Q

[0_0_7]

Bond was sitting on a train, watching the target talking on the phone. He had his keffiyeh slung around his throat and sunglasses on to disguise himself a bit. No one paid him any attention, all talking amongst themselves, business men heading into Damascus, mostly, but others as well. He knew that he had to be discreet, he couldn't just execute the man in a crowd.

The train slowed and then stopped and the target rose. Bond followed, pushing his way through the crowd.He made it up next to the target and slipped a tracker into his pocket, then peeled away from him.

"Alright, Q, he's yours to follow now. I'm going to go find transportation while he hails a cab. And keep an eye on the satellites," he said, telling Q how to do his job a bit. But as he exited the station and he saw the target slip into a black Audi, he realized this wasn't what they'd had planned.

"He's not taking a cab. I'm improvising," he said, stalking through the crowd and slipping into a waiting Range Rover, its owner standing mere feet away as Bond outright stole the vehicle.

Comments

[0_0_7]

Bond swallowed his coffee as fast as the hot brew would allow. Then with whiskey on his breath he leaned in and kissed Q lightly. His stubble was rough.

"What are you thinking about so hard?" he asked. "You have that little crease over your brow. Just there. You get it when you're thinking..."

[quartermaster_q]

"I'm just wondering if I should buy Oberon some toys and treats," he lied easily. "I've never bought him toys before. I always make them."

[0_0_7]

"Making them would keep you busy for the day," Bond said as he turned to head off to shave. "If you go shopping I want you to take an agent with you...unless you want to wait for me."

He trusted Q implicitly. It didn't even occur to him the man might be lying.

[quartermaster_q]

Q only hummed, careful not to make any promises. He didn't like lying to Bond at all.

"Anyway, I'm going to shower and be off. I'll see you tonight?" he asked.

[0_0_7]

"Yes. You should make reservations. Wherever you like," Bond replied.

They parted ways soon enough and Bond sat through a day of hell. He hated being debriefed, it was the worst part of the job. Explaining missions, explaining choices, explaining deaths...it was so tedious.

By the time he was done and he called Q he had had it.

"Where shall I pick you up?" he asked. "Eve's?"

[quartermaster_q]

Q wasn't at Eve's though. He was at the hotel where he believed he'd find Terrance, sitting in the lobby.

"Actually- I'm at Hotel 41," Q said quietly. "I believe I may have found Terrance."

[0_0_7]

"What!?" he exclaimed, loudly enough to draw looks from those nearby. He immediately lowered his voice. "You went after Terrance on your own? Have you lost your bloody mind? You need the psych eval, not me."

He stalked to his car and jerked open the door so he could go to Hotel 41. When he got in he popped the dash and pulled out a gun and extra ammunition. When he sat upright again he noticed something on his windshield under his wiper and he got out to strip the solicitation off.

But then he noticed it was a photo of him at Heathrow last night.

Did you have a nice trip? was scrawled on it in marker.

"Is he there? I'll kill him," he said into the phone.

[quartermaster_q]

"I've no idea. I'm in the lobby. I thought, perhaps, it would be unwise to go to his room on my own," Q confessed. "The security feeds show no sign of him, but as we both know, that means nothing."

[0_0_7]

"I want you to stay in the lobby. Where everyone can see you. Where you're on camera," Bond said, though he knew that wouldn't matter. Q had been stabbed on a busy train platform and nothing about that had gotten them any closer to finding Terrrance.

"He knows I was gone. He's taunting me, Q. This needs to end."

[quartermaster_q]

"Yes, understood," Q said, ending the call.

The moment he hung up, the fire alarms began to ring. There was a panic, and Q knew if he didn't move, he'd be chased out of the building along with all the civilians and guests.

He did the only thing he could think to do, ducking into a stairwell and beginning to make his way up to the fourth floor as he sent Bond a text.

Fire alarm triggered, heading to room 118.

He raced up the stairs, carefully avoiding security as they did their best to get everyone out as quickly as possible, then making his way to room 118. It was a standard card key lock, and he bypassed it easily before slipping inside.

His heart pounded, fully expecting to walk right into Terrance...

He did not.

What he did walk into, however, was a quite disturbing shrine. Every wall was covered in photographs. Photographs of Q and everyone he knew. Bond, Moneypenny, Rob, Dr. Lecter... If Q had spoken to them recently they were there. Some had check marks next to them, some x's, others had a question mark. It didn't take long to deduce what each mark meant. Checks were given to those Q seemed fond of, x's to those Q brushed off. Those he'd been intimate with had a question mark beside them- For whatever reason, that troubled him most of all.

[0_0_7]

Bond raced through the streets. His bluetooth read him the text as it came through and he scowled to himself.

He reached the hotel to find chaos. Emergency vehicles were parked all around and people milled around outside. Bond parked and walked around the scene until he found an opening. He grabbed a spare firefighter coat and hat out of one of the trucks and he walked into the hotel. he was confident there was no real fire.

He made his way up to 118 and shouldered his way in to find Q and the shrine.

"Oh, lord. This is a bit off, isn't it?" he said as he scanned the collage on the wall.

[quartermaster_q]

"A bit off? That's putting it mildly," Q replied softly, plucking one of the photos from the wall.

"How can he be watching all of us all the time?" he asked.

[0_0_7]

"Well this one is CCTV, not a camera. This one, too. And this. He's hacked into the SIS system. There's not many agencies that have this sort of access," Bond said. "How good is he? Could he have facial recognition software in place, just waiting for us to appear on camera?"

[quartermaster_q]

"Honestly? He makes me look like a dullard, Bond. It's entirely possible he's hacked into every security feed in London," Q said quietly. "But not all of these are security footage, Bond. He's- He's lurking. Watching. ...He's likely watching us right now."

[0_0_7]

Bond pulled the paper from the windshield from his pocket to show it to Q as well.

"This has to end," he said. "He's not just a menace to us, he's a threat to national security. The things we do cannot be done if someone like that is watching our every move. We need to get ahead of him, Q. We must."

[quartermaster_q]

"You act as if I'm not trying to do just that!" Q snapped. "This is it, Bond. This is as close as I've gotten. I'm doing the best I can."

[0_0_7]

He reached out and rested his hand on Q's back to settle him.

"I know you are," he said, his voice calm and smooth. "I'm saying maybe we need to bring more people into this. I know double-o three is available. Still on medical for his shoulder. And B...and R..."

[quartermaster_q]

"So he can send them videos of me as well?" Q asked, looking almost horrified by the thought. "So they can learn all about the past I've worked bloody hard to erase?"

[0_0_7]

"We're getting nowhere without back up, Q. Sometimes you have to know when you can't go it alone," Bond said, but he truly doubted Q would see the reason in that. His past was something to keep hidden and Bond knew that the more they brought into this problem, the more people would be at risk.

[quartermaster_q]

"No. No, I just- I just need a little more time, double-o seven. I can take care of this. I can find him," Q insisted.

[0_0_7]

He likely could have pressed and gotten his way but he knew this was a delicate matter and Q was especially vulnerable where Terrance was concerned. Bond wasn't about to roll over him and dictate what to do.

"Alright," he said. "We will find him. And stop him. I'll not leave your side, you know."

[quartermaster_q]

"I know," Q nodded, wetting his lips with a flick of his tongue as he started to look around again.

"We should take these. All of them. In fact, we should take everything we can carry," he decided as he began to pull them down a few at a time.

[0_0_7]

Bond began to pull down pictures and pages as well, making sure to keep them in some sort of order.

"What are the marks? The exes and question marks? There's a pattern to it, isn't there? What is it?"

[quartermaster_q]

"The checks are friends, the crosses are people I'm neutral towards, the question marks are- People I've been intimate with," Q said quietly.

[0_0_7]

"And they're the ones most at risk, correct?" Bond said, making absolutely no judgments about the number of question marks he saw. He pulled down the next- Q's nurse in a picture obviously pulled from a hospital security camera.