Chapter Three

The Friend in the Desert

When Bond landed in New Mexico he was greeted by a small fragile looking man who looked far too intimidated to be anyone of any concern. The little man in fact was very helpful, he escorted Bond to the car and explained that for safety reasons Bond was being 'deposited' in the desert and he'd be picked up by his C.I.A. counterpart.

"Why the middle of the desert?" Bond asked. The small man looked into the rear view mirror at Bond, his face explained that he didn't like the idea much either.

"They say this way they can ensure no one will be watching you, the C.I.A. suspects a mole." The man explained.

"A mole…" Bond repeated, that complicated matters. "…any suspects?" Bond asked. The little man shook his head.

"Not as of yet." He answered. Bond nodded, that just meant to trust absolutely no one.

"What do you know about the case?" Bond asked. The man didn't say anything for a moment and didn't look away from the road.

"I know that it sounds silly and that you as a decorated British agent must be insulted to be sent on something so vague." The man said. Bond smiled.

"Besides that." Bond said.

"Well I know that this guy has been shipping things in and out of the country and that's suspicious cause there's not much you can do in a day's time…"the man said. "…and why pay shipping taxes if you could do it in the country?" the man said. Bond nodded.

"What about this man, Julio Acosta?" Bond asked.

"There's nothing on him, he opened a business in America which failed and he moved it to the Caribbean, and that's all we know." The man said.

"That's not much to go on." Bond said, the little man nodded.

"This whole case is not much to go on…" He said, the man stopped the car at an empty stretch of road. "…this is it, they told me to give you this map and that you'd be alright, I'm terribly sorry about all of this." He apologized.

"I'll be fine thank you." Bond said, he opened the door and walked out of the car, the little man in the car waved and drove off and Bond looked at the map. The map was one you could find in the airport, and marked by the road in green letters was: "You are here." A little ways ahead of the road in the desert in orange letters was: "you want to be here, by 5:15pm" Bond looked at his watch, it read 4:30. he frowned. Above the orange letters in bold red letters were: "Hurry up Bond!" Bond frowned again and began into the desert.

The extreme heat didn't really bother him; he did however feel as if he was wasting his time walking around in the desert looking for the C.I.A. it all seemed a little ridiculous, as if someone was playing a joke on him. He didn't like jokes. Judging by the cheap airline map they gave him, Bond thought he was in the right place, he looked around, it was deserted, nothing seemed out of place for a desert, there was a lot of sand and it was hot. The more Bond stood there the more aggravated he became. He looked at the map a handful of times to make sure he had gone in the right direction. He looked at his watch, 5:13 it read. He was early, but where were these C.I.A. agents? He contemplated going back the road and finding a way to get in touch with MI6, he looked at the watch, 5:14 and fifty seconds, he looked around all he could see was sand, sometimes mounds of sand, he looked back at the watch, 5:15. A loud creak startled Bond and he reached for his gun, to his surprised he saw the mound of sand closes to him had opened up and a man came out, Bond looked at the structure, still surprised that he hadn't noticed it.

"Ah Mr. Bond, you're on time…" The man called out, Bond began to walk towards him. "…please this way." The man walked back into the sand hill and Bond followed. When Bond was inside the door closed behind him with a loud clang and then an even louder click. The inside looked almost exactly like the MI6 office and there were people doing various things all around, when he turned a corner two C.I.A. agents saluted him and walked on. The man who escorted him in pointed to a door.

"Through that door Mr. Bond." He said and walked off, Bond entered the room. The room was simple one large table and a map of the word, sitting at the table were three men and one familiar woman.

"Ms. Goodhead…" Bond said happily surprised. "…what a pleasure to see you again." Bond said.

"I'm sure it is…" she said. "...007" she concluded. Bond sat down at the table where she gestured.

"When M told me I'd be meeting an old colleague I didn't know he meant one with such beauty and grace I would have-" Bond started.

"Bond if you could not be such an incorrigible gentleman for one moment, it would help us get this meeting running." M's grumpy voice said. Bond looked around for M.

"Yes sir, excuse me." Bond continued looking and for a moment there was silence as they all watched Bond look for M.

"Over here 007!" M snapped, Bond turned to his left and a screen turned on where the map once was. M's grumpy face looked over the room.

"Now, this meeting has been called in emergency…" Goodhead relayed. "…Julio Acosta has made his way into the country again, we follow his normal shipping patterns and it is not a regular visit." Goodhead revealed.

"Apparently he's come to see some stock car race, one of our sources revealed that he is a fanatic in stock car racing." M said. Bond sat up more in his chair.

"Sources…?" he asked. "…I was under the impression the Americans knew nothing about this man and that's why they asked for our help." Bond said. All the American's looked at M, who became a bit flush.

"There is someone who has come along and has been giving us information about this Acosta character." M said.

"Is this person reliable?" Bond asked, for once M smirked.

"That's what we're assigning you to find out…" M said.

"I see." Bond said.

"…Ms. Goodhead believed that you would be better meeting this person and getting information out of her." M said Bond looked at Goodhead.

"I wonder why she thought that." Bond muttered.

"I do too." M said. Bond was surprised he had heard him.

"We're going to take you into town where you're supposed to be meeting her." Goodhead said.

"I'm being monitored?" Bond simply asked.

"No Bond, you're free to use any means possible to break down this source and get all the information you can. Ms. Goodhead will be signing you up for the stock car race tomorrow that you'll have to win to meet Julio Acosta at his estate and find out what you can." M explained. Bond nodded.

"So operation 'Hoax' is still in effect?" Bond asked M, again all the Americans looked at M.

"Good day 007." M said and the screen became a map again, Bond looked around the room and smiled.

"Shall we get going?" he asked.

Holly Goodhead was a C.I.A. agent that Bond had come into contact with when he was assigned to find the missing Moonraker space shuttle, at first she disguised herself as an astronaut for Drax industries, having exceptional skill in science Goodhead fit right in, it wasn't until later that Bond realized she was a C.I.A. agent and they were working together, to stop the megalomaniac Hugo Drax from annihilating human life on earth.

"We'll be taking the desert tram, it's a train system that people rarely use since it's so expensive and a very long ride, we'll take that into town and you'll rendezvous with your assignment there." Goodhead explained.

"I see, and when we'll we have our own rendezvous?" Bond asked. Goodhead looked at Bond shocked by his boldness.

"James I hope you realize-" Goodhead started.

"For dinner that is to discuss the workings of our mission…" Bond said, Goodhead gave him a look, a look he recognized from the time he had been shocked at her being the astronaut and her reaction.

"Mr. Bond the C.I.A. and MI6 will keep me up to date." Goodhead pointed out.

"Ms. Goodhead you can never be too up to date." Bond insisted.

007

The tram was a long train ride indeed, it stretched sixty miles, on a electric track, it was the most modern for of train transportation and could move at blinding speeds. Like the rest of his C.I.A. meeting the tram was in the desert only he and Goodhead went and the tram was waiting for them. Quickly they boarded and sat down. The tram was full of windows everywhere Bond looked he could see the desert, he let Goodhead sit down and then he followed.

"Between you and me, I think there's a lot more going on than both of our governments are prepared to admit." Goodhead said in a low tone, Bond nodded, he also felt there was something happening that neither of them could see.

"I'm sure if there is something happening, it'll present itself…" Bond said. "…what I'm more concerned with is this mole." He confessed.

"I know, just keep your eyes open they always slip up at some point and time, we need to be more concerned with Julio himself and this person you're meeting." Goodhead instructed. Bond looked at her with a surprised smirk.

"Yes sir." He said.

The train moved quickly, more quickly than Bond could have imagined, for American technology that is, after a half hour the train stopped and let some people on and continued again, another half hour and the ticket clerk came into their car, Bond took his and Goodhead's ticket and prepared to give it to the ticket clerk when…

"Don't move!" the ticket clerk ordered.