Chapter 52: Double-0 distraction

He was getting too old for this. Brian sighed as he watched 1 almost kill their quartermaster. Once he had been right beside her, defending Queen and Country from even the slightest infractions. Now he only felt annoyed that once again, the same old same old was playing out. Death, destruction, betrayal, intrigue. On missions and at home. He was just so tired of it all. It all just confirmed his decision.

The last time he had returned to London had been jarring. Everything had been different. A new headquarters, a new M, a new Q. It became very obvious very quickly that he would not be able to rest there so he had requested a simple job. He had been playing pensioner, just relaxing and lounging in his favourite café on Sicily, keeping an eye on one of the local Mafia Don's for the past few months. All the while the messages from home got darker and his urge to stay away and let someone else deal grew with it. When the recall order came and 10's message on top of it, he decided that this was it. One final hurrah before the end. He was to be the first and he was bloody grateful to Q for making it possible.

He snapped out of his thoughts as M dismissed them, hoping he hadn't missed too much.

"I wonder how my padawan is doing?" 1 wondered out loud as they walked to the door. 9 snorted and glanced at 10. Brian wondered what that was all about. He had heard about this Jordan guy from the various reports the others had made, but had never actually met him. It had been highly entertaining to read his colleagues brag about the young man's exploits and achievements and their role in them. And by the looks of it, they were in for another round because 9 had his devil face on and 10 looked like he was eating a lemon.

"Oh, the kid's not here. He quit about a week ago." 9 replied, smirking. All humour drained from 1's face as she turned to face 9, who had no problem holding her murderous gaze with a grin on his face.

"Did you just say he quit?" 1 hissed icily, malice dripping from her honeyed tongue.

"Yep, he joined the dark side." 9 said simply, barely able to contain his laughter, and pointed at 10 who was glaring at 9. "And it's all his fault."

"I resent that. I had very little to do with that." 10 defended himself immediately, before 1 could go in for the kill. Brian raised an eyebrow in surprise. 10 never really joined in with the banter, even when he was goaded into it like he was now.

"You trained him." 9 pointed out with a smirk.

"Not in everything." 10 shot back, crossing his arms with a scowl, though Brian saw a slight hint of humour in his eye.

"You declared him ready." 9 tried again.

"He was officially evaluated." 10 wasn't giving an inch. This was actually rather amusing to watch, Brian thought. Even 1 seemed to relax a little.

"He failed his psych evaluation. You said he was ready anyway." 9 wasn't ready to give up yet, though he had yet to make an accusation stick.

"That he failed is more your fault than mine. You all taught him our rules. Besides, psych screwed up again as always." 10 had the far better arguments, though that didn't surprise Brian at all. A man didn't come into the position 10 was in lightly.

The agent seemed more relaxed than Brian had ever seen him. He wondered what had happened. 10 had always been so uptight. He did his job, was damn near perfect at it too. For all Mansfield favoured the troublemakers like Bond and Silva, whenever an operation was politically delicate, it always went to 10. Outside of work though, the agent was always notably absent. Didn't socialize at all with the rest of them. And whenever he did meet them he was cold and distant. Brian liked this more relaxed agent much better. 1 though seemed to have had enough of the banter.

"You had better tell me what's going on with my padawan soon boys..." She started in that honey sweet tone of hers. She didn't even need to finish the sentence before 9 caved.

"Okay okay, peace, 1." He said with his hands raised as if surrendering. "Your kid trained himself up, passed an A level evaluation and got put into the field. He infiltrated the JSS IT-department and has been gathering intel ever since." With every word he said the murder disappeared from 1's eyes and she started to smile more. In the end she let out an almighty crow.

"I knew it." She said, "I knew he had it in him."

"Hmmm." 10 answered. There was a lot of emotion hidden in that hum, Brian noticed. There was pride and amusement but also some doubt and frustration. But 10 didn't give him much time to ponder as he gestured for them to follow him and he opened the door to what appeared to be a lounge. There were a couple of Q-branchers taking their break dotted around but as soon as they all poured through the door and headed for the coffee the room quietly emptied behind them. The desensitivity of the minions was another great source of entertainment, but it seemed that 4 double-0's was still a bit much for them. 10 waited for them to take a seat on the sofa and walked to the door to lock it before returning and taking his seat on a chair. The way he sat though caught Brian's attention. The shift was subtle and he doubted the others noticed but the man before them wasn't in the mindset of 0010. No this was a persona that Brian remembered from the olden days. This was Andrew.

"I'm going to brief you on the rest of the information you've missed because M dismissed us early." He said as he took his own seat on one of the couches. 10's posture screamed control but 1 and 9 didn't seem to notice. They got too hung up on the words, which was probably what Andrew was aiming for. Brian didn't really care about the words, he was far more interested in this change in 10.

"Fuck there's so much wrong with that sentence I don't know where to begin." 9 said completely flabbergasted. "You're saying M wasn't in charge of the meeting?"

"No." Andrew answered. "M was there to be briefed, just as you all were. Q was the one leading the meeting." Brian nodded, impressed while 1 and 9 had trouble suppressing their reactions, which was saying a lot. Double-0's were trained to be in control of their minds and emotions at all times after all.

"How the fuck did we miss that?" 9 said grumpily. "We are trained to fucking spot such things."

"You mean to say he's good." Brian said as he rolled his eyes. "I thought you knew that already. You've told me Q was a master of disguise, what did you expect?"

"He should be, with the training he's had." 10 commented casually. Amused by their reactions he slipped slightly back into the relaxed agent he had been earlier.

Suddenly, someone tried to open the door before knocking rather insistently. They all ignored it. They had more important things to worry about than some Q-brancher wanting his coffee. Brian raised his eyebrows at his colleague.

"You know something." He accused him. "Care to share?" He saw Andrew hesitate for a second and then a second longer before a stubbornness set in his jaw and he answered.

"Well let's just say I won't be surprised if the Director will 'kindly' ask us to stop threatening his adjunct. I don't doubt all of us will end up on the scaffold if it happens again."

Ah… Brian was speechless for a moment. He had not expected this. Beside him 1 raised one eyebrow, then another before bursting out laughing. It wasn't an amused laugh or a relieved one. It was laced with irony, resignation and acceptance of her fate.

Well, I'm dead. It's been nice knowing all of you." She said dryly. Brian winced sympathetically, because the Director wasn't known for being kind or understanding and the chances that there would be repercussions for her behaviour were very real.

A familiar noise had them all staring at the door. It seemed the Q-branchers had grown a new set of balls, or were too desperate for their coffee because someone was picking the lock. Brian had to laugh at their guts. When the door opened though, his humour evaporated and 1 swallowed visibly as her face lost a little bit of colour.

In the door opening stood the Assistant. Her face was as calm and professional as ever, but her eyes seemed to burn.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice laced with cold fury.