oo7

It took two kills to brand an agent as a full '00'.

Fisher was first.

Fisher was messy.

Drowning would never have been his first choice for his first kill. But given the scenario and situation presented, it was his only option at the time. But it wouldn't have been his first choice, simply because it rarely worked out the way one intended. Fisher was proof of that. He briefly contemplated that perhaps he deserved credit for two kills, since he'd had to drown Fisher and then put a bullet in him, but he quickly tossed that idea aside.

It was his fault for not finishing the job properly the first time.

He didn't make the same mistake twice.

Dryden was much cleaner. Ironic, given the fact that the man was hardly anything but clean himself. Selling MI6 secrets to the highest bidder was almost as dirty as one could get in their profession, and once he'd been given the go-ahead from London, he wasted no time in getting the job done.

There was no drowning Dryden. No need for a re-do on the job.

One shot, one kill.

MI6 had arranged for someone to come in and clean up the mess, making it look much less like a contract-killing and more like an accident. His family would never know the whole truth, but James hardly felt any sorrow as he stepped out of the elevator and into the darkness of the Prague night.

He sent a simple message to his contact:

It's done.

And then turned onto the next side street, headed for where he'd parked his waiting car. He'd be boarding a plane in the hour before dawn and headed to Frankfurt, and then it would be a brief layover before boarding another plane to Heathrow.

And then it would be back into the office by the time for mid-morning tea.