Even Death Can't Keep Us Apart

Chapter 15

James continued following the clues, eventually ending up in the basement of the building, to the entrance of the river Thames and training rooms. He walked into the shooting range, and when he got within ten feet of the exit, the lights switched on. The targets all flipped to face him, and he found photocopies of his own face on the heads of all of them.

He continued down the long hall, and into the next room. A room of detention cells. As he made his way further and further in, he found black and white images taped to the back wall of each cell. The first cell had an image of Le Chiffre taped to the back wall, the next, Silva. On the opposite side, there was an image of Vesper taped to the back wall, James stopped for a moment to look at it, it was from the Casino when they'd first met. Next to Silva's cell, an image of Mr. White, and across from him, M. James continued from the room into a dark hallway, and there, from across the hall, he saw Blofeld. He didn't register the glass at first, and forgot it was bulletproof, when he shot twice. If the glass hadn't been there, Blofeld would've had two bullets in his chest. James approached the cell, noting the large cracks his bullets had made in the tempered glass.
"You're a hard man to kill, Blofeld." James said, stopping three feet away from the glass. Blofeld changed his attention from the wall he was facing, to James standing on the other side of the glass, he took several steps forward so that the two men were face to face. "Ouch. I do hope that doesn't hurt too much." James said as he took note of the new scar across Blofeld's right eye and down his cheek.

"My wounds will heal. What about yours? Look around you, James. Look. This what's left of your world. Everything you ever stood for, everything you believed in, a ruin." Blofeld said, unsettlingly calmly.

"Why are we here?" James asked. "Did you miss me?" He taunted again.

"No." Blofeld replied in the same cool manner. He breathed in deeply, then exhaled on the glass, filling it with condensation and making it foggy. "But I know someone who does." He said as he began drawing a heart in the fog with his finger. James looked at him, realizing what he'd done.

"Where is she?" James asked, all his taunting nature gone.

"That's for you to find out." Blofeld said before walking to the back corner of the room and flipping a switch on a dark box with an antenna. A red countdown clock illuminated, and James realized what he'd switched on. "In three minutes, this building will be demolished. I can get out easily. Now, you have a choice. Die trying to save her or save yourself and live with the pain. You've already done it once, why not just continue?" Blofeld said.

"You're bluffing." James said.

"Am I?" Blofeld said, knowing that he could read his tells. The two stared at each other for a moment, analyzing, until Blofeld started to laugh. "I've really put you through it, haven't I? That's brothers for you. They always know which buttons to press." Blofeld said, before starting the countdown. James took off down the way he'd came, and into the entrance.

"Vesper!" He shouted as loud as he could, before taking off to the stairs.

He hurdled up the stairs, up to the top floors. He leaped over holes in the floors, and passed smashed windows.
"Vesper!" He shouted again, still getting no response.
He finally stopped at what must have been a glass office before all the windows were destroyed. "
Vesper!" He shouted for the third time, but still he heard no response. He heard the spinning blades of a helicopter, and saw one facing him from over a hundred feet away. He knew Blofeld must have been in it, which also meant that time was running out. Suddenly, he heard thumps and a scream he recognized, followed by more thumps. The thumps were in a pattern he recognized, Morse Code for SOS. He followed the thumps to what seemed to have been a vault. He pried open the vault, and found Vesper, hands bound, gaged, and bound to a chair that had explosives connected to it. He cut the rope binding her hands, and she untied the gag from her mouth as James cut the ropes that bound her ankles to the chair. He saw that they had less than forty five seconds left, and the two ran to a large hole in the floor and stopped at the edge.
"Do you trust me?" James asked, picking her up bridal style.

"Do I have a choice?" Vesper asked, with a smirk.

"Not anymore." James said mirroring her smirk, before jumping off the edge.