Chapter Text
“Sir?”
Bond turned at the voice with genuine surprise. “Jacobs, what are you doing here?” Airport greetings were not in the agent’s usual job description. His service record for the last five years had been stellar; ever since Bond’s evaluation mission.
“Sir, I need to talk to you in person.” Tom nodded at the junior agent Bond had been evaluating this time. “Wilson, handle the luggage, we will meet you at the car park, level three.”
The young man nodded, silent as he had been for most of the mission, and walked briskly towards the luggage claim.
“What is it?” Bond growled as soon as Wilson was out of earshot.
“Just a moment, Sir, the chapel is over there, it is empty.”
Bond nodded curtly, on high alert, and followed Tom to the inter-faith chapel, which had been closed to the public for a short period. They locked the door behind them.
Tom turned to face Bond, tablet in hand. “Sir, Q has been taken.”
“Taken?” The change in Bond would have been frightening, had Tom not been used to the man’s ability to remain a dangerous presence.
“Kidnapped, Sir. Approximately eight hours ago.”
“Who?”
“We have no leads, Sir.”
“Excuse me?” Bond felt cold, all of a sudden. Not fear, not panic, but icy cold he had never experienced before. “Eight hours?” Turning the cold into focused anger which gave his lined, pale eyes a sharp gleam. “Why was I not informed earlier?”
“There was no way to inform you on the flight without going through the crew, and we have no leads,” Tom repeated.
“Is the information you have so far on here?”
“Yes, Sir.” Tom handed the tablet over.
“CCTV?”
“None.”
Bond raised his brows.
“Exactly, Sir. This was executed professionally.”
“And you have no leads? No demands? Nothing?”
Tom took a deep breath, exhaling quietly and slowly. “No, Sir, nothing. Our best people are on it.”
“Apparently they aren’t good enough.”
Tom winced. “We’re to return to headquarters immediately.”
“Of course.” Bond showed no reaction, no facial expression; frozen into rigidity, as if he had no emotions whatsoever.
He said nothing more as they made their way out of the chapel and to the car park. Not even as Tom drove them to headquarters through the heavy London, and neither as they exited the car in MI6’s underground car park.
Junior agent Wilson knew better than to ask questions - and Tom knew better than to be fooled by Bond’s lack of reaction.
They remained silent in the lift, and as they passed others in the hallways, none dared to meet Bond’s eyes. A steely-eyed Moneypenny awaited them in her office.
“Eve.” Bond acknowledged her with a sharp nod.
“James.” Her own greeting was only marginally less brisk. “M is waiting for you.”
Bond nodded again and opened the heavy wood door to M’s office.
“Commander Bond,” M stood up as they entered.
“Sir,” Bond greeted in return. “I have been briefed on my way here. What else can you tell me?”
“Please take a seat.” M indicated the chairs, and all three of them sat down, with Bond in the middle.
“I can tell you very little else,” M started, voice level, “nothing is out of place at your house, and to all appearances, Q was walking to the Tube station when he vanished into thin air.”
“This morning?” Bond narrowed his eyes. “They must have known MI6 would be alerted much quicker after a morning kidnapping than a night one. Besides, why was Q not picked up by the driver?”
“He’s refused the driver for the inward trip for months, whenever you were away on evaluation,” Eve shook her head, “he only used the service to go home.”
“He never told me,” Bond started, but was cut short by a commotion at the door.
It opened to reveal one of Eve’s assistants. “I’ve got the cat here, Sir, like you requested.”
“The damned cat?” Bond growled. “How is the cat going to help?”
“Camera on his collar might be the last footage we have of Q,” Eve answered, “and anyway, I promised Q that I’d look after Mr Turing should he ever be unavailable, so you wouldn’t have to.”
“Camera in his collar?” It had seemed physically impossible, but Bond managed to sit up even straighter. “Q had installed a camera in the blasted cat’s collar, and we are looking at the footage right now?” He was going to have serious words with Q once he’d found him. When, not if.
Eve nodded, opened the carry case and let the protesting creature out, removing his collar at the same time. She pried off what had appeared to be a decorative stud, then flicked it into what looked like a USB key that Tom had handed to her, and fiddled with the equipment at the side of the room. A short moment later, the projection appeared on the blank wall.
Bond sat as still as a statue as the first images flickered to life. Fine, white cotton sheets as the cat was sleeping on the bed. The peace on screen was soon shattered as two figures came into view. Entangled and moving together, stark naked, and obviously Q and Bond.
M cleared his threat. “Miss Moneypenny, I do believe the current footage is not going to give us any clues as to Q’s abduction, I suggest we fast forward.”
“Shame,” Eve commented, but did as requested. Much to the relief of Bond, and no doubt both of the other two men.
Eve fast forwarded almost to the end of the recording, past a great deal of footage of sheets, treats, food stolen from unwitting agents, and laps, before she stopped at images of Q shrugging as he put away the cat’s carry case, then headed out the door. The footage that followed was fuzzy and out of focus, as though being seen through a double glazed, bulletproof window, but showed two men following Q as he walked down the street. The video continued for a few more seconds, showing Q as he was about to turn the corner, then sudden movements from the two men, as they quickly approached him while a car arrived fast and stopped beside them.
“That is it?” Bond asked, as the footage changed to fur, with Mr Turing curling up on the windowsill.
“Apparently,” M agreed. “Miss Moneypenny, see that our audio visual experts extract as much information from this as possible.”
She nodded and retrieved the USB stick, heading out the door to hand it to a minion.
Mr Turing jumped up onto M’s vacant desk chair and curled up, watching the humans in the room.
“I assume there have been no attempts at communication from the kidnappers?” Bond asked.
“A little difficult when we have no leads on who they are,” M retorted.
“Unless they were asking for something. Like ransom.” Bond frowned.
“Nothing,” M confirmed. “Where is Tanner?” changing the subject.
“On his way in, Sir,” Moneypenny had returned. “He is on paternity leave for two weeks.”
M frowned. “When did that happen? I suppose that means Tennyson won’t be available, either,” his tone was slightly irritated, as though MI6 managerial staff chose to breed solely to inconvenience him.
“Sir,” Bond stopped him, “could we return to the issue at hand, that of MI6’s Quartermaster having been abducted by persons unknown for reasons unknown to a location unknown?”
“Yes, we are getting to that, Bond.” M ran fingers through his thinning hair, a sign he was very agitated. “As of now there are no clues, no indications who, what or why he’s been taken, with no hints as to any threat directed towards him.”
“Which means you don’t even know where to start.” The only indication of Bond’s state of mind was the whitening of his left hand’s knuckles, tightly gripping the armrest. “Who have you got on it?”
“All of Q branch who aren’t running active missions,” Moneypenny answered before M could open his mouth, “and all of Analysis on duty.”
“I’m having 005 and 008 brought in,” M added, “they’ll take the lead for the retrieval.”
“You think they have any idea where to start?” Bond’s enunciation had become as sharp as a blade.
“Better than anyone else,” M retorted.
“This is incorrect and you know it,” Bond snapped.
“Who, then?” M said wearily.
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“James, please,” Moneypenny tried to calm the storm that was brewing, while Tom wisely remained silent. Bond had been too calm, too controlled, with no emotions on the surface. She knew what that meant.
Bond ignored her completely. “Sir?”
“I know what you want, Bond, but I cannot let you go out to wreck whatever quest or vengeance you want,” M’s gaze was steady, “not even for Q.”
“Wreck?” Bond stood up from his seat, ramrod straight. “I would find Q or die trying, and do not tell me that you don’t know that.”
Moneypenny had risen as well, looking as if she was about to try and calm Bond down, but a small gesture from M stopped her.
“Precisely my point, Bond,” M seemed unfazed. “You would stop at nothing, regardless of what got in your way, not thinking of anything else. I need a team who will go after this with a clear head.”
“And in the meantime Q will suffer,” Bond spat out the words.
“He will be found, without the entire world exploding around us.”
“Q is worth the entire world exploding,” Bond snarled, bending close to M, “the entire universe.” He abruptly turned, ignoring Moneypenny’s protest, and stormed out of the door. Nearly running into a dishevelled Tanner on the way, he barked “Congratulations,” at him, as he continued down the corridor and to the stairs that would take him to Q-branch.
“Wha...?” Tanner stared after him, then peeked through the open door. “Sir?” He looked from M to Moneypenny to Tom, who had remained seated.
“That went rather better than I thought,” Moneypenny observed.
“Q has been taken,” M explained wearily.
“Kidnapped by unknowns,” Tom continued.
“And we just told Bond.” Moneypenny finished.
“Shit.” Tanner closed the door and fell into the recently vacated seat.