Chapter 9
M heard the knocking at the door and rolled her eyes in frustration. The bloody contraption he wanted her dressed in was for a far younger woman than her.
It had good stretch and give but it was entirely to low in the front and there was no back. It had some sort of built in bra that was for a far smaller woman than her. It looked obscene on her and she looked around for a shawl or cover up to wrap protectively around herself.
The door was suddenly thrown open to reveal her cleaned and dressed captor in a dark grey suit and tie. "I told you not to take long but I will forgive your impudence for the joy of your company. You look stunning M." White said looking her up and down while he clasped his hands in exuberance.
M would like to smack the look right off his bloody annoying face! "I feel like an old fool! What mistress did you buy this for and leave here after you drowned her in the bloody lake." Anything to get him to see her as nothing to toy with sexually. M desperately wanted him to rethink his desire for revenge on her...that way by making the logical argument that he could get younger...more beautiful women.
"That is basically the dress that Vesper wore when we took her to lure Bond away. It was destroyed but I had this one made in dark blue. I always knew I would find a lovely woman to wear it eventually."
"I need a wrap...this dress does not cover near enough to be worn out...at all. A woman of my age...this is not appropriate attire. Vesper was young and gorgeous." M said in a demanding yet flustered tone.
"It is just me and your husband M...I'm sure he's seen it all and I...well...I enjoy...looking at you and having you off balance."
"Yes...I suppose you do." M said. M realized that there was little that she could do to really sway the man and she straightened up and held her head high. M refused to give him the satisfaction of continuing to make her uncomfortable. She would own every line and wrinkle along with roll of unwanted fat, that she had and long ago stopped concerning herself with. If he wanted to sexualize her she was powerless to stop him. That bothered her more that she wanted to allow him to know.
"I usually attempt to hide my imperfections much as anyone but that doesn't matter if it's my husband...and I can ignore you and your attempts at a lustful gaze, because I can see right through you."
"Oh you can, can you?" White smirked at her. "You assume that my lustful gaze is not genuine. You are wrong on that note M." White took her arm and guided her to the stairs with a guard closely behind and one at the bottom. "Although my attitude towards you was originally motivated by revenge...that has changed. As I have mentioned I didn't expect to be wowed by you once we had met under my control this time."
"Yes...well control is everything. It does change perceptions, but the tides can change quickly and one has to be ready."
M tried to take inventory of the amount of mercenaries White had around him. Then she heard the protests of her angry husband as they pulled him into the hall before them. Nigel looked relieved to see her and then took in what she was wearing.
"Oh I'm quite prepared M." White whispered into her ear making her try to distance herself from him as she continued to stare at her husband.
Nigel was filthy in the same clothes from earlier but now covered in dust and grime. "I see he's been treating you better my dear...than he has me, but then I can see why and that concerns me even more."
"I didn't want to jump through his hoops but the dress was a easy concession to see you at dinner."
"Well isn't married life quaint. How do the two of you do it." White added sarcastically, while keeping a tight grip on M. He would not let her pull out of his grasp and into her husband's embrace the way she wanted. Nothing of this evening would go the way she wanted and that made him giddy with lustful revenge fantasies.
They entered the dinning room and White sat M to his right and Nigel across from her on his left but down the long table. White wanted Nigel physically and psychologically removed from their proximity.
Power plays that M knew all too well.
Nigel frowned, understanding that this was where his wife would have to barter her body and mind for his continued survival. Jeopardizing everything that she had ever stood for.
All for love...for him.
Nigel felt like a feckless asshole who deserved being locked in that bloody dungeon. He really was, and had been such an utter fool that he didn't want to survive this embarrassment.
M tried not to look at her husband, she needed to focus on White and the men serving drinks and dinner. She watched them pour the wine and hoped Nigel would know not to drink any until White took a sip.
White took the first gulp and smiled at them both in turn. "There...not poisoned, or maybe it was and I've taken the antidote." White chuckled. The server poured more into his glass.
M took a tentative sip as Nigel indulge like it was the last thing he would ever taste.
"You see...no harm. I will let you go without any injury to either of you and fly you back to Corfu in the morning. Or you may fly back to London with MI6 none the wiser. I'm sure you can keep the ones who do know from saying anything."
"You're a fool to think my people are not already aware and have a team on the way."
"They are not. You kept your mission to spy on your husband from everyone but for Bond and perhaps your chief of staff. No...there is no one working in the echelons of British power that know you are even out of country and yes; you should be concerned that I know that at all."
"Yes well I know that Haines is still in your pocket and he's being watched. Now I know there is at least one if not two others that are involved and I will be watching for them also."
"You may be reporting to them if you are a good girl and do what we ask."
"What is it you want exactly White?" M asked, as the soup was served. White had even more wine. M wondered if the man had a problem, or needed to work himself up to do what he had planed to do to them.
"I want you to do what you normally do but I want access and codes to the five eyes program."
"I will not allow you to perpetrate crimes of terrorism around the world for my life, nor my husbands. That is paramount to treason and that is not going to happen!"
"You misunderstand M. We are not nor have we ever been terrorists but we are the brokers and suppliers between these organizations. Everyone knows that information is worth more than gold these days."
M scoffed. "Harumph...why not bribe one of the CIA, I hear they are still open for business."
White smiled. "Oh we have plenty of eyes on America but Britain is the only European partner and therefore closer in our hearts."
"As if! At least you've confirmed for me that the architects of your shady organization are in or came from Europe."
"Yes we are but we do have members everywhere as I proved to you before."
They ate the soup and bread waiting for something to happen. M tried to catch Nigel's eyes on occasion but he mainly looked down at his plate. He was giving up, she could tell he didn't want to deal with this anymore and she didn't know what he would do.
"I want you to let my wife go...after you kill me." He said suddenly looking at White. "Don't assault her, make a gentleman's promise you will not sexually attack my wife for revenge. Killing me should be enough."
"Nigel!"
"Well...well. This is quite a deal. No...no...you misunderstand...Nigel. Keeping you alive, or barely alive, will make her do whatever I want her to. As for attack...I think she will come willingly if it guarantees better conditions for you. I didn't want to discuss this part until after dinner, because it feel much more like dessert. But you will be abused a bit to get her cooperation...for everything…"
"You bastard!" Nigel screamed. "Don't sleep with him! Not for better treatment. I'll live in his dungeon if it means you don't have to have his hands on you!"
"Nigel...relax. This is all just part of negotiation tactics nothing more and a team will be here soon to take the three of us back to London. I say the three of us but White may be injured again in capture and his men will most certainly be dead." M said nonchalantly, loud enough for the men standing in the far corners of the large dining room could hear.
"Still hoping that your rogue blond knight will rush through the door and save you M? Unfortunately that will not happen and you are all mine to toy with as I see fit. You will become more pliable and adapt to this situation and then you will go back to Corfu or directly to London and tell them nothing of this. Continue as if nothing has changed. I will have Bond dealt with and then you will just lie to your chief of staff and make it out as nothing much. Tell them that Bond's killed me or something just to close the issue. I will have you home tomorrow safe and sound."
"I knew you hadn't killed him! He's on his way and you need this multitude of mercenaries to keep him from killing you!"
"No...you have far too much trust in that loose cannon M. You always have by all reports I've seen. Have you been lovers long?"
"What! No! If I do it's because we trained him well and the trust was earned ten fold!"
"I will end myself if it means freeing you darling." Nigel added quietly from across the table tired of being ignored.
"Nigel! You will do no such thing and never threaten that again! Think of a good thing and hold onto that in your mind." M said concerned that he was falling down a spiral in his need to impress her with his bravery. "You are concerned about more than just my agents and that is why you're pushing for this deal so quickly. Not only will I be missed and hunted for by every SIS agency but there is something more...someone more that you fear will find out or not be happy with what you are doing here." M stared at White as he looked down at the main course that was just provided them.
"I think you're onto something darling. He is suddenly focused on food like a starving man." Nigel scoffed.
"You know I am quite hungry and you should stay silent or I will take what I am hungry for right here on the table in front of you." White said with a leer aimed at M.
"Diversion. Classic diversionary tactics. Who's house is this? You said it wasn't yours, is he the one who will be angry you've taken me? Was it never in the plans? Or have you acted out of turn? Were you just to do away with me...shoot me? Or was it my husband you were after just to extort information from afar? That is what you did to poor Vesper and Bond."
"Enough! Eat your dinner and then say goodbye to your husband!" White yelled as his cutlery clattered on his near to empty plate. M was frustrating him at every turn. He should have just shot her but there she was naked in bed with her husband and it stirred something deep within him.
"Touched a nerve dear. You excel at that, but perhaps you shouldn't be quite so goading under the circumstances." Nigel protested as one of the armed guards came to stand behind him waiting for orders from White. "Unless you fancy becoming a widow before dessert."
White smiled menacingly. "Listen to your husband for once M. He is finally making sense."
"Then leave her and take me hostage!" Nigel adds suddenly. "I can be your insurance against MI6 and disappear easily enough to go into hiding from the big bad wolf you're afraid of. Nigel wants Olivia out of the line of fire and this seems the most reasonable way to do it. However, it will only work if the man's self preservation trumps his desire for her. Taking her on the run would have more benefits of a carnal nature and that is what Nigel dreaded most besides death.
White tossed his serviette on the table and stood abruptly grabbing M by the arm and yanking her out of her seat.
Nigel jumped to his feet and lunged for White but one of his men smashed him in the upper back, making him crumble to the floor. Nigel managed to get up to his knees as he heard Olivia cry out…"NO!"
The last he saw of his wife was her panicked face as that man pulled her from the room to the stairs. Another man arrived to take Nigel by the other arm as the two yanked him to standing.
"Looks like the boss is going to have your wife for dessert after all, old man." The man in combat fatigues spat in his face. They dragged him back towards the dusty basement room where they tossed him earlier when they first arrived.
Damn his weakness! Why couldn't her lover be here now...when he would actually be useful!
Bond heard the telltale death gurgle of his fourth victim. His arm was killing him. One of the more well trained managed to grab him by the cast, twist and pull viciously. In the radio he could hear 005 count down the number he'd taken out as he moved around the property and then to the house.
"I hear commotion inside." Bond said into his comms.
Q broke through suddenly. "I have a better satellite feed now and there are a lot more signatures inside the house than originally expected. Tanner says the team is almost there and recommends waiting."
"How long?" Bond grunted into the comm as he wiped the bloody blade on his black trousers.
"30 minutes."
"That is too long. What if they kill her in that time? I'm going in." Bond said.
"That means I'm going too. Tell them to hurry Q. Bond and I are not waiting." 005 said as he pulled the trigger on another with a slight ping from the silencer.
"I will head in the front and you get through the rear. If she's not on the main level I will head upstairs and you go down to the basement in case they are in a room down there." Bond said
"Fine. I will meet you back on the main level and by then hopefully the cavalry has arrived."
White pushed M through the door and she moved away from him. As he moved so did she. The large room benefited her as she tried to keep him physically away from her. White turned away and moved to the side of the room and poured two glasses of champagne. He brought one over to her.
"You know this can be quite an enjoyable evening if you would let it M."
"As if! Intimidation...extortion...threat...I am hardly attracted to you and certainly don't see the reasoning you put forth in wanting to lay with me. You have the money and means for many girls of leisure." M took a large sip of the bubbly liquid. If anything dulling the senses might be good right now because she was beginning to doubt Bond. "Women who would be far more accommodating and lovely than I, or at least pretend to be."
White frowned at her remark "I could yes. But I find myself suddenly attracted to a woman I've held nothing but malice for, for years. I'm as confused as you. Discovering you in that room with him…"
One of White's men came to the bedroom, knocking rapidly and not even waiting for orders he opened the door and brought a mobile to White. White looked confused and then brought it to his ear.
"Yes." He began as he suddenly turned and left the room quickly. Leaving M with a glass of champagne looking about for a way out of there. Unfortunately there was only the balcony and that was too high up for her to jump for it. What she was far more interested in was the conversation he was having.
Standing in the hall with the door still open M could hear the false pleasantries and backpedaling he was doing. What made her worry, was overhearing White say…
"Why should I leave her for the psychopath when I have her in a perfect position to exploit her for our needs now? No...I don't want him after me but I also what to prove that the knowledge I can collect and use will earn us more than his twisted human entertainment division could! No...I will not...he may come but I will deal with him when he does. You know...I've never truly understood why Bond interests you so? I will be gone by morning and I'm taking her with me. I will go underground if I must and he will never find her!"
Who was he talking with and who was after her? M wondered at the terminology White used. Could it be that White was branching off from a larger organization and one with which he was having difficulties? She could use this. Now she had leverage depending on the size of the shark circling White in the water.
White came back in the room tugging on his shirt collar, his face flushed red in frustration and anger.
"You are not in control are you? I heard enough of that to know that this was all done without sanction and you were being taken to task. Let us go. That is the only way we can help you. I can guarantee that you will be under our care if you tell us about this organization and give us names."
White began to laugh. He looked at M as if in pity for her ignorance and shallow attempt to sway him to the side of what she perceived to be light, good and honourable. "No my dear...there is no hiding from Spectre."
"Spectre?" At least M now had a name besides the ever elusive Quantum. "You head Quantum but you are under the umbrella of another organization?"
White nodded and took another sip of the champagne that he must have had brought to the room and opened before they arrived. "I am to let you go and flee. I should do so immediately if I want to save my own skin?"
"Yes well, it would be better for all concerned if you accepted the inevitable."
"If it were that easy I would have done so long ago." White said with more that a note of melancholy. "And what of my revenge? A day doesn't go by where I don't feel pain in my leg for what Bond did to me. Or the mere fact that I'm finding myself so strangely drawn to you?"
"You will have to drag me kicking and screaming to bed, or to the underground with you. And it's not an advisable course of action, now that your overlord has ordered you to leave me be. That's what he wants isn't it? There is someone else coming for me? Just not at this time."
"Yes and you will be safer in my hands than his I can guarantee that!"
"Who is he?"
"He has many names and an awful face. You are the reason he is the way he is. Not metaphorically but quite literally."
M was puzzled thinking back on who that could be. No one that she had ever dealt with that would be in such an organization still lived. Yes, she had made many enemies but they were usually killed once they got to the level White was talking about.
"Who were you talking with?"
"I cannot say, but now is when you decide to give me a night of pleasure before we depart. I will release your husband but I will keep you. There is the deal I will present you for a night in your arms. You however, are now my insurance policy against all odds and sides of this internal fight."
"You are not actually planning on walking the tightrope between MI6 and this other organization for an extended period? Because I will not cooperate with you and you know it!"
M was beginning to panic. Dear god where was Bond and Nigel. How could this man...how could any man want to forcibly take someone who doesn't want to have relations with them.
White slammed his fists on the bar as he placed his now empty flute glass down "You will do everything I ask and if you do not...I still have enough contacts and men under my direct pay to do in your entire family!"
"Hardly the way to a woman's heart...threatening her child!"
"Do you even have a heart?" White spat as he moved towards her menacingly. All that wine at dinner and the champagne had gone to his head as he slurred a little on that last question. "You are a egocentric controlling bitch who gets in the way of everything!"
"Then let me out of your sight...I certainly don't want to be here!" M yelled back at him not giving an inch of ground to him moving towards her.
M knew she was in danger but to hell with it! She will not go down without a fight. At least dead she won't betray her position. Past M's have been military and withstood bombs and she would do no less facing down a murderous rapist.
White grabbed her wrists in his hands and pushed her to the right side of the room.
Towards the massive bed.
The look in his eyes was pure murderous desire and M's heart skipped a beat in sudden dread.
In the distance she heard a sudden crash, or was that within the room as she fought against White pushing her into a prone position. She then felt the back of her legs hit something hard and she began to fall...
To be continued….
