The Big Picture
Chapter Text
"That went well," M said, closing the brown folder and placing it on the glass top of her desk, firmly with both hands. She said it without irony, and almost casually, as if remarking on a dinner party she hadn't particularly been looking forward to.
"She got into the right hands," Bond replied. "I may have bruised some feelings in the process, I'm afraid."
M waved dismissively. "Bloody pikers, the lot of them. Corrine O'Hare has been recalled to London by the Foreign Office. It seems they'd like to find an assignment more "appropriate to her talents and aptitude," their words."
"Damning words," Bond observed.
"I understand there's a vacancy at our embassy in Bangui that might soon be filled."
Bond winced at the thought. "And the Americans? No doubt they're incensed at losing the girl."
M's expression grew stormy at the mention of the agency. "Bloody fools. You know they tried to show me an…intimate video of you and a North Korean spy."
"Aha," Bond said and felt the room's temperature rise several degrees.
"As it was the most damning thing in the world!" M exclaimed incredulously. "I sometimes wonder if they understand how espionage even works. Anyhow, the Home Office is sending a formal demarche protesting their attempts to compromise our operation and some such. The usual diplomatic theater. Some of my more reasonable counterparts in the American intelligence services says that the whole lot of them were called back to Langley and shown the door. Good riddance, if you ask me." She shook her head, disgustedly. "The American FBI picked up the RGB operatives who infiltrated the delegation. That's taken some of the bitterness out of the situation. Still, the bloody cheek on them to try something like this."
"Indeed," Bond said and let the topic drift away. "How is the girl? Is she enjoying the 21stcentury?"
"By all accounts she's adapting to her new surroundings as well as can be expected. It's always a challenge with defectors for these first few months, and from North Korea—well, I can't imagine what she's going through. The very fabric of her reality was a lie for her whole life."
Bond made a non-committal noise. This type of thing was outside his area of expertise, and he was satisfied to let the professionals at it.
"It was just damn lucky I assigned you to this operation. And that fact's not gone unnoticed."
"Just glad to be of service," Bond shrugged.
M looked down at the file—it was the closest Bond had ever seen her appear uncomfortable in her own office. "It must seem purely unfair—all that we did for her."
"It's the job," Bond said. "I understand."
And he did understand. It made perfect sense to him the moment Mechelle brought the Dauphin into a sharp, course-correcting bank, which dropped Jechul's side of the cabin, and she stared down at the glittering skyscrapers below. "It's sobeautiful!"she gasped and pressed her face to the window like a child as the expanse of Manhattan and its canvas of glass and concrete and light stretched out below her seemingly endlessly and in all directions. Bond understood then that she was seeing a world she never knew existed or even could exist, something nearly beyond her comprehension."It's so beautiful…"She said it several more times before they reached their destination.
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