"Q this is ridiculous," Bond complained over his headset. "When do I get to move on to the actual mission?"
"You have to pick up the case at the station and then meet up with Agent Juli at the restaurant to trade the case for information-"
"Information you can easily get for me so I don't have to go through this charade," he grumbled.
"Information that will allow you to meet with your partner for the real mission," Q finished. "I know you are frustrated but this is the cover that M thought would work best."
"Oh I'm sure you are having fun. It's not so different from your usual. Still surrounded by boffins who know what they are doing even if they know it is just a game."
"And we would like to keep everyone thinking that this spy adventure is just a game to us too, Agent Silvereye," Q smirked over the com line. Although Bond was right. Using the real life spy adventures company as a cover for an actual mission was brilliant. They could register on flights with fake names but it would be traced back to a legitimate company and any suspicious lurking that Bond did could be attributed to the fact that he was simply pretending to be a spy for the weekend. Bond was mostly disappointed that he had to complete these standard introductory missions first before getting onto the good stuff.
Q on the other hand was enjoying being a handler on really easy, stress-free missions as a break. He was still able to hack into CCTV streams to keep a closer eye on Bond but it wasn't necessary. He had his personal laptop out on the desk next to the company computer and was able to run diagnostic tests on the operating system he designed before the final release to the public. He hoped to get it finished by the end of the next week. Already a select few individuals he trusted were beta testing it for him and dropping emails with feedback.
Furthermore, he did not have the pressure of running a branch here. He could be just another geek in a room of geeks. He left R in charge with all the paperwork he didn't want to do and that required nothing more than basic approval. In the headquarters of the playacting spy company he was just their newest employee who had worked in IT and video game design before wanting a break for a short time. In order to secure some credibility, he had been coming in on weekends a few times before this cover mission while they had planned the real one. The story was that he had two weeks left on his current contract but his weekends were free and he was excited to start.
"Okay I have the briefcase." Q returned his wandering mind back to the fake mission.
"Very good agent. You have two hours until your rendezvous at The Anchor with Agent Juli."
"See that is a normal name. Why am I stuck with Silvereye?"
"You requested to be a top level security spy and their codenames cannot bear any resemblance to their actual persona. And a simple number is just so dull. Anyway, I thought it suited you."
"And of course you are called Q."
"All handlers here at London International Spy Adventures have single letters as their codenames. It was inspired by the actual British Secret Service. Interesting, right?"
"Fascinating Q," he growled out. Q just continued to grin as he spun idly in the comfortable desk chair. "I'm signing off."
"Just don't forget about the meet up later. And do not show up with another girl on your arm."
"No promises," he replied as he flicked the earpiece into the river.
The tradeoff with Agent Juli went smoothly and, although it was not the high class restaurant Bond was used to on actual missions, he was able to still enjoy a pleasant drink on the terrace overlooking the river. She slid him a code on a scrap of paper that told him to be at the Tate Modern tomorrow at 0900 to meet his next partner. She would know more of the mission details.
Bond actually knew most of the mission details already from his official MI6 brief with M. What he didn't know was how it was being framed in the context of the game. He trusted that Q had infiltrated the computer systems of the company perfectly and the fake mission would align nearly perfectly with the real mission. He was glad that he still had Q as his handler even if now both sides of the earpiece needed to be in code.
Q had also assured him that the handler for his partner would be good and he had manipulated the systems to give Bond a good partner since they didn't allow solo missions. He would just have to wait until tomorrow to know for sure.