Quote:
‘He’s mocking us’. Bond’s flat interjection brought the meeting to a sudden silence. ‘We don’t even know if he is a he’, M replied, with weary patience, her hands unconsciously plucking at the Tiffany pearls at her neck. Bond noted the tell with irritation but conceded the point. ‘So’, Bond continued drily, ‘our friends in Cheltenham have made no progress; what about The Company? ‘Langley?’ M snorted, ‘given the situation, Langley don’t trust us to wipe our own…’ Bond coughed pointedly, his eyes flashing dangerously.
M turned her head and inspected Bond: Bond ignored her, peeling back the immaculate sleeve of his slate alpaca Tunbull & Asser suit to pointedly glance at his watch. Q glared at Bond’s vintage Rolex Oyster Perpetual in irritation. A secret agent really couldn’t afford these affectations and it struck her that it was suddenly proving that Bond was not nearly secret enough.
‘Go over it again’, she asked softly. Bond paused for a moment before reciting curtly: ‘May fifteenth, the first leak. No one even noticed until Mossad kindlypointed it out. Bond grimaced. ‘How they knew about the affair in Egypt at all is another question. The next leak mentioned Markov by name and suddenly things got rather busy. At that point, the Yanks were little more than amused, but the most recent breach outed that bloody…’ ‘Officially,’ M stated sharply, cutting Bond off, ‘Bourne does not exist’. ‘Neither does Markov,’ Bond observed, rubbing the stitches ruefully.
‘Q, tell us about this…’, M hesitated, as if searching for the right word, ‘…this forum’. Startled, Q glanced up from his glossy Alienware laptop, ‘they talk about watches Ma’am’. ‘Watches? is that all?’ M asked incredulously. ‘Actually,’ Bond interjected; 'it can get damn interesting sometimes’. M and Q both turned slowly to stare at Bond. Bond flopped back in his chair, his hands spread palm up in mock surrender, an ironic smile playing on his cruel lips...
You probably missed the ad in SC, but I was straight in there. There was fictional provenance and even a photograph or two: