Chapter 1
Q hadn't thought that his day could get any worse. First, he was late and 003 had been stranded in Austria without contact for the night and downright pissed when Q finally made arrangements to get him home. Then, half of the computers his Minions were using crashed, prompting him to scan everything in the Q-Branch to check for viruses. Now, Moneypenny came down to be greeted by a hassled Q and his beloved workers bustling around trying to get new computers.
" Yes Moneypenny, what is it now that so demands my attention?" Taken aback by his roughness, Eve stuttered for a few moments before she could get her words out,
"Sorry Q, but M wants us to meet her in her office now."
"Us? Who 'us'?" his attention was solely on her now and she could read the irritability plastered in him. She decided to keep her visit today short.
"Just come as soon as you can."
With that, she hurried out the door and practically ran all the way to M's office to escape the frustrated cloud surrounding that part of the building.
She buzzed herself in and was greeted by the stares of three people and the presence of another. Two she knew, M and 007 himself, James Bond. The mystery man was dressed in an impeccable suit and was holding an umbrella in his left hand as his right trialed along the spines of the books M kept behind her. The second mystery person was a woman who had her head buried in her mobile phone, tapping away. Her long hair was tucked behind her ears and she too wore a work suit. Moneypenny made eye contact with Bond and was rewarded with a raise of his eyebrows and a subtle shrug of his shoulders to her unaired question.
"Is Q on his way Moneypenny?" M's voice pierced the silence and it was only due to her 00 training she did not jump in surprise.
"Yes, Ma'am, he should be arriving shortly."
No sooner had she spoken, did a knocking sound at the door. M buzzed the door open and head of black hair popped through. Q no longer looked frazzled and if Moneypenny had not seen him before, she would not have been able to spot the little signs that showed his anger of being called away from a crisis.
"Alright then. As we're all here, introductions." M took charge. The man with the umbrella had turned around at Q's entrance and the woman had hidden her phone for sight. They now stood at the edge of M's desk.
"Hello. I'm Mycroft Holmes and this is my assistant Anthea." His voice was smooth and held no place for interruptions or argument. The woman, Anthea, nodded her head at the mention of her name. James and Moneypenny were stunned. They had heard of Mycroft Holmes. It was said that he ran the British government. That he was the British government. They had never thought that they would ever get the chance to meet him.
007 decided to take over.
"Pleasure. I'm James Bond, this is Eve Moneypenny and our Quartermaster, Q."
Moneypenny waved slightly at her name whilst Q gave a brief smile to Anthea but ignored Mycroft completely. It did not go unnoticed and Mycroft gave a small smile as James ignored it, thinking that Q had a death wish.
"Now. I'm sure you are all wondering why you're here. As it so happens, I am in need of your services." Ignoring their stares he pressed on.
" I have been the victim of a recent attack and thus MI5 has been compromised. I am asking you to help me to locate and eradicate this… threat."
M and James exchanged looks as Moneypenny was still in shock of being in the presence of Mycroft. Q, however, was the one to break the silence,
"How were you threatened exactly?" his voice was cold and harsh. It took nearly all the people in the room by surprise.
Again, Mycroft just smiled at his brashness but he was surprised at the same time.
"You mean you'll help me?" his voice held pure shock and maybe just a hint of relief.
"Well, I've got no choice now. Might as well do it." The reply was quick and held promises of past complications.
"Okay. Do you have a place we can do this or we can go to my office where the attack originated."
Moneypenny finally found her voice, "When you say attack, what do you mean? Cyber attack or physically?" she was in full agent mode and was running through people who were adept at attacking MI5 in both ways and not be caught. The list was very short.
"It was a cyber attack."
"Well, it might be best to go to the scene of the crime. Easier to get clues the person may have left."
James, Q, and M all nodded their heads in agreement.
"Okay then. I have a car outside, we can all go now or you can come later."
M quickly chose to reply, her voice soft but final,
"We'll join you, Mr. Holmes. No need to make a fuss about traveling back and forth."
Q's mouth opened in protest but in the blink of an eye, he shut it again, keeping his thoughts to himself.
"If you don't mind, I'm going to need some time to organize the Q- Branch for the time being."
M stole a glance at Mycroft and quickly nodded her head in consent as she saw his focus was elsewhere.
James and Moneypenny made excuses to help Q in order to escape the suffocating air surrounding the most powerful man in Britain.
Rolling his eyes, Q allowed them to join him in getting 003 to a safe point. He planned to let R take over for the while and I had to make sure everything was in working order before she took over.
Ignoring the two agents behind him, Q's mind began to connect the dots.
Mycroft was hacked and so was I. Well Q- Branch really but same thing. Is it connected? Is it the same person trying to get to us? If so, have they hacked Sherlock's or rather John's laptop yet? If not then maybe it can pass off as a coincidence but if these attacks continue then we know for sure that it was planned. I wonder what Mycroft was doing to cause someone to hack him. I haven't been up to anything recently so that rules me out. If Sherlock started something then most likely, they would have started with him.
His inner monologue was interrupted by him almost crashing into the door to his Kingdom. James snickered.
"Careful boffin."
Another roll of his eyes was the only response he got. James and Eve stayed by the door discussing the recent events whilst Q rushed through sequences of code to prepare everything for R's take over. After triple and quadruple checks were completed Q finally explained to R what was expected of her to extract 003. In less than ten minutes they were all ready to go. Wasting no more time, he hurried to the entrance of MI6, 007 and Moneypenny trailing behind him. Their short walk was silent as anyone they passed saw that Q had a dark cloud over his head. James and Eve, however, chose to ignore his bad mood and talked a mile a minute. Before long they had reached Mr. Holmes' car to find M and Mr. Holmes watching as 006, Alec Trevelyan, was unsuccessfully trying to ask Anthea out. With his patience running low, Q had no time to be amused by Alec's absurd pick-up lines.
"Oh just give it up 006. She's not interested. Can we get going?" Q's voice was clipped and his anger had not dissipated. Mr. Holmes nodded and climb into the car closely followed by Anthea. No one else moved and Q almost had a fit.
"Would you move your bloody-!" He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. M was glaring at him for his outburst and had a small amount of worry in her eyes. James snickered and Moneypenny glared disapprovingly at him. Q sighed and entered the car, a cold glare trained on Mr. Holmes. M moved in after him and the three agents squeezed into the surprisingly spacious car. The 00s and M sat facing the windshield, watching the road, while Q, Anthea, and Mr. Holmes faced the opposite direction. The frosty air between Q and the most powerful man in Britain was palpable. Anthea sniggered and moved her body over with a grace that left Alec and James wondering about her flexibility. Her ever present phone had disappeared during the switch and he hands were now free. She turned her head and sent a blinding smile to Q who responded as such. The two struck up quiet conversation occasionally punctuated by laughter from one of them. Being too scared by Mr. Holmes to say anything, the highly trained operatives settled for watching the city go by. M tried to talk to Mr. Holmes but his taciturn responses quickly discouraged her. A few moments more of uncomfortable silence and the luxury car pulled to a stop in front of the Diogenes Club. All seven exited, Q and Anthea talking all the while. Holmes threw a glance their way and Alec could have sworn he saw a bit of sadness and jealousy contort his face.
Mr. Holmes led them into the lobby of the building, using sign language to communicate with the person behind the desk. The old man glanced at the five new companions and nodded his head. Mr. Holmes thanked him, in sign language, and the large group moved into a private room. Q wasted no time and immediately advanced toward Mr. Holmes' desk and booted up his laptop. Between the ride and the silence at the front desk, Q had made up his mind to not pretend anymore.
"Where did you put your secondary laptop? Have you even checked there?" The bitterness was less but still there. James was beginning to think that he had a death wish. M was the one to intercept, her stern voice pushing through the tension between her Quartermaster and the most powerful man in Britain.
"Q. Please show some respect. This is the man who controls your paycheck."
Her voice was even and held no room for arguments. Q rolled his eyes in response.
"Ma'am with all due respect, this is the man who will be six feet under if he doesn't answer my bloody question!" his voice rose towards the end and anger replaced the rancorousness. He turned to Mr. Holmes and spoke again. When he received no answer due to the incredulous stare, he resorted to asking Anthea.
" Lisa, please tell me where this idiot has put his laptop. Not answering will do nothing. I can always ping the signal but I really don't want to go through all the trouble. " his voice was final and Anthea- Lisa- snickered. She moved forward with the grace of a ballerina and retrieved a slim laptop from behind the liquor cabinet. Q thanked her with a smile and opened it up. He was greeted with an automated voice asking for a password. He spoke clearly and made small intonations with his voice at certain syllables.
"How did you know that?" the voices of Alec, Moneypenny, and Mr. Holmes blended to a grating sound.
"Oh piss off Mycroft. You know fully well you could never hide anything from me. You'd think you'd've learned by now. "
A wry smile crossed his face as Q finally acknowledged him as the MI6 personnel could only stare.