'Its our man in St. Petersburg.'
Moneypenny had burst into M's office a moment earlier, barely remembering to knock in her haste. And from that moment, M's usually ordered world had been thrown into chaos.
Offering assistance... permission to intervene in the mission... for agents best interests... the words were floating in front of M's eyes, her head was filled with countless possibilities. She refused to let her doubts get in the way of this, this was an opportunity far too good to pass up.
Finally, she smiled. 'Well. At last...' she stood and headed for the small drinks cupboard she kept. 'This calls for a celebration I think.'
Without another word she handed the second glass of bourbon to the usually composed redhead.
Moneypenny didn't drink, instead she gazed into the depths of the warm liquid as if she could find the answers to her unspoken questions there. M glanced at her, and frowned. They had worked together for far too long for either woman to be able to disguise their emotions with any success. Sometimes out of respect they simply ignored it, and remained on a professional level. Other times... it all had to come out into the open.
'Spit it out, woman,' M ordered, taking a sip. 'You obviously don't approve.'
'I'm concerned,' Moneypenny admitted. 'How can we be certain of this offer of assistance? And why now? We'll be putting agents at risk, unnecessary risk.'
'Agents are always at risk,' M said brusquely. 'You know that, and I know that. But I do share your concern. At the moment though, we don't have any other options, so if you do have any suggestions, Moneypenny, now would be the time to share them with me.'
Moneypenny remained silent, knowing it was better to do so than to argue with M when she was in this frame of mind.
'We have several agents in close pursuit of our man in St. Petersburg, and if I judge that he is deliberately leading our agents into danger, then I will give the order for his elimination. However, contrary to popular belief, he's actually very fond of living.'
'But why now?' Moneypenny insisted. 'Why has he suddenly decided to cooperate?'
M hesitated. 'I can't imagine him doing anything that didn't ultimately suit his own interests, but he has always been bound to us. It was part of the agreement we signed. He'll have his own agenda, lets just hope that it's in line with ours.'
In the end everything boiled down to a matter of numbers, M mused, and she felt safe surrounded by them. It was a calculated risk, gambling on his cooperation, against the risk of this being an elaborate plot. She hoped, that with all the intelligence they had on the man, that he might decide against rebelling against the system. She hoped...
'Yes,' she half said to herself. 'Yes, it would be very easy for him to entrap them. We must simply pray that he doesn't. Or that if he does, 007 and Agent Kain will be able to escape with their lives.'
Emotions were pushed aside, the advancement of the mission was all that mattered, business was resumed. 'Tell our man he has his permission.'
*
The building was a dirty grey relic left over from the poverty of the 80's, a series of squared off buildings piled haphazardly on top of each other, and surrounded by a vast overgrown and weed filled garden. Guards patrolled the entrance gates, but in the depths of the garden, with the aid of a small pair of wire cutters the agents had made it in. Carefully concealed they edged under the wire fence, and into the blackness.
The three of them sprinted across the grounds, until they were safely sheltered from view in an alcove. The plans, taken from Lucinda, were thrown quickly on the ground and examined closely for the final time.
'There.' Bond jabbed his finger down upon a small basement room that would hopefully give them the best chance of access to the rest of the building. 'We're agreed?' Dmitrov nodded, and Ashleigh, with a quick final check, slowly nodded too. The reluctance of the gesture didn't escape Bond, and he frowned as he secured the plans and stood.
With a sudden gesture he reached out and caught Ashleigh by the elbow, pulling her out of ear shot, whispering harshly into her ear.
'Drag your head out of whatever clouds you've placed it in, Kain, I won't work with an agent who is not 110% committed to the mission. This is it,' he shook her to reinforce the message, 'And I am not going to carry you through this. If you die tonight, you die. More lives than yours are at stake here...'
Eyes blazing she snatched her arm back, and glared at him. 'Thank you for your advice 007, I'll bear it in mind when I'm covering your ass as you barge in guns blazing, playing the hero once more.'
Bond watched her as she hissed at him, and knew then she was focused once more back within the mission, for the moment at least. For how long she could keep her concentration up he didn't know... If she was like him, once the action started, she would be completely absorbed in the mission, and nothing could deter her from completing it. He hoped she was...
'Keep close to Dmitrov,' he suddenly ordered her. She blinked, surprised, the plan had been to completely spilt up, and he saw the brief flash of anger flare up once more, then die, and she nodded. Neither Dmitrov or Ashleigh looked pleased by this, having another agent so close by could seriously hamper any attempts of concealment.
Bond squinted up at the sky, then checked his watch. Ashleigh and Dmitrov were stood there, watching him, rigid with anticipation, Ashleigh was close to shaking, her fists loosely clenched, ready, so ready... Bond nodded, and so it began...
Bond sprinted to the right, Dmitrov, with Ashleigh close behind, to the left, already fading into the near blackness
In the deep shadow of a large hedge, they paused, waiting with bated breath as a guard marched mere metres away... Dmitrov shot her a look in the darkness that showed his displeasure at having been stuck with baby-sitting duties and Ashleigh bristled.
'Keep close to the building,' in a whisper his accent was even heavier, and Ashleigh leaned in closer to hear him. 'We're heading east, circling round...' the guard had gone, 'Go...'
They ran once more, and Ashleigh felt the adrenaline kick in, she could run for miles tonight if needs be, and never be caught...
They skirted round the edge of the building, and paused. High above them, bright floodlights stood proudly, cutting through the darkness in a wide sweep. Seemingly innocent looking security guards still paced back and forth, their eyes penetrating into the night. Ashleigh stopped breathing as a pair of icy blue eyes fell upon her, and seemed to linger there for what felt like forever, but they moved on, the small orange flame of a lighter flared, a cigarette was lit, and the guard continued on his way. She let her breath out slowly and watched the sweep of the light with Dmitrov, assessing the best moment to run. The light was coming back towards them, and Dmitrov leant back to her.
'On my count, one... two...' the light reached the limit of its widest arch, 'Three!' Dmitrov ran, chased by the light as it swung back, aware of nothing but keeping forward, keeping his speed up, determined to reach the other corner of the building.
But he was alone. At the moment he had run, Ashleigh had been close behind him, but her hairs had suddenly raised on the back of her neck, every instinct had screamed at her to stay where she was, and she was sure that a pair of cold blue eyes were once more upon her. Fading back into the shadows, she had watched anxiously as Dmitrov had sprinted forward, and then disappeared into the night...
And then the bright light revealed something that made her blood run cold. Four guards had fallen upon Dmitrov, were forcing the struggling man to the floor as he fought back hard, but was easily overpowered by the four strong men. He was on the ground now, and one of the guards was holding something in his hand, he was coming closer to Dmitrov...
She was blinded suddenly by the light hitting her full in the face... a flashlight, yells, and she heard the pounding of feet rushing towards her... For a moment she remained shock still, one hand thrown up to cover her eyes from the harsh light, but reality snapped in and she turned and ran.
Her only hope was to throw them off her tail she thought as she ran in a jagged path, cutting across the garden, suddenly changing direction. She was torn... did she try to reach James, tell him about Dmitrov, or did she get the hell away from there and hope for the best? If she ran to James she risked giving his position away, but if she abandoned him...
Shouts were echoing around the garden, James must surely be aware that something had happened by now... She sprinted round a corner, and found herself in the area that they had started from... more men were running towards her.. she slid to a stop.. turned to flee in the direction she had just come from, saw the guards who were following her had finally caught up... Her head snapped back and forth between the two and then she sprinted right, taken the only option left to her...
She felt as if she had ran into a brick wall, she looked up dazed, saw those cold blue eyes smirking down at her, then strong arms pinned her, more were grabbing her, she kicked out, kicking, screaming, even biting, anything to try and fight them off... but it was hopeless, she was dragged to the ground, and held there, hands grabbed her head to hold it still, and a sickly sweet smell surrounded her.
As the cloth was placed over her nose and mouth, and the sweet smell threatened to choke her, she was aware of laugher, and those blue eyes staring down at her. As the grogginess took her, she could still hear him laughing....