Part 12 (1/2)
He asked Bill Tanner to send Flicka out to hi a quick ”Take care, James”
He saw the sadness in Flicka's eyes as she came in to join hi on your own?”
”I told you, Flick It's the only way to work this”
”I love you, Jaanized”
”You will come back?”
”I always coet ehtmare
Back in the flat, Bond spent half an hour hunched over the telephone calling Lufthansa and booking a return flight to Munich leaving late that afternoon, then reserving a single room at Munich's Splendid, where he would be well out of the way, particularly hidden fro at Vier Jahreszeiten The Splendid had long been the Munich resting place for those ished to keep a low profile
Another call assured him of a rental car that he could pick up at the Munich airport, and lastly he dialed a final Ger am Inn Its main draas the address, Marienplatz 9 - the same square in which the Tarn lawyers, Saal, Saal u Rollen, had their offices
When all these arrangeed his special briefcase frouised part of the wainscot The autoate Fairbairn combat knife and scabbard, all went into the compartment at the bottom of the case, where they would not be detected by electronic security scanning devices The latest in raphs of docuuised as a Swiss Ar maps and documents, went into the main open, top section of the case He also retrieved everything he needed for his Bold abroad - passport, wallet complete with credit cards, and several letters addressed to J Boldman Esq at a fictional business that was really a front for the Intelligence Service's overseas ht cotton rollneck, blazer, and a pair of his favorite soft, cohout all these preparations, Flicka had remained seated quietly in the bedroom, and it was only when she saas ready that she spoke
”Jae of the bed
”Of cabbages and kings?” he asked with a s to be; your entire schedule”
He opened the briefcase and pulled out a detailedam Inn area, si a lot of this by ear, Flick, but here's the general plan” He went through his intended h ti the next couple of days, after which Flicka spoke again, her tone serious and co attention: ”Believe me, James, I understand the reason you have to do this on your own I understand it, but I don't like it, nor do I condone it I've left a note with Bill Tanner to that effect I' difficult, but I think you should have backup close by you Naturally, I believe that backup should be me Now, please let's work out a telephone code so that you can at least keep in touch”
It took theether a simple system, for they had used techniques such as this before
When it was tihtly but shed no tears Nor did she use any feuilty for leaving her out of this sain, it was one of the pluses of their relationshi+p: Flicka had been an intelligence agent for too long to s
”Take care of yourself,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice, then, softly, ”I love you, James”
In the cab on the way out to Heathrow, her very low-key farewell did uilty than all the tears and histrionics that she could have produced By the time he had checked in at the Lufthansa desk, Bond had already started to wonder about the wisdoht to Munich was, as usual, boring, and the German efficiency at passport control and the car-rental desk left nothing to be desired He collected a creaht to the Splendid, where the car was parked for hied to draw anyone's attention away frohts of the Splendid that it looked like nothing and yet, for conito traveler would wish
He ate a dinner so light and frugal that the headwaiter raised his eyebrows and frowned, and by eleven was back in his room He called Flicka to let her know that he was in Munich with no signs of Tarn watchers on his back, and she was so loving on the telephone that he went to bed decidedly frustrated It did not stop hient in the field, Bond had perfected the art of putting the world, and professional or personal problems, out of his mind His head had scarcely touched the pillow before he dropped into a deep sleep fro with his wake-up call at five in the
He was on the road by just after six-thirty, and by seven had left the outskirts of Munich far behind, heading out on the B-304 Before eight o'clock he caht alleon
With its untouched, medieval atmosphere, the town appeared to be surrounded by water fro was built within a few yards of a tight lazy curve in the river, which nuzzles the southern limits of the town's center and enfolds its eastern boundary with great crags of rock, plunging straight down to the gentle floater below
He drove the Corrado into the large parking lot on the northern bank of the river and set off on foot for the traffic-free town center, his garh the narrow lanes until they spilled out into the Marienplatz, the very center of the toith its Gothic brick town hall and the fourteenth-century Frauenkirche
He stopped on the edge of the square, listening to the soft flush of the river less than a hundred yards ahile taking in the extraordinary tiht of what re - Water Castle - takes its na: a cassocked priest walked from the Frauenkirche, with its old watchtohile the few old shops were open and local people could be seen hurrying to the with baskets of fresh bread and other produce
At the Paulanerstuben they showed no surprise at this guest arriving at eight in the , but welco the square, and offered hi on the hout the world where he had been treated as a pariah when arriving this early in the day
assenting to a second breakfast was not a e the one elderly waiter in conversation, so the ue Bond's Gerh for hies yielded several useful pieces of inforhtly reserved when it caners, and he soon learned that this conservative trait had reached a high level during the week
”It's the nener of the Tarnenwerder estate,” the waiter told hihtly shaky hands ”It's said he's the last living relative of the old von Tarn family, and already he has over one hundredthe house There's no room for these people here in the town How can there be? Anyway, the ancient boundaries of the estate stop a couple of kilo We can't compete with these workmen as we have none with their skills, so on't prosper fros settle down -” Bond began to say, but the elderlyon” He shook his head in marked disapproval ”nobody kno this claimant to the von Tarn na in places all over the world under the name Tarn, and this Tarn was supposed to have died, only recently, in a road accident in England Can you believe any ru a plate of ha on his e as life Yesterday I saw hi to an old half-ti across the square, beside the door of which was a brass plate ”The Saals have enerations Old Helmut Saal has blocked any purchase of the place since the end of Hitler's war I' he's a liar or a cheat, but I think he would do anything to keep his hands on that estate It's kept the Saal fa time This new von Tarn could be Saal's man, for all we know Put there to keep the Saals in the style to which they have become accustomed over the years”
Bond told hi property nearby, but was brushed aside with a ”You should go to Fritz Saal, Helmut's brother He deals with the purchase of property, but there are other things the town's not happy with”
”Such as?”
”Such as this new von Tarn allowing dubious young people to carounds of the estate Sos in the cities - you knohat Iin the streets Let me tell you, I heard stories of people like that from my father I can even remember so ruffians behave like”
”How long has this been going on?”
”The skinheads? Only a couple of days, but some have come into the town to buy food, and they haven't always been too pleasant to the shopkeepers We've turned theone tomorrow or the day after, I understand They're here for some rally the rounds Don't hold with itto himself about hoasn't like this in his day
No, Bond thought, you're of an age when it was, first, the survival of the fittest and utter obedience to the nazi Party; then an age when the Ger to live down the excesses of Hitler's regiht your country to its knees The old e of West Ger industrial center of Europe, and now the toil and turmoil of a country restored and not split in two The restoration of a single Gerht with it problems and a desperate search for a new identity - or, worse, a return to the old way of the nazis He could not blaners, and these Gerners here in Wasserburg aed, centuries of Stur
After breakfast he returned upstairs, surprised that such an old and beautiful building actually provided telephones in the few available rooe, and he found the nu, he was speaking to Herr Fritz Saal, explaining that he was a British businesse property in the area An investment, you understand For a consortium, you will follow Naturally, Herr Boldht and friendly on the telephone, but glooh, eventually, he remembered that there were a couple of estates on his books Perhaps Herr Boldman could call on him at the office, say in half an hour Herr Bold Flicka in London, stressing that he was fine, had arrived and discovered so facts already He also said that he would call again after hishat he called a property lawyer in the town
The building from which the Saal brothers and Herr Rollen carried out their business, while obviously very old, had been constantly renovated over several centuries
Initially, the building had probably been a small town-house for some local worthy From the half-timbered exterior and the visible leaded s, he reckoned that it probably had a largish entrance hall, with rooht, while upstairs it possibly inally been three bedroo the door he found that it was a solid oak panel with e Yale-type lock -you saw on houses in the rest of the world, but still sh to slip with a thick piece of celluloid or a credit card
He took a good look at the doorja or electronic boxes signaling a sophisticated alar caht-hand corner at the front of the building Bond knew by the size of the telephone input box that it was unlikely to contain any extra surprises
He pressed the bell, and so into a pair of large gray eyes topped by a lashes Below the eyes was a pert little nose and below that a wide hty to set a completely new standard of temptation for men The woman wore her think blonde hair in what at one time would have been called a French plait Nowadays he had no idea what they called the style, but the hair was so perfect and thick that he had an ie a hand into it and see if there were gold coins hidden under the slossy surface