Nine sat at her desk scribbling notes on a piece of paper and waited for her USB key to finish installing on her new computer in the basement, or level BQ as she discovered it was called. Apparently, MI6 had many floors above and below ground but no one person except M had access to them all. The young man she now knew to be Q sat beside her, trying to get a sneaky glimpse over her shoulder. She let him. "No harm done unless he happens to be able to fluently speak an almost dead language." Even if he could read Irish, she seriously doubted Q would be able to make sense of her endless waffle.

"So where did you learn to programme?"

Q had caught her off guard. She was immersed in her work, and wasn't used to being interrupted. She kept her answer short and simple. Still, she gave him enough information to let him know that she wasn't completely incompetent. "DIT. Masters in Computer Programming. Honours Bachelor in Physics."

At least she hoped she didn't sound completely incompetent.

To her right, she could almost hear Q running a list of IT's through his mind. If this man was her boss, shouldn't he at least know a little about her already? She sighed, answering his question before he bothered asking.

"Dublin Institute of Technology."

"You're Irish?"

"Dual citizenship. Born English. Spent my whole life in Ireland." Nine thought he would have at least picked up on her foreign accent by now. "I thought M told me this was the bloke who invented the Omega Safeguard! Shouldn't Q know all of this? Or cop on a little quicker at least?!"

Finally, her computer emitted a soft "beep", and so, Nine withdrew the USB key from the slot and slipped it back onto the chain around her neck.

Nothing was said as she followed him back up through the hall to the lift. To Nine, the hall didn't seem so long now. Probably because she now had a rough idea of her environment. Her eyes were now glued back to the familiar spot on the floor of the lift. The two stood there in an awkward silence. Nine wanted to be anywhere but here. Away from Q. Away from M and MI6. But even if she could, Nine was sure they would find a way to take it from her. The important little fragment of code which hung heavy around her neck.

"Why MI6?" Q seemed adamant in attempting to make some sort of conversation with her. "Jayzus, this guy loves asking questions!" she thought.

Nine couldn't just not answer him though. Nervously, without meeting his eyes again, she spoke, "I'd be doing more good here than designing apps. Besides, MI6 seem to be more willing to help me pay off student loans."

She didn't really lie to him. She just didn't tell him the whole truth. Really, MI6 wanted something from her, and would not take no for an answer. They made her think she had a choice in the matter. That was the genius of it.

She watched the floor numbers light up the higher the lift climbed and compared them to the long list of departments on the wall beside her. "Legal? Medical? PR? Q- Branch? This place is colossal!" Nine guessed that she was on one of the top floors in MI6 again. Perhaps even under M's office.

Nine found herself in yet another long corridor. For some reason, Q had stopped dead before leading her through electronic glass doors. For the first time that day, Nine looked straight up at him. Q truly did seem to be younger than most of the MI6 employees she had seen today. However, the look he was giving her right now made him seem so much older.

Q kept his face neutral. No smiling or frowning. When he spoke to her, his voice sounded cold. Almost sinister. "Alright. I am making this clear to you here and now: I do not trust you. For a start, you're obviously straight out of college and have already been assigned to a team in MI6 most people work for years to be promoted to. There is absolutely no record of you whatsoever in our systems and now M is keeping information from me about the workings inside my own department! Something is not right-"

"Correct, Q. There is something not right. You already know what it is." Nine immediately regretted interrupting him. She couldn't keep the shaking and nervousness out of her voice. "Now I am here to do a job and it is vital I have the support and cooperation of you and your team so as not to impede my progress."

All attempts to look confidant had now gone out the window. "Damnit, he'll scream at me now! Then kick me out of here, I just know it! There goes my promising career in computer programming..."

"...Fine"

"Wait, what?" Nine was not expecting that at all. She simply muttered a quiet thank you to him before turning on her heel and walking quickly into the Q- Branch before he changed his mind and started shouting at her.

Meanwhile, Q looked on after Nine sceptically. He found this encounter with the new girl a little odd. If anything, he figured he'd scared her more than anything, but he meant what he said. M had just dropped her into his department without so much as a heads up, and that in itself was suspicious. M would not even let him research his new programmer. He didn't know what her potential was, why she was here or any of her previous projects, and so hadn't a clue whether or not Nine was a danger or liability to his team. The information Nine had just told him? That was everything he knew about her. No, Q was positive that something was not right at all.

"Ola! Guten tag! Bonjour! Konichiwa! Ciao! I'm Steve! Your resident linguist! Welcome to the team!"

As soon as she set foot in the office, Nine was greeted by the smiley blonde haired man. She found this a little overwhelming, but luckily, Steve didn't seem to find her shyness to be a problem.

"Um, thanks. I'm Nine-"

"The new head programmer, right? I heard!" Steve was now leading her around the room. It was as white as Eve's office but with computer monitors, terminals and everything else IT on the walls. In the centre of the room, there were three large H- shaped desks side by side, with two to a desk. It seemed that each person had their own U- Shaped section and Nine noted, with yet another pang of nervousness, that the only cleared desk was opposite the one that the Quartermaster was currently sitting in front of.

"This is the Q Branch! Research and Development. Over there is Roger!" Steve pointed towards an older looking man with greying hair in his late fifties or so who gave her a small wave in acknowledgement. "He monitors the MI6 internal network. Nothing enters or leaves this building digitally without his say so."

"There's only six desks..." she said, slightly confused. She had been told that this team were sometimes totally responsible for British national security. And she was a member of this team. Nine's queasy feeling came back.

Steve was oblivious to Nine's inner turmoil, "That's all we need. We have a smaller team of junior hackers, analysts and programmers and several people working downstairs. Considering you're a programmer, you'll be working rather closely with them!"

"Alright" No, no not alright. Definitely not alright.

Steve skirted around his own desk, and so Nine took the opportunity to learn a little about this man. The desk was kept relatively tidy, but with a little pile of clutter in its corner. There was a colourful painting of a parrot with fluffy feathers stuck on it sellotaped to a reading lamp away from the clutter. Beneath that was a framed photo of what Nine could only assume to be Steve's family: a beautiful wife, teenage daughter and young son who obviously made the cute parrot. An optimistic family man who doesn't like to bring his work home with him. Steve didn't seem so bad.

"Over here we have Eric and Abby, our surveillance and analyst." Steve gestured towards the two people working in the middle H section. They both looked young enough. Possibly ten or fifteen years older than herself and Q. Eric kept his eyes on his computer screens but gave still gave Nine a quick hello. Abby, the dark haired woman across from him simply glared at her before scowling and resuming her typing. Steve sighed.

"Just ignore her. After your predecessor left, we all expected Abby to be promoted to second in command, but the previous M hired you instead. I think the fact that you're so... Uh..."

Nine thought for a moment, "Young?"

He nodded sombrely, "It may have been a bit of a humiliating blow. Ah, She'll get over it, eventually!"

"Eventually?" Nine gulped nervously. First day and already she had two people ticked off at her. Lovely.

"This here is your desk, as I'm sure you've already guessed. Q, who you've already met, sits across from you." He nodded his head toward the young man, who didn't even look up from his work. "The hacker and programmer, linguist and maintenance guy and surveillance with the analyst. I just don't see why we can't all sit together, but hey; beggars can't be choosers!"

Steve was now ushering her back over to the door on the other side of the room, saying something about showing her where she could eat lunch. She only caught a quick glimpse at Q's desk. Extremely tidy. And organised. With absolutely no personal effects, unlike the rest of the team who had at least one non work item on display. From what she could tell, this guy was very serious about his work.

Steve was now making coffee in the break room next door, explaining to her about the cafeteria downstairs and how an intern usually does a coffee run every two hours or so. He then went into excruciating detail about the layout of the building, other departments and floors she had access to. Nine was still amazed by MI6. "I cant believe I had never even heard of this place until after what happened a few months ago" she said sadly. Steve nodded in agreement.

He took a sip of coffee from his spotty red mug, "Well, after the bomb attack on HQ, eight people lost their lives. The woman you are replacing, Elizabeth Jameson was killed that day, along with several other technicians. Thats why the interns and junior techies outnumber the seniors."

Nine paid close attention. It was clear that Steve would be the only one willing to tell her what happened. "Q couldn't handle it, so he took his long overdue retirement, leaving R to succeed him. The bespectacled fellow with the mad hair who sits across from you. R has been Q the Quartermaster for several months now, and he's very good at what he does."

"That's easy enough to see" thought Nine. "Clearly he's very well respected, despite his age. The state of his desk no doubt reflects his work ethic."

Steve continued, refilling his mug of coffee, "Before our current Q, MI6 really needed a lot of changes; the sort of changes that all the previous Q's couldn't have made. You see: most wars are fought and won on computers nowadays, and the other Q's didn't really understand that. Now, agents are really only needed to do jobs we can't do on any of the computers next door. That's why we now have the youngest department head in the history of MI6."

"He's a little scary, to be honest"

Steve laughed heartily. Despite herself, Nine even smiled a little. "Not really" he chuckled. "He's alright most of the time, but like all of us he has these annoying little quirks. For a start, he's very protective of his Earl Grey. Don't ask." He added after seeing Nine's questioning look. "Just get all your work done on time and you'll be fine. Probably. Q's a little unpredictable."

"I feel so reassured" was Nine's meagre attempt at sarcasm. Steve didn't hear, being too busy trying to find his mobile phone which was ringing loudly. He showed the text message to Nine.

Nine,

Meet me down in the agent's armoury in an hour. Bring lunch.

-007

"He likes doing that. Bond, I mean. Being an annoying smart aleck seems to pass the time he has between missions. He especially likes trying to get a rise out of Q" Nine thought back to the poor smartphone Bond brought in earlier. And the look on Q's face. Yes, there were some weird personalities here. Steve suggested that she get to know the 00's, who were in and out of the building a lot. Often, 00 missions were broadcast on the screens in the office, which all six members of the Q- Branch oversaw. Smaller missions and less important agents were usually handled by the junior team, Q and now Nine.

All of this on top of her first priority? She had a lot of work to do.

Q was not happy. He still had no information whatsoever. He had already organised with Steve to keep Nine out of the Q-Branch so he could try some more research without arousing her suspicions. She may be new, but she was definitely not stupid. From her short walk around the building, the way she seemed to take in every little detail, Q could plainly see she was very observant.

He searched for a name, a photo anything that could link him to this girl. List of recent DIT graduates? Nothing. Recently published Master's Thesis' from DIT? Nothing. With some effort, he managed to find a CCTV image of Nine from this morning. Did she always keep her head down to purposely avoid cameras or was it just a habit? Anyway, he hadn't gotten any hits off any facial recognition databases or immigration. This girl was practically a ghost.

Q typed a quick memo and sent it to the other four members of his team.

She is not to be trusted. Monitor Nine. -Q