One Day Later

London

Stuart walked through the parking lot, as he often did when the Reform Club was closed and he had finished minding his duties, with his briefcase in one hand and his other reaching for the keys in his pocket to unlock his car door and drive home, to a nice meal and perhaps a glass of finely aged wine before going to bed.

He dropped the briefcase on the passenger seat and sat behind the wheel, inserted the key into the ignition and turned on the engine, switched on his headlights and looked into his rear view mirror to see if it was safe to back up.

To Stuart's horror, two eyes stared back at him in the mirror, they were bright black eyes, burning with mischievous anger.

Warren tried to say something, probably call for help, but before he could, a powerful hand forced damp rag onto his face, he was forced to breathe the fumes, and the word Chloroform barely managed to register in his mind before he passed out.

Tunis, Tunisia

"Two Coffees, Black!" said the man as he sat at the same table as General Raimus, in the same cafe where they had met two weeks ago.

"You seem excited." said Raimus.

"You'll never guess what I found out, you Russian nutjob!"

"Watch your place, you vile and treacherous cretin, remember that your future is dependant on how pleased I am with you."

"I want to renegotiate our deal."

"Impossible. The Deal is one-point-two, we agreed on it."

"I want one-point-eight."

"Then this has been a great waste of time, my solace is that you won't live long enough." said Raimus as he stood up.

"Sit down. You do not even know what is it that I know."

"What is it that you know?"

The man smiled smugly, "The general description of Phoenix, and the man who can fill you in on all the rest.

Raimus looked around himself and pondered for a second, before sitting down and asking, "What man?"

"The man who thought Phoenix up in the first place." said the man as the two cups of coffee arrived.

"And I suppose you won't give me his name until I have you paid and happy?"

"No, I'm a generous man, and the name alone is useless as long as you don't know where he is. The man's name is Gideon MacGuffin."

"MacGuffin?" asked Raimus, letting the name register in his mind, "MacGuffin is dead."

"If you say so." said the man, still pleased with himself as he raised his cup of coffee to his lips and drank.

"Aren't you going to drink your coffee?"

"No, I quit it. It's nothing but herbal tea these days."

"Whatever, you're still picking up the check."

Raimus wondered if all Nemo and Mason's theories of MacGuffin being still alive had any credibility to them, still, if this was true, then it was useful, it was a major lead in regard to finding out what Phoenix is about.

Raimus raised his eyes to the man and asked, "Can you wait for a couple of..."

The man's eyes were bulging, he was reaching for his tea and loosening it, in desperate need of air.

"Good god, man, what's wrong?!"

The man was starring at his cup of coffee, he then collapsed to the floor and started shaking violently , an amount of mucous and vomit shot from his mouth onto the floor.

"Raimus..."the man said weekly.

"Someone, get a Doctor!" Raimus yelled out before stepping to the man's side, taking off his jacket and placing it under his head for comfort.

"Just wait... Help is on the way."

"Phoenix... is..."

"What is it, man, what is Phoenix?"

"Phoenix is... war... pes- pestilance... f - f- f - famine..."

The man was overcame with whatever poison that now ran through him and threw up once more, this time he vomited pure blood, and once he was done, there was barely any life in him anymore.

"Phoenix is Death."

And then he died.

London

Stuart's slowly regained consciousness, his vision improved and his mind cleared and he could see that he was on the dirty ground under some bridge in the middle of the night, with no sounds of man, automobile or animal. His car was parked nearby.

"You're up, that's good."

Stuart turned to look at Priest, whom he knew as Kaplan, emerging from the shadows. He said, "I guess I won't have to give you mouth to mouth."

"Help!" screamed Stuart in sheer Horror.

"Scream all you like, sunshine, we're kilometers away from civilization."

"What do you want?"

"My son back, I want to feel someone's warm touch and whisper telling me it'll all be okay."

Priest crouched down by Stuart and continued, "You can give me none of that, but you can give me answers. Yesterday I tried to be civil and ask for them politely, and all I got was my foot crushed. I happen to like my foot. Today I'm going to use a different, more hands-on approach, and if you continue to act like a tit, you will happen to find my foot wedged up your arse. Savvy?"

"You will never get away with this!"

"I've gotten away with doing worse things to more important people. And what difference does it make if I'm in prison or not when you won't be able to... well, I haven't decide what I'm going to do, but I don't think you'll wipe your own arse in the near future, that is if you keep holding out on me."

"Fine, fine, I'll do whatever you say."

"Ace." said Priest as he sat down with his back to the damp wall next to Stuart, "You knew Bill Tanner, right?"

"Yes, I knew him."

"James Bond?"

"Yes." said Warren uneasily.

"How about Frank Costello?"

"Who?"

"Frank Costello, do you know him or not?" asked Priest angrily.

"No! I never heard of him!"

"How about Gideon MacGuffin?"

"MacGuffin? He's long time dead, I know him."

"Good, Costello was just a trick question. So that I know you're not just telling me what I want to hear. In what capacity did you know the three?"

"They are all members of the club, since decades ago, from before I was in charge and was just a member."

"Do you know about the League?"

Warren starred at Priest for a moment then hung his head, nodding to the affirmative.

"Good, that'll make matters easier. Now, I want to tell me how about the three, what were they up to, MacGuffin specifically."

"What do you want to know?"

"Bond and Tanner were SIS, what did they have to do with the League, and what did MacGuffin do with them?"

"During the late sixties, after Bond's first wife was killed, he had become too unruly for MI-6, the foreign office was growing too tried with his methods and decided to let him go. Tanner used to liaise between The League and MI-6 those days, he arranged for Bond's transfer."

"What about MacGuffin?"

"He was a friend of Bond's from Eton, he was a chief intelligence analyst with the League, he endorsed Bond's transfer, he liked his style and thought the League had use for a man like him."

Priest was surprised at the amount of information Stuart had.

"And how is it that you know all that?"

"I was a League informant, a lot can be learned about the direction of British Politics by someone in the reform club."

"Alright, so then what happened?"

"That was out of my depth. Whatever went on between them was none of my business, even Tanner wasn't let in."

"That's not good enough, chummy."

"I overheard them mention something about a Project a few times, apparently they were in agreement on the fundamentals but differed on how to execute it."

"This Project, what was it?"

"Again, none of my business, just bits and fragments that I've overheard over the years."

Priest paused for a moment to reflect.

"Does Bond still frequent the club?"

"Not as often, just once a month. And when he does we barely speak."

"Why is that?"

"I no longer work with the League, these days with all the new technology, having an informant is obsolete when a thimble-sized device can do the job more reliably."

"How about MacGuffin and Tanner?"

"Tanner kept attending to meet with Bond about business till Tanner retired in the mid-eighties. MacGuffin stopped coming in eighty-three, his and Bond's relationship had deteriorated by then and they appeared to never be on good terms."

"Why?"

"An alleged encounter between Bond and MacGuffin's wife, but to tell you the truth, I think it was over the Project. MacGuffin once lost his temper and loudly yelled at him. He accused Bond of trying to hijack his work."

"So, this Project was MacGuffin's brainchild."

Priest turned his head and looked down the road, and stayed silent for a minute, during which Stuart was on his nerves, as he was killing himself, wondering what would he ask next and if he'll live through the night. Stuart got tired of waiting for Priest who seemed to be deep in thought, and started talking again, hoping to please the man who had the power over his life and death.

"MacGuffin did return to the club, late in his life, he met Tanner many times in a few days. I think he said that he was scared for his life, the very last time, he met a man called Edward Temple. A week later, he left on vacation to America, another week later, he was dead."

Priest didn't appear to react to anything Stuart was saying, and half a minute later, he stood up and walked to the car, opened the driver's door and took out his messenger bag which was inside.

"I told you everything I know, please let me go." said Warren in fright.

Priest reached into his bag and pulled out the gun that Sands had given him. Stuart's eyes widened as he saw Priest's finger on the trigger.

"Please! I've told you everything!"

Priest aimed the gun at the rear tire and pulled the trigger. A loud bang resounded through the night and the tire burst.

"You get to die another day, squire." said Priest as he put the bag's strap across his shoulder, placed the gun in his coat pocket then took out Warren's car keys and tossed them to the trembling man on the ground.

"Right now, you're going to get your spar tire out of the boot and get your car mobile again, by the time you're done, I will be long gone. You'll never see me again."

"You're not going to kill me?"

"No, disappointed?"

"But... I know your name, I've seen you!"

"Heh, you're very bad at being a hostage." said Priest, "You have A name. Besides, you don't work for the League anymore, and if you do tell them about our little talk, they'll be too busy torturing you for spilling the beans to come after me."

Priest turned around and walked calmly away, leaving Warren Stuart and his burst tire alone.

Next Chapter: The hunt for Sir Gideon MacGuffin leads Priest to the Londoc Criminal Underworld. Also, Nemo is a ladies man.