Chapter 2: M's Legacy

Two days later James entered the abandoned Cheshire Street tube station in the same manner as on his previous visit. His mind was still racing from the information he had viewed on the memory stick that Mattie had entrusted to him – if it was real then MI6 was in serious and immediate danger. He trotted down the concrete steps and spotted Mattie lounging on a bench at the far end of the platform, nursing a takeaway coffee cup in her hands. She looked over as he approached; a slow smile spreading across her face.

"So either you have decided to help me, or you have decided I'm a lunatic and want to put a stop to dastardly mischief" She grinned.

"You'll be pleased to hear it is the former." James assured her with the sly smile he knew was his best weapon against members of the opposite sex – it had an unbroken success record, until now. Mattie simply nodded and stood up, apparently not noticing the seductive expression her new acquaintances' face held. "Where and how did you get the data on here?" James continued somewhat perplexed at his lack of effect.

"Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies. For the moment at least my sources will remain anonymous. But I can assure you that they are trusted."

"You don't trust me?" James took a seat on the bench.

"My grandmother told me that she trusted you more than anyone else she knew – that is good enough for me. You will find out who they are, I just think it would be fairer if they were present themselves when they are outed." Mattie explained, fiddling with the lid on her cup.

"So where do we start?" James nodded.

"I have no idea. I initially thought that if we could identify the mole then we could use them to trace Silva's associates – but then where and how do we do that? It's not like there's only a handful of possibilities, there must be literally thousands. Plus we don't want anyone to work out what we are doing. I was hoping you might have some ideas – I'm still fairly new to all this" Mattie admitted with a slight shrug.

"Hmmm that is true. I'll give it some more thought."There was a long pause, James watched as Mattie stared down at the tracks that had not seen the wheels of a train for decades. Eventually he spoke again "You know I'd heard rumours that a couple of old underground stations existed and we had access to them, but I thought they were just a myth."

"There are two; the other one is quite well known about internally. There's an expanse of offices and rooms down there that can be used if the secondary location – the one we are in at the moment is compromised. It's nowhere near as big as the Churchill ruminants we are using, but if needs be it could serve its purpose. Mallory has people in there now upgrading everything; he's suddenly become keen to have options after Silva's gas explosion." She paused, returning to her seat and looking up towards the entrance archway, a small grin appearing "But Cheshire Street, well as far as I am aware the only people who know of its existence are sat right here. It was decommissioned about sixty years ago; when the network was developed this part of the line became obsolete, there were plans to develop it, but then a survey deemed it to be structurally unsound. As far as everyone and the records are concerned this tunnel has been filled in with concrete. There was never actually anything wrong with it, but the old head of the organisation wanted somewhere more than discreet and this was the perfect opportunity. M was shown it's secret before she took over the job and she brought me down here once."

"It's incredible, it's like a piece of espionage history, preserved and we are the only ones who get to view the museum" James glanced around appreciatively, he revelled in the gadgets that made his job easier, safer and more successful, but part of him enjoyed this insight into the past. He glanced at his Omega, checking how much longer he had.

"Somewhere you need to be?" Mattie questioned

"I have a briefing in an hour" He acknowledged.

"Me too, although I'm technically still on compassionate leave. I was going to argue that I was ready to go back into the field, but if I can draw this out then I am free to investigate this problem."

"How have we never met before? I mean I have never even seen you!"

"I think it was part of M's plan to keep us as far away from each other as possible. We have different handlers and we were never assigned to anything that might have meant we crossed paths. She told me in no uncertain terms to stay away from you." She laughed as James' eyebrows rose in shock "You have a reputation Mr Bond. We shared a lift once."

"I'm sure I would have noticed" James replied smoothly.

"Perhaps if you hadn't been so busy flirting with one of the secretaries from legal you would have done" There was no malice or judgement in Mattie's voice, just amusement.

"I thought you said M trusted me?"

"She did – just not with me! I am, was, her only grandchild." Mattie paused "I told you she brought me here, it was when I was going through selection – I was recruited from university and it was nothing to do with M; in fact I think she threw spanners in the works where she could. She didn't want me being part of this world. I knew she worked in security, but it wasn't until we came down here that she told me who she really was, tried to discourage me from following the path she had chosen. Needless to say I inherited her stubbornness and it didn't work. Obviously I kept quiet about our relationship; I didn't want anyone to think that I was only here because of who she was. I found the keys to this place after…well you know."

"I'm sorry" James stated, but the words did not sound like they were enough.

"Thank you, I know that you did all you could to save her" Mattie had read the reports and statements relating to the incident at Skyfall. James didn't know that she had arrived as he was being escorted from the small chapel for an emergency debrief with Mallory; he was unaware that she had rushed into the building to see her grandmother's lifeless form, because she could not accept what she had been told, and he was oblivious to the fact that she had been sat at the front of the church in central London when M had been remembered with honour and respect during the funeral service. "We should probably get going. You leave first; I'll give it a while then lock up. I'll contact you later to sort another meeting" Mattie pulled a mobile phone out of the pocket of her short leather jacket and handed it to him "Untraceable and the only number in it is for another untraceable number in my possession". With that the meeting was over.