Chapter 38:Between a rock and a hard place

He knocked again, dread pooling in his gut. Q might have been head deep in coding, but 6 should've heard the knock if that was the case. Behind him, Dr Swan let out another irritated sigh which made him want to punch her. He counted to ten in his head, reminding himself to be patient. He could be patient. He'd done that before when working with Ves… James quickly shoved that thought out of his head. This situation was entirely different from when he worked with her on quantum. Unlike her, who knew exactly what his job was and still complained, Dr Swan just didn't understand how important it was to meet with Q, not only to get the information he needed but also to make sure that they had gotten away cleanly. Because Q was important to the Director for some reason and if anything had happened to him, James could kiss his safe return to the UK goodbye, his life probably too.

Frustrated, he got his lock-picks out of his coat and started on the lock. This was a hotel, so he didn't expect it to take much to open the door even if this one was a normal key lock instead of a card reader. Luckily, he was right. It only took him about 12 seconds to get the lock open. He drew his gun and motioned for Dr Swan to stay back, knowing there could be a double-0 on guard in there, even if he knew there wasn't.

As he predicted the room was empty. It looked barely used. The only thing there was a change of clothes, by the looks of it they belonged to 6. There wasn't a sign of struggle. James wasn't naïve enough to take that as a good sign, it simply meant they had been attacked before they got here.

Leaving the room and locking it behind him he barely glanced over his shoulder to see if the doctor was still following him before stalking down the stairs towards the reception. He changed his demeanour to that of a smarmy businessman as he approached and smiled charmingly at the receptionist.

"Excuse me, My name is Bond, James Bond. I was meant to have a meeting with the men in Room 12, but there's no answer at the door. I was wondering if there was a message left for me?" He asked pleasantly.

"I'm sorry to hear that, sir. Let me check real quick." The young lady smiled back before she searched her system. "I'm sorry, sir. No messages. However, there were all sorts of sirens heading towards the ski lift about half an hour ago. It sounded like an accident had happened and the lift halted. Maybe your contact was held up there." James had a hard time keeping his concern and anger off his face and staying in character. Something had definitely happened to Q and 6 then. He hoped 6 had managed to save Q from the attack.

"I think that might be it, thank you." He told her quickly "We'll head that way. Please, if they arrive, would you tell them I will be back later?"

"Of course, Mr Bond. Good luck." She answered politely and he nodded in thanks and quickly turned and walked towards the exit. 'Well, at least I know where to look', He thought idly as he set a gruelling pace towards the ski-lift dragging Dr Swann with him, who was almost running to keep up with him, all the while hoping Q would still be alive when he got there.

They had been in the bloody closet for more than an hour now. The time to meet Bond had come and gone and still there were people outside the door. 006 was still guarding it, no hint of tiring. But he was bored. Utterly utterly bored. He had made one move to his laptop more than an hour ago only to freeze under the glare of the agent. Since then he hadn't moved, slowly going mad from inactivity.

He felt his phone vibrate again. It had been doing that on and off since they had settled in this prison. Q wondered if Mycroft had declared war on Switzerland yet for not being able to reach him. There was probably a special forces team on the way to retrieve him right now. He wondered how much damage they would do. How many people would die unnecessarily. Just like the lift operator had died. He was having a hard time forgiving himself for the man's death.

There was movement in the office. The door slammed open and someone ran in. So far the room had been rather quiet since the lift operator had been declared dead. They needed to secure the scene first, Q reasoned, secure all those witnesses before interviewing them. The body and evidence wasn't going anywhere so they just secured it for later. If that was the case Q was worried they would be there all afternoon if lucky but all night was more likely.

They didn't have that time. The bombing of Cape Town meant the clock was ticking. He knew Mycroft could manage on principle with only MI5 to secure. MI6's personnel had been quietly prepared and Q had secured the server, his hackers making it nigh on impossible for Denbigh's men to do anything in the building. He hoped that they would be able to manage without him for a little longer but he knew he should head back very soon.

The room beyond the door fell completely silent, putting them on alert. 006 once again barricaded the door handle while Q readied his gun, while a not so small part of him felt joy at the thought of something finally happening. He quickly shoved it away, because this could still turn ugly real quickly, and he needed to prevent it.

Suddenly they heard a loud voice call out.

"Polizei, aufmachen!"

It had the least desirable effect on the agent in the closet with him. The man straightened and relaxed and Q knew he was preparing himself for a shoot-out. Double-0 agents didn't like being cornered and 006 seemed to have forgotten that this wasn't a mission and that the people outside weren't the enemy. Q was in half a mind to send the agent somewhere for relaxation and retraining because he was starting to feel like a ticking time bomb.

"006, stand down." He called out softly. The agent turned around like lightning bringing up his gun. Q met the deadly gaze steadily, not flinching as he looked past the barrel at the agent. The look didn't change and the gun didn't move and Q realized that 006 definitely needed to be out of the field for a while. But first he had to talk him down. Preferably without getting killed.

"I need you to stand down, agent." He said again just as softly as he had done the first time. "There are other ways to resolve this. Those men out there are not the enemy. You've done a good job of protecting me so far. I can get us out of this situation but in order to do that I need you to stand down and not engage. Can you do that?" He asked, wanting the agent to do a mental assessment of himself and pull himself out of that killzone.

He saw 006 startle at the question and frown. Then it seemed to dawn what he had done because horror started to show on his face and he quickly lowered the gun, almost dropping it in his haste to hand it over. Q calmly took it out of his trembling hands.

"Shit, Q." 006 said. "Fuck… I… Fuck." He noisily stumbled backwards till he hit the wall and pressed himself into the far back corner of the closet.

"Komm raus oder wir brechen die tür auf." It sounded again from outside and Q saw 006 flinch violently.

"Stephen, look at me." Q blocked out the outside world for a moment and focussed on the distressed agent. He kept his voice soft and steady and waited until the agent slowly raised his head, horror still in his eyes. "You are not well, 006. I need you to realize that. And that's okay. But until we are back on home soil you are still my protection detail. The real danger has passed so it'll be just a passive guard duty from now on. I need you to pull yourself together just a little bit longer. Understood?" As he spoke he pulled up his professional masks more and more, hoping it would have the desired effect.

006 took a deep shuddering breath. And another. And then he looked up, eyes full of insecurity.

"Just… stay behind me, Q and don't give me that thing." He looked down at his own hands in disgust for a moment before a determined look settled over him and he got up.

"Letzte Warnung!" Came from outside. 006 stepped up to the door again as Q grabbed his bag before rummaging in it, finding what he needed quickly.

"Alright, what's the plan?" The agent asked.

"Diplomacy." Q answered with a tight grimace.