Oh my goddess, thank you all for the amazing support you gave me! I couldn't have asked for more positive feedback! And for that, I hurried to write the next chapter for you guys. ^-^
Wow, I feel like I need to live up to that first prologue. I did my best! Oh and I apologize for any inaccuracy when I talk about MI6's security, hardware, or procedures. I can barely boot up a computer and have NO IDEA what a top-security spy/espionage base's hardware systems are like- just so you know! :D
Thank you for reading and all of your lovely reviews, follows, and favorites—they're always welcome (*cough cough* reviews *cough cough*).
Chapter 1
Reporting For Duty, Sir
What…
…The…
…Hell?
James Bond's eyes snapped open as his head was filled with a rather loud, high, unpleasant ringing. His mind, just awakened from a peaceful sleep and still clamoring to collect itself, did not function for a moment, allowing James to merely stare at the rooms' ceiling as the din continued. Finally, he blinked. Silently swearing, he rolled his head towards the source of the sound.
On his bed stand, not two feet from his ear, was a telephone. In fact, he discovered, it was his telephone. His telephone which had a private line. A small light built into the metallic grey side was flashing red on and off as the ringing began and ceased every few seconds; as if the noise on its own was not enough to alert the owner to an incoming call.
Groaning, Bond propped himself up on one elbow, causing the sheets to slip slightly down his bare chest. His brow furrowed as he stared, unblinkingly at the phone as it produced a shrill ring every few moments. He stayed like that for a moment, contemplating the object as if it were something strange and unknown.
Bond smirked.
Sitting up, throwing off his sheets, and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Bond calmly walked across the room, away from the telephone. He rubbed his eyes as he made his way towards the private bathroom, grabbing a towel from a pile on the floor on the way.
Bond didn't seem to be paying much attention to the loud ringing behind him as his bare feet padded across the polished wooden floor. He smoothed his hair which had been tousled in his sleep. Reaching the door leading to the bathroom, Bond draped the towel around his shoulders. As he shut the door behind him, he barely seemed to notice that the shrill noise had finally ceased mid-ring. He was not concerned with whatever information the person on the line had intended for him.
The phone had rung and that was all that mattered.
It was Bond's private line. Only one person could call from that line, and for only one reason.
Bond had an assignment. An urgent assignment.
And he knew that Mallory- or, should he say, M- did not like to be kept waiting by 007.
00700
About forty-five minutes later, 007 walked briskly across the lowest level of the parking garage which lay below the MI6 facility. Having just driven through London and entered the entrance to the newly-located facility, Bond surveyed the wide, grey area which had been built only a month previous. There were already many different vehicles scattered about- but Bond noticed that not a single person- agent or otherwise- seemed to be arriving at the same time as he did. There was no movement, no shadows on the dull walls.
The only sound that could reach his ears were the echoing *taps* of his black leather shoes against the cement.
It briefly occurred to Bond that something might be wrong.
He was coming in early; and there were never this many people at work this early in the morning. Even if other agents had been called in the early hours as well, Bond had never had to experience a walk through the long parking garage without a few men from the Research and Development Division parking sloppily and grumbling loudly about lack of sleep. But since Bond had no problems whatsoever with this new silence (and, in fact, preferred this change), these points wandered from his head.
Straightening his cuffs and fixing a crease in the bottom of his jacket, Bond finally reached the whitewashed double-doors at the far end of garage. Pushing through them, he hurried up a short flight of stairs and through another set of frosted glass doors, into the main MI6 facility.
As he hurried through the main lobby- a high-arched, tiled room filled with various cluttered workstations, some of which were already inhabited by agents- 007 directed himself left, towards a flight of stairs which led, eventually, to M's office. He noticed, in passing, that, although some people seemed to have come in early and were already working, there had definitely been more cars in the various levels of the parking garage than there were agents in the facility. Bond shrugged it off and continued walking.
But his eyes caught a glimpse of something. He stopped.
Various agents and personnel seemed to be gathering in a corridor leading out of the lobby and up a floor, to where the Research and Development Division was housed. Bond saw guards standing in the hallway, letting various operatives in and out whilst stopping others in their tracks and redirecting them to another area of the building. Some seemed to be complaining about this treatment; others gave questioning glances, but complied with the guards' orders to stay out of the broad corridor.
Bond thought of asking one of them what was happening.
But then he remembered the phone ringing. Mallory would make all sorts of threats if 007 didn't arrive soon. Besides, the engineers and big-shots in the Research and Development department probably had some new "fantastic" project going on which they didn't want agents interfering with or something. Turning away again, 007 hurried towards the various tunnels and corridors leading to M's office.
00700
Bond smirked when he saw M's face.
"007, reporting for duty, Sir," he said, letting the glass door swing closed behind him.
Mallory was standing behind his desk; arms clasped behind his back, observing the few early risers from the division a floor below on the other side of a large pane of glass. His arm was no longer in a sling as it had been a several months ago, and his hair was combed back in a tidy fashion. He wore an expression of extreme annoyance on his face, yet still had an air of being calm and collected.
As Bond spoke, he did not look up at his agent, but merely stated, "You didn't answer your phone."
Bond walked across the room. "I figured I'd save you the trouble of explaining it all in one breath. Besides, I just couldn't wait to get here while half of London is still sleeping." He sat down in the chair opposite M's desk, crossed one leg over the other and stared at his employer's back.
Mallory sighed. "We've got something for you."
"I gathered as much."
M was silent for a moment. Then: "It's in the file."
The agent looked down on M's desk. Between a line of fountain pens and a small stack of color-coded papers, there was a manila folder sitting there, facing Bond. On its' cover, in slightly diagonally writing, MISSION FILEwas written. He took it in his hands, and noticed that it felt lighter than usual case files. He opened the folder.
Staring back at him was Q.
An entire sheet of paper had been taken up by a black and white photograph of 007's quartermaster. Judging by the stark white background and the blank expression on the boy's face, this was his profile photo on file with MI6. His dark, curly hair was slightly shorter, but other than that, Q's young face looked exactly the same as Bond had last seen it several days ago.
007 had been caught by surprise at seeing the familiar face in his case file. His mouth opened slightly and his brow furrowed in confusion as he stared down at the young man's face. His eyes darted to M's back, then to the photo of Q, then back again.
"Q?" Bond questioned. "Sir, I don't-"
"Last night," M interrupted, turning around and sitting down on his side of the desk, "Time unsure. Your quartermaster, or Q, went missing from inside this facility."
Bond's eyes widened slightly, but he kept the shock of this news contained.
"Missing?" Bond repeated.
M's eyes met Bond's. "Gone. Vanished. Although, as you'll see if you'd care to read the file, there were signs of a struggle found early this morning to suggest he was- well, for lack of a better term, I suppose- kidnapped, or taken by force."
M waited for a reaction- any reaction. After all, it was Bond's quartermaster. But when Bond didn't speak Mallory leaned back in his chair slightly and continued. As he spoke, Bond read through Q's file (noticing how some information, including the quartermaster's name, had been blacked out) at top speed.
"Last night there was work that needed to be done on the facilities' system. Something about a glitch in the hardware according to the Q Division- security cameras have been on the fritz for a few days, computerized locks were malfunctioning, the clocks aren't running correctly, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera." His eyes went to the file in 007's hand. "Your quartermaster was assigned the job of correcting it- fixing it overnight when everyone had gone home and the building was deserted."
Bond's eyes flicked up and rested on Mallory, an eyebrow cocked. "Clocks?" he asked disbelievingly. "You had Q working on clocks?"
There was a small pause. Then Mallory looked away. "Yes, well…Anyway, Q agreed and said it wouldn't be a problem. The facility was evacuated completely last night and Q was, we believe, the only one left in the entire building. Personnel from his department have confirmed that they saw him there as late as about 11:15 PM, but that was when the last agent left. After that, there's a blind spot until this morning-"
"'Blind spot'?" 007 interrupted. "We don't have any surveillance at all on him? Nothing was-"
But M interrupted this time, a slight bit in his voice from being interrupted. "For Q to succeed in his work the entire system had to be down temporarily, otherwise every siren and lockdown drill in the place would be going off at once from his changing the hardware around. Exterior security was left up, as far as I know, so that we wouldn't be totally out in the open. But…" M paused for a moment.
"Something went wrong," Bond finished his sentence.
Their eyes met again in a moment of understanding. Then Mallory sighed and continued. "All we know is that this morning, 007, your quartermaster was gone. The security didn't come back on until about 4 o'clock this morning- Q must've programmed that in- and it was still unrepaired. Camera footage is scattered, but I have people combing it for anything that the exterior cameras may have picked up; although they're being as bloody uncooperative as the ones in here."
Bond closed the file. "They just walked in?" he asked. "Someone just walked in and-"
"The accessible records we were able to find online showed a period, no more than a few minutes, where all systems, both exterior as well as interior, were down. I'm told that that's probably when they 'walked in'. Unfortunately, the records didn't show how or why the wall was lifted."
The phrase "They Hacked Us" comes to mind, thought Bond harshly. He found it hard to believe that it really this easy to break into one of the most heavily-guarded spy agencies in the world.
"You said there was evidence of a struggle?" 007 asked, looked up at his employer again.
Mallory glanced back. "Yes, up in the Research and Development 2nd room. I've already got forensics-"
But Bond was already up and out the door.
Mallory sighed. He quickly stood and followed his agent.
Catch. You. Later (With another update!)
