Ronson was sitting in a dark room, with only the lights of the computer screens surrounding him illuminating the room. He was particularly focused on one laptop, light brightening up his face. He had typed out all the codes necessary for the attack. All he had to do was press ENTER.
He glanced at the digital clock above him. 5:59pm. Only one minute to go. Releasing the virus at six o'clock was perfect. It would get him into the news, if not breaking news.
Ronson made a mockingly large gesture with his finger coming towards the ENTER button dramatically, only to press the button very softly. He clapped his hands together loudly, a nearly piercing sound to the silence. "Here we go, MI6," Ronson said, shutting the laptop softly and slowly exiting the room.
Q was sleeping soundly on the bed in his flat when the sound of his phone ringing hit hardly on his ears. What in the fuckery time is it? He fumbled to reach his spectacles on the left nightstand, and managed to knock 'em off the bedside table. He's gonna have to get it back later.
He shifted to his right to pick up the phone. "Q," he greeted whoever it was on the other side of the phone.
"Q, we need your help," R's frantic voice reached Q's ears.
"What is it now?" he asked while sitting up on the bed.
"It's a long story. Just please come. We have a Skyfall."
At the mention of the final word, he had gotten out of bed immediately. The word was a jinx to Q-branch, and MI6, altogether. The word should never be used unless there was an emergency that needed the branch leader's immediate presence. There were few, once in a while. But it definitely wasn't the first.
The first happened just over a month after Skyfall. 005 somehow got the volume of the comm too loud and the mark was able to overhear the conversation between the Quartermaster and the agent. 005 was immediately captured and tortured harshly by the terrorists for an entire month, before 007 was able to come in and rescue the other agent.
So the word "Skyfall" wasn't said for the first time many months after the actual event. This would be the tenth.
Q swiftly made his way to the bathroom and did his morning routine. After that, he changed out of his pajamas and into his work clothes with rush, stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth and stormed out. But he did remember to bring his umbrella.
He rushed down the stairs of his building and ran to the nearest underground station. Once he reached the station, he tried to run as fast as possible down the long flight of stairs and almost tripped. But he quickly caught himself and ran down once more.
The tube just arrived when he finally made it underground. He ran as fast as he could to the train and somehow made it in just in time. However, he almost fell out of the train because the crowd.
A rough, cold hand captured his wrist in a swift motion, and helped him step back into the train before the doors closed. "Thank you," Q said to the unknown person. He turned around to find the last man he would want to meet right now.
James Bond.
"Double-oh-seven," Q greeted, trying to hide his blush when he found out that it was Bond who grabbed his wrist. It's been a long time since anyone grabbed his wrist with so much strength. Or anyone who had grabbed his wrist. "What are you doing in an awfully crowded tube?"
"Just doing my duty to save the world," Bond answered while fixing his collar.
"Oh, please," Q said. "This small thing wouldn't save for the God-knows-how-many-teen explosions you made back in Istanbul. Not to mention the pieces of my equipment."
"Are you really that much of an equipment Nazi?" Bond asked. "You're even worse than the other Qs."
"I'm younger. I have a lot more years to live than your other Qs."
Bond snorted. It always amazed him how Q was so young, yet he could be the Quartermaster of the leading intelligence agency in the world. But, it also disturbed him that he is going to put up with this Q for a whole lot longer than he did the others.
About five minutes later, the underground reached Paddington. From there, it was only a mile or two from headquarters. Q rushed out immediately after the doors opened while Bond took his time and walked slowly.
He was shocked at how long it took to catch up to Q. It took five minutes. It normally wouldn't take that long. But, today, it did. He finally caught up to Q at the doorstep of MI6. He was fast enough to even open the door for the younger man, which received a snort.
Q continued running towards the basement stairway, which held almost all the vital branches of MI6. Keeping those branches above ground would cause trouble if they were ever hit.
Well, except Q-branch. Including that branch underground was a mistake.
Once Q reached his branch, he took off his jacket immediately. "Okay, what do we have in our hands, R?" he asked.
"A virus with an incredibly dangerous level of destruction," R answered, face looking more frightened than ever.
"How big are we talking 'bout here?" Q asked.
"This is… this is… you should see it for yourself."
Q walked towards his desk and turned around to look at his laptop. He looked at the list of how much damage it had and could make. The list terrified him. It was already long as it was, but the list hadn't even ended yet. It just kept on typing out new lines. For the first time, he didn't know what to do.
He's gonna need professional advice.
"R?" Q called out. R turned around immediately. "Get me Nolan Ross."
"But, sir, you need to-" Q cut him off. "Just get the bloody man on the phone."
Nolan Ross was chatting with his friend and "ally", Emily Thorne in his h when he received a call. He looked at the phone to find it say "Blocked". He smiled at the phone. There was only one person that he blocked. The person demanded it himself.
"What is it, my favorite Holmes?" Nolan greeted. He haven't met the other two Holmes' yet. But Nolan was sure that Q was the best one, based on the stories Q had told him way back. He thought he heard Q telling his minions to clear the room.
"I'm far from your favorite Holmes," Q said a few seconds later. "Would you mind coming to London for a bit?"
"London?" Nolan repeated. "Let me check my schedule."
"Give the phone to Emily. Now."
"How did you-?"
"I know you don't even have a schedule. Now give the phone to Emily, so I can personally ask her to free you." Nolan grunted but turned around to hand Emily the phone. "Someone wants you," he said to Emily. "It's Quinn."
Q might've heard the last sentence and practically screamed at the phone, his voice blazing through the earpiece, making it sound like it's on speaker. "Hey, Quinn," Emily said. "Nolan speaks greatly of you."
"First of all, it's Q now, as Nolan might not tell you," Q said over the phone. "Secondly, tell Nolan I'm flattered that he speaks greatly of me." Emily rolled her eyes at Nolan. He never actually speaks about Q. She felt it was just a polite thing to say. "Thirdly, could I possibly borrow Nolan for a while?"
"A while? What do you mean by 'a while'?" She gestured Nolan to come to her.
"I don't know yet. But it could be a month or two."
"Well," she hesitated. "Fine, you can take him. He can always work for me from a distance."
Nolan furrowed his eyebrows at Emily. "What do you mean by 'working for'?" he whispered. She made a disgruntled expression that meant he should shut up.
"Okay, okay, sounds good. Bye." She hung up the phone. "What's going on?" Nolan asked Emily, holding out his hand to retrieve the phone.
"Seems like you're on your way to London." Emily put the phone onto Nolan's palm.
Nolan hummed in curiosity. Why would Q want him in London? Possibly something big enough that needed his assistance. Emily noticed his ego obviously boosting. He needed that. He needed that after being sent to prison by one of the only people he ever loved. After being bailed out of prison by the person he should be helping.
"Whatever he wants you to do there, count me in."
"What?" He raised his voice in question.
"Conrad has plans to expand Grayson Global to London. I have to put a stop to it."
"Em, I thought we agreed on not sabotaging business decisions and negotiations-" Emily cut him off.
"They're bringing in Jack, Nolan. They're using him. We could at least keep him safe."
"'Safe' was already thrown out the window when he agreed. You're here to get revenge for your father, not keeping someone safe."
"You know, people say I'm heartless. But I think it's you who's heartless here. I get people in danger on the way to my revenge. The least I can do is keeping them safe while doing so. So even if you like or not, I'm going with you." She stormed out of Nolan's house angrily.
After watching Emily go, he stared at his phone. It was the right decision to make, letting Emily go with him. She's endangering people with her actions, and being the caring person he knew since she was eighteen, she knew she had to protect the people she put in danger. That was the least she could do.
He opened his Phone app and dialed Q's number. It rang three times before someone picked up. "Good morning, this is a secure line. I'm R, who's speaking?" Q's second-in-command answered.
"This is Nolan Ross. Q and I talked earlier. Can you get him back, please?" Nolan responded.
"Of course, sir. One moment." He heard the receiver click. It was only a few seconds later before he heard another voice on the other side.
Q's.
"Sorry for the delay. I was busy. So, are you in?" Q said, panting but still keeping his voice full of confidence.
"Yes, we're in." His voice was on the contrary of Q's, soft from his thoughts.
"We?" Q's confidence in his voice changed into confusion.
"Yeah, Emily is going, too. But, before you say anything, she's a really good hacker, too. And she could help, as well."
"I don't know, Nolan. It's dangerous enough for a civilian in London to come here. I can only imagine the danger of having two Americans coming here."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of it for you. You don't need to worry."
"Okay, then I'll fix the tickets for you guys."
"Oh, we're going on our jet, if you don't mind."
"Certainly not. M would flip when he saw the price of two first-class tickets flying out the window."
Nolan hung up the phone. This is it. He and Emily are gonna operate out of the U.S. for the first time.
Oh, hell's gonna freeze over in a few hours.
Q hung up. He was surprised that Nolan actually said yes, given the absolutely arrogant personality he was entitled to since they were eleven.
Too deep in his thoughts, he needed a flick of a minion's fingers to snap him back to life. This was too much, even for Q. He needed some time to get himself together and think straight again. "R's calling for you, sir," the minion - Charles? - said.
Q dipped his head in embarrassment and nodded to the minion. He soon turned to his left to find his second-in-command waving at his direction frantically. Something must've really gone wrong. R was always calm at work. Sure R was scared, once in a while. But never this scared.
Q ran in the direction of his office and opened the door when he arrived. "R, how are we doing?" he asked.
"Really not well, sir," R answered. Q noticed the constant beeping the laptop was making. It was quite ear-piercing to the Quartermaster. He walked quickly towards his desk and went around to stand behind it. "Okay," Q said. "So we really have to do this."
Q rolled up his sleeves as if it was a tough job to do. He gestured his subordinate outside of his chair and slid in himself. He started typing fast, fingers practically flying above the keyboard.
Remember when Q said he could do more danger with a laptop before his first cup of team than 007 would ever do in an entire year? Q wasn't just saying things. He actually could. Within five minutes, he was able to struck down the virus' security system and start coming in to destroy the virus altogether.
It was more than a half hour later before the beeping on the laptop has stopped, and everything looked normal again. Q sighed in relief and used the back of his hand to wipe the small sheet of sweat that appeared on his thin eyebrows. Q noticed the noise that was coming from the minions' direction and looked up. His eyes met the sight of his minions all clapping to him.
He dipped his head down and smiled. It's been a while since anyone cheered for him like this. He lifted his head after a few seconds. "Go back to work, you lot," he said to his minions.
R, who was standing at the corner of Q's office, noticed that the phone was ringing on his headset - another invention from Q. "Sir, there's someone on line four," he said to his superior.
The Quartermaster pressed a button on his own headset and the line came to life. The voice on the other side was familiar. "Q, I would like to see you in my office, please." M.
"Of course, sir," Q responded to his superior. Is he going to get fired for this? When you're working for MI6, you never know what's gonna happen. He tried not to be pessimistic about this situation, but the possibility of getting fired right now was so high that he couldn't shake off the thought.
Q stood up from his chair. "R, keep an eye on them and make sure they don't set fire on anything," the Quartermaster ordered.
Then he walked away and went to take the dreaded elevator ride. The elevator ride straight from anywhere to M's office.
Ronson was pissed.
He was happy two hours ago. But he was pissed now.
He was pissed that MI6's little Quartermaster had beaten his first attempt. Recalling the failed attempt, now he was even more than pissed. Now he was furious.
Good thing he installed a little side-effect. Now all he had to do is activate it.
You see, Ronson installed a little bug inside the little bug he left for MI6. Since only the outside bug died, its remains kept the inside bug safe and still living. Now all he had to do was activate it. He designed it to cause some big casualties.
And this one's gonna cause a lot of casualties.
But, again, Ronson was waiting for the right moment. Things always go well for those who wait.
The elevator's ding was an ear-piercing sound to the almost silence Q experienced inside the elevator, save for the damned elevator music, which was "God Save the Queen", he'll have you know that.
Q walked out of the elevator, feeling nervous as he always was when he was about to walk into M's office. M's office was only a few feet away from the elevator, so it only took a few steps before Q's nervousness kicked into a maximum. It was only a few more minutes before his imminent unemployment, so it's better to relish the moment now.
He knocked on the door to M's office, still silently hoping that he wasn't gonna get fired today, even though it was so clear that he was. He heard two voices in there, one was M's, one was oddly familiar, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it, before the door was opened. "Ah, Q, please come in," M said.
M disappeared inside and Q opened the door a bit wider so that he could step in with no trouble. He walked a few more short steps to M's desk and sat on the chair opposite to it. "Well, Quartermaster, I was rather impressed with your attitude coming into our rather disastrous evening," Q's superior commended.
"Thank you, sir," Q thanked him. It's rare that M praised someone for their work. Within MI6, that is. People never knew what was on in that little group of people M called a family.
"Well, since you were a little bit busy fixing the problem itself, I guess you weren't informed on the damage the bug made to London," M said.
"Yes, sir," Q agreed.
"Well, according to a report R received, the numerous power grids of London were shut down by a mysterious force, as it says in here." M held out the paper he was holding in Q's direction.
Q took it and skimmed it. He wasn't surprised about the amount of damage the virus made. This type of virus was made to do that. But, then again, he only studied the virus in books and never in real life, another reason to ask for Nolan's help.
"As you know, an announcement is supposed to be made after an event like this."
"I am aware, sir."
"Well, Quartermaster, I'd like you to meet Prime Minister Andrew Cameron."
Q stood up and turned around immediately to find a rather skinny frame, skinny like Q's. He was tall, however. About five feet eleven, he thinks. The PM stepped out of the darkness of M's office's corner to reveal a fairly handsome man with fair skin, wearing an Armani suit, a standard for all government officials. "Good evening, Quartermaster," the PM said.
The Quartermaster looked starstruck. He was never so near a government official, save for M. But, somehow, the feeling of meeting the Prime Minister was greater than meeting M. "Good evening, Mister Prime Minister," Q greeted back.
"Okay, since you have done your formalities, can we get back to the task at hand, please?" M interrupted their short conversation.
"Oh, come on, Gareth. Don't be such a buzzkill," the PM said to M in a friendly tone.
"Well, Andrew, if you're gonna be such a child, then I suggest you do it after." M gestured the two other men to sit down on the two chairs opposite to his desk. "Right now, we have business to do. Now sit down, both of you."
The two men both sat down. "Now, let's get down to business," M said. "As you know, someone, in this case, the PM, has to make an announcement about this. So, Q, you are to brief the Prime Minister here about the virus for the announcement he's planning to confirm tomorrow morning."
Q nodded at M. "Well, that's all. You may leave now, Q. The PM and I have to talk more," M said to the Quartermaster.
Q nodded at M again and stood up from the chair. He walked straight to the door, slid out of the room and closed the door behind him.
People were gathering in front of the MI6 building the next morning. They, of course, had a reason to. The Prime Minister was going to make an announcement about the incident last night. The press was there, Nolan and Emily were there, practically all people that were in London at the moment was there.
There was radio silence from the crowd.
The silence was broken by the crowd itself when the Prime Minister walked out, making the press scream their questions at the man and flashes of cameras start going like crazy.
Prime Minister Cameron stepped on the pedestal behind the steps of the building and cleared his throat. The radio silence returned. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," the PM started. "I'm sure you were baffled about what happened last night."
The screaming from the press started again. There were too many voices in the crowd, which made the PM frustrated. "One by one, ladies and gentlemen," Cameron requested.
"Can you tell us what have we encountered this time, Mister Prime Minister? Should this be taken as seriously as what happened a few months ago?" a woman asked.
"Yes, unfortunately," came the answer from the Prime Minister. "We have encountered another cyber-attack. The program was able to shut down all power grids of London and all electricity in the city. The team from MI6 was able to stop the virus from spreading further, which could potentially shut down the electricity of the entire nation.
"The problem similar to this occurred in New York City, however, the one who resolved it had remained silence, and therefore, could not reveal where the problem had come from," the Prime Minister ended his answer.
The reporters were practically screaming at Cameron before an ear-piercing sound came to life.
An explosion.
The crowd started running in the opposite direction of the MI6 building frantically, save for Emily Thorne. She started running back towards the building, halfway there when a hand grabbed her arm. "Emily," she heard Nolan's voice.
She yanked her arm from Nolan's hand and started running again. Nolan followed her. "Emily, it's not safe," he said.
"Everything I do isn't safe," she said while running.
"Emily, don't make this like what happened to Grayson Global," he spoke.
Emily froze. The memory slammed back into her like a knife to her heart. It still scarred her to this very day. She turned around to face Nolan. "What do you know?" she asked Nolan with an angry voice. "You don't know what happened in there. You don't know how I worried for Jack. For everyone who might've been there."
"This isn't about your revenge, Emily. This is a completely different problem that you are not involved in." Nolan soon realised his response was a bit harsh to Emily. He couldn't blame her. When you're one of those people who's seen so much death caused by themselves, you couldn't help to help those in danger, no matter if it's your problem or not.
Emily got a realisation, too. So, she turned around and started running to the direction they should've been running all this time.
MI6's security was able to direct the PM quickly out of the debris zone. However, its Quartermaster, who was standing in the back alongside the Prime Minister all along, had been hit by a large piece of debris on the head, making him unconscious. 007, who was on the other side of the steps, quickly ran to Q. "Can I get an ambulance here?" Bond growled to the crowd. "Q, come on. Stay with me," he said quietly to the Quartermaster.
007 heard someone scream back to him, the sound too soft for him to hear from the screaming crowd running away from the building. However, he was sure that an ambulance will reach them soon. Who wouldn't? This is the first big disaster they've ever got since Skyfall.
It wasn't long before a small but sharp piece of debris pierced the Double-Oh in the head. The last thing he heard before passing out was the sound of an ambulance approaching the steps of MI6.
Then, there was silence.