Chapter 10: Come into the spiderweb
Q waited patiently for 0010 to show up. The man was late which was an indication just what the sour man was thinking of his new assignment. Double-0's were known for such behaviour when on home soil. Especially when asked to do something they couldn't be bothered with, like reporting to medical or psych for evaluation. They mostly did turn up on time in Q-branch because they liked getting new toys. But they only ever popped in to collect them. They never stayed around and watched as they were created.
The agent was a bit of a mystery. There were only ever meant to be 9 double-0 agents until, out of the blue, Mansfield made this one the tenth about 20 years ago. To make matters all the more confusing there was also an A level agent with the number 010. Q had started looking into 0010 when he and Jordan started training regularly. The file on the man was nearly as empty as Q's own. There was only one piece of information beside his designation. First name: Andrew. Nothing beyond that. Q had spent hours trawling through government databases in search of additional information but to no aval. It seemed anything known about 0010 died with the one who hired him.
Finally, Q spotted the agent strolling through the door. He sighed in relief. They had just enough time to get into position before the first applicants arrived.
"Ah, there you are 0010." He called down the stairs. "Come along. We're late." And he headed into the corridor without waiting for the agent who took the stairs two at a time to catch up. Q quickly led him through the wide corridors until he opened a door, letting the agent enter first. The room was small and contained a desk and two chairs positioned before a large window that looked into the other much larger room. Only Jordan was in there reading a book.
"What is Jordan doing here?" 0010 asked, a slight surprise in his voice. Q smirked. The interrogations had continued during training but Jordan had managed to keep from the agent what he actually did within MI6. It helped that the man's questions had turned from Jordan himself to Q. To keep from giving anything away Jordan had started working on his question evasion techniques. Luckily 0010 had let him evade the questions. Q wondered briefly if he regretted that decision now.
"He works here. IT-department." Q answered. That raised the man's eyebrows even more.
"And he's in there. Why?" The man asked suspiciously.
"In about 5 minutes some of the UK's best hackers are coming in for a job interview. Jordan is going to do the initial screening. He's wearing a microphone so we can coach him through it." Q's said, his answer gaining him openly suspicious looks from the agent.
"Don't worry yourself, 0010." Q answered the unspoken accusation. "M knows that I'm recruiting them. This has been months in the planning. They are part of the handler teams I plan to set up. Just because we won't use the teams yet doesn't mean we can't use some extra hands in the IT-department. We're terribly understaffed."
"And what are we here to figure out?" 0010 asked as he settled into the chair and reached for the stack of files before him just as the door opened and the first person walk in. The door closed behind her. Jordan looked up and nodded to her before returning to his reading.
"Hacking is not the most legal of hobbies. Which is why we're using a ruse to lure them here." Q answered softly as the young woman, who looked like she should still be in school, sat herself on the other couch nervously. "Most hackers have a criminal record. We're here to separate the good guys from the bad guys so to speak. The good guys we offer Jobs. The others we turn over to MI5." They watched as the woman tried to settle but her nerves meant she kept shifting around.
"What ruse did you use? Why is she so nervous?" The agent asked as the door opened again and a 30-something year old man entered. The man took a seat beside Jordan on the couch.
"They're here to meet their idol. One of the best hackers in the world. They worked their asses of for 36 hours to impress him so when they got the invite they jumped at the chance." Q answered with a smirk before turning towards the laptop sat beside the file stack on the table. With a quick tap he turned on the microphone.
"Let's get started with the girl, Jordan." He said and he was pleased the young man in the other room gave no indication he had heard him beyond stilling. "She looks like she's dying to share the experience with everyone." Jordan looked up from his book and smiled at the woman. Before he could do more though she jumped the gun.
"Are you here to meet him too." She asked, almost jumping up and down with excitement. The other guy seemed to startle and looked around him nervously.
"Shhh." He said. "Not so loud. You don't know who's listening in." Jordan raised an eyebrow at the guy.
"GH0ST wouldn't have invited us here if this wasn't neutral ground, right?" He asked a bit sceptically.
The other guy clearly had a lot of experience hiding from law enforcement. "Yeah right, GH0ST is a white hat. Maybe even a government rat. He could sell us all out." He looked about ready to jump up and walk out the room.
"Confront him. Ask him why he's here." Q told Jordan.
"Why are you here then if this is a trap?" Jordan asked. The man flinched a little and moved in his seat nervously but Q had already seen what he needed to see. Apparently, so had 0010 who searched through the stack for the file with the matching photo.
"Let's see. Jason Whidden. Started out small before falling in with the wrong crowd. Did a few jobs for the Mafia of all people, before disappearing from the face of the earth. He's lucky to still be alive if he broke ties with them. No wonder he's so skittish. He's really desperate for redemption if he showed his face here."
"I like second chances." Q said with a grin before turning back to Jordan. "Concentrate on the girl Jordan it should take the pressure off him and keep him from walking out the door. Ask her about the gauntlet."
"Did you run the Gauntlet?" Jordan asked her, copying some of her excitement. She had trouble staying in her seat now.
"Did I ever!" She exclaimed while she sat on her hands probably to keep them from flapping about as she talked about her experiences with the gauntlet. She and Iris would get along great, Q thought. 0010 had opened the file on Mandi Parker who was indeed still in school, only a few months away from graduating and going to Oxford on a scholarship for computer science.
"Why did you invite her? She much too young." He commented.
"That she is, but she drew attention. Her completion rate for the gauntlet was fairly high and she tried to hack it at the same time as she was working on it. The fact that she's British and has yet to do any serious hacking makes me want to tap her early. We'll still let her go to university off course, I already arranged for her scholarship. But after I want to be able to snag her up quickly. IT is a competitive world." Q explained as the door opened again and a woman strode into the room as if she owned the place. Q grimaced at the display. That was not a great first impression.
0010 activated the microphone before Q could. "Jordan, focus on her immediately. Pander to her. She is the type that loves to boast of her abilities." The man was really getting into it. He had relaxed into his chair watching the interactions in the room. Good, Q thought. He had hoped to let 0010 coach Jordan while he focussed on getting to know his candidates better in one on one interviews. He had borrowed his brother's assistant for this too. Arabella, April had changed her name this morning, was waiting in another smaller interrogation room to oversee those interviews and to alert MI5 in case they were necessary.
"Can I leave you to continue to work with Jordan while I conduct further interviews, 0010?" He asked. The agent looked up and then narrowed his eyes in thought. Q waited for the man to run through his mission details to see if M had ordered the agent to tail him specifically. After a minute the agent only nodded shortly before turning back to the room.
"Good, I'll start with Mr. Whidden. He's unlikely to relax further than he is now. I'll come back for a report about the other contestants before I collect the next one." Q got up and headed for the other room. With a nock he opened it and asked Mr. Whidden to come with him. The skittish man took a deep breath to steady himself and walked towards him.