#>:c

PROMPTS FROM 007 FIRST LIGHT (PART 1)

IT COMES AS A TAUNT. Of course it does. Words spoken to strike straight to the core. M has long since mastered of keeping his emotions in check, but the languid, almost laissez faire attitude coming from Monty makes a nerve on M's forehead throb.

The grip around his glass tightens imperceptibly, and though Sterling has sat next to him on the empty bar stool, M does not move, nor does he even give any social inclination that he is aware of the other man's presence.

He did not just lose good agents tonight -- he lost two of his closest friends. In a vocation such as theirs, in a position such as his, it was risky business to have friends in the agency for exact situations such as this. His hand comes up to slowly take a long sip of his drink before he sets it down, watching as the beads of perspiration slowly pool onto the coaster before he finally speaks.

"Come to gloat, Monty? I would have thought that was beneath you, old boy." Finally, a half turn as M takes off his glasses, pocketing them as he faces the man that was once on his -- their side.