Chapter 2
The alarm clock beeped loudly, Violet opened an eye, glaring at it but pulled herself up to sitting anyway, pressing the stop button. She yawned, stretching, before getting out of bed and pulling a jumper on over her pyjamas. She carefully made her way down the stairs from her attic room, and knocked on Sunny’s door loudly, waiting for a grumbling reply before moving away and repeating the same on Beatrice’s door.
She headed back upstairs to get washed and dressed herself, mornings were always a little tight on time, especially with two teenage girls to get up, ready and out the door. After a quick shower, she pulled on a dress and tights, grabbed her shoes and headed down the stairs again, knocking on the girls’ doors once again, it was her turn to run them into school before work today.
“Sunny, Bea, you have 20 minutes to be ready downstairs, I’m putting toast on, you’ll have to eat it in the car!” she announced, before heading downstairs and into the kitchen. Putting a few slices under the grill, she slipped on her shoes and sat down at the table, hearing the familiar sound of feet rushing down the stairs as the pair came through, mostly ready by the looks of it, although Bea’s shirt could have probably done with an iron.
They were a slightly odd pair, Sunny with her blonde hair messily pulled back into a slapdash bun, and Bea with her immaculately tidy curls, Violet mused as she watched them pull on shoes, bickering lightly. The toast ready, she added jam, handing it to them both as she shivvyed them out the door, and into the back of the car, making sure she had her bag and jacket herself before starting the car, and zooming out of the driveway.
Coleston Academy was not too far from work luckily, and she managed to get to work on time, even with having to go back to drop off Bea’s blazer which she had left in the car. She scanned her security card at the front desk, before heading through the maze of corridors to her office. She had just put her bag down when her phone went off, a summons from M to sit in on Bond’s debrief, in the hopes that she might be able to inspect some tech that had been turned up.
She shrugged off her jacket, and headed back out of her office and through to M’s office, calling out a ‘morning’ to Eve who was sitting at her desk.
“Go on through, they’ve already started.” She was told with a smile, so she just headed on into the office, sitting down quietly in the nearest chair, and listening intently to what was being said. Her attention was drawn to the screen, next to which Bond stood, gesturing to the screen as she did so, pointing at photographs and discussing the contents of them, the people, the necessary information all caught by the pinhole camera Violet had carefully placed within Bond’s watch.
Eventually talk turned to the reason Violet herself was there,
“Q, this was recovered from Fluenco’s lab, do you have any idea what it is?” M asked, passing her a small metal box with dials on it, “It’s been x-rayed so we know it doesn’t contain anything explosive.” He added.
Violet held it for a second, giving it a look over, before placing it down on the table and getting the tools out of her pocket. Carefully unscrewing the top cover, she placed it down. It took a bit of tinkering, but after a moment the whole thing was dismantled. She picked up one of the tiny components, grabbing the magnifier from her tool kit, and inspecting it.
“My best guess would be that it is some kind of trigger device. The Dials look like they change where or to what extent whatever it is the trigger for will go off. I can take a better look at it, but it looks like what that is.” Violet replied, leaning back in her chair and going to tie her hair back with the ever-present ribbon from her pocket, before looking back down at it, “It could probably be recreated to reverse the signal, and if you give me time I can probably trace it back to the signal’s root.” She added, glancing up and at the others in the room, seeing a spark of interest in Bonds eye as she spoke, but pushed it to the back of her mind as she carried on talking, explaining exactly what could be done to reverse and track the signal of the device.
Once she had finished, she went to stand up, her part completed, and excused herself, heading back down to her office, pulling the ribbon from her hair as she sat back down. Violet switched on the computer, and settled down in her chair to check her emails.
_ _ _ _ _
Jane leaned back in her seat, listening carefully to what M was saying as Q left the room, the now reassembled gadget sitting in the centre of the table between them. A good night of sleep in her own bed and a bath had done a world of good, and she’d come in today feeling far more ready for today.
“Bond, we need you to go back in again, try and get with Luke Fluenco’s crowd, we think the best way is possibly through his wife. Whilst we would prefer you to go by a more traditional route, any means necessary to infiltrate yourself into the inner circle.” M told her, with a slight raise of his eyebrow, “I think Q may have some useful pieces of equipment if you go ask her, I quite forgot to ask her to bring them up with her earlier.” He added glancing down at his computer, “You are dismissed, Bond. Your Plane leaves at 8am tomorrow, Moneypenny will meet you at the airport with all your papers.”
She took the scenic route down to R+D, grabbing a couple of coffees on the way, thinking it might be a good idea to butter Q up a little, she wasn’t exactly sure the other woman liked her. She turned the corner and went through the doors of R+D, looking into Q’s office and not seeing her there, she carefully placed one of the coffees down, before downing her own and disposing of the cup, before glancing around again in search of Q.
Spotting a flash of red across the room and recalling the red ribbon from earlier on, she headed in that direction, spotting Q leaning over a desk, talking to one of the technicians, pointing at various pieces of metal on the desk. She waited for a moment, waiting for Q to look up rather than interrupt. After a minute or so, she was spotted, and Q held up a finger to say she would be with her shortly, before going back to what she was doing. Jane leaned back against the wall waiting patiently, a moment later standing up straight as Q headed away from the desk and paused just in front of her.
“I’m assuming M sent you down here for some new equipment, please don’t break any of this, and please do try to keep hold of it if possible.” Violet said, calmly, before turning on her heels and walking across the room, hearing Bond’s footsteps behind her, she pressed her thumb against a gel pad in the wall, and watched as a section of it lifted up, showing a further room, which she carried on into, glancing over her shoulder to check that Bond had followed. She took a cursory glance over the agent, before opening a cupboard and pulling out a couple of items on hangers, passing them across.
“Size 10, right? These are all bullet-proof, Knife-proof, and capable of protecting against extreme heat and cold, the green jacket’s threads are indestructable, and can be used to create strong ties that even a chainsaw could not break through as long as the knots are tied well enough.” Violet said as she moved across the room, opening another cupboard, and pulling out a range of other pieces, and bringing them back over.
“Tranq-gun, reds are non-lethal, Blacks are equally non-lethal but less so. Pearl earrings, will explode if the butterfly back is pushed right back up to the base. Brooch, the tip of the point has poison in it so be careful, and the stones can be dissolved into liquids to create a corrosive acid which should burn through most metals, and the rest I’m sure you’ll recognise from previous uses.” She added, her tone matter of fact, “There’ll be a car waiting for you in Venice, standard issue and adaptations.”
“I’m impressed, Q. You’ve excelled yourself.” Was the reply accompanied with a smile that would have melted most people to their knees, but violet was made of sterner stuff.
“As I said, please bring as much back intact as possible, that would be very appreciated.” Violet said, heading back across the room and pressing the button to lift the door again, waiting until Bond had left the room before closing it all up again, “Good luck 007.” She added with a slight smile, before walking off back towards her office and the GC62 again.
Settling down in her office chair, she spotted a cup of coffee on the side that she could not remember having been there before, putting a hand out cautiously to touch it, she could feel it was still warm. She took a small sip, it was strong, black and sweet, exactly how she liked her coffee, and very much welcome, as she hadn’t had a chance to caffeine up before leaving the house that morning.
Her mind wandered briefly to who could have put it there, She was just running through it in her head, when a sudden explosion in the corner of the lab grabbed her attention, and once that was resolved there were a million and one other more important things that took priority in her mind.