"Well ma'am I understand what you are saying but you see this is what was requested" said the young man
"I see, well would it be at all possible for us to have a larger car" she asked as syrupy sweet as she possibly could
"Let me see what I can do" he replied as he began tapping away on his computer
"See James it just takes patience and a kind word or two to get what you want"
"Sorry ma'am" said the young man nonchalantly "This is the best we can do"
"What the bloody hell does that mean" she snarled at the child behind the counter "Do you have any idea who I am. I am the Head of the Bloody British Secret Service and when I say I want a different vehicle, sorry ma'am is most defiantly the wrong answer am I making myself clear" she said glaring at the stunned young man
"Yes ma'am, right away ma'am" he said as he began tapping away again on the computer
"Ma'am you will be happy to know that we do in fact have a full size vehicle for just a slight difference in cost"
"Fine we'll take it" she snapped "Bond get the keys and meet us outside!"
"If that was her idea of a kind word I would hate to see the alternative" grinned Eve as she followed Bill outside.
Once James had retrieved the car and the luggage was stored in the trunk the four of them settled in for the drive to the Hotel.
"Bloody hell" muttered James as he attempted to merge on to the expressway
"What's wrong?" asked M looking at James curiously
"Well to start they drive on the wrong side of the road making it nearly impossible to navigate then they have absolutely no regard for the road signs that apparently are there for decoration because the sign clearly says 45mph and yet we are in fact traveling at 65mph and it's like we're standing still and..."
"Yes James we get the point. Their driving is atrocious but do you think it would be at all possible to get out of the airport cue without killing anyone us included"
"Right" he replied thru clenched teeth
After another twenty minutes of driving in circles they were finally on the road and headed toward their hotel. When they arrived, several hours later, speechless was the best way to describe their reaction to their accommodations. They had been expecting a nice, normal hotel, but instead were greeted with what appeared to be a rather seedy looking motel, somewhat reminiscent of the Bates Motel, in what seemed to be a somewhat interesting part of town.
Tanner...is this some kind of joke?" asked Bond, clearly not amused
"This can't be right" said Tanner looking thru his case for the conformation letter "The brochure said there was a pool and it was close to public transportation"
"Well I believe if you look to the right of that scrawny tree there is a large circle of what appears to be toxic looking green goo" replied Eve sounding a bit repulsed by the sight of what was supposed to be a pool complete with underwater lighting that only made the green goo glow.
As the four of the exited the car they each tried to take in their rather interesting surroundings. The temperature was soaring into the high 90', it was humid and all you could see for miles was flat open space with very few trees. There didn't appear to be anything remotely close that resembled civilization other than a convenience store across the street.
"I can try to make other arrangements if you like" said Tanner apologetically
M, James and Eve just stared at Tanner as he fumbled for his phone.
"Maybe it isn't as bad as it looks" said Eve trying to be optimistic
"Listen you lot. I really don't care at this point. I'm exhausted and all I really want to do at the moment is have a shower and a nap. We don't have to be at this bloody boring conference for two days so let's just make the best of it for now" said M sounding a bit tired, hot and irritated
"Right then" said Tanner "We'll stay here tonight and I'll look for something more suitable in the morning"
Eve and Tanner made their way to the door marked office to check in while M and James unloaded the car.
"M...Do you really think this is a good idea, I mean staying here in the middle of nowhere with little to no protection?" asked James
"Just what possible threat do you see?" she said motioning to the surrounding area. "Unless someone holds up the gas station I think it is safe to say that we are fairly secure, and both you and Eve are trained double 0's so I don't really see much of a problem"
"Fair enough" he said closing the trunk
Eve and Tanner returned a few minutes later with Tanner holding two room keys and Eve leafing thru some brochures she had picked up in the lobby.
"I managed to get two rooms next to each other. God forbid they would actually have adjoining rooms, but still they are together" said Tanner in an annoyed tone as he handed M one of the keys
"I assume that you and Eve will be in one room while Tanner and I will be in the other" said James as he began picking up the luggage and heading for the rooms
"You assume wrong" said M as she followed along behind
"Sorry?"
"Senior staff, and no I'm not referring to my age, dictates that I have the senior agent with me" she replied "Eve will stay with Tanner. I assume this won't be a problem?" she finished looking at Eve and Tanner
"Not at all Ma'am" said Tanner with a slight grin
"Right then. Now that that's settled let's go settle in to our accommodations" replied M
"What's that you have there?" asked James as he was watching Eve thumb thru the leaflets she had picked up
"Well I thought we might want to find something the occupy our time while we are here. They have this thing called a "Renaissance Festival" that sounds like it could be fun" she said showing him the brochure
"What's a Renaissance Festival?"
"Not quite sure. It says they have jousting, and sword fights and it appears that people dress up in medieval period clothing...They do have a beer tent" she said teasingly
"What the hell do these people know about medieval times?"
"I have no idea, but it could be fun. Why don't you talk to M. See if after she's had time to rest she might want to go"
"Well...it's not like we have a much else to do around here other that count the tumbleweeds as they roll by."
TO BE CONTINUED...