Part 7 (1/2)
”As I said, Boxwood is Peter Dols Morgan is Tarn We thought an old pirate's name was acceptable Now, there's only one answer to this” M's eyes scanned eachfinally on Bond and Flicka von Grusse ”As much as ant Max Tarn behind bars, our first loyalty ht have months of work ahead I'll see to it that a teaht”
”Sir,” sharp and uncoet about it, Captain Bond” M's face becae to the color of pewter ”They knoho you are You and Fraulein von Grusse both”
”With luck, Tarn and his people'll never see us, sir I' that we pick up Dol after Tarn later I think he's our due He's mine to hunt and kill if necessary This is a sideshow that Fraulein von Grusse and I can do standing on our heads”
The long pause was Finally broken by M ”Be it on your own heads, then If you fail, Bond, I'll see you out of the Service for good Understand?”
9 - Cradle of History
The girls from the Seville Fla skirts lifting and whirling as they danced on top of the tablao - the slightly raised platform - which had been set up souitarists, and the four girls who danced gave a counterrhythuitarists broke into occasional guttural shouts of encouragea - a carousal or spree of singing and dancing
Juergas are held regularly in the open air during the spring and summer in Seville The distinctive ressive beat of the dancers' feet with the counterpoint of clapping, made the scene coardens Looking out to the back of the palace that was the Alcazar, and the huge Cathedral, just visible behind it, eyes and ears were stunned by the music, the sensual beauty of thebackdrop of , Flicka and Bond had looked up at the Jerez Gate, walked through both the Cathedral and the Alcazar Palace, and drunk in the sense of history that shows in both architecture, setting, and even in the faces of the people of this ht, cloudless blue, the sun was still thin and there was a chill in the air In a , but now - at around ten lad of the motorcycle leathers he wore as he sat at an outside table in front of a slass of rough Spanish brandy in front of him
They had come in via Gibraltar, courtesy of a Royal Air Force jet fro Two dark-skinned men, who spoke Spanish with the accents of Andalucia, and an English so faultless that it was difficult to deterin, had driven them across the frontier Then they headed up the coast to Seville, depositing Bond and Flicka at a sether with a silent suspicious-looking woman, waited to make sure they had all they needed: food, drink, and the other essential items for the pickup due to take place at noon on this the following day
On the aircraft they had both studied detailed street maps of Seville, and marked out the route Bond would take once Dolanize the final stages of that journey: a route that would bring Bond and the rescued Dolmech back to the apartment
The man and woman at as so obviously a safe house checked that the ht for Bond, showed hi Triumph Daytona was hidden, in a small lockup three minutes' walk from the apartment, and did not leave until they were satisfied that the plan for the following day was timed to the second M had insisted that some of his other people were around to act as backup Bond did not recognize any of the experience in the Service, but he did recognize the type: people bound by the silence of secrecy, and dedicated to seeing that a dangerous job was carried out with no hitches If anything were to go wrong, the fault would not lie on the consciences of those who planned the operation
For the first ti ASP and six azines of ah equally deadly, Beretta automatic - her weapon of choice for the , they sat in the small apartment, stripped the weapons, checked and rechecked the each other, drifted off into shallow sleep
The silent woently wakening the coffee, newly baked rolls with preserves and butter They hardly spoke to one another as they ate, or later as they walked through the town, taking in the e points around the Alcazar Gardens, and the streets that twisted around the area
Now, as the hands of his watch moved nearer to midday, Bond tossed so left into the street around the corner froet froloves, and settle the hel into the saddle, kicked the engine into life, and felt the iin to ru the engine in short, noisy bursts No wonder people who rode these beasts all the time became addicted, he considered Finally he checked that the automatic pistol was in place and could be reached easily if necessary before knocking away the bike's stand and slowly pulling up to the street that led into the San Fernando Across the road he caught a gli purposefully toward his left, her shoulder bag held in her right hand, together with a copy of the Financial Ti the bike out onto the street, filtering into the traffic going right There was a large traffic circle some twenty yards down, and this allowed hi hiht-hand side, within feet of Flicka He negotiated the traffic circle, and thirty yards away, he saw Dol casually toward her He was dressed exactly as promised: blue jeans, deni alht shoulder
Bond pulled over, glancing in his ht, then left It was as his eyes flicked over to the left that he saw the other bike It was a Harley-Davidson, but with a pillion passenger He cursed, as there was no way he could cut it off as it cah for hi for balance
Everything, from that moment, seemed to happen in slow motion Bond had been alerted by the second bike, but did not cohtened hisup a burst of speed, cutting in front of hi him to brake violently
He saw the back of the second bike and watched helplessly as it shot ahead, pulling over to slow slightly right in front of Flicka and Doler reached out, a sloved hand Later Bond could have sworn he heard the three loud pops He certainly saw the driver flick his hand out and grab at the satchel as Peter Dolmech hipped backward by three bullets, his head disappearing in a fine ht him in the face He saw Flicka's eyes andof horror; theHe saw her reach for the gun in her shoulder bag and turn sideways as though she expected to feel bullets penetrating her own flesh
He was powerless, and thought that she had also been hit as the crireat red blotches of blood and matter across her face; but by the ti, the h the traffic
The Daytona under him leaped forward as his hand opened the throttle: at least he knew that this bike was ile than the Harley Whatever else had happened, the only thought now filling his mind was the recovery of the satchel
In the heavy traffic that clogged the streets of inner Seville, hethe two men To keep up speed and follow them demanded all the concentration he could muster The Daytona handled perfectly, and he was able to weave and dodge through the thick, slow- crush of cars and trucks that seemed to stretch in an endless snake Bond leaned to left and right, slaloaps, behind vehicles that seeet as near to the othertheir operation, the passenger would already have left the bike and spirited the satchel away on foot, but as he et closer, he was relieved to see that bothaway from the city center, out toward the perimeter of the ancient walls Within fifteenout into the open countryside where the flow of motor vehicles was steadier
He was now about half a ht that far away behind him he heard the wail of a police siren By this ti speeds of just under a hundredwas reaching a speed well in excess of 100er on the bike, the torque on the erous level
As it was, Bond could feel the forces of gravity on his own bike and upon hi, there were moments when the wheels hit small indentations that caused the bike to lift and bounce Even with the helmet and visor, his body was at ti decisions well in advance of reaching other traffic
They hit a long incline He could hear and feel the first strain on the engine, so he shi+fted down quickly, opening up the throttle again to ain on his opponent
They were on a three-lane highway noith no onco cars and trucks that did not bother to signal when changing lanes The speed and poere exhilarating, and he had to focus his concentration, constantly dragging his mind back to the Harley now only a couple of hundred yards in front of hi, he saw the bike suddenly veer off to the right, rider and passenger leaning over as the hted itself and shot across the three lines of traffic, disappearing through an exit ra to the left behind him He opened the throttle wide, leaned with the tilt as the Daytona began to angle over, heard the rasping horn of the van as it braked when he crossed directly in front of it to get into the far-right lane The exit rain to lose traction swinging outward He shi+fted down, tapped the brake, and hauled the bike back to the straight and level as he shot into the exit
Now he knehere they were heading, for he caught a glin that said ”Italica” They were going into the very woe Roman tohere both the Emperors Hadrian and Trajan had been born Ahead was a ticket point with a large notice in four languages saying the ruins were closed He also saw the brake lights of the Harley as it whipped through the entrance, dipped, and headed up the path leading to the sprawl of skeleton buildings rising up the hillside A great view to his right, and, slightly ahead, the steep slope that, like a bowl in the earth, contained the re a pair of modern murderers into one of Europe's cradles of history
Once et even closer, but this was no place for speed He saw the bike slew to the left, dohat had once been a narrow cobbled street, but when he reached the turn there was no sign of his prey He retarded the throttle so that the bike was barely idling, straining in the saddle to try and catch the sound of their engine, but the world had suddenly gone silent and hison to the worst possibility - that the couple on the Harley had a prearrangedhere in the shadows If that was the case, he had lost, so he et out now and save as left
Bond ren inside the leather jacket to slowly reazine He switched off the Daytona's engine, then, with his back against the old dry and crus, he inched forward Instinctively, he felt that he was being watched
It was some twenty yards to the end of the street The first shot came as he reached the point where the cobbles ended and the res ran into as virtually a T-junction He heard the crack as the bullet hit the stone just to the left of his head, gouging a s dust that fell across his visor
He ducked to the right, flicking the visor up and ju into the ruined street that for his hands in a wide circle, gripping the butt of the pistol a shade too tightly
There washis body in that direction without ure was too quick for hi back down an alley before the first bullet struck the here, a split second earlier, thethat the twoin a pincer ainst the stone, he whirled in the direction of the target he had justmoved in the periphery of his vision This ti position and centering the guttersnipe sight of the ASP on the black-clad figure's chest
The two rounds he fired both sla a sickening gout of blood and viscous matter into the wall behind hiain, reached the junction where a line of uneven ruins h street, parallel to the one in which he had left the Daytona For a second his hosts, the hing, arguing, loving, and dying Taking a deep breath heposition, ready to take out anything that lay in his path
The street was eht easily be crouched within one of the undulating, fragle down For a second he looked past the end of this row of bleachedof the fantastic view that looked out right across the Guadalquivir Plain This one lapse of attention almost cost him his life, for this ti the stillness and hitting the old stonework to ricochet with a deadly whine within inches of his face
He returned the fire, shooting only in the general direction from which it had co of bootsaway from the clumps of stone
He took off doas left of the street, changinga terrible draft of frustration as a ine burst into life froot to his - Bond's - ht hill, pistol still in both hands as he ca slowly to his left, disappearing from vieard the plain that stretched below
As he reached the open he saw it again, rushi+ng down a grassy slope, heading straight for the reular oval of stone benches, with the big acting area far below The Daytona was bu through the seating, the rider trying desperately to put on speed, but braking constantly to keep balance on the sheer angle of the hillside
It was a long shot for a pistol, but his hands were steady as he brought the sights to bear Later he realized that he azine of a in his hands and saw the little explosions of dust around the ht its rider in the back, lifting hi hi over the handlebars As the Daytona slewed to one side, now out of control, Bond reflexed, putting two et
The rider was still actually on the bike as it toppled over, the leather strap of the satchel slung across hiainst his left hip as the bike and body slid in a long jarring skid down into the acting area of the aas tank