Tanner's smart phone vibrated – the car had arrived. He quickly rinsed out his mug, dried and replaced it in a cupboard. Switching off all the lights behind him, he paused briefly outside Bond's bedroom and heard nothing but even breathing before closing the door behind him hearing the click of the lock engaging.
Exiting the building, Bill looked first left, then right before seeing the brake lights of a Mercedes SL pulled in four cars ahead. He opened the rear door and folded in. The driver acknowledged him with a, "Morning Mr Tanner, Sir. Home or back to the office?"
"Home, please." The car pulled away and still Bill's brain replayed the memories.
Looking in on Bond around dawn and finding him awake but still.
"James."
Bond turned his head to stare at Bill and gestured to his blood dried shirt, "It happened, didn't it?"
Tanner sat on the concrete floor, his back against the wall, in Bond's eyeline, "Yes. It did."
"Blofeld and Bunt – it was them. Blofeld must have –"
"No," Tanner interrupted. "From the damage to your car, I think it was Bunt with Blofeld driving." Bill continued giving Bond the facts of the shots to the car and his hypothesis. He was expecting James to interrupt or ask for more details, but Bond said nothing, he stared at the ceiling. "I think they panicked into taking the sudden opportunity," finished Tanner quietly.
Bond put his hands over his face, he turned his body away from Tanner, shaking.
"I can't tell you how sorry I am, James." Bill stood and put his hand on Bond's shoulder. He left the cell and returned with coffee. Wordlessly, he placed the cup on the floor by Bond's feet and left the room, he pulled the door behind him.
Returning to the main office, Adriano handed Tanner a cup of coffee, "Senhor Bond awake?" Tanner nodded while drinking. "You will be returning to the hotel shortly?" The sentence was punctuated by the muffled sound of a thud and higher pitched smashing of thick porcelain.
Tanner's eyes travelled to the perceived source of the sound before answering, "Yes. He can't leave here until I return."
Adriano nodded, "Do you want me to lock him in?"
"It may be prudent," sighed Bill. "Can I trouble you for the lone use of the office again?" He woke Charles with coffee and a "Join me in that office."
Bill called the Station P Chief and was told that in the continued spirit of co-operation, SIED were moving Bond's Aston that morning to Sintra Airbase where they have provided space for a forensic team from Q Branch to examine the car and it will be crushed under their supervision when completed. A knock on the door, he opened it, allowed Charles Robinson entry and moved away while the door was closed. Once again, he asked for a report from the morgue and was told all was quiet, but felt it prudent to ready an explanation of an ex-pat in a car crash as staff became more frequent to explain their presence. Bill thanked him for all his assistance and asked him to pass on his gratitude to SIED and that he will contact his opposite number on his return to the UK. Tanner disconnected the call and rubbed his forehead. He looked at Charles, "I'm sorry I couldn't let you sleep longer." He then repeated the information he just learned.
Robinson nodded and then watched his superior call London via his mobile, use a password meaning that the call was to be scrambled and ask to be put through to Moneypenny.
From the greeting, Bill knew that if M had read the FYEO report, she had yet to pass on the bad news, he asked to be put through and then wrote a message to Robinson and held it up asking him to call Moneypenny after he hangs up to tell her.
A click, then, "Bill?"
"Ma'am"
"What the bloody Hell happened?!"
Tanner gave his report while M listened.
"How is he?"
Bill took a deep breath, "He's with us at the station. He's awake, and in an angry state of shock; not that I'm an expert. So far he's not shown any agitation at being here. Don't know how long that will last."
"You'd better lock him up. We can't have him going after Blofeld, God only knows what sort of chain reaction he'll set off!"
"My thoughts exactly, Ma'am. Once we've finished speaking, I'm going to Draco and take him to the morgue." Once again, Bill scribbled on a notepad and held it up to Charles. This time he asked for the hotel to be called immediately to ascertain that Draco was still there.
"He doesn't know yet?"
"As far as I'm aware, no."
"I suppose it would be too much to hope that Draco will get his own men on Blofeld's trail and get to him before 007 riddles him full of holes?"
Tanner thought briefly before answering, "Draco will do a lot of things in his grief and if we're lucky, he'll get a lead and reach out to us. I will do my best to emphasise this to him, but whether or not he'll listen …"
"I know. I trust your judgement, Bill and I'm sorry that you and Yvonne are having to deal with this," M sighed heavily. "This is a damn bloody business indeed! I'm ordering 007 off the active rosta –" She stopped herself and Bill heard a low "fuck!" There was a short silence before she said, "We're not going to be able to stop him, are we?"
"No. Right now he's a free agent unless he asks to rejoin." Bill read Robinson's written reply and gave him a nod to indicate that he understood. "The only thing we can do is attempt to curb him; get him back to London and immediately place him on the no-fly list."
"That will last until Draco provides new ID and passport should he reach out to him," responded M ruefully. "Do you think Bond will ask to rejoin?"
"At the moment, Ma'am, I couldn't say. If he can be persuaded to return to the UK, then try to leave the country under his own name and fail; I can guarantee he will guess the situation, call me and not be too polite about it, but equally he'll know he'll not be able to convince me that he isn't looking for Blofeld. Personally speaking, if we get him back, I would also have him under round-the-clock surveillance and damn his civil rights! Once he turns to Draco, we'll have lost him; but either way, we can be sure that he will lead us to Blofeld. The reality is that unless James wants to rescind his resignation, we will not be able to control him, but if we're careful about it, we can continue to use him."
"I concur. God, I wish it was at least around lunchtime, so I could have a drink! We'll just have to see how this plays out, Bill. I feel very impotent."
"Ma'am."
"I want you to call me after you've seen Draco. I've ordered chatter monitoriing regarding Blofeld and SPECTRE to the highest priority – someone has got to be talking somewhere. We need to be first getting the intel on that bastard!"
"Understood." Tanner pressed the touch-screen to end the call. He looked over to Robinson, yawned and stared off for a few seconds while he gathered his thoughts. Eventually, he looked to his colleague, arched his eyebrows and said, "Okay. I'm returning to the hotel to speak with Draco and take him to the morgue. I'm guessing that he'll demand that Tracy's body be given to him and I'll agree. As far as I'm concerned he can work out whatever issues that causes with James on their own time."
Charles nodded, "James?"
"We talked while you were sleeping. Or rather I talked and he listened. I've told him all we know so far and my analysis based on that. We believe that he's added coffee to the paintwork and porcelain to the floor, but I've not looked in on him again. You need to make sure all personal items are out of the Aston before Q Branch take it, although I know they'll bring back anything we miss. Whatever happens, he's going to need a change of clothes. We can't afford to let him leave here, Charles –"
"I understand, Sir, he's a bomb waiting to explode."
"Precisely. We need to get him back to London. Adriano said that he would lock the cell. I've agreed; I think he's still trying to get his head around the situation, but how he's going to react to being forcibly kept here, I don't know. You may be in for a rough ride for the next few hours." Tanner stood, rubbed his eyes and put on his jacket and handed Charles a smart phone saying, "This is James's. I took it off him while he was out. The only contact so far has been from the hotel they were heading to; I cancelled the reservation."
"Excuse, Sir?"
"Mrs Bond fell ill with food poisoning and is currently in hospital." Tanner opened the office door and looked back, "I don't know what their plans were after that. I guess we'll find out during the next week or so. If he does talk about any arrangements, I trust you'll cancel reservations using the same excuse. I'm sorry to leave you with all this."
Adriano drove Bill back to the hotel and Tanner made his way into the restaurant. The sun poured in through the windows heating the room and showed off the pristine table linens and flowers. There was a quiet bustle as guests treated hangovers with food and coffee and Bill said hello to all while en route to one table in the far corner.