A/N - So this is the final part of the trilogy started with the Eureka Project, it's all written but may take a few days to beta. Enjoy!
Mallory was beginning to grow bored with this cabinet meeting; well truly he had switched off after the first hour. Moneypenny had been lost after the first 5 minutes. M didn't blame his assistant as the meeting was proving to be pointless because know-one was budging from their positions. 2 hours in and they still couldn't agree on minor points of the budget. He sighed inwardly and kept one part of his mind on the god awful conversation whilst the other part went walkabout.
As much as he hated this part of the job it was actually quite a welcome change from the hectic lifestyle following his and Q's kidnapping; and the paranoia of routing out the mole. 2 months had passed since R had made his last desperate but fatal move, 2 months since Mallory had been shot through the neck and nearly bled to death; 2 months since any leads on Imperium had dried up.
Both M and Q had finally had the time to heal from their ordeal, the only thing that remained now was the scars. Q's evening phone calls had decreased in frequency and their therapy sessions were coming to a close. Things were getting back to normal; well as normal as they could be. The only thing really holding them all back from moving on properly was closure. The knowledge that Imperium was still out there kept them all up at night; kept their pistols close by. They needed to move on.
Soon after R's betrayal the department head's in MI6 were informed about everything; they worked round the clock to find any lead on Imperium for weeks. 00's were almost always out in the field and all down-time was cancelled. Nearly all their missions were running up leads that they thought could finally uncover Imperium, but so far they had only gotten dead end upon dead end. The entire exercise was proving to be demoralising for the whole team.
The only silver lining of the nightmare was Eve. She had stuck by her word and remained in Gareth's flat to help him heal and cover his back. They had grown closer than ever over the past 2 months and Mallory honestly didn't know how he coped or lived without her before; she lit up his world and made the nightmares disappear at night. Bond was of course still protecting Q, he hadn't let the quartermaster out of his sight after R's betrayal. Their schedules and routes to work were changed randomly and only a handful of people knew where M or Q would be at any one time.
007 trusted no-one outside their inner circle, that was the agent in him though. Mallory and Moneypenny were pretty sure MI6 was safe again, but they could never be too careful after what happened with R so they had taken precautions. Bond had relented to telling the department heads when he realised Q couldn't handle the load, and they needed the resources to find the organisation so they could finally all be safe again.
Mallory almost jumped as the meeting came to an end finally; he had well and truly nodded off. Eve threw him a knowing smile and he grinned back at her; ecstatic that the meeting was over and he was going to spend some time with his assistant. They made their way out of the government building; picking up the extra security team at the entrance. It had taken a while to get used to the extra bodies that stuck to him like glue, but after a while it had become normal and he almost forgot they were there. He had argued against such a blatant armed team but had lost that argument pretty quickly; he felt safe enough with Eve around and he never left the office unarmed any longer. He'd learnt that harsh lesson the first time round.
It was a beautiful day outside and Mallory swept his gaze over London. The sun was shining and the breeze cool so why did he suddenly feel cold? He felt a chill and suddenly his skin was tingling; maybe it was his paranoia kicking in but he was pretty sure they were being watched. He glanced at Eve casually not wanting to tip off anyone looking; she looked wary too. Good he wasn't being too paranoid; if his instincts said something was wrong and Moneypenny's then they were in trouble.
Mallory eyes swept over their surroundings tactically but didn't see anything out of place. Two men were waiting by their vehicle as standard and there was very little foot traffic in the area; everything looked right but it felt wrong.
The entourage were just about to reach the car when M's ears perked up as he heard a sudden whooshing sound. The vehicle they were all heading towards abruptly exploded into a flaming ball of fire. Wicked heat pressed hard into Mallory and he felt himself flying backward as shock waves pressed into him from all sides.
M slammed into the ground hard. He tasted blood and his head and ears were ringing from the shock of the explosion. He distantly felt glass slice through his skin, chest and face. Tiny shards cutting and piercing all over his body. He heard car alarms blaring; people screaming and metal deforming as it burned.
He blearily opened his eyes and fought the urge to black out; his head was pounding and the drums in his head were battling his will for consciousness. There was too much danger around to just lay down and give in. His sight was blurry for a few seconds until he blinked away the fog. He turned his head to his left and started as he saw Eve laying next to him with her eyes closed.
No!
He panicked as he saw all the blood on her face and moved to haul himself up; he needed to know if she was okay, that she was breathing. Adrenaline raced through his body and he fought back the urge to be sick as he dragged his abused body over to Eve's. He registered the sound of gunfire as he reached her and breathed a sigh of relief when he found a steady pulse; she was just unconscious.
He glanced round and saw the flaming wreckage of their car; so much for it being armoured. He also saw their security team scattered round; some bleeding whilst others were crouched behind cover firing at targets that Mallory couldn't see. M made a split-second decision and grabbed Eve's body under her arms and dragged her away from the fight towards cover. It was only a short distance to the pillars but his heart was in his mouth as they made their way out in the open; one bullet and it would all be over.
Eve remained completely still and quiet as M propped her up against the concrete pillar; it wasn't an ideal position but should provide them both with sufficient cover to survive. He fought off the urge to give into his flashbacks as the gunfire and exploding engine reminded him far too much of war. This was central London for christ's sake.
Gareth checked Eve's pulse properly now they were out of the line of fire; he was relieved to find that her heartbeat was still steady and her only visible wound was the blood trickling slowly down her head. He ducked instinctively as shards of concrete splintered off their pillar; somebody had seen where they were hiding and had started firing on them.
He quickly took out his pistol flicked off the safety and fired shots back in the direction he felt the others had come from. He peered round the pillar to take in the enemy numbers and positions properly and spotted a number of masked men behind vehicles; he fired a few more rounds off at them but disappointingly didn't find his target. His head wound was probably to blame for his off aim; that and the distance between him and the masked men.
The whole area was bloody chaos; people screaming and running from the site of the ambush, gunshots echoing round the concrete square making it sound like the round were coming from everywhere. Most of the vehicles close by were now flaming wrecks; cutting off their escape options. Dead bodies scattered over the pavement, mostly from their security detail. M could only see two guys left on their side who were crouching behind whatever cover they could find under the endless onslaught.
Mallory covered Eve as best he could as more concrete rained down on them; there position had well and truly been compromised. He stared into Eve's face for any sign of her waking but he sighed deeply as he found none. His hearing was finally returning to normal as he heard more shots ping on the ground nearby. He waited for the lull; peeked out round the corner and fired at the approaching men. They both went down.
He looked down at Eve again and realised he needed to move to keep her safe; she was defenceless here and he was clearly drawing the bad guy's fire to their location. He spotted another pillar nearby and without thinking too much on the stupid act fired shots and legged it. M sprinted from pillar to pillar until he had left enough distance between Eve's unconscious body and the bullets targeting him; annoyingly he still had no idea how many assailants there were.
M heard the familiar sound of an empty clip and reached to his ankle for another ammo clip; he slotted it into place and prepared his body to fire at the enemy again. He shook away the remaining fog from his brain and focussed on steadying his breathing. He stood up and leaned out of cover, firing at positions he last saw masked men. The two guys left in the security detail were still pinned down by fire and it looked like they had both taken at least one bullet.
Just before he stepped back into cover he heard approaching footsteps from behind coming in fast. He only managed to half turn back behind the pillar when a colossal force crashed into his side; rugby tackling him with another force to deplete his lungs of air. For the second time that day he was crashing to the ground and his ribs ached under the force of the brutal assault.
Mallory saw stars as his head reverberated off the pavement again and he somehow managed to just keep hold of his pistol. He tried to bring it up to use as a weapon but a strong grip slammed his hand down before he could get far. He felt a knee press into his stomach and groaned as the action made it difficult to breathe.
When he opened his eyes he was once again looking down the barrel of a gun, held by a very irate looking guy wish a mask covering his face. Mallory's mind went blank as his head thudded painfully; it felt like it was going to split open any second. Suddenly the hand holding his wrist squeezed hard and drew blood.
"Drop it." The guy snarled at M digging his knee painfully into his ribs.
M took a few moments to realise that the guy must have been talking about the gun that he was still gripping in his hand, as if that was any use now with a pistol in his face. He released his desperate hold on his gun and it clattered down uselessly. Mallory distantly heard footsteps approaching and realised the surrounding gunshots seemed to have stopped.
"Package acquired." He heard the guy on top of him relay harshly. Mallory could barely concentrate on the gun in his face anymore, he was only just holding onto consciousness.
He started as two sets of boots appeared in his peripheral vision making his situation considerably worse. He had no way out of this mess. Shit.
Suddenly two shots rang out, one after the other. One of the men went down with a dull thud and a strangled cry. Mallory was grabbed by his shirt and was being pulled up rapidly; his head swam but he still caught the next two shots and heard another man fall. Eventually he was on his feet and had been turned round to face the threat, a heavy arm snaked round his throat only making it more difficult to breathe and fight off the darkness.
He felt incredibly dizzy and saw double of everything but he still saw her, Eve was standing with a gun in her hand, pointed directly at him. No not me, his brain finally started working. It was pointing at the guy who had his pistol pressed into the side of M's head, the man who's arm was doing a damn good job of cutting off his air supply.
Gareth blinked the blood out of his eyes, shook the fog away and concentrated on Eve. It grounded him. She looked professional, cold, detached but Mallory knew her better. He could see she was furious and barely holding it in.
"Drop the gun bitch!" The man holding him rock steady against him yelled, Mallory hated the scumbag even more as his hot breath hit his neck. Annoyingly he was holding him close and keeping his head tucked in; not giving Eve an easy target to hit.
"Not gonna happen." Eve snarled back.
M had seen Eve's gun scores and he trusted her to get him out of this in one piece. He caught her eye and motioned downwards with his own knowing she would get the message. He then held up five fingers which she also caught, 5 seconds.
5
He counted down in his head and blocked out the abuse being hurled at both of them; blocked out the way the gun pressed harder into his temple and his body being shaken like a rag doll.
4
"Drop the gun!" The guy hollered desperately; tightening his grip on Mallory in the process.
3
"Or I'll kill him!" M tensed under the holder causing the hold to tighten.
2
The guy shook M's shoulder after the latest frenzied threat. Mallory prepared to carry out the plan.
1
As the countdown in his head reached zero he relaxed his muscles and dropped, and went limp. A single shot sounded out a moment later and he felt warm blood spray over his face. He fell backwards as the hand hooked round his neck dragged him downwards at an awkward angle, collapsed in a heap of limbs.
Eve was in his face a moment later pulling him away from his captor with strong arms. He turned to stare at the guy and saw him sprawled out dead on the floor; perfect gunshot to the forehead. Unseeing eyes staring out into nothing.
Mallory shook off the shiver that the dead body induced; he had seen far too much death recently. His searching eyes met Eve's and he took everything in; she didn't seem to be too hurt except from the blood trickling down her face. He noticed she seemed to be favouring one side slightly and frowned as she winced when she moved.
"Are you okay?" He breathed.
She threw him a sardonic smile. "I should be asking you that."
Mallory grinned at her familiar playfulness, they were both still breathing and that was enough for now. They quickly sobered as they heard sirens and remembered exactly where they were and what had just happened.
The pair surveyed the initial ambush site quickly and efficiently but found no signs of life. They were about to make their way over to what remained of the security detail when another black van pulled up with screeching tires. It only took a single glance to realise the guys in the van weren't friendlies; the bad guys had brought in backup. Eve pulled M back quickly and pinned him against a wall out of view.
"We need to get out of here." Her eyes darted around the area and they both galled at the numbers pouring out of the vehicle. They had no chance of holding them back with what little ammo they had left between them.
Mallory realised she was right and that they had to move quickly before the men found their position and stopped any escape path they had available to them; he nodded at her plan and took her hand in his. They both took off at a run in the opposite direction to the carnage; far away from their attackers. It didn't take long before they came across people and they morphed into the London crowd, and they soon became just another couple running away from the gunshots and violence.
"How the hell did they know where we would be, our security protocols?" M muttered angrily as he and Eve walked at a brisk pace, wincing as he dabbed at the wound on his head. His ribs felt sore too and he could feel all the nasty scratches pulling at various parts of his body.
Eve and M glancing backwards intermittently, using shop windows and the like to check for any signs of a tail as discretely as they could. They didn't seem to have any pursuers as of yet.
"We've got a security breach. Again." She hissed back angrily pulling him faster towards a side alley.
The two spies reached the alley and watched for any signs of pursuit for a few minutes. Mallory felt his body tremble as he came down from the adrenaline rush; now they were out of the immediate kill zone his mind was finally starting to work again.
What the hell had just happened? The ambush had been a kidnapping attempt; a damned near successful one at that, the word package left no room for doubt. In the middle of London in broad daylight. It was inconceivable and he was having a hard time getting his head round it.
He realised Eve was right; there were only a few people who knew where they would be and they all worked directly for MI6 or worked with them. If their location had been leaked then what other information was in danger? They couldn't rely on the resources they usually did; not when there was clearly such a huge security breach. He still couldn't really wrap his head around the ambush; they had no chatter all these months then this?
"We can't trust 6." He agreed grimly.
Eve kept a careful watch at the corner of the alley when Mallory realised something important. He pulled out his phone and found the number he was looking for.
"We can't make contact." Eve hissed almost leaving her post to knock the phone out of his hands.
"Bond and Q." Mallory replied firmly and held the phone to his ear.
If Mallory had been almost kidnapped then what about the quartermaster? They had to assume this was the work of imperium and if M's location had been leaked then Q's could have been too. Thankfully the phone didn't ring long before it was answered.
"Bond." The agent answered in a clipped tone. He sounded out of breath which was not a good sign.
"Status?" Mallory barked urgently.
Bond knew what M was asking. "Q's alive, kidnapping attempt. Activating Omega protocol." The words were spoken quickly with a level of detachment Mallory hadn't heard since Bond was on a particularly nasty mission.
He heard loud tyre squealing and distant gun shots on the other end and realised the pair still weren't in the clear. He decided to leave the agent to it; he would get Q to safety.
"Agreed." Mallory replied quickly and shut off the call. He snapped the phone in two, took out the sim card, battery and tossed it down the alley.
Moneypenny eyed him warily and abandoned her lookout post. "What's happened?"
Mallory began to take off his watch which contained a GPS tracker. "They're alive, they tried to kidnap Q."
Eve looked partly relieved but mostly shocked by the news, not quite sure which emotion to latch onto. On the one hand Q should never had to go through another attempted kidnapping, on the other hand Bond was with him and the quartermaster was still breathing.
"Omega protocol." He stated seriously and looked into her eyes.
The Omega protocol was something that the four of them had created after the kidnapping attempt, something only they knew about. It was a paranoid move on Bond's part but after the traitor and this security breach Mallory was glad the agent put it in place. They were to dump all GPS and traceable equipment; get off the grid and meet at a pre-assigned safe house. Eve immediately understood why he had destroyed his phone and was removing his watch. She followed suit, dumped all of her other belongings and took out her pen knife.
"Are you sure about this?" She asked hesitantly as he rolled up his sleeve.
"We need to go completely off grid." He held out his arm towards her.
Eve sighed deeply then gave into his stare; she took a hold of his arm and made a precise incision. Mallory winced as she dug round in the wound as gently as she could manage and pulled out the tracer; he nodded and she then snapped it in two. Mallory took the offered knife from her and waited until she rolled up her sleeves. He mouthed an apology as he sliced into her arm and repeated the procedure; he knew how much it stung having someone reach around in a wound.
Once they had everything that could be used to identify them dumped they left the alley the opposite end they had entered and took each others hand. They blended into the crowds and disappeared.
A/N - Next part should be up later today or tomorrow.
Until next time...