London, England
On the 13th of June at 9 in the morning, in the year 2005, the office of the director of the British Secret Intelligence Service was rather quiet compared to the hectic non-stop activity going on outside within the building. The elderly female director, one of many in a long line of directors for MI 6 with the code-name "M", patiently waits for one particular field agent.
The door creaks open.
"Morning, M"
"Greetings 007. Sit down."
As he seated himself in front of M's authoritative desk, his mind whispered to himself with the wish that this M would be more casual, with both her personality and liquor cabinet, in dealing with him. At least she doesn't question his methods and results…as much.
"Agent 007, what can you tell me about Nykwana Wombosi?"
"Central African dictator overthrown by a military coup about 4 years ago, assassinated by a mystery sniper in Paris two years ago. If I remember right, the Western powers supported him quite well as a bulwark against Islamic extremists. That is, until he decided to go his own way, and…"
M bluntly interrupts him. "Good, you know of him. What did you hear about his death?"
"I never really looked in depth into the matter, but there was unsubstantiated rumors that the assassin was working for the current military regime that didn't want Wombosi to be a possible rallying human coat hanger for which opposition can hang onto, to the CIA wanting Wombosi to be silenced after his supposed claims that a gunman of theirs tried to eliminate him on the Mediterranean Sea."
"Well, those theories, among others, was also drawn up by MI 6 at the time, but until now, we had no trail to which to work with."
"What's happened?"
"Our mole within the CIA in Langley, Virginia has come upon the existence of a terminated project that operated within Paris at the time of Wombosi's murder. This "Treadstone" project involved the intense programming and training of field agent assassins to be the best spooks, to put it that way, in the world."
"This project Treadstone, I assume you're referring to that it involved the usage of the Gilgenheim Method, much like in our own similar operation?"
"Yes, and apparently from reading these files, our mole has informed us as well that their operatives suffer from the same ailments as ours: massive migraines, periods of physical numbness, and so on. By the way 007, I will pretend that you somehow don't know of our own program."
Bond quipped. "What program?"
"Excellent, now our CIA mole, who's been deep undercover within the American intelligence community for several years now, he has a name for which we can work with".
"With friends like us, why have enemies?"
M was in no mood for humor. "Besides being connected somehow with the Wombosi assassination, this man has apparently been on the run since then as a rogue agent. Three months ago, he was cited for possible involvement in an apparent CIA sting that resulted in two agents and a contact murdered at an office building in Berlin. However, for some reason, after they located him in Moscow and failed to apprehend him, they removed his name as a priority suspect for what occurred in Berlin."
"Somehow? Does our mole not have all the files?"
"It took him months to sneak a peak into these high-level classified documents, and only for a few minutes without being compromised. He knows his status is monumentally more significant than some papers."
"Of course."
"However, our mole did catch one operative's report comments that which indicated that this rogue agent may have been also involved with what happened to Neski."
Bond's ears stood attention. "Neski? I thought he was a poor case of his wife being insane and committing murder-suicide, but I assume that with this dark spook's history, that story is quite fictional"
"Exactly 007, and that is why we are sending you to Moscow. Before his death Neski, he was on the cusp of unveiling of what happened to Operation Joker, and along with the associated package that we thought lost, to which you know all about. If this enemy operative was indeed the one who eliminated him, he may know the information that we want. You have the license to kill 007, but remember we need this data. A corpse won't help us."
Bond got up from his seat. "So what is the name of this…"
M cut him down once again. "Our mole says his name is Bourne. Jason Bourne"
