Chapter 10
M got out of the shower to find that her suit of clothing had been removed from where she left it and replaced with a navy blue evening gown.
Beautiful but for a much younger woman. Cut off the shoulder with a plunging neckline, a fitted skirt with a slit up either side and a flowing overlay of a shimmering fabric of the same colour blue.
How on earth did Oberhauser know and get a dress in her size? Not to mention shoes...and undergarments, did he have a stockpile for female captives? The thought made a shiver climb her spine as she felt the material on the dress.
This disturbed her more than she thought it would. Having no choice but to wear the garment M pulled it on and put some modest makeup as she teased her hair into her normal pixie cut.
Looking into the mirror M wondered about what was about to happen and memories of her life bubbled unwanted to the surface.
"Damn it all!" M had been trying desperately not to look back...but everything about this brought memories from the past.
Peel and King were distant past and helped her not dwell on the loss of MI6 and the work she had done there for the last 20 years. She had veered away from the news to avoid being frustrated by her inability to do anything about it. The world was not hers to micromanage any longer. She could not affect the outcome of a high level kidnapping or retaliate for a murder.
No...none of that work...all that time trying to find out who was behind these shady organizations. Quantum, Greene Planet...they were all linked, as she thought but the rationale and motivation was quite different from what she had surmised.
That Silva was tossed towards her like some rabid, diseased dog just because of her closeness...no she refused to be...he was not...Bond was her agent not her…
All because of the proximity of her to this James Bond. Oberhauser had caused all this death destruction, not for political power or money the typical tyrannical motivations, but for revenge.
No this was bloody infuriating! Just for personal revenge! Nothing Bond could have ever done to Oberhauser as a child could amount to this.
She'll show Oberhauser revenge if she can manage it. M reached down between the mattress and retrieved the knife Alec had given her. She cut off a strip from the bed linen and placed her foot on the chair beside the bed.
The slit in her dress allowed her into access her thigh and tie the sheet fabric around her. M slid the knife carefully in place and then smoothed her dress down over her legs again. She hoped her training had prepared her for what she was about to do.
Once M got what she could from Oberhauser she planned on killing him for what he had done. She had never done that herself but with Peel's training she believed that she would be able to do it if she had too.
M Just hoped that the others could assist in taking out the guards so that they might just be able to survive this misadventure.
M took a deep breath to prepare herself and picked up the phone.
"Hello...Carl...yes...I'm as ready as I will ever be."
Two guards came and collected Peel and King. King had brushed off his suit and they had quickly pressed it for him when he got cleaned up.
Emma was resplendent in a bright strapless purple gown that hugged her tightly. The shawl and shoes were silver and matched her hair.
Peel instantly hooked her arm through King's as they slowly walked the corridor to who knew what. "I don't know wether to be excited or disgusted that these people have a selection of women's formal wear in stock out here in the desert."
"They do and to your benefit, you are lovely. I heard we've been invited to dinner. I do hope M is in attendance."
"You still can't stop thinking about her can you? Not that I blame you in this situation love...but...it will never really work between us will it?"
Arthur paused looking down at her hand and sighing. "No...it won't"
Emma patted his arm. "Don't worry. I always knew. I just knew that she did not want the pressure you would put on her so I became the distraction. I believe that her heart belongs to another."
"Nigel is dead almost two years now?"
"Not him love. Her agent."
"What! Agent? Who? Bond?"
Emma chuckled. "You really don't pay much attention for a spy. Or maybe because it wasn't about you, you ignored all the signs."
"Signs of what!?" King said flustered.
"Bond is hers and reportedly he must feel the same way, or our host wouldn't have been so singularly interested in her. I know she has important information in her head, we all do but it was definitely more than that."
"Bond! That disaster of an agent is the same age as her children!"
"There is no explaining matters of the heart King and you know that as well as I do. You were using me as a distraction as much as I was using you. Deep down you knew she wasn't interested and never would be. We've had our fun and now...now we will just have to wait and see what happens next."
"I'm sorry Emma. For what it's worth, I'm sorry." King smiled down on her and Peel returned the smile as he pat his arm affectionately.
"Me too darling, me too."
Illya dressed in the suit provided. Blofeld must think that he was a wild card in all this and that is why he didn't send him with Janus.
Someone knocked on the door and asked if he was ready for dinner. Illya answered to see five men. Once was being closely watched by 4 men he was a handsome blond man in a metallic coloured suit.
Illya nodded to the other man as he walked down the hall.
"What are you in for?" Illya asked with a smirk.
"I'm not quite sure why I'm still here. Franz must still want me for something."
This was the British agent Janus and M had spoken of. Bond...if he remembered correctly. "I don't know why I'm still here either but that Blofeld didn't know what to do with me. I hope that the others are fine."
"Others? What others?"
"Enough talking!" One of the guards yelled as they pushed them on the shoulders.
They reached the dining room and Bond froze in the doorway as Illya went past Bond to go to the side of Emma Peel. M was to the right of Blofeld with King beside her. Emma was resplendent and standing by the table on the left side of Blofeld with an empty seat on either side of her.
Illya assumed the structure was to Blofeld's liking. The male, female distribution was logical as was that he wanted the English agent beside him and across from his former boss. M too looked lovely and by the gasp Bond made seeing her for the first time. His shock was palpable but then he pulled back as Illya moved towards Emma.
"M!?" A guard on either side of him grabbed each of his arms as Bond tensed. He was about to fly across the room and sweep her up off her feet but then he remember Franz was watching him carefully and decided it would be prudent to play this cool.
Queen of his universe...now it all made sense. "Nice to see you again M? Where have you been hiding yourself? Not here with my foster brother I hope?" Bond said with a joking voice as to appear merely flirtatious and not seriously put out. Inside he was furious at her for faking being dead.
"No, I would not choose to stay here, I can't abide deserts."
"I see your wit is as dry as ever." Bond couldn't believe she was sitting there across from him in a beautiful gown...glowing and trying not to seem anxious.
"My dear brother thank you for waking up intime to join me and my new guests. Of course you know your beloved M but to her right is her would be lover Chester King of the auspicious Kingsman organization."
King tensed the moment Blofeld said his name. "Yes I knew of course. And the vivacious former Avenger, Emma Peel, daughter of Sir John Knight and my oh my if we don't have a knight and a King in attendance." Blofeld laughed at his own joking observation.
Bond took in both these people and wondered how long M had know these people.
"Last but not least, former agent of UNCLE, Illya Kuryakin who came here to make a deal with Janus. An old friend of the previous 007 MI6 had, 006 was he not? Another one of your lost souls M?"
M looked down into her water and merely nodded. She was having a difficult time meeting Bond's gaze. It was too like reliving those last moments between them in the kirk at Skyfall.
"I don't know if finding out that Alec Trevelyan is still alive shocks me anymore Franz, as everyone seems to be faking their own deaths now. I even did it after failing to capture Patrice the first time." Bond met M's eyes and held them.
This was the first time he had really ever said anything that amounted to regret for doing that to M. He hoped she would reciprocate and be sorry for what she had bloody well put him through this last year without her.
"I'm sure M was inconsolable. But tell me how long you've been attracted to the matriarch of MI6 Mr. King? After all she went on to head up the competition rather than marry you." Blofeld inserted, changing direction of the questioning as fast as he could to rattle the assembled guests.
Bond was shocked, his eyes drawn to the well dressed man sitting beside M. King frowned and looked between M and Bond's foster brother.
"I have known her a long time and although I consider her a very dear friend, it was unfortunately never to be any more than that. Considering she married one of my best friends, I was fated to a different path and nothing has changed in her widowhood."
"So you knew she lived? Did you James? No I think not. What about you, the beguiling Mrs. Peel? You have had a storied career as well as public affairs with former spies and partners over the years."
"Darling you make it sound unusual and sorted when it was neither. Imagine...taking that stance in this day and age! Ha!" Emma laughed with the absurdity of it all. "If you reflect on the times as they are now nothing I did was at all unusual. Mr. Steed was my lover and partner as we searched for my husband. Illya helped on occasion but when we found Mr. Peel he was...well...not the man I married."
"So it worked out in the end but alas Steed took ill and died." Franz said articulating with waving hand as if shoeing away a fly.
"Why are you claiming responsibility for his cancer? I don't doubt that a man such as you has the audacity to believe he could muster such a power for himself but you would have been a very young man to have poisoned him in any way." Peel said narrowing her eyes at Blofeld.
M was shocked. Peel always played it cool and jovial but Blofeld had struck a nerve and she did not like it. M had never really seen her truly angry, until now.
"Quite right M'Lady. Shame you were so despondent that you were put out to pasture early. A brilliant mind such as yours. I could use a woman like you in this organization. I could use both you lovely ladies."
"Now we get the the core of this disaster. You just need a mum to look after you don't you? All damaged men do." Peel said with a smirk over at Bond trying to get something more out of the quiet agent beside her. By god he was a handsome man. Emma understood M's attraction to him and he just emitted waves of turbulent trouble.
"Ha, no. A mother I do not need but analysis from those who are well versed in the old ways of spying are always a welcome addition to the crew. You and M could help me make a brave new world."
"I've read that book and mind control is not all it's cracked up to be." King adds. "What do you have planned for the gentlemen? Guillotine? Paces at dawn? Or just shot in the desert?"
"Tisk...tisk...not at dinner Mr. King. No we must talk about James and how it has come to all of this."
"Why Franz? Still jealous that your daddy taught me survival skills and that I used that knowledge for a better career path than you?" Bond added.
M could see Oberhauser's jaw tighten in response. "Speaking of dear old dead fathers...and brothers...M...did you ever tell him about James Bond?"
M's mouth hung open in shock. "That was years ago."
"James Bond was a good agent from what I remember of him. A very honourable man." King added.
"An outrageous flirt to boot and a good looking one. Are you related sexy?" Emma Peel directed at Bond with a wink.
M was blushing and could not meet James' eyes again.
"You see dear brother, not only has your name been a code name for every 007 but the first was another who genuinely owned your name. Your dear uncle James who died when you were young. I cannot believe that M and MI6 would keep that from you." Franz said with a malicious smile. "Specially since they were an item."
"What!" King and Peel exclaimed in unison. Both of them staring at M for any sign of acknowledgement.
"I did not! And you're just pushing buttons now. I was working as an analyst and yes I did meet James...we never socialized."
"Tisk...tisk M...I would have thought that the illustrious James Bond 007, notorious ladies man would have swept you off your feet! You were adorable from the photos I've gathered."
"When...in the last three hours since we arrived? You really shouldn't have done that Oberhauser. Q will know that you've been peeking. The new M will have a team sent just to figure out what is going on out here in the middle of no where."
"You trust to highly in your compatriots M. Same goes for you King. I don't think that signal you sent from your cane managed to get to its intended target. I have men chasing down Merlin and Q as we speak. If they cannot be turned to my cause then they will meet their end just like the retired agents I have them searching for."
Carl arrived with a message in hand and gave it to Blofeld. "Oh...my. Well everyone I think we may have to retire early as the power is about to go out."
Suddenly the room plunged into darkness and only the candle light remained.
"What is going on Oberhauser? Satellite going overhead or a drone perhaps looking for us?" M asked as she calmly sipped her wine. Oberhauser was shifting...he was nervous. The lights were dark so it was time for her to act. M pulled her knife from her the strap on her leg.
King caught the movement and stopped her hand taking the knife from her. There was no way he was about to let M try to do this with guards in the room. He dropped his serviette on the ground and bent to pick it up. A guard came forward as King came up and brought his cane up to connect with the jaw of the guard.
The next moments were a flurry of activity to the flicker of candle light. Muffled grunts, groans, the telltale pop of a gun going off and screams moved around the darkened dining room as bodies hit the floor.
Lives leaked out of punctured bodies in moments that seemed to stretch on in the imagination in such confined terror. The candles were tipped, extinguished in pools of their own wax on the table and the darkness surrounded them in sudden silence.
"Bond!" M called out.
"M!" Bond replied as he tried to move around the darkened room.
"Peel?" M asked desperately.
"Yes...King! Illya?" Peel responded in a choked tone.
What condition were they in and how to proceed crossed M's mind as a hand grabbed her and pulled her to the side of the room. There was a door opened as the air changed around them and she was pulled out into the moonlit corridor.
A groan of pain emanated from the man pulling her out of the room and slamming and locking the door behind them.
It was not Bond...