Chapter 25: Majesty's Secret Service

Location: Swiss Confederation

Seven weeks later...

The sun was just rising over snow capped mountains of Switzerland as 007 rode inside one of the three helicopter gunships that soared over the area. Ernst Stavro Blofeld had been under surveillance by Interpol since they had learned his identity from Gregg Beam and only now they were now launching an attack against his compound; Piz Gloria. While Blofeld's co-conspirators had all been rounded up with little to no casualties, he had not yet been apprehended due to the Swiss Confederation's refusal to allow foreign military use of their airspace. This happened to be a blessing in disguise, as it lured SPECTRE's puppet master into a false sense of security. Eventually M had eventually managed to convince her Swiss counterpart at the Federal Intelligence Service of Blofeld's criminal and terrorist activities and the arrest would commence, but with backup from the Swiss Military. Bond was surprised that Jonathan Hunter wasn't along for the ride, but he had dropped off the grid shortly after the raid on the Lair. His whereabouts were currently unknown; or rather M was refusing to divulge Jona's location to anyone for safety reasons. He glanced down at his smart phone, at the only image that the DIG had managed to locate on SPECTRE's illusive leader. He was a baldheaded man with piercing blue eyes, and a vicious scar that ran down the right side of his face that nearly ran through his right eye. There was much about him that they didn't know about him, but things hopefully would come to light once he was in custody.

"All three helicopters are in position," Captain Herr von Hammerstein reported.

He was a dark haired man with grey at his temples, a pencil thin mustache and dressed in the combat uniform of the Swiss Armed Forces.

"We're two kilometer out from Blofeld's headquarters," he added, before pointing towards the mountain, "up ahead, on the left."
"I see it," Bond said.

One of the soldiers handed Hammerstein a sniper rifle and he peered through the scope as they flew over the mountain peak. Piz Gloria consisted of an octagonal-shaped house with a pointed roof of brown tiles with a pair of gondola stations beneath it and a large, octagonal-shaped helipad situated not too far away from the main building. Explosions from several SAMs filled the air as Blofeld's Security Forces moved in to engage the attacking military troops.

"Prepare to land," Hammerstein ordered, "We're taking fire, James, take 'em out."

Bond lifted his sniper rifle and began firing on the attacking troops, providing covering for the rest of the assault team a chance to repel to the ground. He fired several rounds on the defenders, trying to score a headshot in order to eliminate them as quickly as possible.

"We're going in," Hammerstein said as the helicopter moved into another position that was closer to the building, "James, get on the minigun."

"I got it," he said.

Bond moved to the opposite side of the helicopter and slid the door open and took aim with the minigun, aiming for the SAMs that were causing them trouble as well as the soldiers. The chopper moved to a new position in front of a Cable-Car Station and 007 fired on the men inside, not wanting to give them a chance to fire on the helicopter. The pilot moved the helicopter to yet another position, allowing Bond to remove the threat that the SAMs posed along with several RPG wielding troops before circling back to the landing zone. A rocket hurtled past the helicopter slamming into another one, sending it spinning out of control as it began losing altitude.

"We're hit! We're going down!" the pilot of the damaged helicopter shouted over the radio.

The helicopter slammed into the ground forcing the helicopter that Bond and Hammerstein were riding in to retreat further away from the building.

"We'll repel down from here," Hammerstein stated as several of the solider began descending to the ground below.

Bond grabbed for the repel line and slid down to the ground, immediately reaching for the Bennetti ARV that he was armed with and began firing on the approaching security team. The rock formations of the mountains provided a natural cover from the bullets that were flying as he, Hammerstein, and the rest of the assault team pushed their way towards a nearby wall. They had dropped off in an area that was at a lower elevation then the rest of the facility, forcing them to scale the wall to get to the crash site of the other helicopter. Hannerstein offered a grapple gun to Bond who gladly took it and aimed for the railing above, allowing the cable to bear his weight as he was pulled to the top. He grabbed a hold of the railing and pulled himself up, immediately rolling for cover behind a set of metal creates. Hammerstein and the others quickly caught up as he popped out from behind cover and fire a burst from his weapon. The others were quick to add their firepower to his own, as they pushed their way towards the main building of Piz Gloria. The interior of the building looked much like a chateau with recess-lightning that illuminated the space that he found himself in. The walls were lined with wood panels that bore several oil paintings of Blofeld himself, but now had been pockmarked by several bullet holes. He stepped over broken glass and pottery as he moved through the area, clearing out the forces that remained before reaching a staircase.

"Let's go!" Hammerstein called out as he raced up the steps.

There were more men waiting for them on the second floor and they soon found themselves pinned down, unable to proceed further. The sound of a helicopter's rotor-blades filled Bonds ears as he watched as one of the two remaining helicopters appeared, unleashing a spray of bullets that cut down Blofeld's troops. With no other opposition standing in their way they were free to proceed deeper into the mountain complex once they located the elevator.

"There must be a hidden lock or control panel somewhere," Hammerstein stated.

Bond removed his smart phone and activated its Biometric filter allowing him to scan for any fingerprints that might direct them to a secret elevator or passage. Locating a circular wall-scone that had several smudges spread on its surface, Bond bashed it with the bottom of his fist, causing a nearby section of wall to slide away, revealing a hidden passageway.

"I found it, let's go," 007 declared.

"This way, we must hurry."

The assault team pushed their way through the passage eventually coming across an elevator that would take them into the heart of the facility. Bond slipped on a pair of night-vision goggles over his head along with the rest of the team as the elevator door slid open, revealing a darkened hallway, with several rooms running along it.

"I see you found your way inside my headquarters, Mr. Bond" a voice said, coming over an unseen PA system, "But alas you're too late, I've already dispersed my agents of death to the four corners of the Earth."

"Blofeld...," Bond muttered

"What on earth is he talking about?" Hammerstein asked.

"I don't know," he admitted, "But whatever it is, it isn't good."

They proceeded forward, sweeping each room for hostiles as they searched for a way further inside, but each room looked exactly the same.

"This place is like nothing I've ever seen before," Hammerstein commented, "Bloefeld must've hired a madman to design it."

"It's designed to break you down...psychologically," Bond stated, knowing that that was Blofeld's aim.

"Are you sure you're going in the right direction?" SPECTRE's leader mocked as they headed through another doorway.

They reached a staircase and Bond slowly descended it, his finger on the trigger in case any guards were lying in wait. He momentarily held his position at the bottom of the stairs and waited for the rest of the Swiss Forces regrouped around him before they continued. They weren't even halfway through the room when several guards suddenly raced down the stairs and from an adjacent room, resulting in a firefight breaking out. Bond ducked behind a pillar as bullets buried themselves into the concrete and marble, while the assault team returned fire. Bond fired blindly from behind cover before bolting form cover and moved to a couch, firing at those who were coming down the stairs he did. The firefight lasted less the four minutes, but Bond was certain that more guards just waiting to ambush them. With the room cleared of hostiles the assault team headed through and open door and stepped into another hallway. This section of the facility seemed to have been more recently added, leaving exposed metalwork and rock. Bond slowly moved through the hallway, trying not to make too much noise as he rounded a corner with the rest of the team behind him. He immediately encountered a guard patrolling the corridor and Bond quickly switched to his silenced P99, firing a single round that penetrated the man's skull. Bond winced as the guard crashed to the metal floor in a heap, worrying that the noise he had made had alerted the others to their presence. When no guards came rushing out to see what all the commotion was he proceeded forward, Hammerstein's forces following behind. As they reached another doorway, Bond made a hand gesture that signalled to the commandos to hold their position as he crept forward. He removed his smart phone and activated the camera and zoomed in on a baldheaded figure in a brown suit standing at the far end of the chamber.

"Prepare the demolition charges," he ordered, "get ready to blow this place up."

Bond immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Blofeld as two guards moved to do as had been ordered of them.

"Take anything of value and leave nothing that can be traced back to us." Blofeld said, "Have they found Bond yet?"

"No sir," one of the guards replied.

"Keep looking. You, come with me, will check out the other labs."

Watching as Blofeld and the guard headed through another door Bond signalled from Hammerstein and the others to proceed forward.

"James, we'll handle the guards and disarm the explosives while you go after Blofeld," Hammerstein suggested.

Bond nodded in agreement and slowly moved out from behind cover, using the shadows to mask his approach as he made his way to the far side of the room. He waited for one of the guards patrolled near the door to move away before bolting through it. He entered another corridor and quickly moved down it, keeping his weapon at the ready as he stepped into yet another laboratory. Several more guards were patrolling the lab forcing Bond to remain within the shadows as he patiently waiting for one man to be out of visual range of his companions before taking him out with a headshot. The man's body collapsed to the floor, his death unknown to his companions as he lay hidden by the shadows. Bond bolted from his hiding place and disappeared to another mass of shadows, waiting for another of the guards to pass near his position before he reached out and snatched him, chocking him into unconsciousness. With another of the guards neutralized he slipped out of the shadows and moved towards closer to the sole remaining guard and unloaded his P99 into his torso. Bond stepped out of the shadows and headed up a small flight of stairs that lead to a door that was locked with a keypad. Bond removed his smart phone and reactivated the Biometric filter and studied the keypad and noticed that the fingerprint on the 1 appeared the brightest followed by the 0 and the 7, while the 8 appeared only dimly lit. Reversing the numbers yielded the pass code into the office and 007 immediately punched in 8701, causing the door to unlock and slide open. The interior of Blofeld's office was finely furnished, resembling Piz Gloria in design with large bay windows that overlooked the laboratory. He made his way to the far end of the office, to a finely crafted wooden desk where a laptop rest upon its surface. Bond used his smart phone to clone the computer's hard drive, sending the data back to MI6 for the DIG analysts to study. He moved away from the desk and spotted a safe embedded in the wall behind him and removed an electronic lock-picker from his pocket, inserting it into the lock. His watch became the control mechanism for the lock-picker and Bond began rotating the watch face. Lining up all the rings caused a beep to come from the watch indicating that the safe was now unlocked. He grabbed the handle of the safe and turned, pulling the door open and removing a file folder from within. Bond set the folder down on the desk and flipped it open, skimming through the contents to get an understanding of what Blofeld was planning. It was a research file on the possible application of using bacteriological warfare to sterilize the world's food supply. He snapped several photos, realizing that MI6 needed to be made aware of his find and was about to resume his search of the office when his arm accidently bumped into something on the desk. Bond watched as a large panel slid down from the ceiling, blocking his way out and projecting the map of the world on its surface. Looking for what he had hit, Bond activated the phone's Biometric scanner to aid in his search, but found nothing. He glanced around the office and discovered that a single wall panel had a mess of smudges on its surface and pushed on it, causing the wall-map to light up. The images of five woman appeared on the screen, each having been sent to one of five target countries: US, Brazil, Egypt, China, and Australia. A biological attack on such a scale would spread throughout the world causing a worldwide epidemic. Realizing that this was Blofeld's Endgame he snapped a photo of the wall map and sent a transmission to MI6.

"Bond here, I'm uploading a file of targets. Find these women and isolate them," he ordered, "They're planning a biological attack."

"Put down that phone, Mr. Bond," a voice said, "That call will cost you your life."

The world map dimmed and standing on the other side was Ernst Stavro Blofeld, appearing even uglier in person then that photograph could ever capture. He walked over to the left side of the room where a keypad was located and punched in a code, filling the room with noxious gas. Bond's lungs felt like they were on fire as he raced over to the world map and began unloading his assault rifle, in a desperate attempt to escape the deathtrap.

"NO! NO! DON'T LET BOND ESCAPE!" Blofeld screamed as he took off running.

Blowing through the rifle's clip, Bond began using the weapon to bash through the already weakened glass. The second the glass gave way an alarm began sounding throughout the entire complex causing several armed guards to begin streaming into the laboratory. Discarding the empty assault rifle onto the floor, Bond armed himself with his P99 and began firing on the attacking guards, while attempting to reach the elevator that Blofeld had entered.

"James, what's going on?" Hammerstein asked, coming over Bond's earpiece.

"Blofeld just tried to gas me in his office; he's trying to make his escape," he stated, moving from cover to cover, firing his weapon as he did.

"I'll have one of the helicopters to try a stop him," he said.

"I'll be too late, I'm going after him," he said.

"Good luck, my friend. We'll see you topside."

Bond bolted out from behind cover as he made a dive for the elevator, tucking his body as he rolled into the elevator car. He sprang to his feet and jabbed the button to go up with his thumb and allowed himself a moment of rest when the door slid closed. His lungs were still burning from the gas, but his vision had cleared considerably, through he had little time to rest further as the elevator doors slid open. They were back outside the facility and Bond watched as Blofeld bolt up the hill that led to the Cable-Car Station and immediately chased after him. Most of Blofeld's guards had perished in the initial assault and those how did remain were easy to dispatch as Bond entered the station. Blofeld was escaping down the mountain in one of the cable cars when Bond reached the docking area, forcing the 00 Agent to rush back to where he had seen the power generator and hit the emergency shut off. He scaled a ladder that to the rooftop of the Cable-Car Station and found a link of chain he could use to slide down the cable to the cable car that was adjacent to Blofeld's. He flipped the chain onto the cable and ran off the roof, allowing his momentum to carry him down the cable line. He was about halfway to the cable car when a rocket sailed past, fired from one of the two occupants in the cable car in front of him. The second he was over the car he let go of the chain and slammed into the roof, his body sliding across the surface as he grabbed a hold of an open roof-hatch. He swung his body in through the roof-hatch and drove his feet into the chest of one of the goons, sending him colliding into his partner and causing them both to fall through the broken window they had fired the rocket from. Chopper blades filled the air as Bond turned to see a helicopter come into view, but not one belonging to the Swiss military. He spotted a pair of Rocket Launchers resting up against one of the walls and quickly grabbed one as the heli opened fire on him, bullets tearing through the metal. He launched the rocket at the copter as it hovered, prepared to fire on his position causing fire and black smoke to spew from it. He discarded the rocket launcher and reached of the other one, quickly taking aim before the chopper had a chance to fire on him again. The rocket slammed into the aircraft and sent it spiraling out of control as it slammed into the cable line, causing the cable car to begin swinging wildly. Bond kicked the car door open and leapt for the support tower, just barely managing grab hold of it and pulling himself up. Once safely on the tower he turned around in time to see the cable car become dethatched from the cable line and plummet to the ice and rocks below. Blofeld's cable car was just below the tower and he immediately jumped to the roof, aiming his P99 through the roof hatch as he scanned for the baldheaded bastard when Blofeld suddenly reached up through the hatch and seized him by the arm.

"Damn you, Bond!" he sneered, yanking him through the hole.

Bond slammed into the floor and immediately scrambled for his pistol which had slipped of his grasp during the fall. Blofeld leapt down from his perch and kicked the gun away from him as he grabbed him by the collar and punched him in the face. Bond stumbled backwards, reeling as he retaliated by aiming for the man's kidneys and face; eventually grabbing him by the collar and hurling him face first into the side of the car. Bond grabbed him by the back of the head and smashed him into the wall, only to be elbowed in the ribs and head-butted him in the face and planted his into Bond's chest. The British agent stumbled backwards, giving Blofeld time to arm himself with a fire axe and took a swing, forcing him to dodge. The baldheaded man with a disfiguring scar raised the axe above his head and Bond seized it before he could bring it down, twisting it free from his grasp, delivering a right a left hook. He once again began delivering blow after blow to Blofeld's face and kidneys, when he was socked him in the face and kicked him in the chest. Bond nearly fell through the open door as Blofeld rushed him, forcing Bond to drive him back by planting his foot into his chest, given him precious second to climb back inside the cable car. Blofeld lunged at him with a right hook, but grabbed him by the arm and preformed a Judo throw sent him through the door. Blofeld grabbed a hold of the floor and dangled helplessly as Bond slowly approached.

"You think you fucking won!?" Blofeld spat.

"It does from where I'm standing," Bond replied.

"So it may appear, but I've got one final card to play."

"I've already uncovered your plans to contaminate the world's food supply. The countries you've targeted will be on the lookout for your Angels of Death."

"I wasn't talking about them," he grinned, "Auric created the greatest thorn in SPECTRE's side, but he was still useful in getting rid of that bloated fool. Now he's got to go."

"Hunter's a big boy, I'm sure he can handle himself," Bond replied.

"Perhaps. But that doesn't mean that Miss. Adara won't still try," he said, reaching up a grabbing him by the leg, tripping him up.

Bond fell to the floor and realized the Blofeld was fully prepared to kill them both by dragging them to their death as he was seized by the back of the neck. James planted a gloved hand against Blofeld's face, using all his strength to push him down, until he lost his grip and was sent plummeting to the rocks. His arms flailed about as he fell, a lingering scream being all that remained of SPECTRE's infamous leader.

"Bond to MI6."

"What's Blofeld's status?" M asked, coming on the line.

"Unclear. Presumed dead," he reported, "You need to send a team to find Hunter, Blofeld's sent an assassin to take care of him."

"Any idea exactly who he might've sent?" M questioned.

"Eva Adara."