When he awakened, he was lying on a rocky shoreline. He saw neither fluffy clouds, nor a roaring inferno. So…not heaven or hell? I always did think that was bollocks. Instead, a cool breeze washed over him, causing him to shiver slightly. Above him, the sun blazed in a picture-perfect blue sky.

Where am I? Surely I'm not still on the island…. There's no way I can still be alive! Even without those missile strikes, I had at least one fatal gunshot wound. Yet here I am, and this certainly looks real to me!

He glanced down at his side, which had been bleeding profusely just moments before the blast. To his amazement, the bleeding had completely stopped. Even the wound itself looked strange, as though it were slowly disappearing even as he stared at it. He reached around to his back and checked his other wound, the non-fatal one, and felt no wetness there either.

Suddenly it struck him. It must be something to do with his nanobot infection! Whilst they were fatal to anyone matching the DNA with which they were encoded, they must also have been programmed with some sort of healing function to their host, their carrier.

Forcing himself to focus, he slowly sat up and looked around. Yes, behind him were the remains of the missile base turned nanobot factory, fires erupting from it in numerous places. It would only be a matter of minutes before Royal Marines landed, capturing or killing any of Safin's men still left alive. He mustn't let himself be found, lest someone mistake him for one of the enemy and finish him off with a shot the nanobots couldn't begin to heal.

A nearby object caught his attention. I don't believe it! Mathilde's stuffed toy, her dou-dou, lay in a patch of scrawny weeds a few feet away. I so wanted to be able to return that to her.… She loved the crazy thing, and it had helped keep her calm when most little girls would have been shaking and shrieking in terror.

Tears filled his eyes as he realized the truth. Madeline and Mathilde…I can never be with them again. If I touch either of them, they'll die. And trying to stay in contact without ever physically being with them would simply be torture, for all of us. What was it Q had said about the virus? It could never be removed from a host's body. It was 'eternal.'

He shook his head, hard. I refuse to believe that! If someone could create this horror, someone else can destroy it. Who knows how…a DNA transfer, some kind of high-tech chelation treatment, but it's possible, it has to be! If I could just find Obruchev's notes….

To have a chance of doing that, he had to avoid being captured, even if he were eventually identified and safely returned to England. Too many things could go wrong if MI6 got involved again, and considering his infection, they might even imprison him as a danger to society. For just a moment, he wished he had died in the missile blast, then just as quickly the primal urge for survival returned.

If he could get back into the ruins of the base, search for notes or other clues, he might have a chance. Maybe if I can knock out one of the marines, take his uniform. But upon trying to get to his feet, a bolt of pain shot through him and he realized several of his ribs were broken. Could the nanobots heal those? he wondered. If not, he'd just have to grit his teeth, suck it up, and get on with it.

In the distance, a hovercraft arrived at the beach, disgorging a squad of heavily armed men. Were they the first? In any case, he should wait until darkness before trying to carry out his plan. Still, what if he somehow succeeded in getting into the ruins, yet his search turned up nothing? It was certainly a possibility. But Bond had always gone on gut feelings, and he felt in his very bones that something useful was there. He had to try, for otherwise he was sure the marines had been ordered to destroy everything, and it was unlikely Obruchev had left anything useful at MI6.

Hope springs eternal…hope, damn it, not some fucking virus! Mathilde, as long as I have breath in my body and my heart still beats, I swear I will get your dou-dou back to you, and that I will hold both you and your maman in my arms again.

END