Sorry these chapters are a bit shorter for now. I'm sure they will get longer with time, they always do.

James arrived at the office fully expecting to have to wait for Tanner, but much to his surprise Tanner was waiting for him with a rather worried look on his face.

"Tanner how did you get here so fast?"

"Truth of the matter is I never left" replied Tanner flatly

"What do you mean you never left?"

"Well I decided to check with some of my contacts at Whitehall to see what I could find out"

"And?"

"Nothing. If anyone knows what happened in that meeting they're not saying" he said sounding rather annoyed "So I decided to contact M's driver to see what he knew"

"Go on" said James

"He said he took her home around two o'clock"

"That's it?"

"He said she seemed very distracted and very quiet but other than that nothing out of the ordinary"

"So basically all we know is that she went to a meeting at Whitehall in the morning and was taken home around two o'clock" replied James sounding rather frustrated

"Well, Not exactly. Come with me" said Tanner as he headed toward the lift

"Where are we going?" asked James with a puzzled look on his face

"We're going to Q branch. After hitting dead end after dead end I decided to enlist the help of the geek squad" he replied with a half smile.

Once they reached the bottom floor it was only a few steps until they were in the Q branch lab. Due to the lateness of the hour the lab was all but deserted, all except for Q, who was busily tapping away at his computer.

"Q. Have you been able to find out anything yet?" asked Tanner anxiously as James looked on in amazement.

"Good Morning Mr. Tanner...007, I was just going over the data now."

"What's he talking about? What data?" asked James sounding a bit mystified

"Let me bring you, well both of you up to speed" said Q turning to face them "Mr. Tanner has explained the situation regarding M's disappearance and the lack of information, so I've taken what we DO know and constructed a timeline in order to better be able to pinpoint her exact location."

"Any idiot could do that!" snapped James "She went to a meeting in the morning, She was taken home at Two o'clock in the afternoon. End of timeline" the frustration was clearly visible on his face and in his voice

"Not quite" said Q smugly "I was able to determine that M called for a cab at Two Twenty- Five which took her to Victoria station"

"And just how do you know that?" asked James dryly

"007. Have you forgotten just what business it is that we are in?" asked Q looking at James as though he had grown a second head. " I simply traced her call, and then contacted the Cab company for conformation"

"Oh. right" replied James feeling rather foolish.

"So you traced her cell phone, and then what?" asked Tanner anxiously

"No. Not her cell phone. She has turned it off. I traced her home phone." replied Q as he turned back to the multiple monitors behind him

"Oh great" muttered James under his breath

"Oh great is right" continued Q. "Once I determined the time she would have arrived at the station I cross checked all of the trains that were departing so we would have a better idea of where to start looking."

"Wouldn't it have just been simpler to check her credit cards for any recent activity?" asked Tanner as more of a statement rather than a question

"Ordinarily I would agree with you, but it appears that she paid with cash making it nearly impossible to track. Look you two are forgetting that she was once an agent herself. If she wants to be off the grid than she knows about a thousand different ways to do it" replied Q

James, Tanner and Q were all so busy looking at the monitors that they failed to notice that they were no longer alone in the lab. Tanner turned around just in time to see Gareth Mallory standing behind them and quickly tapped James on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Gentlemen" said Mallory quietly

"Mr. Mallory, Sir. How can I...we help you?' asked Tanner tensely

"I assume this is not necessarily official business" he replied as he arched his eyebrow with a slight hint of disapproval

"Strictly speaking Sir, No...not exactly" replied Q sounding anxious

"Can I assume that it is a matter of great importance given the hour?" he asked narrowing his eyes a bit

"Well you could say that" replied James

"Can I also assume that it has something to do with M and her present whereabouts?"

"Sir?" replied James suspiciously

"Look. I was not at all pleased with the outcome of our meeting this morning and have been trying for several hours to contact her myself, but apparently she has turned off her phone."

"I see" said James still suspicious of Mallory's motives

"So why don't you tell me what you've got and maybe I can help" said Mallory

"Sir, you do realize that using the resources here for personal use is strictly against policy" said Tanner

"I don't think that locating the head of MI6 is considered a personal use of resources do you Mr. Tanner?" replied Mallory as he came to stand next to Q to study the screen.

"No. I suppose not." answered Tanner rather sheepishly

"I don't suppose you would care to share with us just what happened at the meeting this morning" asked James cautiously

"I can't. It's classified" relied Mallory flatly

Q, who had been tapping away on his keyboard, finally spoke up.

"I've got her" he said almost sounding triumphant "Well at least I know for a fact that she did enter the station. If you look here at this CCTV footage you can clearly see her enter the station"

"Great!" said Mallory "Then you should be able to track her to the ticket counter and determine where she's gone"

"Well...not exactly." replied Q sounding perplexed

"What do you mean not exactly?" demanded James

"She somehow managed to avoid nearly every camera in the building. There is no other footage of her at the station" he said shaking his head in almost disbelief. "I said it before. She WAS an agent. avoiding security cameras would be child's play for her"

"So what are our options now?" asked James quietly

"Now we wait." replied Q "I've set up the system to PING her cell phone every 3 seconds. If she turns it on for even a nano-second we will be able to trace her" he said optimistically

"Right then" said Mallory as he turned to leave. "Keep me apprised of any developments"

"Sir" began Tanner cautiously "What do we say should anyone ask what we're doing?"

"Tell them you are working on a Special assignment for me. Believe it or not I am just as concerned about M as the rest of you. She's very lucky to have such good agents and friends like you." he replied with notable concern in his voice "Carry on"

"So what now?" asked James impatiently

"Now. We wait."