Chapter 4
A/N: This one is a little short but I need to get the action rocking along.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Monday morning bright and early they walked into the ARC, pretending to despise each other. When they got to the check station Lester flashed his badge and signed Christine in as a guest. In a loud voice he requested that someone from security accompany her while she was in the building.
So it was a trio of people that walked over to Burton's suite of offices. His secretary Matilda Jones was typing something when they entered the outer office. "Here we are, don't expect me to wish you luck." James waltzed out, leaving the security man in his wake.
"As if I'd need it!" She shot back at him before turning to the secretary, "I have an appointment at eight." Christine said like someone that was used to being obeyed immediately.
The older secretary was used to people acting like they were special. At least this time her orders coincided with Christine's so she wasn't forced to destroy any middle management egos. "Yes ma'am. Just in there." Regally, like a queen Christine swept past her into Burton's office. "Close the door, and leave your bodyguard outside." He directed her.
Pretending to be shocked to see him, she did as he asked, then she stalked up to the desk. "What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed at him with her hands planted on his desk.
"Mrs. Johnson, or can I call you Christine?"
"You can call me whatever the hell you like once you tell me why you're here."
He steepled his hands in front of him and acted resigned. "After you decided to downsize me out of a job, I was forced to seek employment outside the civil service." He swept his hands to indicate the huge office, "and here we are. How times have changed. It really worked out for the best for me."
Gesturing to the chair he told her, "Please have a seat, Mrs. Johnson."
Still suspicious of him, she did as he asked while he started to explain. "I was curious if you had changed."
"What do you mean?"
"Are you still ambitious? Are you still the Christine Johnson that manufactured a reason to sack me over the merest suspicion of impropriety?"
Not even pretending the annoyance she felt, she snapped, "What do you want Philip?"
"I want you." He grinned at the obvious crude double meaning, "To work for me. I've got a simple job in mind for you with a big payoff."
"What?"
"I want you to destroy Lester. You can have his job once he's gone. I have the feeling we can work together and accomplish so much more if you were in charge of the ARC."
She didn't have to fake her surprise at that. It took every bit of her training to focus in past the shock. "He's harder to destroy than you think." She replied once her tongue worked again. "I've tried before."
"Yes but then you had something to lose. Now look at you, no job, no resources, get rid of him and you'll have everything you've lost back again. You position, your power, your money...everything." His voice trailed off.
"Take it or leave it Mrs. Johnson."
She didn't even have to think about it. "I'll take it."
"Excellent. There is a bit of a deadline on this. He must be gone by the end of the month. Now I understand you're living with him? How did that come about?"
Mechanically, she fed him the same story about drug interactions and ended with, "I'll be off the pills in another two weeks. Once I have a bit of money I'll move into the first flat I can find. Being in the same space as that insufferable man is driving me insane."
"If you had a bit of money now would you move out?"
"Yes. But that would make him suspicious, unless you have a previous history of advancing paychecks or loaning money?" she inquired sweetly.
He tossed his hands up, "Alas, no. Quite the opposite actually." Lester had to get the Minister to order him to pay Connor and Abby that back pay. "On second thought it might be easier to have you in the same flat as him. It won't take much to get him removed, just the hint he's broken the rules."
While she contemplated that Burton looked right at her and asked, "Why did you suspect I was a spy?"
Christine only smiled at him. "I didn't take my pills this morning. I wanted to be clear headed for the interview."
He laughed, his ploy failing. "I don't think that will be necessary in the future, I need you to be healthy for this job. Bringing down the slippery James Lester. Can you get him disgraced and tossed in jail? I'll give you a bonus if you manage that. Perhaps something with small boys...maybe goats..." He stroked his chin and pondered the possibilities. "Make it spectacular. You aren't going to tell him what's going on while you're...under the influence?"
"No. I hate his guts." Christine managed to put a fair bit of disgust into her tone, "No amount of medication could make me let this slip."
"How are you going to get rid of him?" Burton inquired.
"I'll find something. I've got two weeks to work." She promised him. "Don't do anything hasty like bugging his flat. You have to leave me alone to work."
He smirked and knew exactly what she caught him at before. "I would never dream of jostling your elbow."
"Good, now, about my salary..."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Thirty minutes later found her sitting in a small side office filling out form after form for her new job. There were so many thing she still had to leave blank. She got a bit of notepaper from the secretary and started to make a list of things she was still needing. Bank account...phone number...car...
Abby found her there a few hours later.
"Did you get the job?" The blonde girl parked herself in the other chair and waited eagerly.
"Yes." Christine smiled at her. "I'm going to be one of the managers in that corporation he works for. Some sort of liaison position."
"Neat." Abby drew the word out. "So how are you feeling?"
Christine thought about it and decided to start playing the game.
"Sick, and sore. I couldn't take my pills this morning, I didn't want to be indiscreet during the interview. I'll pop them when I leave here and take the evening set just before bed."
Abby looked so sympathetic at the moment that Christine kept talking. "I get the stitches out on Thursday, I expect that will make me feel better. They itch and get achy if I move around too much."
"How are you getting to your doctors office?"
She shrugged. "I expect I'll take a cab."
"I could take you, if I could get the time off work." Abby offered. Christine reached out and grabbed her hand, "That would be lovely. I'm sure it can be arranged. I expect if I threaten to chat up the cab driver then James will allow it. I'll have the added benefit of scaring him."
"You really enjoy harassing him, don't you?" The younger woman was quite amused at their mutual loathing.
Christine shrugged again. "It's a hobby. We've not gotten on since about the first minute we met. Believe me I think the highlight of his day is coming up with some good one-liner to zing me with. It's sad really."
Abby laughed with her.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
As soon as they got in the car to go back to his flat he started in on her.
"Did you get the job?"
"Yes." She held up a note that said, 'maintain cover', before crumpling it up and tossing it back in her purse. He didn't hesitate.
"Good. How soon until you get a check and can move out?"
"Two weeks. He won't advance me any money."
"Cheap bastard."
"I don't hear you offering me a loan."
"That's because I know you so much better than he does. It's bad enough I have to keep an eye on you until you can keep your mouth shut again."
She snorted and in mutual silence they got back to the building. She nudged him away from the lift and towards the stairs, judging the five story walk worth the risk of breaking routine.
"What? Why are we walking?" He asked once they were in the stairwell. She slipped her high heels off and started climbing up the stairs. "Did you find out what he's scheming?"
Christine laughed, a bright cheerful sound that echoed in the empty stairwell. "His plan? He wants me to destroy you. Get you sacked, or arrested if I can manage it."
"That complete cretin!" James exclaimed from behind her.
"It gets better. He's rewarding me with your job. I told him not to do anything cute like bugging your flat, but the car is too big a risk. Don't say anything on your phone either. We'll have to work out a code."
James paused for a second and looked at her in shock. "Bugging my flat? That's illegal!" He huffed and followed her up the stairs.
"Never stopped me." She dropped casually.
He was so surprised he stopped walking for a minute. "You what!"
"Don't be such a wet blanket. It's not like you did anything interesting anyway. Let me search the place before we make plans. For the obvious reasons, I don't trust him."
Absolutely stunned he let them into the flat and sat on the couch. She turned the tv on the news and turned it up slightly, then did the same with the tv in his home office and her bedroom. The radio in the kitchen joined the general din and she emerged from the junk cupboard with a screwdriver in her hand.
For the next hour he watched her remove every vent and electrical cover, intently examining behind them. Then she moved onto the light fixtures, checking every bit of electrical wiring she could reach. After that she stood in each room and did a slow turn about and repeated her search the first day for listening devices.
Her rifling through his briefcase and checking all the seams and taking the handle off to check it was solid did raise an eyebrow but he didn't stop her. She was serious about this. She even popped the cover off all the electrical devices and took a quick peek inside, all the tv's, radio, even the microwave and toaster.
Intent on her search she didn't see how James as watching her, like she was dangerous creature that might turn on him at any moment and rip his throat out. He wasn't quite certain what he got himself into. She took interoffice politics to an entirely new level. Competitive didn't begin to describe her.
Eventually she had done all she could. She waved him to follow her and pointed to his bedroom door. He sighed, and opened it for her. He helped her look for anything out of the ordinary, and he rifled through his dresser and checked under each drawer. James drew the line at letting her toss his closet. He did that while she perched awkwardly on the edge of his bed. He was suddenly glad he always made it up in the mornings.
"Did you check all your suit pockets and cufflinks?"
"Yes."
"Then we're clean." Christine declared. "We can plot here. I've got to make a shopping list for you."
"Shopping?"
"Do you have any listening devices handy?"
"No!" He gasped, "That's illegal!"
"Stop being such a boy scout!" She snapped right back at him. "If you want to know what the next step in his plan is then we've got to bend a few rules. We've got a deadline also. If I can't run you off in the next few weeks he might resort to something drastic. He's dangerous."
"Drastic? What do you mean drastic?"
"He was pretty hot for you to be gone. He's got big plans and I have the sudden desire to stomp all over them."
"Why? Isn't my job what you wanted?"
"It was, three years ago, or seven days ago depending on how you count. Not now. Now I just want to destroy him and get on with my life." She smiled and was really quite scary, "It might even be therapeutic."
James thought about it and couldn't really find any objections. "All right then. Were do we start?"
"We're going to need about a half dozen cheap, pay as you go mobile phones, one of those new droid phones, and a soldering iron. Like I said, I'll make you a list. You'll have to pay cash for everything..."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Two hours later he was sitting at his bar, marveling at the woman next to him. "Where did you learn to do that?"
She barely glanced at him. "I've worked for the MI-6 my entire life. I've picked up a few things."
James surveyed the dismantled mobile phones and random circuit boards, bits of impossibly tiny wire and a few other electronic things he wasn't sure what they were but the man at the computer story had retrieved little baggies from little bins full of little parts when asked for them.
He objected to her simple answer. "No, learning how to boot a computer up in safe mode so there's no password, that's picking something up or slapping a file cabinet in just the right place to make the lock disengage, that's picking something up. This is something else entirely."
"I've always been a hands on type of girl." She ignored him again as she assembled various components under a giant tabletop magnifying glass and started to carefully tack them together with her new soldering iron.
"Did you build whatever you spied on me with?" Desiring the details of that had been rattling around in his brain all evening.
"If you must know, I didn't. I had resources then, I didn't have to resort to crude hands on devices. We really need to discuss your resource management."
"Given that this is highly illegal, I don't think we will."
"Building listening devices isn't illegal." She smirked, "We won't be breaking any laws until we plant them."
"You're mad."
"One of us has to be. Burton isn't going to spare you because of something being the tiniest bit illegal." She handed him the giant tweezers and jerked her chin towards the tiny bits under the magnifying glass, "See where I'm holding this?"
He took the tweezers from her and kept them exactly where they were.
"Yes."
"Hold it right there." She started to weld again.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He complained to the ceiling.
"Don't move," She snapped, "you're mucking up my listening device."
He dragged his attention back to what she was doing and asked, "What's the droid phone for? I had to get it added onto my mobile plan, they wouldn't sell it to me separately. I got it insured so when you dismantle it I can report it as lost and get my money back." He was a touch proud of himself for that bit of forethought.
"It's for me." Now she was smirking at him, "We've got to be able to stay in touch at the office."
He was appalled. "It's a four hundred pound phone before the rebate!"
"So?" She was indifferent.
"Damnable woman."
"Oh, you'll thank me later. You might want to get one for yourself, it's got twice the processing power of that old blackberry you use." Christine could sense him frowning at her and grinned again. "I looked it up. There's been so many advances in miniaturization... it's going to take me ages to get caught up."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
It took her two hours to get everything wired up to her satisfaction and it was nearing midnight. She stretched on the bar stool and surveyed her work with no small amount of pride.
There were six little hodge-podge listening devices laid out on the counter.
It was just cheap mobile phone microphones that would pick up everything, transmitters, and a connection to be jacked into a power source. It was about as simple as it got.
"Now what?" James asked her. She shrugged. "Two for his office, one for his car and three for his house."
"How exactly do you plan on planting them?"
"The car will be the easiest. If he parks it on the street then I can install it tonight. Do you know where he lives?"
James shook his head and she despaired. "We are having that conversation about resources." She promised him then she shook her head and had the totally unintended consequence of showing off her long brunette hair. "Honestly, how did you get as high as you have without knowing basic operational information like where your biggest enemy lives?"
"Actually, my biggest enemy is living down the hall from me." He retorted, but it wasn't true, exactly.
She laughed. "Aren't you past that? We hadn't been enemies since you took my cat to the vet."
James took this opportunity to bring up another point. "Seriously, why are you helping me? I know it's not the money, you're brilliant, you can make the money back in a few years' time."
Christine considered the question honestly and met James's eyes for the briefest instant. "During the interview he said if I helped him destroy you I could have it all back. Everything I lost. Except I can't."
She started to bundle the trash up in a few small plastic bags because she just couldn't face him now, "I can never have my mum back and you were really kind to her during the last few years of her life. I'll always owe you for that."
She didn't tell him that there were a few pictures of him, seated on that horrible rosebud print sofa in her mum's living room with a mug of tea in his hand and carefully not smiling at the camera. Her old cat Jack was perched on the arm of the sofa watching him like a hawk. That was probably why he wasn't smiling. Jack had a habit of occasionally going on kamikaze missions against all humans for existing in his reality.
James watched her clean up the mess and then before he could think better of it he reached out and ran a hand up her arm to rest on her shoulder. It wasn't quite a hug. "Thank you."
The moment was suddenly not getting awkward in the way it was supposed to. She was...comfortable with his hand resting on her. That was unexpectedly odd. She had to break the moment somehow, she wasn't about to tell him that photographic proof he was nice to her mum and cat had made her rethink her feud. She said lightly, "And I despise Burton."
He didn't seem to notice how melancholy she suddenly became. "Tell me about that. What exactly was he doing that tipped you off?"
"I couldn't prove anything, but some technology we were perfecting was discovered being used by a Chinese agent. A whole field team was killed, that bastard. I think he sold it, and was eager for more, so I sacked him."
"China...that's an interesting theory. That would make him a traitor then." James perked up a bit. "We still shoot traitors. Do you think he's trying to secure the ARC for another country?"
"It could be. I don't know. I just don't know." She set the two bags with the discarded phone cases and electronic bits on the counter. "In the morning we're going to stop somewhere on the way to the ARC. It doesn't matter where. We'll each dispose of one bag in the restroom bin. Even if he's got someone following you they shouldn't find it."
James thought for a moment before saying, "There's a bakery on the way. I stop sometimes for a danish and coffee."
"Excellent." She was quite pleased with herself.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
If you like it or if you don't then please review and let me know. I know where I want to go with this story but getting there is going to take some encouragement.