The Charger roared down the secluded two-lane dirt road, sending fallen leaves swirling through the air and kicking up clods of mud as it sped past. At the hands of a less experienced individual, the rear-wheel drive behemoth might have been difficult to control on such an unforgiving road, but for Alec, who had in past adventures 'commandeered' everything from tanks to helicopters, it was just another Sunday drive. Still though, he preferred the finesse of good old English roadsters; the Aston Martins he and James used to barrel around in during the glory days had never let him down.
Being alone with his thoughts again and thinking of James caused Alec's overbearing sense of urgency that he had been feeling since finding out James had disappeared to resurface. It had now been three days since he had received the news from headquarters that James had disappeared. Although 'Travis LeBeau' had no remaining ties to Her Majesty's Secret Service, MI6, they made it their business to keep tabs on what their ex-agents were up to. A disappearing act like the one James had performed could signal a threat to the national security if something unthinkable had happened. Perhaps James had been captured and MI6 information was being tortured out of him, or perhaps an individual or group with a vendetta against MI6 was targeting known operatives and past affiliates of MI6 to terminate them for some reason. Whatever the case, if the disappearance of their former top agent had not been orchestrated by 007 himself, then it was not likely that the situation was a good one. Alec took a moment to think about the irony of this turn of events: James probably would have been safer if he were still 007, protected by his anonymity as an MI6 agent. Instead – if he had been captured or killed anyhow – his position as a civilian had left him exposed and vulnerable.
Alec continued to dwell on this as he steered the car gracefully around a hairpin curve in the road. Maybe if he had done more to keep James around Alec could have saved him. He had not taken it well when James had decided he wanted to leave the service. To Alec he had not only been a stalwart commander and partner since their pre-MI6 days in the Special Forces, but a good friend. The years of responsibility and stress must have worn his friend down though, because he had been getting sloppy and less professional on their last missions together, not to mention more quiet and guarded around everyone else including Alec, until finally James had told Alec that he was tired of it all and was finally retiring. MI6 had set him up with a new identity and life where he could live as a civilian in peace, meanwhile instead of doing what he felt would have been disrespectful to 007's memory by accepting a new partner, Alec had chosen to remove himself from work in the field to behind a desk at headquarters. A part of him had known that the integrity he had in his work had been inspired by 007 and that with him gone, 006 was as good as checked out as well and that he would have been just as well to follow suit, but Her Majesty's Secret Service was the only thing that had ever given Alec's life meaning and could not stand to let it go.
And now the turn of events that brought Alec to Agent K's (it was still far too strange for Alec to refer to her, even to himself, as "Kimberly") house had changed the situation completely. When MI6 had become aware of Travis LeBeau's disappearance, they had sent 008, Max Sanders, to investigate, aware that 006 no longer desired field work. 008 had, of course, been the next closest agent to 007 as the three of them had worked together on many of their early missions. In fact it was the three of them that had first become acquainted with, and subsequently had to ally with, the WIB on that fateful mission that began a love-hate relationship between the two secret service branches. On a later mission, however, a climactic standoff between the combined forces of the WIB and 00-agents and the mercenaries of a powerful terrorist cell had resulted in 008 being critically wounded and almost losing his life when the rendezvous plan had gone wrong. Attributing the error to the disadvantages of operating in a squad format, 008 requested to work alone from that day forward and 007 and 006 rarely saw him.
Alec had kept this information from K. That mission was the last one that the WIB and 00-agents had worked together on, so she was likely unaware that a falling out had, in essence, taken place between the agents. He had also kept from her the fact that 008 had not returned from his reconnaissance mission, for he feared that the more dangerous she thought this mission might be, the less likely she would be to join forces with him. He needed Agent K for this. With the only two other 00-agents he would trust working with on a mission like this gone, the WIB were the next best thing. It was not as though they were any less proficient or well-trained than the 00-agents, conversely, Alec thought, he and James' lives had been saved by Agent K on more occasions than he cared to think about. It was simply that from Alec and James' points of view, they had never been the easiest to work with. Their alliances on missions more closely resembled a symbiosis than camaraderie.
Alec was glad that he had been able to talk K into searching for James with him. Not only had he been thoroughly convinced at K's house that she was still as capable as ever, it felt reassuring to have a familiar face around. Alec was feeling the closest thing to the drive he used to have on MI6 field missions than anything since James had left. He felt a slight sense of guilt, however. He suddenly realised how irresponsible and selfish it had been of him to be wallowing in self-pity all of the time that James had been gone from MI6. Although as a 00-agent he was still required to pass intermittent fitness tests, as a pen -pusher he was not required to maintain his hand-to-hand combat or firearms training, so he did this rather infrequently and now could probably not even hold his own against K, who while managing to best Alec often even in the old days, would now have a distinct advantage. On the other hand, Agent K had, like James, chosen to give up the secret service life in place of a normal, stress-free life. Yet she had still managed to remain in peak physical condition and in a state of preparedness. And managed to continue looking fantastic while doing it, too, Alec added to himself as an afterthought.
Finally Alec began to slow the car as he approached his destination. It had been a while since he had spent any significant amount of time at his actual residence. He had located himself in such a rural area because he did not wish to be disturbed by anyone, and for people who might know his identity as an MI6 agent he did not want to make it any easier for them to find him during the tiny amounts of time he vacated MI6 headquarters on his required leaves of absence.
The powerful V8 engine protested loudly as Alec urged the car up the winding driveway to the house. Pulling up next to it, he set the parking brake and cut the engine. He had not spent more than a couple of days at this residence for a long time, and did not intend to do so on this occasion, either. He was simply collecting some belongings he thought he might need for the search for James and waiting for Agent K to get her affairs in order before meeting her at the airport to fly out to James' last known location. And 008's for that matter.
The thumps of Alec's boots on the walkway up to the front door were the only audible sounds aside from the slight breeze whistling through the trees. There was not another house for several kilometres and that was how he liked it. He reached the front door and fumbled in his pocket for his key. It took some persuasion due to the mechanism's lack of use but the key finally turned, sliding the bolt open and allowing him access to the house. Alec closed the door behind him and took off his boots at the door. As he was doing so he got a glance of himself in the full-length hall mirror. Almost in response to what he had been thinking about in the car, the numerous years that had passed had not been as favourable to Alec as they had been to Agent K. He approached the mirror, stopping directly in front of it to get a proper look at himself, and it was as though he was truly seeing himself for the first time since the old days. Though roughly the same age as K, Alec looked and felt several years older due to his far less rigorous physical upkeep. The mirror still depicted the same wiry, athletic form that resulted from MI6's fitness standards, but the age was all in his face. He neglected shaving far more than he had used to, making his face appear coarse and weathered. His medium brown hair which he had used to keep short and parted neatly to the side during his days as a field agent was now rather lengthy and unkempt. He combed it when reporting to work at headquarters but not much more.
Alec snapped out of his reverie in front of the mirror and was just about to turn away to prepare his belongings when he noticed something in the mirror out of his peripheral vision and froze. It was a figure, crouched silently behind the railing on the upper level hallway just at the top of the stairs. The figure was holding a magnum revolver, and it was pointed directly at him.
Alec's instinct took over and he dropped to the floor, just as there was a deafening bang and the mirror glass in front of him shattered. Instantly he rolled to the side, out of the line of fire of his attacker. He hit the wall, clambered up and scrambled through the doorway into the den, two more rounds puncturing the floor and then the wall where he had been only a fraction of a second before. In the temporary safety of the den, Alec quickly removed his Walther PPK from its shoulder holster and took cover along the wall on the opposite side of the doorway he had run in from.
Hearing nothing, he leaned out cautiously to inspect. The figure was moving down the stairs. He took another shot at Alec as he saw him peek out, and Alec retreated back into cover, now aware that the attacker was coming straight for him. He waited until he suspected the man had reached the bottom of the stairs and extended only his arm into the doorway, intending to blind-fire into the front hall, but his attacker was closer than he anticipated and simply grabbed Alec's outstretched arm, pulling him into the open and exposing him and causing Alec to drop his gun – a potentially fatal mistake that he would not have made if his hand-to-hand combat skills had been up to snuff. Alec used this momentum to pivot to the side of his attacker, using his free hand to grab the attacker's gun hand. The two struggled to overpower each other, both hands of both individuals being tied up by the other. The struggle caused the attacker to accidentally fire off another shot, which ended up lodged in the ceiling.
Finally the attacker jerked his hand and freed it from Alec's grasp, and proceeded to deliver a swift jab to Alec's jaw. Reeling back, the attacker delivered another and another until Alec's back hit the opposite wall. His attacker then reached in with both hands, which he used to grasp tightly around Alec's neck, strangling him. Instinctively he reached his hands up and gripped his attacker's wrists, attempting to pry them away. Beginning to black out from lack of oxygen, with the last of his energy he raised his knee up into the abdomen of his attacker, which was enough to cause him to drop his hands from Alec's neck.
Alec knew it was now or never. With all of the remaining energy he could muster he threw a haymaker at his attacker's face. The man's head snapped back from the force and Alec leapt forward, using his weight to send the two of them crashing to the floor. Alec scrambled to pin him down. Grabbing the front of the man's jacket with both hands Alec shook his torso violently.
"What are you doing here!?" Alec demanded.
The man said nothing but grunted incoherently and placed his hands over his mouth.
"What did you say? I'm talking to you!" he shouted, using one hand to strike the man in the face.
The man fell backwards onto the floor, and his hands dropped to his sides, spreadeagled.
It was then that Alec noticed the foam issuing from the now-dead man's mouth. He had ingested a suicide pill of some sort.
"Damnit!" Exhausted, he sat back against the wall and began to process what had just happened. There had been an attempt on his life and he had no idea why, though he suspected it might have something to do with James' disappearance. If it did, it might mean that Agent K was in danger as well, since Alec had just spoken with her an hour before. Either way, he knew he had to contact her right away.