I apologize that this chapter come in so late. I have recently been very busy preparing for November's Nation Novel Writing Month, and so have not been available for much fanfiction writing. Once it is over, I will resume this story with gusto, for sure. As always, thanks for reading and reviewing!

5:08 AM

Somewhere Over the Atlantic

Turbulence woke James Bond from a fitful rest. The recent stresses were getting to him, and it was beginning to show.

Groggily, James lifted himself out of his seat and stretched his legs. On the small plane, there were not many places to walk to. He bent down and retrieved a container of "coffee" from one of the duffel bags they had brought. The coffee had the taste and consistency of mud, but awoke him anyhow.

Now that he had returned to the land of the living, Bond looked over at his compatriots. Both of them seemed to be sleeping, judging by the rise and fall of their chests. James decided to take this opportunity to get some research done.

Reaching into yet another duffel bag, Bond fished out the tablet computer they had used the night before. It had a few scratches on the cover, but looked serviceable.

James carefully walked to the back of the plane and sat in the last row of seats. James turned the computer on, and waited for the information to load. He felt he had been out of the loop for too long; now it was time to learn about his new enemy, this ARES organization.

The computer beeped as it loaded up the information it had downloaded from the base's computers. The documents were primarily business transactions and accounts, but a couple of files caught James's attention.

The first file was a very unique business manifest. It showed every location the Sao Paulo location had ever shipped to or received shipping from. Bond's eyes widened when he saw just how many cities ARES was in. Nice, Liverpool, Brussels, Washington D.C., St. Petersburg, Hamburg, the list just went on and on.

For the first time, James felt a tiny creep of fear go up his spine. An organization this large would be much harder to take down than first thought.

The second document to catch James's eye was much different from the first. It was a case file on Jason Bourne. The file wasn't large, but there was one specific detail. ARES had apparently called a hit onto the village Bourne had previously lived in. All villagers were listed as killed. Bourne was initially listed as deceased as well, but that had been changed to missing.

Bond's eyes narrowed. So this was why Jason was so hell-bent on eliminating ARES. Getting an idea, James did a quick search for himself in the computer's files. He breathed a sigh of relief when nothing came up, though he supposed that his file may simply be in another location.

In the front of the cabin, Sonia began to stir. Bond quickly closed the netbook and placed it underneath the seat. Sonia stood up and began stumbling towards the back of the plane. Seeing that she was in no mood to talk, Bond just pretended to sleep.

She didn't even notice him as she stumbled behind him into the plane's small toilet, her eyes now covered in tears. It seemed she had had a bad dream. Puzzled, Bond rose and made his way to her seat. In the seat was a picture of her. In the picture, Sonia was smiling, and standing next to her was the man who had died assisting them back in Sao Paulo; and on his other side was a young man who strongly resembled Sonia.

James sighed and placed the picture back. Their job was much easier when you were alone. Jason woke up as Bond sat back in his seat. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Bourne glanced over at James.

"Are we there yet?" James shook his head and pointed out the window; outside the ocean seemed to go for miles. Jason smiled and walked to the front of the plane, into the cabin.

Sonia reappeared, her mask once again set on her face. She walked into the cabin to join Bourne and the pilot.

James looked at his watch and saw they had at least 4 hours left in their journey. With a contented sigh, he settled back into his seat and pulled out a set of headphones. Might as well enjoy some music during the rest of the flight.

Outside, the ocean shone brightly as the sun rose.