V.

James stirred uncomfortably in his sleep. He knew he was dreaming, for one thing, because he knew in reality water could never be that blue. And for another thing, Vesper was there. And he knew, Vesper was dead. She was. He had been there. He had watched her die. Watched the life slowly and painfully escaping from her eyes. He stirred again, trying to break from the dream. It was eerie and haunting. Vesper’s face floating before him in the water; she was drowning all over again. And he could do nothing but watch.

He awoke with a jolt as he felt a cold and very real hand grip him.

“James!” A voice hissed in the dark.

He rolled in the covers, completely forgetting he had been sleeping on a couch, and toppled over onto the floor.

“Jesus Christ!” He swore loudly. “What the hell was that for?”

“James, I’m sorry to have disrupted your sleep but I think there is somebody out on our balcony.”

James leapt up and made a grab for his gun, motioning for Adrianna to keep quiet. He inched over to the curtain-covered window. Without warning, the glass suddenly shattered into a million pieces and a dark figure came charging into the room, flinging their weight at James.

The gun went flying out of his hands, and James struggled to wrestle off his attacker.

“Grab the gun Greene, for god’s sake!” James shouted.

But when he looked up Adrianna had already pulled back the safety of two guns and was pointing them at the intruder.

“Let him go.” She demanded.

Quick as a flash, the attacker drew out his own gun and shoved the barrel into James’ cheek.

“Drop it.” Adrianna instructed.

“Or what?” Snarled the man in a heavy German accent, turning to look at her.

It was the split second that he needed. Bond smacked the gun out of his face and it immediately shot off, missing his foot by mere inches.

James then lunged at the mysterious man, gripping him in a chokehold against the wall.

“Who sent you here? How did you know where to find us?”

The man laughed manically.

James tightened his grip.

Adrianna picked up the two guns from the floor and tossed them aside.

“He wants to play hard to get.” She smirked, raising an eyebrow. She strolled over towards them and then without warning, kicked the intruder straight in the groin. He howled in pain and struggled but James held him still.

“Ready to talk now?” James mused.

“We read your files.” The man wheezed.

Adrianna shot James a look.

“Impossible.” James said calmly.

The man laughed again. “Not exactly, 007. I know why you’re here. I know that it was you who broke into Hugh Clancy’s office looking for information on Falcon. And I’ve known that Miss Greene over there has been posing as a gold digging tramp for the past month and a half. If you want I could brief you on your whole M16 operation.”

“Who the hell are you?” Adrianna demanded, raising her fist.

“Leave it.” James warned her. “Go to the bathroom. Call M at once. Explain the situation, I’ll have a few words with our friend here.”

Adrianna stalked off. James loosened his grip and threw the man down on the bed to get a better look at him. He was pale, scruffy and built, with bulging pupils that made him look slightly crazed.

As the man caught his breath, James ripped off a curtain pull and tied the man’s hands together behind his back.

“Now.” He said. “You can make this very easy for yourself and tell me everything you know. Or, you could be a right bastard and make things very nasty for the both of us.”

“Nien. Neither!” The man spat on the floor.

“No, that wasn’t an option.” James said impatiently. “I suggest you start talking.”

“And I suggest you,” the man panted, grinning at James with his crazy eyes. “Find someone with weaker faith to interrogate.”

Without warning, he sprung up off the bed and ran through the pile of broken glass out onto the balcony. James charged after him but it was too late. The man flung his body over the rail and toppled off into the darkness. James heard a sickening thud as his body collided with the earth.

“James. We’re not safe here.” Adrianna said urgently as she came out of the bathroom. “M just called. James they’ve got Elizabeth. They hacked our system. They know everything about you, about me, hell about our entire M16 operation. We’re not safe, M wants us to leave immediately and bring the hostage.”

“I’m afraid we’ve got somewhat of a pressing problem.” James said, feeling numb. “Our hostage just committed suicide off of our balcony.”

--

A few minutes later they were roaring down the Scottish countryside in a very noticeable vintage red corvette.

“You would have to chose the most obvious car to steal.” Adrianna growled, fiddling around with the stereo. “It’s not like we weren’t taboo enough already. We’ve got a trashed hotel room and a dead body underneath our balcony.”

“Don’t worry.” James said as he gunned the accelerator. “M will send somebody to clean it up. And we’ll get rid of this lovely automobile in the next town. It might put them off the chase of a little while.”

“Them.” Adrianna exclaimed. “We don’t even know who ‘them’ is!”

“Falcon.” James replied.

Adrianna scoffed. “That doesn’t tell me much. I’ve been left in the dark about the whole organization.”

“The entire agency of M16 is in the dark about them.” James replied. “So you aren’t alone.”

“I expect as much explaining as you can possibly give me once we reach the safe house.” Adrianna said stubbornly.

James nodded and sped up the car, every so often checking the rear view mirror for any signs of a tail.

It grew silent for a while and then Adrianna spoke, this time, in a softer voice.

“James.” Adrianna said, looking at him. “I’m sorry about what I said earlier.”

James hesitated to reply, his eyes fixed on the winding road in front of him.

“M told me all about what happened, about her…and well, I’m terribly sorry James.”

“It’s alright.” He said quietly.

“It was wrong of me to snap at you last night. It was very unprofessional.”

“Don’t be sorry.” James turned and gave her a small smile. He could see the sincerity in her green eyes. Strangely enough, all though she had mentioned Vesper, his thoughts were far from her now. Turning his eyes back to the road, he thought back to several years ago when Adrianna and him had worked together. Things were different then. She had been so young, wild, horribly tempered and fascinatingly beautiful. James snuck another glance at her and then smiled to himself. Who was he kidding? She hadn’t changed one bit. And he liked that.

“Left up here.” Adrianna said, navigating with the directions M had sent to her cell phone.

James veered the car down the turn off and sighed, trying to focus. They needed to regroup, and then get a move on with breaking down this case.

An hour or so later, they reached a small under populated town, which was proof that they were steadily making their way further north. They ditched the car in a nearby barn; some farmer would be getting quite a surprise when they went to collect the morning eggs. They walked around, looking for a vehicle that would be less conspicuous. They settled on a muddy looking jeep they found in a field, keys still inside.

James revved the engine and they took off, following the GPS single M had paged them that led to the safe house.

“I definitely liked the old car better.” James grumbled as he tried to scrub a giant spot of mud off the windshield. Adrianna laughed.

“You know James, for a crabby agent you’re not half bad company.”

“Shut up Greene.” He rolled his eyes, and they both smiled.

--

Author's Note: Meh, not my best. It's early in the morning and I am sleepless so please forgive me. I will probably end up re-writing the little attacker scene since I find it a tad weak. But I felt like I just HAD to update this! I havn't in ages. I hope you'll still continue to read. I promise my next update won't take as long. Please review!