Anna was so tense she felt she might throw up. Bodie had ordered her to go at the range first, to calm herself down with a few rounds, but they had done nothing to help her - rather the opposite, as flashes of the terrorist came to her mind almost every time she took an aim. Thank goodness there was nobody else present. Macklin's glares wouldn't exactly help her either, as she guessed she wasn't allowed to tell the man why she would be dismissed. And maybe for good, for all she knew. Oh shit...

She didn't worry for money, she would manage anyway. But she had realised that the work really meant something for her. And those people she worked with. And of those, especially the selected few... A small smile crept to her lips for a moment when she remembered waking up to the gaze of smiling blue eyes. You're still here. I can't believe you stayed. And after a moment: Please tell me that I didn't do... well, anything? Her serious Yeah. You snored.

But the present moment wiped her smile away. If she would lose her job, she didn't know what else she might do to have some meaning in her life.

She sat in front of her locker, her head in her hands, when the door to the dressing-room was thumped open. She looked up and sighed. "Since when have you been a lady?"

Her colleague and superior Brian Macklin placed his fair-haired muscular being to lean on the doorframe after seeing that they were alone. "Wrong question. You should have asked if I have ever heard about knocking. Besides I'm just as much a lady as I'm a gentleman."

Anna had to chuckle. "Well you've got that right. Just try and avoid using high heels, you'll twist your ankle." She barely managed to duck and catch an orange hurled through the air. "Oi, mind your ammo, I don't want a black eye today."

Again Macklin saw her face go grim. "And what makes today special?" He started to peel another orange he had dug out from his jacket's pocket. He enjoyed Anna's cheek, and gave credit to her good attitude. Anna took instructions, advice and genuine orders well, but the few times Macklin had tested how far he would get away with sheer bullying, the slender woman had proved to have as well wit, as guts and backbone. Good girl. And she had no idea how much Macklin planned to pull out from her eventually. If this bloody whatever incident wouldn't mess things up.

Anna didn't reply to Macklin's question but was trying to make believe she was concentrating on her fruit.

"Anything to do with Ralston and that department head McAllister I just saw walk in?" Macklin saw Anna's face draw pale. Ouch. He frowned. Bad. Baaad. This meant his colleague was in real trouble. And he really did consider her more a colleague than a subordinate.

"What ever you've done, it must have been something pretty darn fabulous."

Anna averted his gaze.

"Oh, c'mon, I talked with the chief this morning. He told me the duration of your dismissal will be decided today after some sort of hearing, and funny enough those two emerge just before it's supposed to be held. Have you killed some MI6 or blown some operation of theirs?" Macklin threw the skin of his orange into a rubbish bin, and saw Anna shrug.

"Of course not. But I'm not really supposed to talk about it, I guess." Anna felt a cold pit in her stomach and even the orange was tasting sour. Mac's seemed to be all right.

"Make it general then."

Dammit, that man could be a real pain... but he'd hear it anyway. Although Macklin's official visible status was only one of a trainer/instructor, Anna had soon noticed that the quiet man enjoyed some rare trust and respect from the Controller, even being in first name terms with the chief. And Macklin was her closest superior after all. Anna sighed. "I smuggled an illegal gun through MI6 security into a guarded meeting where nobody was supposed to be armed, and actually even needed to use the Sig."

"That's bad." Macklin swallowed another slice and his frown deepened, although he also was impressed by the woman's achievement with the gun. Definitely not your ordinary bird, as he had sometimes told even George. "And damned humiliating for Ralston if it was his gig. Didn't the security frisk you or go through your things? Did? Bloody sloppy then overall. What did the chief say?"

Still the orange felt sour. "You can guess. There was so much sulphur in the air that I barely could breathe when he noticed the Sig there, and starting-point was arrest and deportation. He was the first one to notice anything to begin with, but didn't say a thing to others or take the gun away from me, luckily."

Macklin gave Anna a thoughtful glance. "So you were with him in something official?"

She finished the now tasteless fruit. "Yeah, kind of. But get lost now, I need to change my clothes."

Macklin looked at her, munching his last slice. "What's wrong with those?" Anna had her usual training wear on, all black and snug from trainers through elastic sweatsuit-trousers to her thin long-sleeve pullover she preferred in cool air. "Listen, and listen good: You're a CI5 expert whose fields of expertise are combat, and safety-issues. And your duty, which you had filled there to the letter as far as I can see, your bloody duty is to stay on top of those issues, and also, in all circumstances, to protect your superiors. You might as well look like that. You are fully qualified and it's time you yourself believe that, not only I and the chief."

Anna opened her mouth to say something, but Macklin's gesture silenced him. "Besides, no matter how big a crowd there gathers, in that room there will be only one man who has any right to discipline you or who you need to look up to. Unless I'm called in, of course. And remember it there. Cheers, Missie." Flicking a seed into the bin the gruff man was gone, leaving quiet and moved Anna look after him.

END OF CHAPTER 6