M listened to 1136’s and 1169’s questions intently until 1169’s last question again got him riled. He was about to give the whole group a dressing down when the electronic box buzzed to life. M composed himself instantly and moved to his desk to answer; Q had arrived.<br/><br/>“Send him in,” M clicked the button off, and the door to M’s office opened.   “Ah. Good evening, Q. We’re just going over the microchip mission. These agents will be assigned. Perhaps you would continue the briefing with your portion?”<br/><br/>“Of course, sir,” Q responded sharply, and made is way over to the map. “Right,” he started, “now pay attention, agents. We know that 004 retrieved the chip and had escaped from Werchojansk, at the southern end of the Jena River. His destination was the delta of the river here, north of Ust-Jansk, where the Royal Navy planned to pick him up. Obviously,” Q turned away from the map, and to the agents,  he was unsuccessful. He disappeared here somewhere in the Jena River Valley.<br/><br/>“A Q Branch minisub has been dispatched in order to aid the mission. However, the Jena River is frozen at this time of year, so it cannot penetrate further south than Ust-Kuiga. It has been camouflaged to subversively enter the river near Nishnejansk.<br/><br/>“An American SR-71 has been specially modified to aid in operations such as this. From Anchorage, the flight will drop you to a point of your choice in the river valley. Unfortunately we lost contact with 004, and we don’t know how far from Werchojansk before contact was broken.”<br/><br/>Q then presented the technical readout of the vehicle they would be using. “This little number is the Polaris Indy 600 Snowscooter, or snowmobile as our American friends call it. It will be dropped in with you for your use as transportation. Time is short so I haven’t been able to fit it with any of the usual goodies, but it does carry a satellite navigation system accurate to within a yard, and can double as a tracking system for our standard homing devices. 004 was equipped with a Scarab homing device with a range of 25 miles, but it is unlikely it’s still operating given the cold and the length of time. The snowscooter also comes equipped with the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachinegun. It’ll give you a boost in firepower should it be needed.” Q offered a knowing grin. “Right, six fuel reloads will also be dropped with you to extend your range. Now then, you’ll have to destroy the snowscooter somehow so it doesn’t fall into the hands of the Russians because it won’t fit into the sub.”<br/><br/>(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2651/4060345201_91c14d39b0_o.jpg)<br/><br/>Q reached into his pocket, and pulled out what looked like a gold-coloured tube of lipstick, and handed it to 1169, “The Echo Tracer. Range?...oh about 19 miles. Activate it near the rendezvous point so the minisub can find you.”<br/><br/>“Thank you, Q,” M answered, using the opportunity to take over the briefing once more by answering 1136’s question. “His hourly transmissions ceased at 10:00am this morning,” M’s words were both concerned and troubled, “over 10 hours ago.”<br/>