HOSTILE TAKEOVER

FOURTEEN

Chapter Twelve

Bond walked briskly along the corridor at Vauxhall Cross to attend his meeting with M as he had done many times, but this time was wearing a sweat soaked Royal Navy tracksuit and a black beanie hat as he reached the end of the walkway, the words ‘Section 6’ where embossed in gold leaf upon the solid oak door. The scent of forgotten cigar smoke and furniture wax seemed to drift from under the door like a distant memory.

Bond pushed the door open and walked straight in but throwing his beanie hat onto a coat stand. The hat landed perfectly on one of the hooks.

A lady was sat upon a desk in a large office which was Spartan in décor. A modern style desk with a laptop and two small filing cabinets filled the room with a large window showing a brilliant view of the Thames and the city of London beyond.

The woman was in the process of cutting some fruit in half when she glanced up and noticed what Bond was wearing.

“Is it Dress down Friday?” she enquired.

“Moneypenny, have I ever told you how I love to watch you scoop your melons out?” said Bond with a twinkle in his eye.

Moneypenny raised an eyebrow and responded with a slight smile.

“I was in the gym. You said to come as I was. This is how I was.” said Bond.

Moneypenny stood and walked towards Bond who gave her a tight, loving hug. She could smell his aftershave mixed with his sweat from the gym and she couldn’t decide which smelt better. Some men just have that natural aroma she guessed as she nuzzled into his wide shoulders. She broke the hug as she knew M was expecting him as he kissed her on the forehead and then began to walk into M’s office, but his time, he knocked.

“Come.” said the loud voice from inside.

Bond walked into M’s office as he was writing in green pen on a report.

“Good morning Bond.” said M placing his pen down and sitting back in his chair.

“Morning Sir.” replied Bond.

“So; it seems that we have a bit of a loose end after this mess in Svalbard.” Said M as he now leaned forward and picked up the file he was writing in.

“You let Blofeld get away Bond.” said M looking accusingly at Bond. “This just simply won’t do.”

“Well I did kind of prevent a world disaster?” replied Bond with a hint of smugness.

“Half a job eh?” said M.

“Well I wouldn’t exac...”

“…I would. What’s to stop this guy Blofeld from coming up with another silly scheme?”

Bond said nothing as M continued to look through the folder which Bond could now see was the original file on Blofeld, except this time it had a red stamp over it.

“It says here that the cleanup team found an Adult Lion and its cub walking along the side of the lake? Do you know anything about that?” asked M.

“Well Sir, I haven’t had time to file my report yet. I was just…”

“…Why have you not had time to file your report Bond? You’ve been back twenty four hours and I have been still trying to sort this mess out. The Norwegian government is not happy that an operation has happened without them being informed. The foreign minister is in a tizz because the Russians are breathing down his neck as they think it’s some kind of military exercise.” said M closing the file in his hand.

Bond didn’t know what to say. As far as he was concerned, he had prevented a world catastrophe from happening and Blofeld was probably dead, even though they had not found a body.

“It appears that the Yanks have a different view of you. They want to give you some medal or something. You’re booked to go back to DC on Thursday. That will give you plenty of time to sort your paperwork out. Now when you get back, there’s another matter that we need you to look at. The North Koreans have developed some incredibly sophisticated hacking software.”

“I could head to Seoul as soon as I’ve finished in Washington Sir.” replied Bond.

“Yes OK. I’ll get Moneypenny to sort out the arrangements.”

“Thank you Sir.” said Bond rising to his feet and just as he was about to leave the room.

“Oh Bond… OK, Not too bad of a job.” said M nodding gently.

Bond smiled and closed the door and after collecting his beanie hat which he had to take off Moneypenny and decided that she looked better in it than he did, he walked out of the side entrance to Vauxhall Cross and as most of the security detail knew him on site, he still had to show his security pass.

As he made his way across the Albert embankment and headed towards the small café, his cell phone buzzed in his Jogging trousers and he smiled as he glanced at the name of the caller.

“Good morning Kate.” he smiled.

“Good morning James.” said Leiter, if he could have seen her, he would have seen her smiling too.

“How are you? Did you sleep well?” asked Bond.

“A little; so you’re still picking me up from Heathrow right? You’re not gonna leave me standing there all on my own?” she asked him.

“Sure will.” he replied.

“What? Leave me on my own?” she laughed.

“I’ll never leave you on your own.” he said and meant it.

He walked further along the road and as he walked past a McDonalds, he stopped for a brief moment and looked through the glass window.

He had seen someone.

Someone he would like to have a chat with.

It was Dan, from Pen y fan.

He was sat on his own and he was taking huge bites out of a double hamburger.

Bond watched him as with each bite, tomato ketchup squeezed out of the side of the bun and landed onto his tray.

He paused between bites only to take a big drink of an extra-large Coke.

“Are you there?” asked Leiter on the phone.

“Yeah I’m here?” he replied.

“Is everything OK?” Leiter asked.

He paused for a moment as he took a deep breath of clean air coming in off the Thames and smiled as for the first time in a long time, everything was OK.

“Everything is wonderful my love.”

 The End.

James Bond will return…