Chapter 14

M had reached the far corridor of the underground bunker when she smelled water. She opened the door and felt the air change. This was a large room with a great deal of water. M searched for a light to illuminate the area but could not. There was the rumble of loud explosion and a flicker of flame that illuminated what could only be described as a cavern that allowed the lake to enter into it.

Another blast illuminated something in the water. M gasped, "I need Bond." She turned around the way she came and headed back into the panic room Silva had shoved her into and realized that Severine was trying to get her out this way.

Silva planned on the same obviously. M hoped that the mayhem upstairs had subsided and Bond was searching the house for her. When she neared the door she hit the panel for the code and the camera for the outer hall activated.

M spurred into action seeing that Bond was just outside the door looking confused about how he would open it. Thankfully Severine's last help was the code. M whispered to herself as her fingers keyed in the numbers 2103 followed by enter.

The door opened and M walked out "Bond, I need you." She was motioning her arm to indicate inside when the looming shape of Tiago appeared from the right of the door and she moved instinctively away from him.

No! M thought to herself, what the hell had Bond been doing out here?

Tiago held the door open and looked at Bond, "After you."

Bond stopped in front of the man and held out his hand for Tiago's weapon and followed M keeping the detonator away from the larger man's reach. All he wanted to do was to pull M into his arms but this was not the time, unfortunately.

"What the hell were you doing out there with him Bond? Having a bloody tea party?" M whirled on James the moment they were in the lounge area. "You're still armed? Why didn't you kill him?"

"Tisk, tisk mother...is that any way to talk about your long lost son. You were being honest when you said you would have taken me back if I had made my way to merry old London town after my incarceration weren't you? Tiago looked at her menacingly awaiting the correct answer.

"I would have and I would have made sure you had the psychological help you most desperately need."

"HA!" Tiago blurted out. "Now that is a typical brutally honest answer. But you didn't search for me?"

"We inquired a few months after the take over about a trade for you Tiago but they informed us that you were dead and provided evidence that we mistakenly believed. And before you object; we do, and always have made every effort to return our lost agents."

"I can confirm this...she has on more than one occasion…"

"That doesn't count agent Bond; because she fancies you as her favourite."

"I was about to say before you rudely interrupted me, that M's done the same for other agents as well and not just the 00 agents." Bond placed himself protectively in front of M so that Silva...Tiago, whatever this man wanted to call himself could not reach her.

"What now?" M asked. "What went wrong Tiago?"

Tiago shook his head chuckling. "You would see that things are not going to plan. I had planned on killing Bond in front of you and whisking you off to my private island but...yes...something has gone wrong. Do you have any idea what is going on?"

"This is not your home...I have suspected that you are doing this for someone else but that the plans have changed. Severine knew and she was trying to get me out but you killed her." M said with disgust in her voice.

"No….no….no...you don't understand. Severine was only going to barter you for her own freedom. The plan changed and a man I've considered a brother for years has betrayed me. Constant betrayal...I will not have it!"

"Outside you smashed your coms and said that it was no longer MI6 causing the explosions upstairs?" Bond questioned.

"Yes and you need to press that detonator or they will know we've survived and we don't want that. We need to get away and leave others thinking we're dead."

"You think that I would take you with us?" Bond asked incredulously.

"No Bond. He's right. We need what he knows. Tiago is only a pawn to a much larger organization which is targeting MI6 specifically."

Tiago looked mockingly hurt by her accusation and pulled his hands to his heart. "You wound me M."

"Well I'm not far off am I?"

"No...Bond, detonate or we will not be able to escape." Tiago said as he sat down in a large arm chair and sighed."

"Do it 007." M ordered and Bond obeyed. The lights flickered and rumbling could be both heard and felt as the house shook.

M moved into the kitchen on the other side of the room and began filling the kettle. Bond followed M closely.

"M?" He whispered.

"Bond we will wait out whatever he is expecting and then leave."

"How? When you opened the door and said you needed me…what did you mean?" Bond questioned.

Tiago was suddenly standing behind Bond in the kitchen. "She needed you because there is a submarine down the hallway and you agent Bond were a commander with Her Majesty's Royal Navy. She wants you... needs...you...as a chauffeur."

Bond frowned and looked to meet M's eyes. M couldn't meet Bond's eyes.

"What do you wish to hear 007?" M sighed as she said it. "This is not the time or place for either of your issues with me. Our primary goal is escape. Tiago will be our prisoner and will explain why this brother of his is so interested in us and what changed?"

"So you want all my secrets do you Olivia?" Tiago said, raising his brows and acting clown like.

"Don't call me Olivia! And stop acting the clown, what have you told this man...the one you said pointed you in my direction?"

"I wondered why you had not just killed us all on the ship. What with the ease at which you took Judi and had access to our cabins on the cruise." Bond stated.

"Yes...well I'm brilliant, I love the absurdity of games in serious situations and I had no idea that Olivia...M was alive until a few months ago."

"What changed out there in the hallway Silva?" Bond asked tensing as the whistle of the kettle sounded and M began to make tea.

"My men were overrun by six, but back up arrived...from my...brother and when I had my man contact them. They unwittingly told me that the team's plans had changed. I tuned into their frequency and heard the order straight from the horse's mouth."

"Ohhh...but what was the order and who is the horse?" M asked as she poured three cups of tea and opened the biscuits she found in the cupboard. "Come...let us have that tea party and talk like civilized beings."

"The illusion of civility...so very British and so very opposed to what your Empire has done all over the world. Rather vicious is the Queen when you really think about it. Perhaps not her directly but in her name...atrocities abound...still.

Tiago sat at the kitchen table and took a sip of his tea. "I for one will savour this tea party as time to spend with the one I love...and her other lover. The order was to kill me and then bring you and Bond to him."

Bond scoffed. "So you were protecting yourself. Seems about right,"

"No. And yes that was a bit of a surprise but the plans keep on changing. I was to kill Olivia...my apologies...M. Which was my initial plan all wrapped up in the rage I felt for you for the last...17 years? Really has it been that long?" Tiago pondered as he took a biscuit and sipped his tea,

"I began the game on the ship and you foiled some of my men's initial attempts to take you. All the while, the once entertaining thought of terrifying you and then killing you changed. I realized that killing you was what he wanted more than I at this point. I saw that I could easily murder you, thus sending Bond into a spiral of despair. That was what he wanted so that he could use it as a knife to twist into Bond further to drive him mad with despair."

"Me?!" Bond exclaimed.

"Yes you! Don't you understand that his and this universe revolves around you son? The golden boy! The beautiful deadly agent who drinks entirely too much and screws the most beautiful but usually vaped women. All of which are merely gatekeepers to information about their rich spouses' holdings! You are the face that launched a thousand bullets agent Bond! I could have easily killed you Bond, as a competitor for M's attention but then it would anger him. Your daughter would have died as collateral damage. It was wrong to have involved her from the beginning; he had no interest in her and therefore she would have been killed. I saved her from him so to speak. A gift for my beloved...M.""

"Who?"

"Finally! The real question. Maybe I should make this fun for all. Search your feelings James Bond from Glen Coe Scotland. From Skyfall to here...who has hated you more than anyone?"

Bond winced at the name of his childhood home. He really had no idea. The only one from his youth that hated him that he could remember was dead.

"Bond?" M questioned. "Who is it?"

"You don't know either?" Bond was frustrated and snapped at M. "I thought you knew the entire sorted story? After all orphans…"

"Make the best recruits." Silva completed his sentence.

Perhaps the two of them were far more alike than Bond was wanting to admit. "The only person I could think of is dead already. It happened 20 years ago."

"Oberhauser?" M questioned.

"Yes." Bond and Silva answered at the same time.

"Where, when, how did he survive that avalanche?" Bond asked.

"Where is he now? M added to the questioning.

Tiago smiled at her. "He may be close now but his lair is in a crater in the desert of Morocco. We will go there now and wait for him. Once he is dead, I will lead Spectre and you can influence the world at my side. James can stay too if he's a good boy." Tiago added suggestively, placing his hand on Bond's knee and squeezing.

Bond forcibly pulled Silva's fingers off his leg but before anyone could say anything further the safe room shook again and the lights flickered.

"Damn. I thought that would have worked for longer. We need to leave darling." Tiago said standing and holding out his hand for M. M scoffed and stood without taking his hand.

"Stop calling me that!"

"Why...you have always been my darling...even when you were married to that professor of yours."

"Stop...and never mention my husband again." M said in such seriousness that Bond was taken aback. M felt very strongly for her late husband and it seemed as though Silva may have had dealings with him in the past. Or he had threatened him back when they were all in Hong Kong.

"Why...M...I learned to love that man...after all it was his death that led me to you. I saw you on camera...in morning attire as well as your very attractive daughter. Nice idea to use her to try to draw me out but I already knew who you were and what you did. I just needed a plan. Unfortunately you making a fool of yourself with that other man at the hotel and on the ship was the last straw."

"You can criticize me all you like but at least my relationships are mutually inspired and enjoyable and I can't say that Severine thought the same as your concubine."

"Touche my dear." Tiago said with a raised brow as they entered the hallway to the back of the room which M knows now is actually a tunnel between the lake and the house. Oberhauser thought of everything and that was giving them the chance to escape.

Bond didn't like the idea of taking this madman with them. He didn't believe him definitely didn't want him in a small submarine with them bickering or having to kill the much larger man in close quarters.

They approached the opening and Tiago moved to let M climb up the ladder to the top of the submarine and suddenly whirled and kicked Bond in the stomach knocking him back into the wall dislodging the gun from his hand. The gun skittered across the concrete floor out of reach.

Bond was ready instantly and rushed back in to attack. He punched as he lunged. M was on top of the sub and began yelling. "What the bloody hell is going on? I thought we had moved past this!"

Tiago struggled with Bond and managed to spit out. "There is only room for two darling and that will be you and I."

M blanched as she watched what was to follow. Bond and Tiago were wrestling and rolling around. M knew that Bond was armed but that didn't mean that Tiago was not and he had the size and reach to injure Bond.

Punches were thrown as they made it to their feet. Tiago suddenly had a knife in his hand and Bond looked at his leg sheath seeing that it was his own. He avoided Tiago's lunges and grabbed the arm with the knife and twisted until he dropped it. Bond proceeded to punch Tiago until his opponent landed an elbow to Bond's neck.

Bond staggered backwards and he could hear M gasp and cry out. "007, end this now!"

Bond was never one to disobey her orders unless he really believed he should and this was not one of those few times.

Bond threw himself at Silva, knocking them both back to the ground. He continued to roll on the ground wrestling for dominance with the larger man. Unfortunately, they rolled too close to the gun and with Silva's longer reach he got to it first.

M could see the two of them rolling around for dominance and she prayed that Bond would come out on top. A sudden pop sounded and a flash of heat and pain erupted from her hip. "Damn it!"

M wanted to flee into the submarine and tend to her wound but had to see if Bond could overcome Tiago. If he couldn't the wound wouldn't really matter too much as she would rather die than be his pawn.

Bond clamped one hand on Tiago's gun arm and managed to get his other arm around the larger man's neck and he squeezed with all his might.

Taigo struggled to escape and dropped the gun, reaching out for M standing on top of the small submarine.

"Mother...I...want…" The two men were in a fight for life and they grunted. Bond reached over for the knife Tiago dropped and just managed to grab it as Tiago broke loose. Bond buried the knife in the man's back as he tried to get up and away from him.

"Arghh….damn...you!" Tiago reached instinctively for the knife in his back but could not reach, He was looking directly into M's eyes as he fell to his knees and then collapsed on his front by the edge of the submarine.

Bond struggled to regain his breath and stood up. He unhooked the moorings of the submarine and then kicked the body to make sure Tiago was dead and would never threaten to harm the woman he loves again.

Bond jumped up to the top of the submarine with M. "M...before you were so rudely interrupted you said you needed me?" Bond delivered with his trademark smirk.

"007 you do leave everything to the very last moment just to be dramatic don't you?"

"I really can't help myself M. Besides, that was more Tanner and Q's fault than my own." He opened the hatch and indicated that she should go first. M was clutching her hip but began distracting him with questions.

"Speaking of which, where is my daughter?"

"Tanner collected Judith at the ship and I made sure that she was with him in his care before I headed out to save you from yourself."

"From myself? And just what is that supposed to mean 007?"

Bond waited by the hatch looking for troops or any other impediments to their escape as M climbed slowly down into the sub. Bond quickly followed and secured the hatch.

"You know M, I trained you to seduce but I had no idea just how effective that instruction would be." Bond reached out for her hand and pulled it to his chest as he looked into her eyes.

"Bond...really. Don't you think we should leave before we get into this nonsense?" Her breath was becoming laboured and she was beginning to see spots before her eyes.

Bond looked dramatically defeated by her comment momentarily. "We will be doing more than discussing this now that I have you alone in a submarine." He smiled lecherously.

"I think I need the water closet." M responded faintly and turned towards the back of the ship. She caught herself against the side with her hand which Bond suddenly, glaringly noticed, was coated red with blood.

"M?"

M began to swoon and Bond grabbed her. He picked her up and took her back to a bunk. "Where are you hurt?" His voice was all business and abrupt. Inside his heart was speeding and panic was about to set in. If it had not been for his training he would have stood useless and desperate but his instincts took over.

"My….hip. Just a scratch...I have never been good seeing my own blood."

"And here I was hoping that the thought of being alone with me had made you swoon."

M chuckled and grimaced as Bond pulled the tie on her wrap dress, which in other circumstances would have been a treat but the sight of red oozing blood that soaked the side of the gray dress was even more distracting than seeing that much of M's skin.

Bond grabbed a hand towel from the nearby ensuite and folded it. Placing it up against her hip and pressing hard, M hissed in discomfort as Bond grabbed her hand and placed it over his own above her wound.

"M...I know it hurts but please hold this tight while I get us going and grab the first aid kit."

"Just hurry Bond. I don't want to bleed out while you try to get us away."

Bond smiled and moved out of the back bedroom, through the lounge and gally to the front of the submarine. Bond sat in the driving seat and flicked the engines on and throttled the engine to move away from the dock.

An explosion must have damaged the cavern and a chunk of something smashed on the up part of the submarine. Bond hit the dive control and they slid beneath the surface of the water.

The lights on he navigated through a narrow passage into the lake. It was still dark and the lake was only illuminated by the moon. Bond stayed relatively near the surface and put the autopilot on as he observed from the map that they were traveling north at 2 knots and the lake was just over 13 km so it would give him time to help M.

Hopefully there was no one following them.

M held the towel to her hip but she was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open.

"M...what do you think you're doing?"

"Is it too late to make a run for it 007? I feel much too tired to go on."

Bond looked distressed as he placed a basin full of water by the bed and arraigned the instruments to clean, dress and possibly stitch her wound. Bond lifted the towel to see that the blood was still moving. "M i need to cut off...some of your...well...do you mind…?"

"Its too late to be too embarrassed to even say knickers Bond...go ahead we apparently don't have any secrets left the two of us."

"Yes...well we can discuss that later. At a nice dinner out...with wine and candlelight."

"You still on about that...ouch! That is not fake blood 007...I'm injured so concentrate on what you're doing and not the colour of my knickers!"

Bond fumbled cutting her panties away and then cleaning the wound with water he could see that it seemed to have caught the fleshy part of her hip and tore a trench in the flesh. Although it was bleeding a great deal it was as she said, only a flesh wound. Thank god. There was no bullet to remove or main artery hit. Bond cleaned it.

"M this is not too bad. Do you want me to stitch it or just disinfect and cover it. Either way you will have a wicked scar there."

M was now propped up on pillows, still looking pale and faint. "Just cover it. I don't need the stitches unless the bleeding doesn't stop."

"You're the boss. The bleeding has slowed a great deal with the sustained pressure. It could have been much worse. Thankfully I don't have to explain to the world how I taught my boss how to seduce so well that she got kidnapped, shot and caused an international terrorist organization to implode from within."

"Me! You think I caused this!? Apparently it was all your foster brother who caused this and for what!? To get to you Bond. Apparently I am not the important one in this scenario. Damn it! That stings!"

Bond poured disinfectant all over the cleaned wound. He patted it dry and carefully placed antibiotic ointment to the wound and taped it down well. He handed M a pill and a glass of water which she took.

"I am going to check our course. You get some sleep M."

"What about contacting Tanner, Q and M?"

"That can wait and I'm not sure who is listening out there yet."

"At least try to give them a message to send a team to Morocco to look for Franz."

"You rest and let me worry about Franz."

"Why can you not listen to orders…"

"Look M...you are no longer my boss. The fact of which makes me deliriously happy, to now be able to order you around for once."

"You think I can no longer order you around?" M chuckled as she started pulling her arm out of a sleeve of her ruined dress."

Bond moved to assist her. "I never said that. I said you are no longer my boss and therefore I can ask you out for a romantic dinner."

Bond put the bloody dress into the tub in the bathroom and ran cold water over it. He used some soap to get as much of the blood out as he could and wrung it out and hung it up. When he returned M was pulling the blanket up and Bond halted her struggles. He was trying to concentrate on things like messaging base and keeping M out of the hands of Spectre but it was difficult considering she was only in a bra.

"I will find you something to wear." Bond began searching drawers and found a very large man's T-shirt which he placed over her head. M struggled pulling it down over her bandaged hip for modesty's sake. It was so large it fit her like a night dress.

"Thank you Bond." M sighed. For a moment their eyes met. M looked away first. The way Bond was looking at her made her heart skip a beat. Could he really? Tiago was…could both be equally insane?

Bond could see that she was uncomfortable by the way he couldn't contain his longing gaze. "M...I...I need to tell you something. I...have fallen in love with...you...and before you protest is is not your daughter who sets my heart pounding it is you. It has always been you. Even if it has taken me years to figure this out."

"Bond...I'm sorry. I...can't...I don't...feel the same way." M couldn't meet his eyes. She laid back on the pillows and closed her eyes, wishing the pain and the situation to end.

Bond inhaled abruptly not having expected her to so abruptly end the conversation. Was that all he meant to her? Was he really just a blunt instrument to her. He watched as she shut her eyes attempting to end this situation.

Bond stood up, continuing to look down at her in the bed in an over-sized T-shirt. He wanted to push this but at the moment...she had dismissed him. Bond ran his fingers through his hair, shook his head and turned towards the front of the submarine.

To be continued...