[center][b]Prologue Shaken and Stirred[/b][/center] [b]Prague, Czech Republic 2012[/b] John Brown was a legend in the espionage community. Everyone knew the stories; orphaned and raised by an old British commando, graduated first in his class at Oxford, an intelligence officer in the Royal Navy until MI6 came calling. A secret agent of the highest caliber, Brown had foiled countless terrorist plots and killed many of England enemies to defend the realm at any necessary cost. Tall and handsome with jet black hair and smoldering eyes, Brown was so charming had his choice of any woman he so desired, be they hardened terrorists or secretaries Six's local station. The stories of his exploits had been repeated so much that nearly everyone knew them by heart, from the run-in with the mad Japanese daimyo and a silo full of nukes, to the scintillating story of the triplets in Argentina. The one aspect of the stories that they always brushed over every time they were told, though, was the fact that MI6 Agent John Brown was a massive prick. He was borderline functioning as an alcoholic, boorish on the point of unbearable, and extremely vain. He was his biggest fan, though, and was especially convinced of his superior wit, so much so that he often tried to shoehorn in puns at the most inopportune times regardless if they made sense. That was in fact exactly what Brown was doing that night in Prague, at the small dinner the English embassy was throwing the departing UK ambassador in the ballroom of the Prague Ritz. "He turned out to be a flat bore." The small crowd of four or five gathered around Brown laughed politely as he finished his story and took a long swig off his martini that killed the glass. He belched and ambled over towards the bar. Brown stopped suddenly when he saw the woman at the bar. She wore a black cocktail dress and black heels. Her red hair was shoulder length and a pair of emerald eyes that were as large and as skiddish as a deer caught in headlights. Brown smiled to himself and ran an unsteady hand through his dark hair. "Hello," he said as he approached the woman. "Haven't seen you around here. Are you new to the embassy?" "Yes," she said meekly. She looked down at her feet and blushed slightly. "I just started two weeks ago, I'm Mister Young's secretary." "Let me buy you a drink," he said with an attempted wink. He was so drunk that both eyes closed and made his wink an odd blink. "What are you drinking?" "Scotch and soda." "Scotch and soda," Brown said once the bartender was in front of them. "And I'll have a vodka martini, shaken not stirred." He turned his attention back to the secretary once the barman was away and he smiled at her. "So what kind of work do you do for Jim?" "All kinds. I take dictation--" "Oh, do you?" he asked with a cheeky smile. "So you take dic...tation, do you?" The young woman's cheeks flushed and turned the color of her hair. Brown just smiled bigger and knew he had it in the bag. "I wonder if you do much in the way of spreadsheets, perhaps you'd like to come back to my sheets and help me by spreading something?" ---- Brown rolled off the woman, girl he was calling her because he hadn't thought to even ask her name, and sighed contently. He really was the world's best lover, the moaning fit the girl had put up while they were in the sack had reaffirmed his belief. Brown walked towards the bathroom stark naked while the girl cleaned herself up. He turned on the bathroom light and relieved himself in the toilet. "Admirable job, love," he said in a condescending tone. "You gave it your all, but sometimes you need to put your back into it, if you know what I mean." He finished and stepped back into the bedroom without flushing the toilet or washing his hands. "Ready for round two?" The sound of two suppressed gunshots filled the small bedroom, and John Brown collapsed to the ground in a heap with two small bullet holes in his chest. The naked woman on the bed held a micro glock 42 with a suppressor on the end of the gun's barrel. Her wig was off and the red hair was now replaced with short blonde hair. The nanites in her eyes had shifted colors from the emerald green to her normal dark brown. Gone was the timid and confused embassy staff member John Brown had taken to bed. In her place was Major Tara Chace. While John Brown was one of the world's most legendary spies, he had also been selling secrets to the Chinese, Russians, and anyone willing to pay a hefty price for years. The assassination tonight was the culmination of two weeks worth of work in Prague, stalking and watching Brown both inside the embassy and on the streets of Prague. He was dead, but he wasn't her first kill of the mission. She killed the Chinese man who was his cut-out a day earlier with a gunshot to the back of the head. Two kills per her mission briefing. Tara cleaned herself up and got dressed. She didn't worry about DNA evidence since MI6 had pulled all of her files once she was inducted into ODG training. Tara Chace was nothing now but a name on a governmental pay stub Dressed, she stepped over Brown's body and looked down at him. She had killed people before, both in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the SAS, but this was different. A planned covert operation for the express purpose of killing the man on the floor, this wretched human being who sold state secrets and treated everyone like garbage. She was told not to take it personal with any targets, to just act as calm and impassioned as a gardener that cuts weeds. But two weeks of observing Brown had made her loath the man so much that she couldn't resist a few shots at his ego. "I faked it," Tara said softly, not sure if he had enough life so that he could hear her. "Also, who orders a martini shaken? It bruises the gin, you bloody savage." Dressed and ready, Tara stepped out of the apartment and calmly walked to a nearby payphone where she delivered the message to Universal Export: Delivery two signed for and handed off. Their reply: Good work. 00 status approved. [center]Ian Fleming's [b]007[/b] & Greg Rucka's [b]Tara Chace[/b] in [b]Dagger Steady[/b] [/center]