Intelligent blue eyes scanned a grey wasteland beyond the car's tinted windows, all the while deducing and unravelling the lives of each passer-by in a matter of seconds. Early morning commuters were clutching their morning coffee's as if their lives depended on it, he watched them all scuttle as they dashed towards buses and underground entrances. Already the streets were bustling with black cabs, cyclists and the usual footfall of a working day in the capital. Every single one of them was oblivious to the real world where anything of true importance happened in the shadows. The world of shadows was where Gareth Mallory, better known as M, lived and worked.

He mused that it was easy to forget the sheer pace of London when locked away behind closed doors for the majority of the day. These snippets in the early morning and late evening were usually the only times he would actually see London these days; being the head of MI6 came with a busy schedule after all.

As he continued to observe and reflect on his surroundings M noted the location of the vehicle and checked the time, 6:40, his driver had managed to shave a couple of minutes off their usual record. The sun was starting to eclipse the high-rise buildings so it wasn't long before the gleam off a reflective window had Mallory shield his eyes; finally drawing his attention away from the outside world and back onto the files in his lap.

The folder did not contain anything of real interest, just some cabinet meeting notes where the politicians seemed to have yet again spent an entire session getting through next to nothing. It was all rather tedious really but part of the job. As the leader of an intelligence organisation it just wouldn't do to be uninformed no matter how irrelevant the information may appear to be at the time.

Gareth only had part of his attention on the document so his head snapped up when he sensed something was amiss, David had tensed all of a sudden and he observed the iron-clad grip on the steering wheel not to mention the large intake of breath. Something was wrong. Mallory's intense gaze scanned the surrounding area around the vehicle, and saw something in the distance he believed was the source of David's change in alertness.

"The road works?" M asked slowly, placing the folder on the seat beside him closed.

David had already begun to ease off the accelerator and slowed the car down to pull up behind the car in front, eyes darting to the mirrors immediately making a threat assessment.

"There were no road works scheduled for today." David answered tersely, not pausing his assessment to answer.

Gareth felt his heart begin to race and felt the familiar sensation of adrenaline flooding his system, in a split millisecond he had also become hyper vigilant and was too assessing the area. They had turned onto a rather narrow street just off of the main roads so the traffic wasn't as heavy here, and there were next-to-no pedestrians. "Emergency works?" Mallory queried as his keen gaze continued to search for any danger.

The rooftops were clear of anything, no pedestrians to scan, and the construction workers hadn't looked their way once. There was only one vehicle behind them and it was a small hatchback driven by an over worked employee of the city, no alarm bells were ringing when Gareth scrutinised the driver so he moved on.

"Perhaps…" David answered cautiously and M saw his hand reaching towards the controls to radio HQ.

Their car remained stationary in the small queue. 3 vehicles ahead there was a very bored looking construction worker presenting the traffic with a big stop sign as heavy machinery rolled across the road. Gareth had to admit everything looked normal yet his instincts were telling him something was off. David was clearly having the same feeling as he completed the call to HQ.

"Alpha 1, requesting information about road works on Cambridge street."

To most people the voice would have sounded calm and collected but Mallory had been driven by David for years, and he knew when the man was rattled. Gareth ensured his seatbelt was fastened securely incase of the need for a quick getaway and remained vigilant on all sides, two eyes watching were always better than one.

"Copy Alpha 1, obtaining information."

Although they had only been stationary for 30 seconds it had felt longer than that as everything did in a hyper-vigilant state. Gareth observed the driver behind them growing more impatient as time wore on, he watched the construction workers carefully as they yelled at each other and operated the machinery drilling into the road. Water was puddling onto the pavement rapidly which led Mallory to believe that perhaps there had been a burst water pipe and they were both over-reacting, so then why did they both think they weren't?

David kept one hand clenched on the steering wheel and one where his firearm was concealed, the pair waited on baited breath as silence filled the car.

"Alpha 1, we have been in contact with the water board and the road works on Cambridge street are legitimate, I repeat legitimate. Short notice emergency."

Mallory let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.

"Copy, over." David moved to switch off the radio but oddly didn't move his hand away from the firearm.

"Problem?" Mallory asked outright. David knew his background and understood his boss could be an asset in these types of situations.

David's eye's were scanning again and he didn't relieve his tension, "Something doesn't feel right, I might be over-reacting but…"

"No I trust your judgment, if you say something's not right then it probably isn't." Mallory interrupted, besides he wasn't exactly sitting calm with their current situation. Stationary targets were sitting ducks.

Just as the tension was beginning to become unbearable the man with the stop sign walked out of the way of the road and started waving the traffic through. David set the car in gear and started to roll forward, hand never wavering too far from his weapon as they inched onwards. They both probably expected the stop sign to come back out again as they reached the front of the queue, if that had happened then David would have started evasive action and rammed anyone in his way. That didn't happen though. Miraculously the worker waved them through and they followed closely behind the vehicle in front, the roadworks were short and Mallory could see the other side already.

They had just cleared the roadworks, and were re-joining their side of the road when he noticed David's grip becoming less tense; they crawled through the barriers with ease and normalcy. Mallory almost laughed at their paranoia earlier. Until he looked back in the rear view mirror.

The worker that had been holding the sign had stopped all following traffic and was currently looking directly at their car, holding his hand to his ear…

"David…" Mallory started before the words were snatched away from his lips under a cacophony of smashing, grinding and tearing.

Mallory felt white hot pain at his side as he impacted with the walls of the car and mentally catalogued a number of severely bruised if not broken ribs, the seatbelt cut deeply into his chest causing his breath to leave him immediately. Gasping for air his head slammed so hard into the unforgiving metal that he saw stars before uselessly blacking out.

Blood, fire, petrol.

The dangerous mix of smells brought M back to the land of the living, he vainly tried shaking the fog away from his head all the while unsure of how long he'd been out.

"HQ! Urgent assistance required, code 0, repeat code 0!"

Gareth groaned as the shouting only served to deepen the throbbing in his head, he brought a hand to his head to drown out the noise and only then realised the radio static that filled the car. Shit. He noted his seatbelt was missing and he was laid across the back seats; he must have been thrown a distance after whatever the hell had happened.

"Status." Mallory bit out through gritted teeth; he brought back his hand and saw blood.

He stupidly tried to sit-up when a wave of dizziness threatened to topple him back into the land of darkness. It was only the report of gunfire outside that rooted him firmly back to the moment, well the gunfight with what sounded like heavy weaponry and the impact of the shots all around the pair. Unsurprisingly, it appeared they should have listened to their instincts.

David slammed his fist against the in-car radio with frustration before glancing back and shoving Mallory's head down onto the car seat.

"You've got to stay below the windows sir!" David barked as Mallory valiantly fought with the overwhelming feeling to throw up, sudden movements and head injuries did not go well together.

Common sense and head injuries neither clearly. M already knew the windows were the weak point on the bulletproof car and the main target for all the guns firing at them so why had he felt the need to give the assailants a target?

"Sorry David, hit my head…" Mallory slurred unhelpfully as he felt the need to explain.

Gareth decided this would be an opportune moment to try and take stock of the situation as the fuzziness in his head cleared slowly. From the huge damage on the left side of the car and the roof he surmised they had been rammed from the side and had flipped over at least once. Only now did he see a small side road to their left and jesus, they had been rammed by a truck. No wonder the collision had caused so much damage to the usually tough car. The conclusion certainly explained the blinding pain earlier and the feeling of being tossed around like a rag doll…

"Communications blackout, engines fucked." David replied tersely as shot after shot peppered the windscreen. If the shooting continued at the same rate then the front windscreen wouldn't last much longer and then they would both be buggered. "Some kind of signal jammer, can't get through on the car radio, backup or phone."

M fumbled for his phone and attempted calling HQ, nothing. Not that he had really expected anything.

"How long was I out?" Mallory's voice was mercifully starting to sound steadier.

"30 seconds max." David replied grimly hands gripping his firearm tighter as shards of windscreen began to splinter into the car.

They both knew what this meant it had only been a minute since the entire thing started, it would take at least 5 minutes for some police response but that was a bloody army out there. Who knew how far away an armed unit was?

"Do you have another gun?" Mallory asked as the bullets finally did their job and penetrated the front wind screen and the driver side window. They both knew that they couldn't just sit here at this rate.

David shook his head grimly as he steeled himself to start firing back now that their bulletproof protection had been shattered. Before Gareth had the time to say anything David had leaned up in his seat and started to fire back at the assailants, shots covering all fields of view out the front windscreen.

He dropped to the seat again panting released the spent clip and loaded another, flinching as more glass from the screen dropped on him.

"Numbers?" Mallory shouted as another volley rocked the car.

David panted as he waited for a break in the firing. "I think 7", a pause as he looked Gareth directly in the eye, "Stay down sir".

Shit. Mallory felt useless and hated it, if only they had another gun they might have a chance of holding their attackers off. David leaned upwards again to fire back at their attackers but didn't manage to get off a single shot off, the fatal bullet exploded through the driver side window and impacted sickeningly with David's skull. Mallory felt the warm spray of blood splash across him as his brain struggled to comprehend what he had just witnessed. David's body fell sideways to land in a heap across the front of the car with a dull thud.

Gareth had to snap himself out of this daze if he stood any chance at all, he'd seen death before of course but it had been a while since he had been up-close and personal with it. Close enough to smell it. It proving hard to wrap his head around the fact David had just been brutally murdered on their way into work, just another ordinary day.

Mallory noted the lack of gunfire as he stretched forward to retrieve David's fallen firearm just about managing to hold the stalking unconsciousness at bay with the sudden movement. He lifted his head found a target out the front and fired twice, thud. The man fell with a grunt.

Before Gareth had a chance to fire again he was falling sideways, had he been hit?

The pistol fell from his grip and he found himself being dragged sideways from the car. He had forgotten to check all his surroundings! Allowing tunnel vision to take over he had forgotten to think about threats to the doors of the car. The searing pain from his temple informed him had had been pistol whipped, they most likely hadn't expected him to start shooting at their men. Tough.

Mallory landed with a thud on the cracked tarmac, grunting as his already bruised ribs took a hit and razor sharp pieces of glass sliced through his suit to hit flesh. His abused head took another bang as his attackers simply dropped him in a heap.

"Shit he killed Ben!" An angered shout broke through the haze.

M brought his hand up to his eyes reflexively as the sunlight threatened to make his head explode, the ringing in his ears only truly becoming noticeable now the gunfire had stopped.

"Ben should have been paying more attention." A cold voice replied. "Take him."

Mallory opened his eyes in time to see two huge figures looming over him, he didn't think about his next moves he just reacted like he had been trained to.

His legs shot out forcibly both finding their targets at his attacker's ankles, the strike landed with enough force to make one loose his footing and stumble away. Gareth focussed on the more immediate threat, sitting to get leverage and hooking his leg round the man's feet and tripping him up in one swift move.

"Enough!" A commanding voice shouted accompanied by a burst of gunshots.

Mallory looked over and saw he was surrounded by no less than 6 masked assailants all with weapons cocked and aimed at him. Okay that was pretty stupid… He mused, but it had felt good and clearly he had surprised them.

He raised his arms indicating surrender, and couldn't help but smirk at the goon he had tripped up. Said goon did not take the smirk well. Suddenly a fist was flying towards his face and he felt his head slam back into the pavement and tasted blood, not quite a broken nose but close.

"Get him in the van, we haven't got time for this." The obvious leader barked.

Mallory felt his arms being lifted without his control and soon he was being hauled upwards, none too gently either, by the goons he had tried to take out. When he finally managed to keep the darkness at bay Mallory glanced up and noted he was being dragged towards an awaiting black van. Double shit. This definitely wasn't an assassination then, it was a kidnapping.

He managed one look around at the chaotic scene of broken glass, fire and smashed up vehicles before he was flying again. Mallory landed with a grunt on the hard van floor and fire laced up his injured side with the impact, his head also received another unnecessary bump.

He was rolled onto his back quickly and found a weight on his lower half, in a matter of seconds everyone had clambered over him and the world was shut out when the side door slammed shut. With a squeal of tires and burning rubber they were away, shooting away from the scene of the crime with enough force that Mallory had to fight the overwhelming feeling to be sick again.

Distantly he heard police sirens and could still hear the chaos his abductors had left behind, screaming by-passers, screeching tyres and angry horns. He could only imagine the traffic that this incident would cause. I'm being abducted and I think about the traffic? It was delayed shock he mused, his brain concentrating on the dull and mundane as his body tried to deal with all the flooded adrenaline.

M felt warm liquid trickle down his face and went to wipe it away when his wrist was snatched forcibly, and slammed down hard against the van surface. He gritted his teeth against the attack and snarled up at his captor.

"Don't move." Pistol goon barked accompanied by the cocking of a handgun which was shoved aggressively into Mallory's face. In Gareth's state he couldn't even work out if this was one of the men he had tripped. Keeping track of individuals would be problematic whilst his vision was this blurry.

Mallory laid still and returned the steely stare with the gunman as roaming hands danced down his body, retrieving his wallet, phone and watch along the way. Next they held him still and hovered a wand over all areas of his body looking for bugs and trackers. Gareth held his breath as the wand reached his left arm where he knew a GPS tracker sat under the skin, regrettably the damn thing beeped. He had to concede this gang was well prepared but then again he expected no different after the cleverly planned ambush.

Pistol goon smiled knowingly behind his mask as Mallory sighed when his tracker had been discovered, the wand found no other gadgets and regrettably there weren't anymore just the watch; phone and imbedded tracker. His arm was outstretched and a boot slammed down on his hand firmly holding the appendage in place, not that he could move anyway with his legs trapped and a gun inches from his nose. He suppressed a grunt as he felt his fingers grind beneath the man's boot.

In a quick movement a knife was at his arm and had sliced through his jacket and dress shirt, the blade nicked the skin as the fabric was ripped away. Knife goon felt around experimentally over his arm for the tracker and smiled when he felt the metal capsule, the knife cut into his skin but just deep enough to retrieve the metal tracker. The cut itself didn't hurt as much as Gareth expected it was the part after, when his captor dug around in the open wound to retrieve his last hope of being found.

His thoughts drifted to MI6 at this, would they already know about the attack and his disappearance by now? Would they panic when his GPS went offline? David had said communications were blacked out so he had no way of knowing if they were even aware of this massive cock-up. His memories threatened to replay his poor driver's final moments before Gareth was brought back to the present when knife goon finally found what he was looking for. He couldn't help but groan as knife goon finally extracted the small tracker, snapped it in two and passed it to another masked man, they seemed to be putting all of his belongings in a small bag.

"Wrap that, check for serious injuries then secure him." The one with the gun ordered whilst extracting himself from Gareth's lower body.

The next few seconds were a flutter of activity as he found himself stripped of jacket and tie so his captors could check for injuries whilst his cut arm was swiftly bandaged and sealed. It was interesting that they were taking time to check for injuries that they would have caused, clearly he was needed alive and mostly unharmed which didn't fill the head of MI6 with a lot of confidence for his comfort in the immediate future. The efficiency of the men as they manoeuvred around him led to a surprising deduction. He felt like he'd been in a similar situation before injured as a soldier in the back of a truck, these men were likely ex-services.

They clearly didn't find any extreme injuries as rough hands grabbed his shirt and flipped him over onto his stomach, the muzzle of a pistol jamming into his neck stalled any thoughts of struggling. Mallory didn't resist as his wrists were grabbed firmly and yanked behind his back before being secured with what felt like a zip tie.

His head swam again as his captors gripped his shoulders and hauled him unsteadily onto his knees, this time he felt the cool metal settle against his forehead strangely helping him ground his head to the present. Mallory felt a presence close behind him, they really weren't giving him any chances to try anything. The well-oiled team had all angles covered and had clearly done this before.

The gun withdrew a few inches but remained unwavering, steadily pointing at a spot between his eyes. Soon a string of cloth appeared from behind and a gruff voice ordered Mallory to open his mouth. He did as instructed and was soon tasting things he would rather not, the rag tasted of sweat and blood.

The gag was tied firmly in place behind his head with a not so gentle tug of the material, M didn't give them the satisfaction of making any sign of discomfort this time. The last thing he saw were the cold grey eyes behind the mask of the gun-wielder before a dark cloth stole his vision. The material was also tied tightly behind his head, sadly the blindfold didn't let a single slither of light in.

A rough shove from behind was accompanied with a command. "Down."

Gareth fell forward onto his front, holding back a groan as his bruised side impacted heavily with the unforgiving floor. He wanted to lay on his other side to alleviate some of the pressure but as he went to roll a solid boot landed on his back.

The surprise more than anything made him grunt. He felt the now all to familiar muzzle of a pistol being jammed into his back also. "Don't move."

They really weren't going to give him an inch, he probably had his little display outside the car to blame for that. Without the power of speech the only thing Mallory could do to show he was complying was to release the tension in his muscles and relax into the floor in his current position. His compliance obviously got through as the pistol retracted however the boot stayed exactly where it was and made itself known over every pothole and uneven road.

Now that the man-handling was over Mallory finally had a few moments to himself to assess the situation, subconsciously he had been keeping track of their vehicle's movements and felt fairly sure he could pin point their rough location. The van's constant stopping and starting meant they were most likely caught up in the morning's traffic, not that it was rush hour yet so the van could move relatively quickly for London's standards. He listened intently to the noises outside, disappointingly there were no sirens meaning they had probably got outside of the immediate area of the ambush, this would make it harder for MI6 to find him especially if they had only just found out about the abduction.

Just as Mallory felt his battered body drifting off the van took a sharp right causing a spike of pain as the boot pressed against his spine, he moaned into the gag as he once again wasn't prepared for the new ache. A few seconds later the van came to a complete stop and he heard numerous boots hit the ground and then the sliding doors open. His blindfold turned out to be extremely effective as the change in light from outside didn't penetrate the material nearly as much as he wanted it to.

It was no surprise when the boot was lifted off his back and arms were grabbing at his shoulders to haul him up and out, the question was had they reached their destination or was this a vehicle switch? Mallory had his money on the latter after observing the organisation of this operation. His thoughts concentrated on staying upright as he stumbled forwards, his captors didn't give him a moment to find his feet they simply dragged him forward.

He tried to keep track of noises and where each man went but it was an impossible task, he did hear multiple sliding doors open however which indicated numerous getaway vehicles. That was smart, more vehicles increased the difficulty of MI6 successfully tracking this gang's escape.

Mallory had a repeat performance as he got thrown into another van, he quickly tried to find himself a more comfortable position before a boot was pressed into his back. Luckily the men travelling with him entered after and didn't notice his readjustment, it didn't stop a boot from being pressed squarely against his lower back though as soon as everyone was seated. The outside world was shut out again and they were away. The entire vehicle exchange had taken less than 20 seconds, M was once again impressed by the men's organisation.

He imagined they had just been in some sort of underground parking or garage, most likely private to avoid prying eyes but he couldn't be sure. Annoyingly he hadn't picked up about the location as he was transferred which he supposed was rather the point.

Mallory let himself relax as much as he could into the floor, cataloging wounds whilst making sure to keep one part of his mind on the journey. One vital question continually raced through his mind. How the hell am I going to get out of this one…

A/N - This will be a multi-chapter fic, not sure how many yet but the next chapter will be uploaded as soon as it's gone through editing :)

Until next time...