Chapter 30: Interagency liaison

Iris kept glancing at him, the astonishment still readable in her eyes. Q actually had difficulty keeping the smile off his face. The next time she glanced at him he caught her gaze and rolled his eyes in exasperation. She had the decency to look embarrassed. With good reason, if she kept glancing at him like that, she would give the game away.

It was busier now in the branch. Most of the night crew had stuck around again, only Justin had gone home to rest from the commotion, as Jordan was now on the home stretch. Q didn't know what 001 had said to him in the bathroom but it sure had had effect. He had worked continuously for 12 hours now, not even letting the capture of Rose Horn distract him. He was almost at the final problem. Q hoped that one wouldn't upset Jordan's fragile newfound confidence too much. He'd done all right with the couple of challenges he'd failed. But the last one was more a test of emotional strength than skill.

He startled out of his thoughts when his phone rang. Everyone looked up to him in surprise. Hardly anyone from his staff had a phone on him. Only work-phones were allowed to be used in MI6 and none of the minions needed one. He quickly stood and snatched it from his pocket as he exited the room without saying anything. He looked at the screen: Mycroft. And with that he knew this was serious. Mycroft wouldn't call him directly like this if a situation hadn't arisen that required his immediate attention.

"Yes." He answered noticing Bond had followed after him. He led them to the double-0 Gym, the most secure room in the building since they had started having meetings there.

"Justin Remar was attacked on his way home." Mycroft's icy voice calmly relayed. Q froze for a moment on the doorstep of the locker room. Fiery rage filled him before he quickly squashed it with a layer of ice. There they had it. The confirmation that the mole was still active. It had been obvious that Rose was just the decoy. Q had actually disabled the alarms on the account and had been monitoring it manually. Rose had logged in about 5 minutes before Q had triggered the alarm. Logged in and just sat there. Doing nothing. Q had weighed his options before springing the trap and letting the mole know they were onto him. In the end, he had chosen Rose's safety. At least in custody she couldn't be threatened further. Who knew what they had done to Rose to make sure she played along? Apparently, throwing a decoy at them wasn't enough though. No, they had to hurt another one of his people. Q knew blowing up on Mycroft wouldn't help but it was tempting.

"What's his status?" He asked worried.

"Conscious but I don't know more, they can't approach him." Mycroft replied.

"Who is they?" Q asked sharply. If Mycroft let any goldfish near one of his men...

"Lestrade is on scene, seeing as you made him your liaison. He called John in as soon as he heard Mr Remar was working for Universal Exports. They alerted me to the situation." Mycroft answered patiently. "Mr. Remar appears to be overwhelmed by the attack and is shutting everything out. He is wearing his earphones with loud music on it and has his eyes squeezed shut. He has curled up in a corner in the alleyway and as soon as someone physically approaches him, he starts screaming and kicking. Seeing as they don't know how injured he is they don't want to use force to get him out."

"He's wearing his headset you said?" He asked as he snapped his fingers at Bond mouthing laptop at him. For a moment Bond seemed to refuse the demand, looking at him outraged for the way he had asked, but he complied in the end. Q knew he had a lot to make up to for that move. But later, he would deal with that later.

"I hope you have some progress to show in uncovering who's doing this, brother mine. I would hate to have to become involved." He threatened as soon they were alone, his calm slipping for a moment before he pushed the rage under the ice again.

"Unfortunately, progress is still irritatingly slow, but the moves they are making are becoming increasingly bold. It is only a matter of time. The welfare check on the family of Rose Horn has thrown up results however. Her husband and son are missing. We are searching for them as we speak. But I have to go." Mycroft was as calm as ever but Q heard the stress in his voice. He wondered about that for a moment before the penny dropped. Today was Sunday. It was approaching 10.15. Q closed his eyes with a sigh. That he had answered Lestrade's call at all was a miracle. She was not going to be pleased.

"I'll take care of it, Director." He said as Bond entered the room again carrying the laptop. "Give the Queen my apologies and regards."

"I will. Keep me posted." Mycroft rang off quickly not wanting to keep her waiting any longer.

"I apologize for the insult, 007." He said when he accepted the laptop. "I have a tendency to forget my manners when in a hurry. I shall attempt to refrain from doing so again." He opened the laptop.

"Don't make promises you won't keep, Q. Besides it sounded urgent." Bond answered calmly.

"It was. Justin was attacked on his way home. The attack set off what sounds like a panic attack." Q answered as he set to work, watching Bond's gaze darken from the corner of his eye. His main priority was getting into Justin's phone. He could just call of course. He knew Justin's Bluetooth headset was able to receive calls but he didn't want to upset Justin further by interrupting his music with an annoying Ringtone. Luckily MI6 standard issue mobile phones were easy to hack if you were connected to the server. Connecting to Lestrade's and Watson's phones would be trickier.

"Justin." He said the moment he connected. Justin's rapid breathing was coming through the laptop speakers.

"Justin, I need you to calm down. You're safe now. No one is going to hurt you anymore." Q calmly said letting nothing of the fiery rage he was feeling seep in his voice.

"Q… I… I can't…" If anything, Justin's breathing rate only increased.

"What do you normally do when you have panic attacks?" Q asked him.

"Code." Justin answered breathlessly.

"Then code with me. We'll start simple. Lesson one, Justin. Code Hello World for me. Come on. Main, then parentheses, left brace …" And Q started walking Justin through the most basic of codes that were possible. Slowly Justin started saying the words with him. First between pants then, slowly, his breathing started to slow the more he got into it.

"Good, Justin, you're doing well. Are you ready to let the outside world back in? There are some people I want you to meet."

Greg stood at the foot of the alleyway and watched the pathetic pile of human being as it was curled up in a corner. Remar was shaking and rocking and clearly in the throws of a severe panic attack and they could do nothing to help. They had called Mycroft, who had said he would get into contact with Remar's supervisor.

A sudden jolt went through Remar's body before the shaking increased. Greg frowned, wondering what had upset the man with the frumpy purple hair that used to be a mohawk. However, before long Remar started mumbling. Greg didn't know what he was saying but whomever it was he was talking to seemed to be helping. Soon the shaking stopped and the man's breathing slowed.

Suddenly his phone started ringing. However, it wasn't only his. John fished his phone out of his pocket as well. He didn't seem surprised at all and put the phone to his ear without blinking at the blank caller ID. It didn't even say the number was withheld, just blank. Uneasily he answered as well.

"Yes." John answered and though he didn't say the Sir, Greg could hear the attention of the soldier in John's voice.

"Dr Watson, DI Lestrade. This is Q." The voice on the line sounded very familiar.

"Quartermaster." John greeted. "Thank you for your help, sir."

"I have told you before, Doctor, there's no need for formalities." Greaves, who was apparently the quartermaster or whatever the hell that was, answered. "Now I have a favour to ask. The attack on Justin is premeditated and has highlighted a problem to us. Unfortunately, this puts Justin in danger for further attacks. I was wondering if you could get him securely to an associate of ours?" Greg glanced over to Remar, who was obviously listening in and had tensed at the suggestion. John had tensed as well but it was more of an alert stance.

"That I can do." John answered in a tone of voice Greg had never heard before. It was the voice of the soldier that John had been. It held a surety in it that said that John would move mountains or die trying.

"Thank you, tell the Wig to take you to the second basement. A contact will probably be there. If not call the Director and he'll have further instructions." John raised his eyebrow but didn't comment beyond a simple "Understood."

"Now then, as a cover story I think it's best it shows Justin being admitted to hospital. An ambulance is on its way to you. If you could examine him on the way there, Doctor, you can set off once you've reached Barts. I know you can find your way from there without alerting anyone. The records will show him being admitted for observation for 48 hours to look for signs of complications from broken ribs."

"It's a good excuse." John answered. "But standard observation for collapsed lungs is 36 hours."

"Then 36 hours it will be." Q answered. "Now Justin, these are the gentlemen I want you to meet. The tall man is Gregory Lestrade. He's the Liaison between Scotland Yard and MI6." Greg blanched as Greaves casually explained which agency he had been dealing with. He refrained from complaining out loud about how the hell he got himself into these situations. And he couldn't even blame the Holmes' this time. "The other one is Captain Watson who is also a Doctor. You can trust them Jordan. They are both more than capable of protecting and treating you. Doctor Watson will get you to safety, alright?"

Remar glanced at them both from where he had uncurled in the corner in the alleyway.

"Okay." Came the very shaky reply.

"Okay. I'm going to leave you with them then. Don't hesitate to call if you need my help, Justin. I'm in your contacts list." And with that all lines suddenly went dead.