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"R?" a voice asked behind Quentin.
The young hacker tried to stifle his groan. Almost three months of solid work, trying to track down MI6s missing hard drive proving to be both challenging and stressful.
"Yes Steph?" he asked, raising his hand to his glasses and pulling them off, rubbing his tired eyes.
The speaker, Steph, held out a cup of tea. She smiled softly.
"Just thought you could use a little break." she replied as Quentin slipped his glasses back on and took the cup from her. "We all know how you get."
And that was true. The small hacker branch, which ran as a subsection of Q branch, did, in fact, know how their boss got on bad days.
Quentin nodded, taking a sip of the beverage. They also knew how to make a perfect tea.
He looked up at the girl.
"Have you just come on shift?" he asked.
Steph nodded.
With only eight members of the Hacker branch (not including Quentin, whose duties as R took up a lot of his time and therefore, made shift work impossible) it was often a challenge trying to cover every computer. At the moment, they were working on a four on/four off shift rotation but, given the levels of fatigue, it looked like Quentin was going to have to think of another system.
"Who else?"
"Raymond, Cassie and Deakin." Steph answered promptly.
Quentin nodded, glancing over her shoulder at the occupied desks. It did seem that there were different faces from when he last looked up. His team were getting good at silent handovers.
Several people saw him looking. There were smiles sent his way and Deakin even gave a small wave before turning to his screen. They were all good hackers and worked well as a team. He had made sure of that when he had hired them all.
"I heard that the Quartermaster is currently up stairs." she ventured.
"He is." Quentin confirmed. He had been the man’s apprentice for years now. Of course he knew where the man was. Steph sighed. She held up some pieces of paper.
"The mechanics are hoping for a budget increase." she said.
"And they didn't go to Q because?" Quentin asked. This was becoming an annoyingly common occurrence. The Quartermaster was notoriously frugal when handing out funding to anyone not involved in small arms and it was often left to Quentin as the second in command to plead the case for the other branches.
He took the papers and glanced at the sketches. Then he looked up at Steph.
"A Mini Moke? Wasn't it supposed to be a Robin Reliant?" he asked. The female hacker shot him a look.
"I wasn't aware you were a Top Gear fan." she said mildly.
"Sending a car into space is very memorable, even if you are not a fan." he replied. He looked down at the sketches again. "Can they really do it?" he asked.
"They once turned a Lotus invisible. I have stopped doubting them when it comes to these sorts of things." She replied.
Quentin sighed, putting the paper on his desk.
"I will talk to him when he gets back." he said. There was a small cough.
Quentin looked over Steph’s shoulder as the female hacker turned. It was Raymond.
"We think we have it Boss." he said. There was no need to explain what 'it' was. Quentin rose from his desk and followed Raymond out to Deakin’s desk. Cassie was leaning over the man’s shoulder, whispering in his ear. The two looked up as the rest of the reached them.
"Do you have confirmation?" Quentin asked.
Deakin nodded, rising from his seat.
"We have a trace of it boss." he said. "But we didn't find it, per say."
"What do you mean?" Quentin asked.
"It was sent to us. An anonymous link." Cassie said.
Quentin took the offered chair. He looked at the screen, reading the link. Then he turned to his team.
"Get me a phone." he ordered.
A phone was placed in his hands. Immediately, Quentin dialled a number he had long since memorized. Then he pressed a button, putting the phone on speaker. He put it on the desk as a voice answered.
"Yes?"
"Tanner, it's R. We found it." Quentin said, looking at the link. "But..." he hesitated.
"What?" Tanner asked on the other end of the line.
"Get a computer up. M will need to see this." he said.
He heard the soft sounds as Tanner lowered the phone and did what he said. Grabbing hold of the mouse, Quentin pressed the link.
The hackers watched in silence as the eerie rendition of 'God Save the Queen' started, the picture of M flashing up and the awful presentation commenced. They remained silent as it continued, and even after it finished. Finally, it was Raymond who spoke.
"Think On Your Sins." he read off the black screen. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Tanner?" Quentin asked. He wanted to talk to the other man, to ask what his and M’s thoughts were on this sudden development. The dial tone sounded. Tanner had hung up. Rising to his feet, Quentin looked at his team.
"I am going to get Q." he said. "He needs to see this."
Q never kept a phone on him, believing that society was de-evolving through lack of human contact. If anyone wanted him, they would have to go and physically find him. The rest of the team nodded in understanding.
Quentin walked out of the office into the wider world of Q branch. Every section had their own space. Mechanics, electronics, small arms, large arms, hacking. Each group had their own space. Quentin had visited them all, worked in most even if Hacking was his place. It was his job as R, as the Quartermasters right hand man, to insure relationships between the different sections remained strong. But the main room was for communication, for contacting and monitoring agents in the field and relaying information back and forth.
Several agents were currently in field, their whereabouts being tracked by their handlers. Quentin nodded to a few on his way past. Another agent made to walk past Quentin. He reached up, catching the man’s arm.
"Terry, which room is Q in?"
"Conference Two I think. You ok R?" the agent asked.
Quentin shrugged. He released the agent and turned to the exit. And then, the world shifted under his feet.
After a minute of two, it was all over. Quentin picked himself off the floor, partly deaf as the alarms screamed. He looked around as other agents picked themselves off the floor.
The glass walls were all shattered and the power was flickering on and off. Cracks were visible along the walls and the air was almost unbearably hot. Everything was covered in dust. Somewhere in the distance, there were screams.
It took a few moments for Quentin to understand what was happening. He turned to see the startled agents pouring out of their sections, his own team among the crowds. Someone opened the door. It was a security officer. He saw Quentin had hurried forward.
"What's happened?" Quentin asked, looking at the man. The man hesitated before leaning forward, well aware of the panic which his words could cause.
"Sir, there has been an explosion on the top floor." he whispered.
Quentin stared at him in horror.
"What?" he gasped, not sure he could believe what he was hearing.
"You need to evacuate the branch. There may be more explosions and the building is unstable enough as it is." He said.
"Has the Quartermaster been accounted for?" Quentin asked. The security officer looked pale. "Has Q been found?”
"He's unaccounted for sir. But you need to leave that to us. Get your people out. Get a list of missing personnel to us and hope we can find them." he said.
It was a suggestion but Quentin could feel the order behind it. He nodded and turned to face his team, putting his missing mentor out of his mind. It was standard policy. If the Quartermaster was unavailable or compromised in any way, it fell to R to take charge. He took a deep breath and took charge.
------
It was a baptism of fire in every sense of the word, the day Quentin Holmes became Q. The explosion had ripped through the top floor and made the building both unstable and defenceless. Six people had been killed, among them the Quartermaster.
The members of Q branch, along with the other agents employed at MI6, had been lead to an evacuation point where Quentin had managed to take his list of personal. People had been treated for shock, smock inhalation and minor injuries. The dead had been taken out in bags.
M had done her rounds, talking softly to her employees. She had even had a brief talk with Quentin. The sudden promotion was implied but not mentioned. It was too soon.
And then the survivors of MI6 were grouped together and escorted home. A skeleton crew made up of agents who had been off duty during the attack was quickly assembled and set to regain communication with the field agents who had no idea why their link to MI6 was closed.
Quentin sat on the concrete, looking up at the still burning remains of the building. It was so hard to believe that only a few short hours ago, it had been a standing structure, a representation of the British forces. And now it was this.
He had been questioned by the police and checked over by a paramedic. Someone had even tried to give him a shock blanket but he had politely declined although he had accepted the wet towel which he had used to wipe the ash from his face. Now, he just sat silently on the hard ground and tried to think through the jumble that was his mind.
"Mr Holmes?" a voice asked.
Quentin looked up. A woman was standing over him. She had neat dark hair and was wearing a business suit.
"Alison?" he asked.
"It's Annika now." she replied, small smile on her face.
"My apologies." Quentin replied.
"I'm to take you home." she stated. She looked over at the dark government car which was waiting just behind the police lines. A man was standing by the car, leaning on an umbrella. Quentin sighed and rose to his feet.
"Tell me. Do you ever get bored working for my brother?" he asked.
"Not today sir." Annika replied. She turned, heading towards the car, pulling her phone out of her pocket.
Quentin turned to follow. His shoulder brushed that of a plain clothed policeman.
"Apologies, Inspector Lestrade." he muttered. He continued moving, ignoring how the grey haired detective turned to look at him in confusion. He reached the car as Mycroft finally moved, pulling the door open for him.
"A busy day." the older man said.
Quentin couldn't stop the shrug.
"I've had worse." he found himself saying.
Mycroft looked at him.
"Have you little brother?" he asked.
Quentin looked away. He was a mess and really couldn't deal with one of his brothers analysing him at the moment. He climbed into the car, making enough room to allow Mycroft to slide in beside him. Annika slipped into the front passenger seat, her thumbs moving across the keyboard at a speed Quentin would have envied, had he been in the right state of mind.
Quentin turned, leaning his head against the cool glass window as Mycroft gave his address to the driver. The car lurched forward.
A hand was placed on Quentin's shoulder.
"Go to sleep little brother." Mycroft said, his voice low enough that only Quentin could hear it.
Despite the years of arguing and fighting, the years of manipulation and resentment, Quentin found some small comfort in his brother’s words.
For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to follow his older brothers orders, trusting Mycroft to protect him for just a little while. He closed his eyes.
Tomorrow rebuilding would begin. Tomorrow the dead would be listed. Tomorrow the shock would be gone and all they would have left was reality. Tomorrow questions would be asked and a search would start. But for now, Quentin could let himself drift away and for once, just be at peace.