Part 39 (1/2)

'When does the fighting start?'

'In about an hour and a half. As soon as the food planes are in the air and the s.h.i.+ps are in international waters, the invasion of eastern Sudan begins.' Felicity looked at her demure Baume & Mercier watch. She supposed Gregory Lamb would arrive soon. 'Now, I need to broker something else: your co-operation.'

He laughed coldly.

'If you don't, your friend Bheka Jordaan will die. Simple as that. I have many friends throughout Africa who are quite skilled at killing and happy to put those talents to work.'

She was pleased to see how this troubled him. Felicity Willing always enjoyed finding people's weaknesses.

'What do you want?' he asked.

'You send a message to your superiors that you've confirmed Gregory Lamb is behind an attempted cruise-s.h.i.+p bombing. You've managed to stop the plot and you'll be meeting with him soon.'

'You know I can't do that.'

'We're negotiating for the life of your friend. Come on, James, be a proper hero. You're going to die anyway.'

He turned his eyes to her and repeated, 'I really thought it might work out between us.'

A s.h.i.+ver ran down Felicity Willing's spine.

But then Bond's eyes grew stony and he snapped, 'Okay, that's enough. We have to move fast.'

She frowned. What was he talking about?

He added, 'Try to use non-lethal force on her . . . if you can.'

'Oh, Christ, no,' Felicity whispered.

A tidal wave of light the overheads came on and, as she started to turn towards the sound of running feet, the Walther was ripped out of her hand. She was slammed on to her belly by two people, one of whom knelt hard in the small of her back and secured her hands expertly behind her with handcuffs.

Felicity heard a crisp voice, a woman's: 'In accordance with Section Thirty-five of the Const.i.tution of South Africa, 1996, you have the right to remain silent and to be advised that any statements made to your arresting officers can be used as evidence in trial against you.'

68.

'No!' Felicity Willing gasped, her face a mask of disbelief. Then the word was repeated in rage, nearly a scream.

James Bond looked down at the pet.i.te woman sitting on the floor in about the same place that he had been a moment before. She shouted, 'You knew! You son of a b.i.t.c.h, you knew! You never suspected Lamb at all!'

'I lied, didn't I?' he said coldly, throwing the words back at her.

Bheka Jordaan was also gazing down unemotionally, a.s.sessing her prisoner.

Bond was rubbing his wrists, from which the cuffs had been removed. Gregory Lamb was nearby, on his mobile. Lamb and Jordaan had arrived before Bond to plant microphones and monitor the conversation, in case Felicity took the bait. They'd hidden in the workers' caravan; Bond's flash of the torch earlier had verified they were invisible and alerted them that he was going inside. He hadn't wanted to use radio transmissions.

Jordaan's phone rang and she answered it. She listened, jotting information in her notebook, then said, 'My people have raided Ms Willing's office. We've got the landing locations of all the planes and the routes of the s.h.i.+ps delivering the food.'

Gregory Lamb looked over her notes and relayed the information into his phone. While the man did not instil confidence as an intelligence agent, apparently he indeed had his contacts and he was using them now.

'You can't do this!' Felicity wailed. 'You don't understand!'

Bond and Jordaan ignored her and stared at Lamb. Finally he disconnected. 'There's an American carrier off the coast. They've launched fighters to intercept the food planes. And RAF and South African attack helicopters are on their way to turn the s.h.i.+ps.'

Bond thanked the big sweating man for his efforts. He'd never suspected Lamb whose odd behaviour stemmed from the fact that he was essentially a coward. He admitted that he'd disappeared during the action at the Green Way plant to hide in the bushes, though stopped short of confessing he'd shot through his own sleeve. But Bond had thought him the perfect bait to lay before his suspect, Felicity Willing.

Bheka Jordaan took a call too. 'Back-up's going to be a little delayed bad accident on Victoria Road. But Kwalene says they should be here in twenty or thirty minutes.'

Bond looked down at Felicity. Even now, sitting on the filthy floor of this decrepit construction site, she radiated defiance, a caged, angry lioness.

'How . . . how did you know?' she asked.

They could hear the soothing yet powerful sound of the Atlantic cras.h.i.+ng on the rocks, birds calling, a far-off car horn bleating. This place wasn't far from the centre of Cape Town but the city seemed a universe away.

'A number of things made me wonder,' Bond told her. 'The first was Dunne himself. Why the mysterious funds transfer to his account yesterday, before Gehenna? That suggested Dunne had another partner. And so did another intercept we caught, mentioning that if Hydt was out of the picture, there were other partners who could proceed with the project. Who had that been sent to? One explanation was that it was somebody entirely independent of Gehenna.

'Then I remembered Dunne travelled to India, Indonesia and the Caribbean. At the fundraiser you said your charity had opened offices in Mumbai, Jakarta and Port-au-Prince. Bit of a coincidence, that. Both you and Dunne had connections in London and Cape Town and you'd both had a presence in South Africa before Hydt opened the Green Way office here.

'And I made the NOAH connection on my own,' Bond continued. When he was in SAPS headquarters he'd found himself staring at her card. IOAH. He'd suddenly realised there was merely one letter difference. 'I checked company records in Pretoria and found the group's original name. So when you told me you'd heard Lamb referred to as Noah, I knew you were lying. That confirmed your guilt. But we still needed to trick you into telling us what you knew and what Incident Twenty was.' He regarded her coldly. 'I didn't have time for aggressive interrogation.'

Purpose . . . response.

Not knowing Felicity's goal, this deception had been the best response he could put together.

Felicity eased herself towards the wall. The movement was accompanied by a glance out of the window.

Suddenly several thoughts coalesced in Bond's mind: the s.h.i.+ft of her eyes, the 'accident' blocking Victoria Road, Dunne's genius for planning and the car horn, which had sounded about three minutes earlier. It had been a signal, of course, and Felicity had been counting down since it had blared in the distance.

'Incoming!' Bond cried and launched himself into Bheka Jordaan.

The two of them and Lamb tumbled to the floor as bullets crashed through the windows, filling the room with shards of glistening confetti.

69.

Bond, Lamb and Jordaan took cover as best they could, which wasn't easy because the entire north wall of the room was exposed. Table saws and the rest of the construction equipment provided some protection but they were still vulnerable, since the work lights and overheads gave the sniper a perfect view of the rooms.

Felicity hunkered down further.

'How many men does Dunne have with him?' Bond snapped to her.

She didn't answer.