Chapter 16: A line crossed.

"IT-department, Ophelia Warner speaking, how can I help you?" Jordan looked up from his work as he shamelessly listened in on the one-sided conversation behind him. "Ah, and you're sure the password matched the requirements listed?" Ophelia continued and Jordan turned to face her, hoping to signal to her not to fix the problem. He had been waiting for this call ever since he had created the bug in the system yesterday. Q only had had a brief moment to chat with the hackers after he had finished with 001's mission. Then Arabella had whisked him away for an important briefing. He hadn't come in since then. R had confirmed what Jordan had expected. Q was recovering from his 4-day work-bender and wouldn't be in until tomorrow.

"And you're sure it isn't in just one account?" Ophelia asked. "It's happened four times now? No, I can see why you're frustrated. It sounds like an easy enough problem to fix." Ophelia said despite the frantic signalling he did. Iris and Darnell were looking at him like he was crazy. Or too tired to work, since he had been pulling a double shift today in Q's absence and the other hackers not starting until tomorrow. And he was tired. Anyone would be after 12 hours. But since the gauntlet he knew it was nothing he couldn't handle.

"I'll get someone right on it. Thank you for reporting it." Ophelia disconnected the call. Jordan groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"What?" Ophelia asked irritated that Jordan had bothered her during a phone call.

"I was signalling you. Telling you to stall. You weren't supposed to say it was an easy fix." Jordan whined.

"What?" Ophelia asked, genuinely confused now.

"I programmed that bug in yesterday. Q's orders. He wanted to run a background check before he let them into the system." Jordan explained.

"What?!" Ophelia almost shouted.

"You heard me." Jordan answered back a bit grumpily. It wasn't his fault that Q didn't have the time to run those checks. It was supposed to be an easy job.

"You mean you sabotaged the server on Q's orders." Ophelia asked, eyes narrowing.

"Well, sabotaged was a big word." Jordan answered. "Only the new passwords are affected so it doesn't impede operations."

"Does R know he asked you to do this? Did she give permission?" Ophelia asked startling Jordan. He hadn't thought of it that way.

"I don't know. It was a rush job because they were already almost done with the registration. And I don't know if Q had the time to talk it through with R before he was whisked away." Jordan pondered out loud. And if Q hadn't talked to R, he was screwed. Because R was in charge at the moment, not Q.

"Right, we're going to R and get this cleared up." Ophelia took action before he could start to feel even more guilty about this. "This bug? It's easy to fix, right?" She asked as they walked to the door.

"Sure, I just changed a couple of digits." Jordan replied.

"Good, we'll get this sorted out. If personnel calls again, I'll just say that the fault is more difficult to fix than predicted. Don't worry too much." Ophelia said to reassure him.

She listened stone-faced as Jordan explained what Q had asked of him and how he had done it. But inside she was fuming. And she couldn't really blame Q. That was the bad part. It was all circumstance that had kept her out of the loop. Still, this was exactly what she had been afraid of. She knew the fault was minor and didn't impede operations much but she still felt a line had been crossed somehow.

She sighed and buried her face in her hands for a moment. The anxiety this whole move had been causing her was not good. She was still recovering from burn-out for god's sake. She should be taking it easy, not taking on more and more hours and responsibilities. Again, she couldn't blame Q exactly. It wasn't his fault that he had been relieved of his duty as quartermaster. And she knew he felt guilty about it, she had seen him looking at her and guild flash over his face. It didn't help any though.

But now she had to decide what to do with this. But choosing felt impossible. Because if she told Jordan to undo the changes, she might put the agency in danger. But if she allowed this to go on, what then? She doubted Q would stop at this if this situation continued or, god forbid, got worse. How far would Q go in the name of keeping them safe? Would he honestly force her to pull that trigger?

'Stop it.' She chided herself. Those thoughts were not helpful. She needed to focus on this problem and make an informed decision about what to do. And therein lay the clue. She needed information. She sat up, knowing what to do.

"Thank you, Ophelia for bringing this to my attention. Please return to the department. Leave the fault in for now. If personnel calls back, stall them. Tell them the fault wasn't what you'd initially thought and you are looking into it or something. Before you return however, could you please find 0010 for me and ask him to come here? I'd like his opinion on this matter. And, as this is an IT problem, I'd like you to remain as well, Jordan. I could use your advice." The young man before her relaxed marginally while Ophelia got to her feet and left the room.

She relaxed back in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to relax a little with the techniques she had been practicing while she was away. But the relief wouldn't come. Cursing under her breath she opened her eyes again and saw Jordan look at her worriedly.

"Are you all right, ma'am?" He asked.

"Just tired." She responded. "Don't worry."

"But I am worried, ma'am. Last time you looked this tired we had to manage without you for months. Please tell me you'll take a few days soon. While you still can." Jordan pleaded.

"I doubt I'll have that luxury." She said though she couldn't hide the longing from her voice. Just a few days to potter around in Wiggin's second basement to get her mind off all this sounded like heaven.

"You'll just have to make it happen ma'am." Jordan answered back stubbornly. He sat back and crossed his arms as if to say he was going to make it happen for her if she didn't make the effort.

She was saved from replying by a short knock.

The door opened and the agent strolled into the room. He looked as calm as ever, but Jordan doubted he felt that way. He had gotten to know 0010 quite well during their training sessions. The man was a professional all the freaking time. If you generally looked at him all you saw was the bland mask similar to the one Q would use whenever he didn't want to be noticed. But Jordan had sat beside Ormond and had kept an eye on him ever since he had started working for MI6 and had learned to notice the tiny hints of what the man was really feeling. The agent was no different. The main impression Jordan had so far of the man was that he was generally bored. Very, very bored. Boredom he had relieved in the training room. Well, Jordan had been happy to help there. The last two days however none of that boredom had shown. Instead, the agent had appeared alert and irritated. Both things Jordan could understand. The agent was on a mission after all. But this was hardly a mission worthy of a double-0 at the moment.

"You asked to see me." The agent said as he seated himself calmly. But Jordan got a hint of irritation at having been summoned like this.

"Yes." R said. "Some things have been brought to my attention that I need to make a decision on. Your insights would be helpful." Jordan frowned, R playing information close to her vest wouldn't help in any fashion here. Because two could play that game and 0010 was better at it than she was. He wasn't going to divulge information to her if she didn't do the same.

"Insights into what exactly?" The agent asked just like Jordan had expected him to. The man sat back in his chair with an air that held a hint of amusement. Jordan wanted to groan and slap the agent. If he played games and put even more stress on R, Jordan was going to make him pay for that in the training room sometime soon. Or at least as much as he could.

"The current state of affairs regarding MI6 and Q-branch. What can you tell me about them?" R asked.

"What makes you think I know anything about it?" The agent said casually. Jordan shot him an annoyed look which was pointedly ignored.

"Because M would have briefed you before coming here. I would like to hear the information he discussed with you." R sounded like she had to fight to stay calm.

"I hate to disappoint." The agent began sounding anything but disappointed to Jordan. "But the briefing I got from M was not exactly enlightening. The gest of it was just keep an eye on things here and help out where you can. He tried to hide it in many words but he didn't know anything about what was going on either." Which was the truth, Jordan concluded. A truth 0010 had no problem parting with as it served to rile up R even more. And it worked because R looked ready to explode. It was time to put an end to this.

"And what have you learned since then?" He asked sharply.