Josephine Boss ♠︎ James Bond (doubleohs) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2017-01-08 11:38:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !backstory, charlie archer, josephine boss |
Who: Josephine Boss & Charlie Archer
What: Their first meeting
Where: A bar in Mumbai, India
When: Backdated to November 10th, 2014
Warnings: Nothing major, brief mentions of death & gun violence
It had been two months since Cameron's death. One month since she'd been supposed to return from paid leave to active duty, but Jo couldn't really convince herself to give a fuck at the moment. Maybe she'd feel differently tomorrow, or the next day, but definitely not today. She'd have to explain herself to her superiors eventually, probably sooner rather than later, but she was pretty confident that they still weren't going to fire her. She was one of the best they had, after all. They couldn't really afford to lose good agents right now, especially after having already lost a really good one. One of the best. Just the thought of it sent her into a spiral again
Considered her spirals mostly consisted of a lot of drinking, that was how she found herself in places like this. Jo had always had a taste for adventure and travel, so once she'd figured out the MTN system, she'd been abusing the hell out of that transportation. Yes, she was also a reincarnate. Had been for a little over a month now, and that was another huge reason she was delaying her return to MI6. Until she felt comfortable enough with another voice inside her own bloody head, she sure as hell wasn't going to waltz right back into a building full of government funded spies who may or may not look favorably on her now. MI6's position on reincarnates was a little wobbly these days, and Jo wasn't exactly in the mood for taking any risks. Until she was herself again, or at least enough of herself that she could really fake it, she was staying right where she was.
Well, maybe not right where she was. This bar stool would get uncomfortable eventually.
"This seat taken?" The gruff, very male voice broke through Jo's already pretty inebriated thoughts, causing her to blink up at the man who was hovering next to the empty stool on her left. Jo eyed him with disinterest. "Nope. Though I don't know how socially acceptable it would be for you to sit next to me. Don't they have rules against unmarried men and women being within a hundred yards of each other over here or something?"
The man snorted as he took his seat. "How do you know I'm not married?" To which Jo took the time to look him over, all long, scraggly blonde hair that almost looked filthy and too much beard, raising an eyebrow. "I can just tell with these things. Call it a gift."
He didn't seem all that phased by her vague insults, but that was fine. Jo was too buzzed to be all that invested in starting a fight with anyone in here. Besides, picking a fight with anyone would be incredibly unfair to whoever was unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. This guy was pretty tall, but it was surprisingly easy to use someone's height or weight against them, if you knew what you were doing. She probably wouldn't even have to pull the gun she currently had hidden under her sari. Turning back to her glass of whiskey, pointedly ignoring the man's presence now, Jo went back to thinking self-deprecating thoughts and considering how many more whiskeys she could have before walking became a problem, before her vision was suddenly obstructed by something being held in front of her face. A business card.
Jo squinted at it, the thing too close to her face for her to make out all of it until the man set it down on the bar top in front of her and Jo could make the rest of it out. There was no name on it, nothing personal about the card, except for the title 'Camelot Enterprises' and a listing of contact information. Jo raised an eyebrow, looking over at the man next to her with a wry smirk. "Don't tell me, you're here to recruit me? Well I'm not interested."
She'd heard of Camelot, of course. Even before she'd became a reincarnate, it'd been her business to know details about the different factions within the reincarnate community that often caused minor to major disturbances throughout the world. She would have been pretty poor at her job if she didn't know what the business card was referring to, but that wasn't what interested her in the moment. It was the man sitting next to her, who still hadn't said a word in response, until now. "Figured you'd say that. That's why I came prepared with a pitch."
Jo laughed, abruptly and unkindly, looking at the man sideways with a withering expression. "The fact that you honestly think any kind of pitch would work on me shows how well you did your research."
The man, Charlie Archer who was currently head of Camelot's Reconnaissance department (though that little detail wasn't yet known to Jo), turned his head to look at her meaningfully. "Even if it meant that you could get the guy who killed your partner?"
To that, Jo's hackles instantly raised. She still wasn't in any sort of state where she could tolerate someone mentioning Cameron without her going ballistic, but they were in a very public place, in a foreign city. She did her best to remain calm, though she realized seconds later that she was gripping her glass of whiskey so tight that it was a miracle it hadn't shattered in her grip. Her eyes narrowed, heart thudding abnormally hard and off-beat in her chest as she stared at this stranger, thinking to herself that no one would blame her if she just shot him right here for having the balls to mention Cameron to her, and not even bother saying his name.
"What the hell do you know about it?" She asked icily, eyes practically daggers as she glared at him from her seat. If this was some sort of game he was playing, she'd kill him on the spot. She might not be on active duty right now, but that had never stopped James Bond before. Why should it stop her? Having a license to kill was just a formality at some point anyway.
Charlie wasn't intimidated by her, and looked at her evenly. Maybe even with a hint of sympathy, though he didn't let that one show. She clearly didn't need his sympathy, and he wouldn't insult her by trying to give it. That wasn't what he wanted from her. "I know that what happened to him wasn't an accident. And I know the man who was behind it. Who's behind a lot of things these days that he'll need to answer for. If you come work for me, we can get him. Together."
As much as Jo didn't want to admit that he suddenly had her complete and undivided attention, he did. And as much as she bristled at the idea of working with anyone else ever again, she knew it was inevitably either way. MI6 would give her a new partner once she returned no matter how much she protested it, and if working for this man whose name she still didn't know meant getting the guy who was responsible for killing Cameron? Jo's loyalties were pretty fluid these days. She had no problem with lending her specific skill set to someone else who might be able to get the job done that MI6 couldn't. So far they'd been coming up with nothing, when it came to Cameron's shooter.
She was silent for a few seconds, quietly going over her options in her head while fighting against the growing fuzziness that the amount of alcohol she'd already had was making of her brain, eyes lowering to the bar top as she finally asked. "What's his name?"
"Jim Moore," Charlie replied immediately, and Jo's head snapped up, eyes flashing furiously as she looked over at him, and Charlie knew that he finally had her. All he'd had to do was give her a name to attach to the person responsible for killing someone she'd cared about. It was the truth, even if Moore hadn't been the one to pull the trigger he was still the one behind it all, behind almost everything lately it seemed. Charlie still felt a little bad for using it to hook her in. Whatever decision she made would be based on emotion, it wouldn't be rational. Unfortunately, Charlie wasn't in this business because he played fair, and he needed her. Maybe she'd come to find she needed this too.