007

   As the end credits of "From Russia With Love" rolled lazily up his TV screen, David snored abrasively in the otherwise quiet dorm room. The sound was coarse, like a cinder block dragged across an expanded steel grate, if you can imagine that. Even if you can't, that's how it was. Loud is one thing, but this was another - in fact, such was the snarl that it completely covered the sound of David's alarm, which had been going off for fifty-six minutes.
   In Room 211b, Professor Dorothea Dix was passing out the midterm exam for her Etymology class. Each was unique, and printed with the name of each respective student. As she came to the row David Mosser customarily sat in, and drew from the stack his exam sheet, she looked to his usual seat, then down the row, then around the room. David was nowhere to be seen. Through the murmur of the classroom a low suggestion of a sound echoed in her mind, as sounds sometimes did. Was it ... the James Bond theme?