Chapter 40: ready for take-off

'Stand tall and breathe.' That was the mantra that he was forcing through his head right now. Stephen stood in the door opening of the closet that held one of the most important people in the British Government, forcing himself not to think about that little titbit of information. Forcing himself not to think at all.

He scanned the room beyond. The coroner and the forensics team had finally arrived and were busy collecting the body and evidence. They had obviously been briefed before they were let into the room because they hadn't even looked at him and kept a minimum of 2 meters away from him at all times.

Behind him the soft and steady rattle of busy hands on a keyboard stalled. Stephen glanced over his shoulder to check on Q, who had situated himself on top of the printer paper boxes. The adjunct-Director checked his phone briefly, replied to a text and then refocused on typing on his laptop. The man had yet to say a word since he had entered the closet. Stephen appreciated that. He could not afford to lose focus now and think of just how majorly he had cocked up…

'Stand tall and breathe.' He cut off his train of thought and focussed, first on his body, then on the room beyond. He had to keep it together. He couldn't afford anymore screw-ups. He had to succeed here or he would be out of the field forever.

'Stand tall and breathe.' He started to repeatedly think to himself. Forcing all other thoughts away as he swept his gaze around the room cataloguing every detail again as he had been taught when he first became a marine.

He was never as glad as he had been when the Hauptmeister returned.

"Right, everything is arranged." The man started.

"Good." Q had closed his laptop and shoved it into his bag before standing, "We will go outside, take a look around for my guards and then decide if we walk or take the car to the airport. Feel free to ask your questions in the meantime."

Stephen automatically moved to the side to let Q pass as the man joined the Hauptmeister before taking up his position at Q's other shoulder. He mostly blocked out the conversation Q was having. But he did notice how smoothly he was handling the questioning. His answers, once again in fluent German, were detailed without giving away much of anything. Some questions he outright wouldn't answer, mostly those about the organization that was behind this, but he explained that they simply didn't have all the information yet. Then he promised to share the information with the appropriate agencies when he could. Which meant exactly nothing, Stephen reasoned, because as long as the information was deemed classified Q could simply hide behind that excuse. But for all appearances it looked like he was extending his full cooperation.

They picked up two officers as soon as they exited the corridor and headed for the exit of the station. The square beyond, which had held the three cars with men when he had glanced around the corner, was now empty save a couple of police cars that were supposed to be their transport. The street had been blocked off and the sidewalks taped off. A large crowd of onlookers had gathered behind the tape. Officers had spread out, all with their backs towards them. Stephen was impressed with how much the Hauptmeister, who had introduced himself as Wolfgang Schneider, call me Wolf, everyone does, had accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.

He scanned the crowd, easily catching sight of 7 in the crowd. He looked relieved to see them even if he didn't show it. The girl who had been the cause of all this was with him, though she looked grumpy and unhappy to be there. Not a good first impression, Stephen thought.

"Sir." He alerted the Adjunct Director. Q turned, followed his gaze and immediately spotted 7.

"Ah yes, there they are." He said. "Good. Wolf, if you can let them through then we can get into the car and get to the airport. The sooner we are in the air the better."

It was only then Stephen noticed just how in control of the situation Q was and how quickly he was moving things along. The Hauptmeister complied immediately and peeled off to get them without any objections. He quickly returned with 7 and the girl in tow and Stephen only had a second to signal to 7 to go with the flow before Q took over again.

"James, Madeline, good to have you back. Let's get going." Was the only thing Q said before he turned and marched towards the car. Stephen's realisation the minute before was the only thing that kept him on Q's tail. 7 took a moment to talk to the girl, but then caught up with him, urging her along.

They reached the cars quickly at which point Q turned slightly and motioned for 7 and the girl to take the other car. 7 nodded and accepted without question. Stephen, after a quick glance into the car, held open the door, letting Q in before closing the door and going around to the other door, gesturing for Wolf to take the front. He wasn't going to limit the man's access to Q, but he was going to make damn sure he would be able to get in between Q and anything coming towards him. He was going to do his job.

They reached the airport in no time, driving up to the plane when Q pointed out the Learjet, which was powered up and ready to roll once they were on board. After a quick goodbye they boarded, Stephen going last with a sigh of relief and a heavy heart.

Wolf watched the plane take off with a sigh of relief. Never had he been glad to see a witness get away from him, but this guy, with his controlling demeanour and paranoid guards, had put him on edge. He knew this Adjunct-director, or whomever the hell he was, had been leading him around by the nose, his answers empty and reassurances meaningless. But there was nothing he could do about it.

He looked up as a car came racing up to him, recognizing his second in command's car. The woman jumped out as soon as the car came to a hold and ran up to him. Wolf saw in an instance how pale she was.

"Sir!" She shouted out as soon as she came into hearing range. "We've finally found the location where those explosions came from. It's a disaster, Sir. Looks like a bomb went off. And there are bodies, Sir. A lot of bodies."

Wolf groaned internally. No wonder the guy wanted to leave as soon as possible. A diversion, he had said. Jesus. That sounded one hell of a diversion for just two people to make. And now he was the one stuck with cleaning up the mess. He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes for just a moment. This was going to be a long day.

"Right." He said when he opened his eyes. "Get in contact with headquarters in Vienna. We're going to need a lot more people to clean this up and they just got volunteered to organise it…"