3. Strength
Strength
Mr. Linderman arrived at the beach house Elizabeth owned in Hawaii. Facing the Pacific Ocean, Mr. Linderman took a deep breath of the ocean mist air.
"No wonder why she wanted a base here."
Joseph just rolled his eyes, "Well I almost died here."
"Spare me the drama. Where's that torpedo?"
Joseph pointed towards the horizon, "We just sailed that way for a good 30 minutes and then dumped it overboard."
Mr. Linderman thought for a few minutes, "It's going to be a hard search. Elizabeth knew what she was doing. No doubt she probably knows that you are still alive."
Joseph smiled, "All the better, sir."
Elizabeth just paced her room, frustrating herself even more. She kept seeing that image of Natalya putting herself on James like that. Without thinking, Elizabeth punched a hole in the wall. Regretting letting her anger get the best of her, Elizabeth massaged her knuckles as the door opened. James walked in a little bit cautiously.
"Lizzy?"
Elizabeth just glared, "Oh, so am I just your screw on the side now?"
James just closed the door behind him, "How dare you mock me. I have done nothing to deserve this."
Elizabeth sighed, "You're right, I apologize. I just got so worked up when she got all touchy-touchy on you. My jealousy erupted and I am usually not like that."
James snaked his arms around Elizabeth's waist, "You are such a beast when you get angry."
"Oh, please." Elizabeth replied.
James just rubbed his nose in her hair; taking in Elizabeth's scent.
"So what does she want?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't know. M is having a chat with her; probably over why you shouldn't sneak around an agency full of assassins." James responded.
Elizabeth just smirked to herself, remembering the fear she caused in that woman's eyes.
Natalya looked around M's office. M kept scowling at her as she kept talking on the phone. Natalya ran her hand across the map of Europe.
"Don't touch that please." M demanded.
Natalya walked over to the bookshelf and noticed a row of pictures on the middle three shelves. They were pictures of past and current agents of all types of organizations.
"Who are these people?" Natalya asked, intrigued.
M looked up and a smile crept onto her face, "Those are all the people that have become legend in their work during their missions. I haven't met face to face with some of them, but I know a lot of them."
Natalya skimmed all the faces and saw James' picture. She turned around when she heard the receiver to the phone click. M stood up, straightening out her skirt and walked around to the front of her desk.
"What exactly do you want, Miss Simonova?"
Natalya crossed her arms, "I'm in trouble and I only trust James."
M just stared her down, "Well I'm not going to let any of my agents risk their necks without my say so. So unless you spill out whatever has you in such a tizzy, I suggest you pack your bags and ask the help of your precious Russian police."
Natalya stared down at the ground, "Please, I can't trust anyone, but James."
"Well if you can trust James, then you can sure as hell trust me." M replied.
Natalya walked over and took a seat. She looked around for a second and then turned her gaze back at M. "In my work, I had a man come to me asking for assistance on his computer system network. He said that he needed to make sure that an unbreakable firewall was placed on his network. The only thing that had me suspicious was the amount of money he was willing to pay me for it."
M raised an eyebrow, "How much?"
"Well, usually I charge from about $500 to $1,000. However, this man wanted to pay me $867,000 down payment and another $1,400,000 when the job was finished."
"That's a lot of money, Miss Simonova." M said.
Natalya nodded solemnly, "I agreed to the job, against my better judgment, because the price number was so high. Well, I got started with my crew and I started to notice files. So I took a hard drive and started downloading from his computer. I was able to do the job and saving without any suspicion from him. After I got my money, I went back to where I work and pulled up the files. What I found was disturbing."
Natalya timidly pulled out a yellow hard drive out of her brown bag. She still clutched onto it as if it was a matter of life or death. M folded her hands together, "Is that it?"
Natalya nodded, "What I found made me realize that I could be killed at a moment's notice if my involvement was to be discovered. I realized that I had involvement in completely securing _The Crew's_ network from bypass, but I also was able to completely copy their hardware in the process. I am scared to death and the only person I could think of to help me was James."
M stood up, "How long ago did this happen?"
"About five years ago."
M had anger flash in her eyes, "You have held onto this information for five years and you decide NOW is the good time to bring this secret to the surface?"
Natalya jumped up from her seat, "Well excuse me for fearing for my life! I have been so paranoid to the point that I didn't even trust my co-workers anymore. Anything we talked about, I made sure it had nothing to do with me because I was so scared. So forgive me for finally getting the courage to bring you this information. I understand that a lot of agencies are corrupt with _The Crew_'s members. When I saw, on the news, that one of their own turned on them and the organization was slowly deteriorating, I thought I could help by taking this to one of the few, non-corrupt agency in the world; you."
M nodded in appreciation, "I thank you for this, Natalya. I just wish that this would have been brought to us years ago. I agree with you when you say that you didn't trust anybody else. You are also going to need protection. I will arrange for you to be sent to a safe house out of the U.K."
Natalya shook her head, "I don't want to be in a foreign country."
"Well you don't have a choice. I guarantee that this man will find out, if he hasn't already. I'm sending you to the United States. You will be safe there, I promise."
Natalya glared, "Those American's are pigs!"
"Not all of them, Miss Simonova and it is one of the safest countries to hide in." M replied.
"I want to be near James."
M sighed, "I can't let you. He has other pressing assignments he has to deal with than to babysit you. Yes, he helped you greatly years ago during his mission to find the Goldeneye, but that is where it ends for you. You cannot expect to be involved in his life anymore than you already have been."
"What is this really about?" Natalya demanded, "Are you afraid that we are going to fall in love and he will leave his position in this agency? Because if that is what it is about, then that's pretty pathetic."
"What is pathetic, Miss Simonova is the fact that you choose now to decide to get back in contact with James. What is pathetic is that you think you can just make demands because you are turning in a very important piece of evidence to help in the fight against these terrorists. So why don't you hand over that hard drive and I will tell your prime minister that you are in safe hands in America. I take protecting people a very high priority. Your life has been in danger ever since you got involve five years ago with _The Crew._ I can probably guarantee that they knew the minute you downloaded their files and they have been keeping close tabs on you all along. So don't toy with me one more damn minute because I know how to do my job and it's time that you come to terms with that."
Natalya slowly brought the hard drive forward and handed it over to M. M said a thank you before getting on the phone again to call up the FBI. After a few minutes, M hung up and turned towards Natalya. M stood there frozen to her spot when she saw Natalya had a gun pointed at her.
"I need that hard drive back. I won't let you get me killed."
M just pushed the hard drive back more on her desk, "I can't do that."
Natalya had tears streaming down her face, "I don't want to kill you."
"I don't want to kill you either," M replied as she walked towards Natalya.
Natalya cocked the gun, "Step back!"
"What? Do you think because I'm old, that I am frail and weak? I have more combat experience than most military men earn in a lifetime."
M grabbed the gun and flipped Natalya on her back. Pointing the gun at her, M smirked, "Now, let's cut the drama and conduct business."
As if on cue, Money Penny walked in and stood their frozen. "Um the President of the United States is on line 3."
"Thank you, Money Penny. Bring in some coffee for our guest and some aspirin. She's going to need it." M replied, still holding the gun to Natalya.
"Yes, ma'am." Money Penny replied timidly and left the office.
As Money Penny closed the door, she shook her head in disbelief.
"I'll never do anything to piss her off, then." She said to herself, getting the coffee.
