lastrat

[When the feed comes on, it's to Bond's back, moving away from the camera. It only takes a moment for him to get far enough away that it's clear where he is - an empty, Barge standard room - and that he is not alone. Esther is sitting in a chair facing the camera. Bond steps around her, pulling off his tie and tugging her hands up to bind them in front of her. When he looks up at the camera, it's brief, and only to assure himself that the recording light is on.

As Esther rouses, she focuses, and immediately begins to tear up.] What are you doing? Let me go!

Stop that. [Bond is short with her, his patience gone. He's been back less than an hour; of course Esther would be the first to run into him.

When Esther shows no intention of obeying, Bond steps in front of her - not to hide that he backhands her, because that much is clear even without direct line of sight. He starts speaking without looking at the camera, moving around behind Esther again. He ignores her tears, and more than that, her cries for help.]

Usually I don't mind a good lie. [He reaches for the ribbon around her neck, and grabs a fistful of her hair when she shrieks and tosses her head. When he tears it away, there's a scar around her collar. He has to raise his voice, because the moment he pulls it free, she starts screaming like a wild thing, not the prim little girl she's been pretending to be.] But I think this one's gone far enough.

[Her wrists are next, and Bond pulls her arms up. Esther struggles, half rising; Bond shoves her back into the chair, and rips away the ribbons on her wrists, revealing more scars.]

Most of you will remember a flood where the Admiral thought it would be a good laugh to send us back to our youth. [He throws her arms back down, glaring a warning, and pulls a handkerchief from his jacket pocket. Bending over her shoulder, he drags the cloth over her face, holding up the makeup stained pocket square for the camera. He returns to the task, hand tight in her hair to keep her still, acting as though her shrieks don't phase him. The more makeup he wipes away, the less child-like she looks.] Esther tried to convince us that she'd been aged up instead of down. [Grabbing her by the jaw, he forces her mouth open so he can shove the handkerchief in as a temporary gag.]

She's a grown woman, responsible for the fire, my death and near death, and Ellie's attack. These scars are from a straitjacket - the one she wore when she was a teenager. She's been pretending to be eight for god knows how long - long before the Admiral decided she deserved a second chance. [He sneers.] I'd certainly disagree.

[His first transmission comes just after the Admiral's announcement, before he's had a change to read his dossier.]

I've heard of a drinking game they play in Fethiye involving a live scorpion. I meant to give it a go, before I came back here. [But being shot off a train puts a damper on things.] What sort of drinking games do you lot have at home? I can't imagine a wider crowd to ask.

[This is Bond doing his impression of a man ignoring the crap out of the last flood. He's so not bothered by it, can't you tell.

BUT MAYBE TWENTY MINUTES LATER, he's back and sounding very sour and probably a bit bothered and can he go back to being unpaired again.]

The woman calling herself Zoe Luther is an inmate named Alice Morgan. [He won't share why he thinks it's gross that she picked that name, you're welcome Alice, but man he does not approve.] It's a shame this lie never pans out.

[Private to Alice]

[So he was going to broach the awkward apology stage of things so that it could never be brought up again, but then the Admiral dumped a file in his lap and he got to reading and wow, Alice. Wow.]

'Zoe Luther?' [Exactly how bugnuts are you, ma'am.] Well done with that. [THIS IS SARCASM.]

[Private to Vesper]

At least your coping mechanisms are predictable. [Translation: how you doing :c]

[Private to Esther]

I'd like to talk to you.