Even Death Can't Keep Us Apart

Chapter 12

The grey suited man was leading Vesper and James to what looked like a mirrored observatory.
"This is a very special place. He has requested you enter it alone." The man in grey said to them.

"Of course." James said, politely, looking to Vesper, who rolled her eyes.

"Champagne?" The man in grey offered them.

"Maybe later." James said, smirking slightly.

"Certainly." The man in grey said, giving a little bow before walking over to open the doors.

James and Vesper entered the room to find it almost completely dark and empty, except for a very large rock on a pedestal illuminated by a spotlight.

"I think we're meant to be impressed." James whispered softly to Vesper.
She smirked at him in response.

The two of them walked closer to the pedestal, and examined the object on it for a moment.

"Touch it." A man's voice said from behind them.
"You can touch it if you want." The same voice said. "Do you know what it is?" The voice asked.

"It's a meteorite." Vesper replied.

"Yes, exactly." The voice said, still lurking in the shadows. "The Kartenhoff. The oldest in human possession." The voice said, slowly emerging from the shadows. "The very meteorite that made this crater. Think about. So many years up there, alone, silent, building momentum until it chose to make its mark on Earth. A huge, unstoppable force." The voice said, now that the person who's voice it was had come closer to the pedestal, they could see that it was a man with short grey hair speaking, Franz Oberhauser.

"Except it did stop, didn't it?" James said. Ending Oberhauser's reverie. "Right here." He said.

"I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to this. Both of us here, together. A reunion. I'm so glad you came as well, Vesper. I had the pleasure of knowing your parents, though I never met you. Lovely people they were."

"You knew my parents?" Vesper asked incredulously.

"Yes, I did." He said simply, as the doors opened behind Vesper and James. "Shall we?" He asked walking towards the now open door.

He led then outside onto a pavement path towards a building that looked like a cross between a government building and a research lab.
"What is this place?" Vesper asked beside James, a few feet behind Oberhauser.

"Information." He responded as they approached the entrance. When they entered the building, they entered into a long hallway with large floor to ceiling windows. "Information is all, is it not?" Oberhauser said as he led them through the hallway.

"For example, you must know by now that the 00 program is officially dead. Which leads me to speculate exactly why you came." He said, stopping at the end of the hallway and turning to face James. "So, James, why did you come?" Oberhauser asked.

"I came here to kill you." James said.

"And I though you came here to die." Oberhauser said.

"Well, it's all a matter of perspective." James said with a smirk.

Oberhauser looked at him for a moment before saying, "Speaking of perspective." He gestured to the two men in black suits to open the door to their left. They opened the door, and Oberhauser led James and Vesper into a room with computers all along the walls. James looked over at Vesper, his look silently asking, "do you know
what's going on here?", she looked back at him and gave him a slight shrug, showing her equal confusion.

Oberhauser made his way over to one of the desks, the man who was working there stood up and moved to the side so that they could see his screen.
"Is this live?" Oberhauser asked.