Title: Metamorphosis

Parings: James Bond & Q; Sherlock Holmes & John Watson.

Warnings: Canon typical violence. Nonconsensual drug use.

Disclaimer: All characters, situations and concepts borrowed belong to their respective owners. If you recognize it, its not mine. I claim no rights. I make no profit.

Chapter 13 – Avoidance Tactics

Q had never been more relieved that several missions had the potential to go into active mode all at once. This meant it was highly likely that he could avoid the annual ordeal known as The Family Dinner. For years his mother had insisted that he and his two brothers return to the family seat together at least once a year. Lately she had decreed that such event needed to occur near the holiday season. While it was amusing to watch his two older brothers snipe at each other in their perpetual game of one-up-manship this year had been shaping up to be an ordeal.

His mother had decreed that this year's gathering would take place in the second week of December, less than a week before the full moon. To make matters worse his brothers were both going to attend. His highly observant brothers had been the bane of his existence growing up. There was no way in heck he was going to be able to hide the fact that something momentous had occurred in his life nor would he be able to hide his pre-moon edginess. Even if he managed to fool one of his brothers the other, most likely the oldest, would surely pick something up. Once that happened his middle brother would not rest until he ferreted out what had changed. Q was going to need an extremely good legend to satisfy that rampant curiosity. Adding the propensity for high stress situations to cause new wolves to go furry, as James liked to call it, the potential for disaster was quite high.

Luckily his family, with its generations of government service, clearly understood the demands of Queen and Country. It wouldn't be the first time one of them had not made it to a family get together because of one crisis or another. Even if the family didn't know exactly what it was that he did they were aware that he was MI6 and mission support critical. Having to work was automatically accepted as a valid excuse so long as that was truly the case. While Q was reasonably certain he could fool his brothers about his work commitments there was no way in heck he could manage to lie to Mummy. However, if things went as expected at least one of the pending missions would need his input and he wouldn't have to.

004's infiltration of the Mumbai drug smuggling operation was shaping up nicely. She had managed to get access into the inner compound and had determined where the records were located. She had also in the process discovered that this operation was part of an even larger criminal enterprise. It appeared to have ties to not only other smuggling rings but also seemed to be connected in some manner to 003's weapons dealers. Hopefully the documents themselves would allow them to figure out all the interrelationships.

The general plan was simple. Once 004 determined that the next shipment was ready Q branch would tip off the Indian government and assist them in organizing a raid. The ensuring confusion would give 004 the opportunity to scan the records. Agent 368, Toby Uchaia, as her errand runner would serve as backup and lookout. The tricky bit was going to be timing. 004 would need an uninterrupted window to do her job. In addition both agents were going to need to appear to escape the raid by the skin of their teeth. This would keep their covers intact and allow them to pursue any additional leads that developed.

Q typed in a set of orders. As soon as Toby checked in with the local station then the entire operation could commence. Speak of the devil and he appears, Q thought to himself as an alert posted to his computer screen. Agent 368 had just checked in.

Several hours later the initial set up was complete. Toby had managed a face to face with one of the station personnel. He was now carrying com gear for himself and 004 as well as a prototype signal booster that should, if it worked correctly, allow the coms units to punch through the ECM. The raid was scheduled for 02:30 IST. Prior to that 004 would infiltrate the inner compound, copy the documents and escape in the confusion.

By 18:40 GMT Q had his end of the operation set up to his satisfaction. The com room was staffed by himself and two of his techs, Ranger and Lynne. The branch work schedule had been rearranged to provide for breaks and personnel rotations of up to two days 24 hour coverage. Q's office had been prepared so that he would not have to leave the building for however long the operation lasted even if he wasn't directly involved. As a final step Q brought up both Ranger and Lynne's screens on his secondary monitors so he could see what they were working on without leaving the main console. Lynne was looking at the latest branch e-mail. It had a spreadsheet attachment entitled Feeding Schedule and as he watched she opened it. A simple list of times, suggested food and drink and a list of staff names appeared. The first line entry read 19:00 Tea and Max. Q smiled. It looked like the self-proclaimed minions had an organized plan for the care of their erstwhile evil-overlord. Sure enough, at 18:57 Max walked into the com room with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Q was chewing on a protein bar at 21:17 when the garbage started to hit the fan. 004 had entered the inner compound and was making good progress with scanning the documents. The signal booster was working perfectly. Ranger was keeping track of the raid preparations and Lynne had been monitoring the cell phone traffic into and out of the area around the compound.

"Local law enforcement is staged and ready to go." Ranger reported.

"All's quiet on the…wait a minute," Lynne started switching screens and typing furiously. "We have a communications uptick in the compound starting with….Ah…a call to the Minister of Transportation's mobile."

Q noted that Ranger had split his screen and was tracing the source of the call.

"From a Deputy Inspector of the Mumbai police no less." He added.

Q activated his mic. "004, 368 there's been a leak. Things are going to get really crazy in a minute or two. Get yourselves out and to the extraction point ASAP."

"On my way," said 004.

"Roger" echoed Toby. "I'll retrieve the booster and be on my way."

Given the lack of technology within the compound Q would be blind and unable to direct either agent. All he could do was listen and pick them up as they exited. 004 was very quiet. Q couldn't even hear her breathing. Toby on the other hand seemed to be simply strolling openly through the compound giving an occasional murmured greeting to someone he passed. This went on for several minutes until Q heard the sound of running feet over Toby's com.

"Hey!" a male voice accosted Toby, "Where's Mistress Cynthia?"

That was 004's cover name.

"With a client," Toby responded not missing a beat.

"Get the client out of here," the voice ordered. "We are going to be raided in less than ten minutes!"

"Yes sir!" Toby responded and it sounded like he took off at a run. "Sorry sir," he panted at Q a minute or so later, "I'm not going to be able to get your…Shit!"

There was a thump and a scrabbling sound then a crunch as Toby's com feed went out. "Damn." Q swore under his breath. There was no way to find out what had happened.

"I heard," 004's said immediately after Q's swear, "I'm going over the wall. Shall I double back?"

Ranger chimed in on the conversation. "The police are already inside the main building."

"Negative," Q ordered. "Go onto the exfiltration point. We'll have someone bail him out." Q reassured 004.

Toby didn't make the primary rendezvous at 03:00 IST. He also didn't make the exfiltration point at 03:30. By 9:30 IST it was clear that he was not in custody nor was he one of the bodies pulled from the compound. As 004 was in route to the safe house they determined that Toby was not one of the persons injured when Q activated the self-destruct on the signal booster.

Once she got settled in the safe house, 004 took a couple of hours and looked at images of the injured and captured. She determined that Toby wasn't the only member of the staff who had potentially escaped the compound. A couple of the high end escorts, a handful of security guards, the night manager and at least two members of the housekeeping staff were definitely missing from the group.

"The kid will turn up somewhere in a couple of days," 004 remarked conversationally to Q. "He's like a fox. There'll be a tricky trail leading nowhere and he'll turn up where you least expect him to be having raided the hen house on his way."

004 was right. Less than 36 hours later Toby logged into one of the emergency contact sites from an internet café in Islamabad. He left a message indicating that his cover was still intact. That created a bit of a problem for Q. They were somewhat thin on the ground in Pakistan. Every local agent they had was busy and there was no one suitable at the embassy to ferry a new set of gear out to him.

Q thought for a moment then the solution presented itself. James had been gone for almost a week engaging in backstopping his arms dealer cover. He was now heading, via a roundabout route, to Islamabad where rumor had the weapons sale going down. 003's erstwhile employer was allegedly looking for a particular type of buyer and practically every group in the market for major weaponry was converging on Pakistan jockeying for position.

Bond was currently in Tunisia. It would be a simple matter for him to get an extra set of gear and then convey it to Toby. It was a bit overkill to use a 00 agent as a courier pigeon but Q was a master at killing two birds with one stone. It had long been MI6 policy that any agent considered for A list status needed not only to be recommended for the program but also evaluated by one of the high level trainers or a senior agent. As he'd already forwarded Toby's recommendation having James use this opportunity to evaluate the youngster in the field was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Decision made, Q quickly set up the logistics then contacted Bond.

A mere 10 hours later found Q in his office eating a sandwich. Due to a variety of circumstances he hadn't been out of the MI6 building since the Mumbai raid. The minions had extended the Feeding Schedule spreadsheet and were also tracking his caffeine intake, rest periods and personal hygiene. Q didn't quite know what to think about the obvious concern for his wellbeing but he did know that after this stint was over he'd need to make sure that the data disappeared.

"Good afternoon Q," Bond's voice over the coms was clear.

"Good morning 007," Q replied since it was only 09:00 PKT in Islamabad. "Have you located 004's missing assistant?"

"I have eyes on him right now. He's being cautious but he hasn't spotted me yet."

"Tail him until you can safely make contact. I'll need you to help me debrief him about the Mumbai operation. I suspect he's got information we can use to track the next piece of that syndicate."

"Will do. How obvious do you want me to be? Shall I attempt to find out if he's as good as 004 said he was?"

"At your discretion 007," Q said. "Just don't give him a heart attack when you corner him."

"You wouldn't be considering him for A list status if getting cornered would phase him," Bond replied.

Q snorted. It always amazed him how quickly 007 picked up on the unwritten subtext of any given situation. It was one of the things that made him so effective as a field operative. Q hadn't told James that he was going to want his assessment of Agent 368's, suitability but Bond had figured it out anyway.

Q settled back in his chair. The next few minutes were going to be very interesting Q thought. Due to the lack of camera coverage in Islamabad Q would have to rely primarily on Bond's tracker. Real time satellite surveillance and the occasional ground level video feed would be used as they were available. Most of his information, however, would need to come through Bond's communications. Q idly watched Bond's tracker move through the streets, presumably following Tobias, as he finished his sandwich. His timing was impeccable. No sooner had he swallowed the last bite washing it down with a sip of tea, when there was a set of rather distinctive sounds over the coms. Bond was in a fight.

"Settle down I'm not going to kill you." Q heard Bond growl followed by a grunt. "I said settle down!"

Judging by the sounds Q thought that his interference at this point would not be welcome so he kept silent. His supposition proved to be right.

"If I'd known you were going to try and ambush me I'd have gone with the recognition codes. 004 said you were smart enough not to fight when you couldn't win."

The sounds of struggle stopped abruptly followed by a faint "Who the hell are you?" presumably from Toby.

"Bond, James Bond. I don't think we've been introduced yet."

Q noticed something on the satellite feed and broke in, "Get yourselves out of there 007. I think your fight hasn't gone unnoticed. There appears to be a Pakastani army squad heading your way."

"Roger that," Bond replied. "Here. Put these on and let's move."

Q watched as Bond's tracker started to move at a quick pace. A moment later the second com feed went live.

"Check?" Toby's voice sounded tired and stressed but despite that he was still following protocol and determining if the com gear was live.

"Good morning Agent 368. Nice of you to join us this morning."

"Eerp! Morning Quartermaster."

From Toby's strangled sound Q guessed that he'd not been expecting Q himself on the other end of the line.

"Gentlemen," continued without a pause, "The army squad has split in an attempt to locate your altercation. I suggest you take a left at the next junction to avoid them."

"Not an option Q. We are going to have to wing this one," Bond said a moment later. He had apparently spotted something that Q couldn't pick up with his limited surveillance coverage. "Come on Obito let's see what you are made of."

Obito? Q brought up Toby Uchaia's file. Yep. There it was. Tobias was the name he'd chosen for himself when he'd entered school. His school mates had shortened it to Toby. Obito was his given name. Now how had Bond come up with that particular piece of information? Q accessed the file log. The file had last been looked at by someone in Tunisia, one of the staff analyst's computers from the location. Bond had either lifted a password or charmed a staff member. If it was the former Q would need to have words with the Tunisian station chief; if the latter, well the biological group hadn't yet developed an antidote to the 00's seduction techniques.

Q settled down to monitor his two agents. It was ten minutes of active avoidance of the army and the local police followed by three hours of tedium as the agents made doubly sure that they were not being tailed before the two men made it to Bond's suite. He'd kept quiet for the entire time trusting Bond to have the situation well in hand. Q suspected, from the occasional words exchanged between the two men that Toby had completely forgotten about the open line.

Once the obligatory search for electronic listening devices had been performed James spoke to him directly, "How do you want to do the debrief Q?"

Toby made that strangled sound again. It seemed to be his default noise when startled. Q doubted that he even realized he did it. Something that the trainers would need to work on with him. Q made a note. It wouldn't do for someone to have an obvious tell like that. Men had died for less.

"Let's use audio only." Bond would understand but for Toby's sake Q explained his reasoning. "I don't trust the video connection even with our encryption. It is too easy for someone to see the size of the packets and transmission rates and cut us off on general principle when they realize that they can't get to our content."

"Check," Bond replied then asked Toby "You want a drink?"

Toby responded in the affirmative and Q could hear the sounds of ice and liquids in glasses.

Once the agents were settled they started in on the debrief. Bond was efficient and effective. He asked all the right questions, honing in on essential points and waiving off trivial details. Q supposed it was the net result of having been on the other side of the process more times than could be counted. The only thing that was not quite by the book was the alcohol being consumed. About an hour in Q realized what Bond was doing. Toby was strung out from being on the run. He was nervous and in awe of Bond. James was applying just enough of his famous charm which, in conjunction with the alcohol, made the entire exercise go quite a bit smoother. Too bad they couldn't do this here, Q thought to himself. The speed and quality of debrief in many cases would improve substantially.

Surprisingly agent Uchaia, despite his inexperience, wasn't too bad at the debrief process. Once he had relaxed a bit his answers were concise and if he didn't know something he freely admitted his ignorance. As the process went on he became more and more comfortable started to offer his own analysis of certain people and events. Q really appreciated that he was always careful to indicate when something was fact as opposed to his impressions. As far as intelligence was concerned nothing Q heard contradicted what they'd got from 004 and the documents. Unfortunately there was nothing much new either until Bond asked how he'd managed to get out of the compound and all the way to Islamabad.

"Luck," Toby admitted. "Luck and family."

Bond made a go on noise and there was the sound of another drink being poured.

"Thanks," acknowledged Toby. "It was just a fluke," he continued. "I'd been chatting up one of the accounting staff, Rachel, earlier in the day and she had mentioned that they'd had a comp request come through because some big-wig of one of the companies they purchase from was coming through. She was grumbling because she was going to have to do a bunch of paperwork for nothing because this particular supplier never took advantage of the freebie. Well I asked which supplier, just on a whim, and she told me. I was somewhat surprised that it was a company I knew."

"What company?" asked Bond.

"Allied Export Enterprises," Toby replied. "It's a mostly legitimate import/export operation nominally out of Hong Kong. It's run by my cousin. Well, he isn't really my cousin. More like a second cousin once removed via marriage or something. He's the step-son of my great aunt's daughter in-law but we played together a lot when we were kids so we always called each other cousin."

Q could almost hear Bond blink at that. Uchaia's file had dearth of relations most of them being dead. But then again usually the background check didn't normally go into sixth degree indirect relations. Someone had clearly missed that connection in Toby's background check. Q made a note to himself about adding a childhood friends subroutine to the automated portion of the vetting process for new employees.

Toby, oblivious to Q's musings, continued, "Well, anyway, I got out of the compound with Tanya who was part of the housekeeping staff. She ended up taking me to her aunt's house. She'd been feeding her aunt's pets while the aunt was off on a pilgrimage and we figured it would be safer than going to her flat because that address might have been in the employment files. Didn't get much sleep but..." Toby paused and took a drink.

The look on his face must have told its own tale because Bond chuckled knowingly. Q could infer that most of the remainder of the night had included a bit of oh my god we escaped sex.

"The next morning I set out to stake out the AXE company offices. My cousin is generally an early bird as opposed to a night owl. If the big-wig in question was him he'd be in early. Well, the big-wig did turn out to be my cousin and he fronted me some papers, money and sent me out as a courier of some goods to Dubai. On the way I ended up making friends with the pilot and he wrangled a ride for me with a friend of his from Dubai to Bahrain. The friend and an application of cash got me on a flight to Islamabad."

Q had to marvel. That was such 00esq series of events.

Apparently Bond thought so too because he laughed out loud, "You trying to make me look bad? You don't have a scratch on you. Usually when I pull an escape like that it involves some sort of vehicle chase and an injury or two."

Q had to chime in at that, "Well he was as hard on the equipment as you are 007."

"Sorry 'bout that," Toby sounded contrite. I got knocked down in the hall and the earwig fell out. I ended up having to crush it because picking it up would have been noticed and I just couldn't get to the repeater without running right into the arms of the police."

"All I ask is that you don't make a habit of it like someone I know," Q couldn't resist taking the dig.

Bond chuckled, "But without me you wouldn't know how your equipment holds up to extreme conditions Q!"

"Extreme conditions my arse," Q muttered. "I don't design firearms for their ability to survive being eaten by Komodo Dragons."

Toby started to giggle at that and seemed to have a hard time stopping. When he finally managed to catch his breath he asked Bond "What the hell did you put in this?"

"Vodka" Bond replied. "You've got adrenaline crash. The alcohol is hitting you harder than normal. Why don't you go clean up and get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

"Oh. Ok." Toby replied then added "Signing off." as he removed the earpiece.

There was quiet for several minutes before Bond spoke softly. "He's in the shower. I drugged his last drink. He's going to pass out in twenty minutes or so. I doubt he's slept for more than an hour at a stretch more than three times in the last 48. I'll play guard dog tonight. The weather is clear here and I'd prefer not to do reconnaissance in full moonlight. Odds of being spotted are too great."

"Probably better to stay put then. It's supposed to be foggy here. I'm going jogging with Alec." Q offered in turn.

"Good. You need more exercise," was Bond's response.

Plans for the full moon conveyed, however obliquely due to the mission record, Q decided to change the subject.

"Your rough assessment?"

"The kid has serious potential if he learns to pace himself."

"I'll put your recommendation in then. You'll need to write it up formally though."

"More paperwork. Wonderful" Bond grumbled. "I suppose there's no way to avoid it."

Author's Note: Enjoy. As always typo spots, punctuation help and brit picks are welcome. Thanks to Mulder200 on AO3 for a typo catch.