Chapter One: A Long Way Down

The Arkangelsk chemical weapons facility struck James Bond as being very odd. Though the Russians had absolutely no intention of harming their own citizens with any chemical weapons, they still built the facility into one of Russia's major dams, where the spill of any of these chemicals could infect the water supply to more than half of northern Russia.

Mind boggling, Bond thought as he rappelled down the cliff face to the rear entrance of the base. He made sure to look out under him every so often, making sure his drop off point was clear. There was a single soldier who kept coming toward his desired entrance, but he was currently somewhere else. Bond would deal with him when he became a problem.

"Be careful, 007," M had said when she gave him the mission, "Arkangel isn't a typical facility. Unlike your previous operations, you can't just go in and kill everyone. There'll be scientists there. Civilians. The soldiers you can kill at your discretion."

"I'm sure you'd rather I stay on my leash this time?" Bond asked.

"I don't need you mindlessly killing everyone and everything you see. Your past operations haven't exactly been clean. The Bolivian government is still asking us what happened at the Greene Hotel."

"Of course, ma'am." Bond had turned around to walk out the door.

"Wait, James," she said, a softer tone. Bond turned around. "If it had been up to the PM or his cronies, you'd have been out of active service and on our own hit list the minute you left Austria during the Greene mission. This time, they're forcing my hand. You'll have to meet up with 006, Alec Trevelyan, once you make it on-site. He's got ten more years on you, so follow his instructions once you get there."

"A dog walker?" Bond smiled and let out a small laugh. "I'm almost flattered."

Trevelyan should have been waiting for him inside the facility. Bond would have to rappel down the dam and enter the facility through a ventilation duct or some other exterior entrance. Rappel, rappel, rappel. Why couldn't the Russians build a base on ground level?

Bond landed on the ground and unhooked the rope from his belt. The guard was still no where in sight. Bond withdrew his PPK, carefully attached the sound suppressor and checked to see if it was loaded correctly.

It was time to begin his mission. From his insertion point, he knew there were three isolated guard towers between him and the dam. Three more were on the dam itself. Underneath these, and built into the dam proper, was a tunnel that led to a data transmitting center. One of his other objectives was to infiltrate the computer room in the tunnel and intercept data heading from the Arkangelsk base.

"Bond, what's your status?" Trevelyan's voice came though Bond's radio.

Bond whispered enough for Trevelyan to hear, "I've arrived at the first guard tower."

"Good. I'm already inside. Jump from the helipad down to a maintinance hatch about halfway down the dam. I'm waiting, 007. I hope you prove to be what M says you are." Trevelyan cut communication.

"Right," Bond said, smirking, "I'm sure she's said good things."

Bond switched his radio off and readied the PPK. The guard had not yet come into view. Bond slowly crept out from behind the rock face that separated him fron the guard. The guard was facing away from him, running through the checks for his AK-74. Bond walked up behind him—slowly, quietly—and grabbed him from behind. One snap, and the guard was dead. Bond relinquished the corpse of his weapon and ducked behind a concrete divider between two lanes of the bridge connecting the side he'd rappelled to and the guard tower.

There were two guards outside the guard tower. One was patrolling the rock wall directly opposite Bond. The other was patrolling the area directly outside the door to the guard tower. Bond saw another guard in the tower itself.

So, boys, which shall it be?

Bond kept crouched and walked toward the edge of the bridge. The tower was in the line of sight between the two guards, meaning Bond could take either out without the other knowing. From his position, he took a shot on the guard closest to the tower. He crumpled to the ground, dropping his rifle with a very loud clatter. The guard in the tower heard the noise and took a look over the railing. Bond raised his weapon and fired one shot, nailing the guard in the head. He toppled over the railing and landed on the first guard Bond had shot.

The third guard—the second on ground level—had moved out of Bond's sight. Bond cursed himself for having lost sight of the guard. He stood from his position and slowly crept toward the guard tower. He saw a flashlight beam stick out from the side of the tower. Bond hugged the wall and waited for the guard to appear. Once he did, it was a simple matter of shooting the guard in the head.

Bond did a little scouting of the forward area before moving on. An army transport was currently stopped in the tunnel ahead, leading to the second guard tower. Bond decided to get inside the back. Any guards in the tunnel were out of sight, which meant he was probably out of their sight as well. He dashed forward and crouched down behind the truck. He took a quick peek on either side—both tunnel guards were speaking to the driver. Bond took advantage of the situation and hopped in the back.

It was a rather unpleasant ten minute wait for the truck to start up again. Bond only had an hour to complete every objective on the surface before going into the facility itself. If he didn't get inside and meet up with Trevelyan in that time limit, Trevelyan would continue on without him.

The truck lurched to a stop just past the second guard tower. Bond took a very cautious look outside and saw the driver had gotten out and was going through a security check. Unless Bond understood Russian security checks wrong, the driver and his guard friend would be checking all the cargo. Bond needed a distraction.

A group of barrels with flammable warnings on them were located between the guard tower and a small guard station just beyond it. Bond drew his PPK and took careful aim. If he screwed up this shot, he risked revealing his position. He took a deep breath—recalling what he'd told Camille Montes just outside Dominic Greene's desert hotel—and squeezed the trigger. The barrels exploded with unimaginable sound. Nearly two dozen guards left their stations and encircled the explosion. Two or three had fire extinguishers, while others were scouting the area, attempting to find the cause of the explosion. This included the driver and his guard friend, who ran away from the truck and joined their comrades.

Bond took his shot and jumped out of the back of the truck, then ran around to the front. There was another guard station beside a large security gate. Inside the guard station was a button for the gate. Bond hit the button and ran inside quickly, before the gate closed again. By the time he was on the other side, the soldiers had gotten the fire down and most were returning to their previous positions.

The third isolated guard tower was just ahead of him, as well as a small building which had a garage door, for some reason. Bond kept a watchful eye out for any guards, but so far did not see any. He readied his PPK and approached the building past the guard tower. He knelt down and raised the garage door, revealing a half asleep guard, leaning against the wall.

"What the—" was all the man was allowed to say before Bond punched him in the face. An Russian officer—obvious by the color of his uniform—ran into the room and took quick aim with his Makarov. Bond, however, didn't let him fire. One quick silenced 7.62mm round to the forehead—through the man's large officer hat—stopped him from alerting any other guards.

Bond found a small computer terminal in the room the officer had rushed in from. Q Branch had developed a USB device to steal encrypted material from the Russian's computer network. He needed only to place insert the device into a computer on the Arkangelsk base, and then set the data stream to transfer to a radar shielded MI6 satalite.

Bond checked his watch. Thirty-six minutes and counting until he needed to be inside. He walked out the back door and found a gate that led directly to the dam. He placed the PPK back in its holster and brought out the AK-74. He had a feeling the rest of the way inside the facility would be messy.

He was proved right just minutes later, when a guard from the roof of one of the three towers opened fire. Bond dove, rolled, then sprung back up on his feet and ran to the first tower. If he was right, there would be an entrance into the tunnel from there, and that tower was closest to his destination—the data center would be near the terminal being used for its processing. He opened the door and shot two guards who had just come up the stairs. Both tumbled down, and Bond heard a third guard yell—he'd been hit by his deceased comrades.

Bond ran down the stairs, kicked the third guard who had been hit by his friends, and ran toward through the tunnel. In seconds, he had reached the door to the data center, which was opening as he arrived. A very confused Russian soldier was standing there, and almost had his rifle ready before Bond slammed the butt of his own into the man's face. Another soldier stood from a computer terminal and took potshots at Bond with his Makarov. Bond ducked behind a computer mainframe and waited for his chance. Eight rounds later, and the soldier had to reload. Bond reached around with his rifle and let out a blind shot.

One yelp, and Bond knew he'd hit his target.

Bond came out from behind the mainframe and saw the soldier writhing on the ground. One shot, and Bond put the man out of his misery.

Twenty-nine minutes remaining.

Bond walked over to the terminal and set the data intercept frequency to the satalite. Four minutes later, he got what he was waiting for: confirmation from Q Branch that the data intercept was working.

He now had twenty-five minutes to get back topside, just to go right back down, only further. The door opened, showing Bond off to five more Russian soldiers, who opened fire immediately. Bond dove to the side and landed next to the second soldier he killed in the data room. The man had a grenade on his belt, which Bond retrieved, pulled the pin, and threw. It landed just outside the data room, and the explosion almost deafened him, but Bond was pleased with the results. All five soldiers were dead, and Bond had a clear path outside. He took his chance and ran.

An Mi-24 was taking off from the helipad on the edge of the dam when Bond got topside. Four soldiers had come out of it, and were firing away with their AK-74s. Bond returned fire, took out two of them, then ducked behind whatever cover was available. One of the soldiers threw a grenade in Bond's direction. He grabbed it and tossed it back. It landed near at least one of them, that man was blown off the dam entirely. Bond took a peek out and saw only one man left, struggling with a grenade that would not come off of his belt. Nasty way to go, but Bond couldn't be stopped. He raised the AK and took aim at the grenade. One shot, and the Russian soldier was a hole in the ground.

Eighteen minutes. Bond ran for the helipad and pulled out his bungee rope. He found a small hole near the edge of the pad and tied the rope off there. He gave a very cautious look around him, then jumped. It was about twenty meters between the helipad and the entrance Trevelyan suggested. It would take him a little over thirty seconds to reach that distance.

He slowed his descent when he approached five meters. At two meters, he cut away the rope and landed on a small platform which held the ventilation shaft that would take him inside the facility. He pulled back his sleeve and turned on the laser inside his Omega watch—another gift from Q Branch. MI6's new division was as helpful as they were imaginative. It took less than a minute to cut a hole in the vent cover.

As he did so, a thought crossed through Bond's mind: if Trevelyan was already inside, and had suggested this opening, why was it closed? Had he found another entrance and found this one on the way?

The questions—and their respective answers—would have to wait for him to meet Trevelyan.

Bond landed in a small vent, which was very cramped. He could only move forward, and could not turn in the space. Luckily, there were only a few feet to the vent. That few feet, however, was bad enough with the stench. He must have been over a restroom or other similar place. He crawled forward and found a vent cover that looked over a toilet stall. Bond watched as a Russian soldier entered the stall, dropped his pants, pulled out his newspaper and sat down.

Bond took the cover off the vent and slid down very carefully. In a moment, he was hanging vertically out of the vent, yet the Russian soldier on the toilet was staring at his paper, and could not see him.

"Excuse me," Bond said, causing the soldier to lower his paper and see the blonde-haired Brit hanging there in front of him. "Is that the Sports page?" The soldier stared in shock, until Bond punched him in the face.

Bond slid out of the vent and landed in the stall. Because of the stench, he flushed the toilet and exited the stall. Another soldier was standing at a urinal, relieving himself. Bond ignored him and silently slipped out of the rest room.

A guard was standing at the base of the stairs which lead to the main corridor. Bond shouldered the AK and drew his PPK. He was seconds away from firing when another guard passed him. Bond waited, then, as the second guard left his sight, he fired. The guard fell forward, landing face down on the floor. Bond quickly rushed downstairs and pulled him into another room. It appeared to be a storeroom of some type. He searched the guard and found a keycard in his back pocket. Bond took the card and stuffed it into his own pocket, then placed the guard in a corner.

He walked over to a small window in the opposite corner to the guard. It showed the mess hall, where thirty or more soldiers were eating. Bond could almost smell the chicken.

Movement—to Bond's left. He spun around and aimed the PPK. He was greeted by a silencer attached to a Sig Sauer P228. The voice of the man holding the weapon was English, yet spoke Russian. Bond translated his words as, "Lower your weapon and state your intentions!" which was then followed by, "How many more of you are there?"

"I came alone. My intentions are the same as yours," Bond answered, holding his PPK in an I give up position.

The figure stepped out of the shadows and lowered his own weapon. "But of course they are, 007. You're every bit as good as M said you were," Alec Trevelyan complimented him. "She said you'd shoot first and forget the questions."

"Glad to know I can please my elders, 006."