Would have posted this sooner, but I had to find a god stopping point for this chapter :)
As promised, James arrived at M's flat in record time. He flew up the front steps and bounded thru the front door startling both M and Jack who were seated in the sitting room glaring at one another.
"It's a bit chilly in here don't you think" said James in an attempt to lighten the mood
"You had better have a damn good explanation for all of this" snapped M as she turned her attention to James
"I thought we agreed that you were going to put the gun down?"
M just continued to glare at James as she tightened her grip on the gun
"Why didn't you tell me you were going out?"
"Well perhaps if you would have opened the door when I asked..."
"I didn't feel like talking, you of all people should have realized that!"
"ALRIGHT YOU TWO...enough is enough" snapped Jack as he rose from his chair and swiftly took the gun from M as he turned and angrily faced James "Would you just sit yourself down and tell her what you've been up to!"
James and M stared at Jack with rather stunned expressions on their faces
"You heard me. You two are acting like a couple of two year olds. James Just tell her already, and M darlin, as much as I love you, if you had just opened the door like he said, then you would already know what he was doing"
"He's right" said James as took a seat beside M on the sofa
"Good, now then, what did you find out?"
"Plenty, or rather at least we have a place to start" replied James as he reached over and took M's hand "Jack...I need you to contact your friends at the Russian embassy. Find out how much they know about Sergei and his activities just before and after M's mission. Also ask them if what we have is enough proof to go after him"
"Right" said Jack as he pulled out his phone and left to make the call
"James...What is it? What's going on?"
"I didn't want to alarm you, but we have a leak somewhere either at MI6 or at Whitehall which is why you can't go to the office at the moment"
"I don't understand. No one in my office other than you knew about the mission"
"Which is why I think the leak is at Whitehall. I have just come from a rather unorthodox meeting with Mallory, and between Him and Q, they should be able to confirm my suspicions"
"Define unorthodox"
"Well let's just say that we couldn't meet in his office for obvious reasons so I chose the next, best logical and extraordinarily private place I could think of..."
"Which was?"
"The London Eye"
"Oh I see, how did that go over? You do know that Mallory is afraid of heights"
James shook his head and grinned before he continued.
"While Mallory and Q are busy following the lead we have, I need you to do something for me"
"Of course"
"I realize that it's going to be hard, but I need you to think back to what happened to you" he said as he slid closer and put his arm around her
"You already know what happened to me" she replied quietly as she stared at her hands
"Yes I know, but I'm more interested in what happened to after..."
"You know that as well, it's all in the report"
"No, I mean after you were left for dead. Something Ivan said got me to thinking. Why did they come back? And why was it so important that you live. Anton never let anyone live before, so what made you so special?"
"You heard what both Sergei and Ivan said, Anton liked me, in fact he said it himself at dinner..."
"Yes, but what would make his men risk their lives to make sure you lived. You heard him, they stayed with you until our people came to get you, they took care of your wounds and kept you safe...Why? What is it that you know? And why after all of these years did they come after you now"
"I have no idea" she said with a look of bewilderment
Jack wandered back into the sitting room and flopped in the chair opposite the sofa with a rather annoyed look on his face.
"Well...what did they say?"
"My contact says we need more concrete proof before they will even consider turning him over" replied Jack in a disgusted tone "But, I did manage to find out another small piece of the puzzle"
"I'm all ears" said James as he tightened his hold on M
"You wanted to know what started all of this right?"
"Well it would help"
"Several months ago a documentary film maker from New Zealand started asking a lot of questions for some film he was making about the old KGB. Apparently he got too close to something or someone because he ended up dead. They found his body in Moscow in an old abandoned warehouse in a deserted part of town"
"So what's that got to do with us?"
"Well it seem as though he may have stumbled onto something, because when I called my home office and had them cross reference the names and dates we found that every time we were close to catching one of these old-timers, they were either MIA or had just recently died."
"And you think the two are connected?"
"Well, I don't believe in coincidence. I think he was on to something or someone, and he got too close for comfort"
"But what about Ivan?" asked M who had been listening intently "You managed to capture him alive"
"We got to him a few months before this film guy showed up"
James, Jack and M all sat silently pondering all of the new information they had been given. Jack was right, in the spy game there was no such thing as coincidence.
"I want to see him" said M quietly
"No, You've already seen him and look what it did to you" replied James as he leaned his head against hers
"But I want to ask..."
"I'll ask, you just tell me what you want to know"
"Look, this is my life we're talking about. This happened to me, and I want to ask the questions I have spent most of my adult life wondering about" she said as she pulled away from him
"M...I know this is painful, but I just don't think it's a very good idea"
"YOU DON'T THINK!" she snapped with tears in her eyes "I don't care what YOU think. I am your boss 007, and I want to interrogate the suspect myself...IS THAT CLEAR!"
"Oh so this is how it's going to be?" replied James as angrily got up "You're going to pull rank on me every time you don't get your way?"
"If I have to!" she snapped back
Out of pure frustration, James ran his hand thru his hair, glared at her for a moment and then turned and stormed out of the room.
"Where do you think you're going" shouted M as she got up and followed after him with Jack close behind
"I'm going for a walk" he said angrily as he stormed out the door, slamming it behind him
Tears of pain and anger streamed down M's face as she stared at the door. Jack stood in the doorway of the sitting room and was almost beside himself. He didn't know whether he should comfort her or scold her so he chose the first option and came up behind her and put his arms around her and pulled her back to him.
"Let him go M. He just needs time to work for this out for himself before he tumbles to the conclusion that you are right" he whispered in her ear
"Why can't he understand?" she said thru her sobs
"Because he loves you, and he can't stand to see you go thru this again" he said turning her to face him "If he could, he would take you as far away from here as possible, but he knows deep down that you need to do this. He can't protect you from the past, and it's killing him"
"I don't need him to protect me from the past, it's the future I'm worried about" she said as she leaned her head against his chest
"He knows that, which is why he'll be back, you'll see" he replied
M nodded as she wiped away her tears
"Look. Why don't you go up and take a nice long soak in the tub while I make you some dinner. You haven't eaten a thing all day and you must be starving"
"Thank you Jack, but I'm not really all that hungry"
"Then how about I make you a deal. If you promise to stay put, and I mean it, I will go fetch the boy and being him back"
"Jack" she said reaching up to tenderly cup his cheek "You are a dear, sweet man, but if you leave me alone, he will kill you and we both know that in his current mood, that is not out of the realm of possibilities"
"You have a point there. Do you always have to be right?" he asked sounding slightly annoyed
"No, it just usually works out that way" she replied with a small laugh "But I may do as you suggested and go take a nice, long bath" she said as she let go and headed toward the stairs
"Good. I'll go ahead and make something for dinner, just in case you change your mind" he replied with a wink
TO BE CONTINUED...