Now

Gotham City, Maryland

Mina Jekyll, known to her underlings as 'Josephine' lay on a leather couch, looking up at the ceiling, counting the thousands of engravings in the wooden tiles. At the same time, an elderly, clean shaven man with sleeked back gray hair sat in an armchair nearby, his legs crossed, with a notebook on his upper thigh and a pen in his only hand.

"Well, Josephine," said the psychiatrist in a calm and collected voice, speaking with an English accent, "You've been laying there for five minutes counting those engravings, which number about 12,536. You can take as long as you want, I will not be impatient and I do not have anyone I'm more willing to counsel. But unless you start telling me what's worrying you at one point or another, you being here will be pointless."

Mina didn't respond, as if she heard nothing, she simply kept looking up at the ceiling for another minute before saying.

"I've been having a recurring dream, Doctor Lecter."

"A nightmare?"

"Not really." Said Mina as she closed her eyes, conjuring her recollections, "I'm usually in a forest, and once on a sandy beach. I fight a giant scorpion drenched in blood. Only, in the dream I feel reluctant. I don't want to talk about it, and I don't want you to interpret it."

"That's your choice, Josephine. Now tell me what's really bothering you."

"It's nothing I haven't gone through before, it's just…. I've been having trouble sleeping lately."

"I see." Said Lecter as he scribbled a few words in his notepad, "Has there been any change in your daily routine?"

"I've been working longer hours recently."

"Can you divulge on that?"

"Project Phoenix is fast approaching phase three." Said Mina, smiling grimly, "We're all in for an odd year, Doctor."

"How does that make you feel?"

"Eager anticipation, I guess. Everything's been going according to plan. I feel a measure of pride. However, I feel that perhaps it's all going too fast."

"Is something going against you will? Do you feel that something is being done wrong?"

"I can't divulge that, Doctor."

"Alright, we'll get back to that later. How about your diet?"

"Stale. I barely go out to eat anymore. I mostly stay in and dine on raw meet."

"Has fresh blood been loosing its appeal?"

"Not at all. It's just that the spirit has left the hunt. In the old days, I'd be going again armies; trained and armed killers aware that the bottom line was that it was I or them that would live. I'd be meeting insurmountable odds, I'd be fighting for my life and when it came to a conclusion I would be victorious, and that sweet, rich taste would wake my every sense.

"Attacking some lonely tart on her way home from her two jobs, or a vagabond who has had not sustenance but cheap alcohol is just not worth the effort."

"Do you miss working in the field, Josephine?"

"Of course I do. Everyone does." Said Mina, "Bond more than most."

"Bond is only human, Josephine. For someone such as you, however, being confined to under the board politics and manipulating the powerful must seem most terribly dull."

"I suppose. I'm a predator by nature. But still, I'm where I am by choice. Somewhere along the line, the thrill of the fight died."

"Do you remember when was that, Josephine?"

"Oh, yes. I remember."


1933

New York City

Orlando, a black haired young man – young in a strictly physical sense -, sat next to Mina on a bench in Grand Central Station, smoking a cigarette.

"I can't believe they've outlawed spirits in this country. Hoe can they expect to do everything sober?"

"Give it a rest, Lord Orlando." Said Mina, "I doubt the American secret service will imprison you if you get caught with a glass of sherry."

"Remind me again, what are we doing here?"

"Tom Sawyer had reported our activities to his superiors over the years. The secret service want our help in creating their own League. M bartered an agreement for us to help in exchange for increased intelligence cooperation."

"Right. Who are we supposed to meet here, again?"

"A government Agent designated No. 5. His name is Jim Christopher. The three of us will be meeting Captain Joseph Sullivan, formerly of the RAF, who will be providing Aerial transport. The remaining members of the team are Lamont Cranston, Doctor Clark Savage Jr. and a Prof. Henry Jones Jr."

"Are they League material?"

"Certainly so. Any more question, Lord Orlando?"

"Just one." Said Orlando as he tossed his cigarette aside, "What are we doing, Mina?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"This. All of it. Scurrying around the world, fighting every mad man with a self-serving Agenda. Don't you ever get sick of it?"

"Our work is crucial and important and can't be done by any Tom, Dick and Harry. We can't afford to get sick of it."

"Even so. We might be immortals, but we can't be expected to go on like this for all eternity."

"Not for all eternity. Just till there are no more of the perils we face."

"Oh, Mina. How can you be naïve? There'll always be perils."


Now

"That's when I realized, there was no point in fighting as long as more adversaries were on the way. I do miss the field, Doctor. It's just that the field out there is nothing like the field my heart longs to fight in. Next question."

Lecter was silent for a moment, as though pausing to collect his thoughts before he asked, "How's your love life? You're still in a relationship with your personal assistant, Mandy Hughes, aren't you?"

Mina slowly turned her head to the left to look at Lecter for a second. The Doctor was not intimidated by her stair so she looked away.

"Yes."

"How long has it been?"

"I'm not sure, a year and change, I think."

"How are your living arrangements?"

"She spends three or four nights in my suite. I spend the night at her place once a week, at most, when we're heading back home at the end of the night and we're closer to her place and she doesn't feel like making the trip."

"Have neither of you brought the issue of moving in together?"

"No. We both need our space."

"And how does this relationship affect in your working environment."

"I sometimes hear people make jokes about it, and then I catch one of them by the head and batter him many times into a wall. Now can we please drop THAT subject?"

"How's your intimacy level?"

"How's my… Hehehehehehehh… Hannibal, you are relentless. James Bond himself doesn't have the balls to ask me that.

"It's gone stale. There was a time when I was insatiable, now I'm just going through the motions."

"Hmmmm."

"'Hmmmm.', eh? I hate that sound, my second husband used to make it all the time; Clever old Henry."

Lecter started scribbling on his notepad.

"I don't need drugs for my libido. I can make my own drugs, you know."

"Yes. So, we've established that you've been having trouble sleeping and have a diminished sexual drive. It sounds to me that you're depressed."

"If you say so."

"When did it all start, Josephine?"

"I don't know…. Three months, maybe? Give or take."

"Three months." Said Lecter, as if finally some vague matter had become clear, "And what happened three months ago?"

"Opposition operatives got within close contact with me." Said Mina with a sight as she closed her eyes, "Discovered my identity. You can see why that troubles me. Nobody knows who I really am. Not you, not Mandy. Just the Director, the other six Branch Leaders. And now, the opposition. I feel violated. I feel like the power I held has been stripped away by Nemo and his terrorist ilk. If only they could see what we could see, if only they'd knew what we had in store for the world, and how we're going to save it in ways they'd never dare dream of.

"I'll have my vengeance soon, though. They may not know it, but we've infiltrated the opposition's ranks, we almost know who everyone of them is and where they all are. Any day now, the order will be passed and our hammer will fall upon them with righteous judgment."


So, what do you think? Did Mina sound or feel to flakey? I think I might've botched it. R&R.

Next Chapter: The return of Hector Barbossa and George Costas. We learn a thing or two about the fountain of youth, Barbossa's sex life and why one must never loose sight of the monkey.