"What is your primary position," Mina asked her new recruit sharply as they glided along.
"I am usually fire support and sniper, ma'am," Victoria responded crisply. Mina eyed the cannon the girl was carrying and arched her eye.
"Secondary?" she asked.
"Assault, ma'am," Victoria said.
"Have you done any undercover work?" Mina continued, interrogating the girl.
"She's one of the few survivors of Helsing's recent trouble," Alucard put in. "I assume you'll find she's done a bit of everything."
"If I have a question for you," Mina said coldly. "I'll ask you."
"Of course," Alucard said with a grin.
"Now the problem of our diets," Mina said coolly. "I don't know what Integra let's you get away with..."
"Sir Integra provides me with medical blood, ma'am," Victoria responded with a flare of loyalty for the still recovering knight.
Mina stopped in mid-stride and turned to look to the little strawberry blonde.
"I commend your loyalty, child," Mina said. "But do not interrupt me again!" The sentence was spoken in a quiet, serious tone that nevertheless carried the point home.
"Yes, Ma'am," Victoria said in an odd mixture of defiance and sheepishness.
"While you are in the League you serve under my orders," Mina declared. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Victoria agreed sharply.
Mina turned to eye Alucard.
"I answer to Integra and no other," Alucard said without having to be asked.
"Of course you do," Mina said in irritation. "Now I shall see you both to your quarters on our field command base, and then we shall seek the next member of our team."
"And where is this field command base?" Alucard asked in curiousity.
"Oh, come now, Vlad," Mina asked in a sharp tone. "Can't you read it out of my mind?"
As she gave that last verbal jab they were approached by a man clearly past his middle years and now on the downward slope. He was dressed in naval dress blues and his motion betrayed a man long-used to action.
"Aw, M," the man said. "The captain is waiting to greet you. And these, perhaps are our guests?"
He turned to Victoria and bowed low before her, taking her hand in a courtly way that would have brought a blush to Victoria's face had she been alive.
"It is wonderful to see that we have another beauty staying with us on this vessel," he said smoothly.
"Uh..." Victoria said, uncertain how to respond. Alucard seemed vaguely amused at the interaction while Mina, her mood already poor, was anything but.
"Commander Bond," Mina interrupted. "Please, dimiss with attempting to seduce my recruits and conduct us to the captain."
"If you insist," the Commander said. "Right this way ladies and gentlemen."
"Bond?" Victoria said. "James Bond?"
She'd read of this man's actions in various Helsing briefings. Of all the MI5 operatives, Commander James Bond was one of the only ones Helsing had respect for.
"In the flesh," the older man said in a cavalier manner as he led them into a warehouse on the wharfs.
"Please restrain the allusions, Bond," Mina commanded. Bond gave a long suffering sigh and shook his head, nevertheless nodding to the woman's complaint.
"But I thought you were younger," Victoria protested.
"That would be my son," Bond explained. "You don't really expect that the agency would keep an agent in the field well into his sixties, do you?"
"What are you doing here, sir?" Victoria asked.
"Ah, hero-worship," Alucard said, chuckling.
"Well..."
"He is taking the place of his ancestor," Mina said. "There shall be times when he will be the liasion between you and me. Bond's have often served thus over the years."
They passed deeper underground, and suddenly they were passing through tunnels with portholes looking out under the waters of the Liverpool docks.
"At other times," a new voice declared. "He will be serving as my XO."
The speaker was a man of similar age to Bond, and similar build and facial shape as well. Bond, however, had managed to hold onto his hair's youthful black coloring and wore no beard. The new man, a captain by his uniform, his RUSSIAN uniform, had silver hair and a full beard and mustache.
"I give you Captain Marco Ramius," Mina said. "And beyond him, is our home away from home. The Red October."
Victoria looked beyond the captain to the huge submarine in bay beyond, connected to their tunnel by virtue of a long airlocked passage.
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(Posted Sun, 06 Jul 2003 07:46)
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