Chapter 2

Bond was calm; he didn't show any expression or emotional concern. Only staring at the woman's innocence; she was married and she was looking for help, his suspicions were accurate.

"Petra, tell me…" he said composing the woman.

"My husband's name is Diego Voinovich." She said calmly nestling in Bond as she continued. "We'd been married for a year now, I thought he loved me, at first everything seemed perfect like a fairy tale life." She said.

"Things weren't as expected?" he said flatly.

"Worst, he runs a slave ring." She said. "The marriage was a secret no one knows not even Jillian, she thought work was heavy and decided that we go and see the aura for excitement."

As Bond continued to listen all he could think of was how she concealed herself.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Nothing, I didn't want to get anyone else involved." She said. "That's why I couldn't tell you or anyone."

"If he's threatening I can't allow that." He said. "Where will you stay, how long can you keep hiding?"

"As long as I can get help." She said. Bond let out low groan, he could help her but he wasn't stupid to reveal that he's a secret agent to anyone, it was just jeopardizing.

"If you stay here he'll track you down." He warned her.

"I know that's why I don't get close; but there's something different about you something concealed."

He brought her face to meet his; he could tell she was sincere about everything but what should he do?

"I can protect you, I can make connections to take you somewhere safe, but it would mean changing your name and losing all contacts that would jeopardize you."

She nodded in understanding and kissed him on the cheek; she knew she had made the right choice in confining with him.

"I know you can do as much as you can." She said.

Bond made a mental note of her husband's name to investigate when he got back, this would be of some interest to him.

Bond and Taylor took a taxi to the airport as the girls said farewell to James while Jillian promises to wait for Taylor. Petra gave Bond a goodbye kiss on the cheek hoping that they would see each other soon. Bond couldn't let that pass off.

"Are you alright James?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Bond said. "Do you know anything about a Diego Voinovich?"

"Is he of interest to us?" he asked.

"Mostly me!" he replied.

"I can ring in my department on him; if anything comes up I'll let you know."

"Thank you." He replied. "Good luck with this."

"I'll be fine." He told him. Bond reached the airport getting out of the taxi which he paid for getting him here. Taylor retrieved the platinum case and examined it briefly, there had to be some clue to its function. He soon realized that he had been thinking hard on this, all he needed was some comfort and once he had solitude he could figure out what Blight and his accomplish were up to.

Back at the resort Jillian and Petra decided to go skiing, Jillian was unaware of Petra's situation which Bond had giving her credit for concealing this long, Petra didn't want to jeopardize her friend in this little hazard of hers; her only fear was that her past would catch up to her.

"Come on Petra, you're moving quite slow." Jillian encouraged. Petra decided to catch up to her friend now making it into a chase.

The two girls were unaware that they were being stalked, the man and the wolves decided to pay a visit to them while wondering where the intruders were. The girls had reached the mountain alp ready for their ski until the vicious growls of wolves echo behind them.

"What was that?" Petra asked nervous and frightened.

"I don't know." She replied. She felt odd that there would be mountain wolves around here this place was isolated from everything. The sounds of wolves began to growl with the trail closing in on them.

"What do we do?" Petra asked Jillian.

"Let's go!" she concluded using all her strength to rush down the slopes followed by Petra.

The girls skied down the slopes rapidly hopefully losing the vicious pack behind; Petra tried to keep her calm even with the danger chasing after them. Jillian began to lose her focus all she could do was move without thinking straight and Petra was still with her.

She checked behind her to see how far they were from the predators. However turning she slipped, falling and breaking her left ankle as she slid down. Petra stopped to help her up but Jillian could only scream.

"Jillian, come on!" she cried assisting her friend.

"I'm scared." She whimpered limping with the aid of Petra as they slowly struggled to escape the snarling beasts that had found their corner.

The two girls holding each other dearly looked away until the owner arrived staring at the two girls and finally focused on Petra, who stared in horror at the man arriving with his troops.

"Bring them back!" he ordered them still staring menacingly at Petra.

"But one of them is wounded." One of the troopers alerted.

"Even better," he let out. "Tie them together so they won't escape." He ordered turning on his heels and leading his troops with his hostages.

Back at the Resort, Taylor arrived after paying the driver to unfamiliar scenery. He looked at the regular guests out and about but wondered where Jillian and Petra were. He thought they might be in their rooms probably awaiting his return. He went upstairs to look for them only to his disappointment they weren't there.

Taylor felt clueless as to where they were; perhaps they left a note at the front desk he thought. He went down to the receptionist whom gave him a note left by Jillian. Looking at it he felt curious as to what it said taking a look;

Petra's feeling depressed; gone skiing to cheer her up.

We'll meet at the restaurant by 9.00pm

Hope to see you soon XOXO.

Ross chuckled at the note and kept it in his breast pocket. He checked his watch it was on 5.15 still had time to work.

He ordered some lunch; consisting of fried fillet with white wine and fritters. He studied everything he found about Blight from several intelligence networks including Mossad.

Apart from the fact he was dangerous, Blight was a former Israeli Intelligence communicator who transferred information back to Intelligence as evidence to flood out illegal trafficking. He was presumed killed in action 10 years ago but was revealed to be false selling information to enemy sides. After that he decided to upgrade his trafficking into ammunitions selling to the rebels in Iran and black ops. He had made enough money to be funded militias from his client's company to ship a new form of cargo.

Ross eyes widened at the detail bringing out the platinum case from his drawer; could they be smuggling platinum across the world? He thought for a moment using them as cases to conceal their actual shipments while using decoy minerals to convert the actual ploy made sense but for what? Could it be for war, weaponries or even a new biological weapon? He had to find out, meaning returning back to the base. He needed to be armed; he had a Wolfram P20 on him with limited ammunition at his disposal, binoculars to watch from afar and a camera to record his discovery. His plan was to execute this operation before meeting with Jillian and Petra.

Taking a deep breath he exhaled hoping to accomplish this in one piece but he had to make sure if he was captured or worse this information got to someone. He went downstairs; still no sign of the girls he soon began to worry but thought he might see them outside having some fun, he wished he was with Jillian right now but knowing his type of occupation that would never be. Taylor wrote a letter to a contact hopefully it would arrive to the person in time; the detail was to take the room he previously occupied and retrieve his only evidence and report back to HQ.

"If I don't return by 8.30, tell the two ladies I was with, that I had to leave on important business and I apologize." He said.

"Yes sir." The receptionist replied affirmatively. Taylor nodded and left the resort packed with his ski equipment ready.

He glided down the mountain hills taking the route he was familiar with to his destination. Snow began to rain heavily on the MI5 agent hiking the mountain tops until he found a perfect spot to use his skis.

He zoomed pass the trees through the Winter breeze as specks of snow glittered on his visors, he wished he had a scarf for the lower part of his face with frostbites beginning to foam around his upper-lip giving him a 5 'o' clock shadow. He remembered back at Eton when he perfected his skiing zooming past most of the other boys especially James. Skiing was his skill he had mastered it well and he could use it to his advantage. He stopped at mid ski when he reached his destination; hiding them at a corner, he took a look at his surrounding; he was blind sighted by snow everywhere making the atmosphere angelic white with snow covering every corner of the horizon.

Marching towards the edge, he could see they had upgraded their security after the event. He watched as soldiers surrounded the area; continuing with the mining process. His suspicion soon came clear he took pictures of the refinery and the process going through. It seemed so simple enough that it became too easy to be back here without any extra precautions, but something came to him in a flash, they wouldn't be expecting him again unless they were looking for him. He heard steady tracks lurking behind him, quickly turning around to prevent the assault but unfortunately met with the wolves as one pinned him down forcing his gun off the cliff.

The fierce growling and snaring of the wolves became threatening as the mysterious associate Blight was with stood in front of him with his hostages. He looked to see the two girls in harm making his heart beat faster.

"Jillian?" he was able to speak.

He extended his hand for the camera at his disposal; Ross handed it to him steadily pleading to leave the two girls out of this.

"So you know them?" He said looking at the helpless prisoners as tears fell from Jillian. "In truth I didn't think I could kill two birds with one stone." He said drawing closer to Taylor as he lay paralyzed at the sight.

"If I'm not mistaken, there were two of you then?" he asked Taylor still calm. "Where's the other one?"

"I don't know!" he lied as a wolf snapped at him nearly biting his face off.

"Don't take me for a fool!" he said holding the wolves leash slightly. "You wouldn't have known where this place was if you hadn't found it earlier."

He looked at Jillian so carefully and approached her grabbing her by the arm and letting her cling for her life.

"Don't!!" Petra cried out as Jillian screamed frightfully.

"Talk!" he ordered. Taylor watched helplessly and finally gave in.

"He's gone." He said. "He left three hours ago, there's nothing you can do." He lamented.

Still holding Jillian at an advantage, he tossed her back to land where she cried hopelessly as Petra cradled her gently.

"Take them away!" he told them.

"What about him sir?" a trooper asked.

"Leave him with me!" he ordered. Jillian with tears in her eyes looked at Ross for a tender moment with his last words being I'm sorry.

Jillian tried to reach for him but was shoved to move forward. Ross stared menacingly at the unknown man; threats won't matter at this point.

"What are you going to do to them?" He looked at Taylor and smiled revealing a devilish grin that brought wrath onto Taylor.

"What we captured them for." Still holding onto his wolves; raging to attack the defenseless Taylor. "But I'd be more focused on what will happen to you." He looked down at his killers still lurking out.

Taylor felt dismayed; he had failed to accomplish his mission and to protect Jillian now he was at the edge of death.

"I'm an MI5 agent; do you think threatening to kill scares me?"

He looked down at the edge of the cliff and back to his victim, with the dogs getting hungrier for blood.

"I have some taste; to push you to your death is too faux pas."

He stepped back pulling the dogs a distance, Taylor was given some space.

"Run." Was all he told him; Taylor staggered moving from the cliff while the man smiled, he knew what was going to happen next and didn't give it a second thought.

When he had made a distance for him, he looked at the wolves this time growling beastly at their victim.

"Seek him!" he whispered releasing them from the leash as they dashed madly to their target.

Taylor getting his form together, slipped several times making the wolves catch up, he moved faster and faster hoping to distance himself further but the blood in their eyes knew it was futile, but he had to attempt, he used his ski poles to fend them off tossing it at the approaching pack, they separated that was in an echelon form. They had been trained to an expertise that made Taylor sweat in the cold.

The final chase led him to an icy dead end as the wolves cornered him; he fell on his knees knowing his ultimate fate saying to Jillian. "I'm sorry, I failed you!"

The wolves longed at him ripping his coat before they lashed at his arm to his ribs and ravaged him. Traces of blood stained the snow cover plane with the wolves returning back to their master holding shredded pieces; Taylor had met his ultimate demise.

Bond returned to MI6 unaware of the events, it had been two weeks since he had arrived. He reached his office writing a note by his computer; Diego Voinovich in order to keep his promise to Petra. Bond wished this hadn't become a personal investigation but with everything she told him, this definitely had to be looked upon either by him alone or MI6 if interested.

He didn't stay in his apartment too long only dropping his belongings; take a quick warm bath and type up a brief report of his findings. He hadn't been called in by M giving him time to take a look at Q-lab to see what they've worked on; it had been a while since he last was there. Major Boothroys a.k.a. Q had finally retired leaving his predecessor; Montgomery to take over. Montgomery also dubbed Q was as efficient as his predecessor but a little nervous towards Bond's use of special artilleries developed especially with them being damaged but he never lost his edge. Montgomery also had an assistant Suzy Chen, a Harvard graduate in engineering recruited by M herself in the line of technology.

A lot of new faces had been seen lately replacing some of the senior staffs; Bond felt it won't be long before he was also replaced but he would be promoted as Senior executive agent basically a desk job unless called upon.

He reached Q lab only to see Suzy Chen working on the new Aston Martin DB9 an updated version of the Titanium Beast with a lot of upgrades and augmentations.

"Good evening Ms Chen." the dark roguish voice of Bond came almost making her jump. She turned to see the striking handsome devil standing afar as he noticed her figure, her dark raven hair was leveled down to her neck to trace her body towards the shapely breasts placed firmly on her and it continued to go down to her long silky legs in silver stockings. Her eyes were amazing; she obviously wore contact lens which Bond had realized first time, she had a geeky complex disguised as a beauty of the east.

"Mr. Bond." She said firmly. "I've told you never to sneak up on me!"

"I didn't." he simply replied. "I just happen to be passing by and found you in a convenient position."

She rolled her eyes in disbelief, but couldn't help but marvel at his youth hidden within this lethal weapon of her majesty. She had heard of his expositions and was bedazzled, she never fantasized about him to any extend but found him intriguing.

"Q is out but what brings you here?" she asked politely.

"Just thought I'd see the old place." He said frankly. "It's been a while since I was here."

"Well if you're interested the DB9 has been upgraded." She gestured.

"Thanks to your delicate touch I believe." He quipped.

"What is any woman going to do with you?" she said flatly.

"Oh there are some things but not right now." He told her he looked at the utilities of equipment displayed on the table. It ranged from concealed weaponry to communications device. He felt reminiscent seeing the gadgets Old Q would make, his little Christmas present to 00s; he never told him how much he appreciated them but always had a feeling he knew. Bond picked up a spherical object and rolled it to the test booth; as it entered the glass cube, it unleashed multiple spikes from its' shell and unleashed it onto the room.

"That's a nasty little present." He quipped.

"Mr. Bond!" Ms. Chen said firmly. "It would be appreciated if you didn't fiddle with some of our works!"

Bond smiled when she approached, she somewhat became self conscious whether she had something on her face; in truth the little specialist just reminded him of the times Q would complain about his disrespect towards his equipments.

"You look cute when you're angry." He said slyly as he left the department, leaving Ms. Chen blushing to an extent she quickly went back to hide it.