Bond pulled the car over in a back alley a couple of streets away from the building they were meant to be entering. He reached under his seat and pulled out a black gun case that looked suspiciously small to Q.
"Please don't tell me you've brought a Taurus for me," Q said, even as he watched the Double-Oh take out the pocket pistol and load it for him. "I usually assign that particular gun to female agents who need something small to conceal within their dresses."
"It'll be easier for you to use if you need to." He paused for a moment before passing it over. "I know M said he wanted prisoners but I want you to promise me you won't hesitate to shoot."
Q rolled his eyes at the man. Of course he wouldn't hesitate if some mad man was running towards him with a gun. Obviously an eye roll wasn't the answer Bond was looking for, as he pulled the gun back out of Q's reach. "Promise. Me."
A command. "I promise." Bond was obviously pleased with that answer as he handed over the gun which Q quickly put in the holster strapped to his ankle. He checked the blueprints which he had stored on his phone for easy access. "Shall we?"
James cleared his throat and turned away from Q to get out of the car. It was always a little awkward after Bond had used the hold he had over Q to get what he wanted. Not that it happened often, though it had happened enough times to make Q realise how much power Bond had over him. Bond didn't head off in the direction of the street they needed but to the boot of the car, where he retrieved a black suit jacket which he handed to Q.
Q raised his eyebrows to which James responded to with, "Well, you don't think a high-end London club is going to let you in that cardigan, do you?'
"No, perhaps not." He swapped his comfy cardigan for the surprisingly well-fitted jacket. "It fits."
"That's because it's your size. I bought it a few weeks ago and I've been waiting for the moment I could trick you out of your cardi." James smirked at Q, which made it very hard not to be completely immature and stick his tongue out at the Alpha.
"Are you ready?" Q asked instead.
"Yes. Come on, stay behind me and for god's sake, keep your earpiece in." Q scoffed at that, remembering the many missions that Bond had 'misplaced' his earpiece during. Q followed Bond to the street they needed and stayed behind a wall while Bond scouted out the area.
James took his hand, pulling him out and towards the nightclub which was located in the centre of the busy street. "Come on."
"The hand-holding?"
"One of the bouncers is a Beta and there's a queue. If we walk in at his side, he's more likely to let us past as he won't want me to think he is thinking lowly on you." Bond was right. The bouncers unclipped the red rope to let them through as soon as they were close enough to smell for a Beta.
The club was crowded, loud, and smelled faintly of sweat. The sort of place that Q hated to be and had only frequented when it was truly unavoidable. James simply pulled him over to a booth and sat him down before gesturing that he was going to get drinks from the bar. Q took out his phone and began to load up the blueprints of the building.
"Where's the entrance to the cellar?" The Double-Oh's voice drifted into his ear through his ear piece.
"Give me a second." Q quickly worked out where Bond was located in the building in relation to the cellar entrance. "Ah."
"Ah?" Bond glanced over to try and gage the Quartermaster's expression.
"Behind the bar. There looks to be a storeroom; can you see it?" Bond made a humming noise, acknowledging that he could in fact see the door. "There seems to be a trap door leading to the cellar in there."
"Of course there is. No other entrances, I assume." Bond began to head back to their table with two drinks.
"Negative." A white wine was placed in front of him and he watched as Bond remained standing but downed his whisky.
"We need a distraction. Go when I tell you to and I'll meet you down there as soon as I can." A pained look passed 007's face. "Remember your promise."
With that, he turned and disappeared into the crowd. Q looked around for a better vantage point near to the bar; he spotted a pillar on the edge of the dance floor and only a couple of metres from the bar. He headed over to it, but before he made it, a scuffle broke out near the bar area at the opposite side to the store room. The staff behind the bar both turned towards it, as well as the bars other patrons, leaving a clear path to the storeroom.
"Q, go." Bond's slightly breathless voice instructed. Q took a deep breath and ran, placing his hands on the bar surface and jumping over. He dropped to the floor once he was over it, glanced up to make sure no one had noticed him, then dived through the open storeroom door, yanking the trap door open and taking the steps into the cellar two at a time. First, he checked that there was definitely no one around, and then he caught his breath. Adrenaline. It pumped though his veins, making his limbs shake; how did agents manage to finish their missions mostly intact with all this pumping through them.
"I'm in the cellar. How long?"
"Five minutes. Need to shake off these bouncers." The man's voice was quiet, but Q could hear a definite echo.
"Are you hiding in the toilet?"
"Yes. Just until the bouncers return to their posts and I can sneak into the cellar." Q listened while working out which way he had to go. It was actually quite complicated as this was an old London wine cellar. Plenty of twists, turns, pillars, and solid walls which kept the Thames at bay. He took out a small spray canister from his pants pocket and sprayed the bottom of his shoes. A simple liquid which contained a high concentration of chlorophyll, which meant his footsteps would glow blood red under a UV light. Luckily, one of the gadgets that Q had added to Bond's phone was a UV light.
"Follow my footprints using the UV light on your phone when you get down here," Q told Bond, heading off in the direction the blueprints where showing him.
"You are a clever boy, aren't you, Q?"
"I try."
There was nothing but silence for the rest of Q's walk through the maze of a cellar and he sighed in relief when he heard the familiar buzz of a server through a doorway straight in front of him. He took out his gun before going any further, holding it out in front of him, aiming as he entered the room. When he had assured himself that there was no one there, he put his arms to the side of him, racing toward a computer which was attached to a huge wall-to-floor server, which stretched across the whole five-metre wall. God, what ten of these things could do in the wrong hands. Q knew he needed to be thorough in wiping this computer, and any of the others he could gain access to.
"I'm at the server. No one here. I'm going to begin to take down the firewall." Bond didn't answer for a while but the music had gotten louder again, so Q assumed he must be back in the clubs main room.
"Stay alert."
"Of course."
As Q began to take down the firewall, he listened out to hear what was going on at Bond's end; he could hear that the man was finally in the cellar and on his way. It wasn't long until he heard approaching footsteps and it took Q only a couple of seconds to realise they were out of sync with the ones he could hear in his earpiece. He reached for the gun and flipped round in the chair but it was too late – the man had already spotted Q and had his finger on the trigger while he hadn't even aimed his gun yet.
Bang. Bang. Two shots echoed through the cellar.
He closed his eyes, expecting to feel the bite of bullets enter his chest, but it never came. When he opened his eyes he found the man in front of him clutching his chest with his mouth open slightly in shock. He fell to his knees before his head hit the ground with a painful crack. That's when Q saw James Bond. Gun still aimed and stony look on his face.
Their gazes locked over the dying man. "I didn't hesitate, he was just quicker."
"I know. Now finished the job before more of them turn up." Q turned back to the computer, frantically typing in the lines of code.
"Okay, I've just got to send this virus out to all the other computers attached to this one and then start to wipe the thing completely." He heard the unmistakable snap of a neck and knew that Bond had put the guy out of his misery. It surprised him that he didn't feel anything; it was just... business. "Are they using the club to enter this place?"
"No. The other entrances are blocked off but there is a large enough hall in the wall a couple of rooms back, which suggests they have been using the sewers to get in here," Bond told him, dragging the man's body to the other side of the room and laying it against the brick wall, checking the pockets. "No identification."
"It's so simple it's brilliant. There must be hundreds of unused cellars in London that can be accessed via the sewers. Not very good for the foundations, though." He entered the last line of code, moving back with a satisfied sigh as he watched the computer begin to wipe itsself. "Show me to this sewer, then."
A quick glance of a map and Q had them through the sewers and out of a manhole not 50 yards away from where their car was parked in no time. He dialled M's number as he climbed into the passenger seat.
"Mission accomplished?"
"Yes, sir. One fatality. No other suspects. Though we have learnt that they are using the sewers to gain access to disused cellars." Bond pulled out of the alley as Q reported the outcome of their mission to M while simultaneously composing an email on his iPad.
"The body?"
"Emailing a map and instructions of how to gain access to the body to the clean-up team as we speak."
"Very well. I'll see you both tomorrow at..." He paused, and Q imagined he was checking his diary to see when he could fit the pair of them in for a debrief. "11am."
"We'll see you then," Q confirmed before terminating the call. He looked at Bond, realising the man was frowning. "Thank you."
"What for?" James voice was gruff and sounded irritated.
"Shooting that man before he shot me." Q didn't think he really needed to clarify.
"I'd take a bullet for you; I am your Alpha and that's my job. You don't need to thank me for saving your life."
Q stayed quiet for the rest of their journey home. He didn't even complain when Bond climbed into bed with him smelling of whisky and cigarettes a couple of hours after Q himself had tried to get to sleep. And Q definitely didn't say anything when he felt the soft kiss that Bond placed on his forehead.