Part 13 (1/2)
When he reached the crest, the sight that struck him, almost like a blow to the mind, was even more reminiscent of some replay of an old 1930s ht - a great tall oblong edifice in gray stone In front a long raised terrace with central steps and an ornate stone balustrade stretched the entire length of the building In the center at the top of the steps, a solid wooden lectern had been set up and Maximilian Tarn, in a brown uniform that also owed much to another era, stood, flanked bya crowd of two or three hundred - a sea of people, ed in well-ordered lines across a vast lawn Each of these people held a blazing torch that threw disconcerting and ainst the trees and the facade of Tarnenwerder Tarn's shadoas, by soainst the house itself
”It is with these thoughts in our ht Keep faith Stand firlorious dead ere betrayed” Tarn raised both his hands in little jerking movements as he held e of our great forefathers” One hand swept upward, clawing the air ”Only if we stay true to the oaths of those ent before, e rebuild what the glorious Adolf Hitler succeeded in building before he was betrayed - One EmpireOne PeopleOne Leader”
Bond felt a cold sweat clouding his forehead Tarn's voice, gestures, and ed to Adolf Hitler sixty-odd years before Even the last words - ”Ein ReichEin VolkEin Fuhrer!” - were Hitler's words, and they were a signal to the crohich bellowed back in a great series of waves like crashi+ng surf: ”Sieg HeilSieg HeilSieg Heil!” Hail Victory
Then came the moment that made Bond's stomach turn over and the cold sweat envelop his entire body The sudden launching into song - one that he knew fros and that conjured up the whole nazi horror:
Die Fahnen hoch, die Reihe dicht geschlossen!
The flags held high! The ranks stand tight together
It was the nazi hy, its anthees, culled froraphs, sharply to his round, the sea, and in the air; he al the flamboyant uniforms of the SS, and the sinister faces of the Gestapo Europe a ruin, and the thousands who had disappeared to the caas chae of terror had filled his head: the walking dead of Auschwitz, Belsen, Dachau, and the other death camps; the piles of skin and bone; the smoke from the dread chimneys The horror of those past years early in this century when the whole of the continent shrank under the nazi yoke Was it all returning again?
There was no doubt now that Sir Max Tarn had already captured the leadershi+p of the new nazi Party, resurrected from its brutal past, fed by the indecision of the present German leadershi+p, and watered by the require
Max Tarn, he knew, had banked on soiveness for forure to be reckoned with on a global scale It was, the unhappy Trish Nuzzi had told hi to happen in the Caribbean So this obscenity he noatched was but a prelude of ould come if by any chance the obsessive ht h all the flashi+ng pictures in Bond's head, the words of the infa” seemed even more prophetic:
Kam'raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen, Marschieren ih shot by Red Front or Reaction, Still march with us, their spirits in our ranks
Indeed, old nazi ghosts would revel and caper a this crohile the once-defeated leadershi+p - from Hitler to Hi and nodding at what he was intent on bringing back, plunging the world into yet another dark age and dragging the old aboraves
Bond was so wrapped up in revulsion that he failed to catch any sign of danger to himself He had been oblivious to the security patrols that were obviously circling the periliency carounds and to his left
He turned to see two brown-unifor a pair of Gers The trained animals had sensed hirowls
He was on his feet and blundering down through the shrubbery heading back to the car, as the two beasts ca over the rise He pulled his knife with his left hand and unholstered the auto for his life and aware of the dogs closing like a pair of express trains
He did not quiteand leaping for his right ar the breath fro's teeth sank into his forearm and pulled For a second the heavy shepherditself between Bond's body and the pistol He put a bullet into the beast, which see yelp of agony
The other shepherd, hearing its partner yelp and seeing it fall, hesitated for a fraction of a second, but it gave hih ti landed heavily on the hood, barking and clawing against the windshi+eld, saliva running from its jaws, the sharp teeth clearly visible Bond started the engine, slarown shrubbery, wrenching hard at the wheel and throwing the dog to the ground, as he accelerated onto the road
Two bullets struck the rear of the Corrado He felt the heavy thue Hunched over the wheel and driving as though the hounds of hell were after hi bend and headed back toward Wasserburg If his mission was to be truly successful, he had oneto do, and he knew only too well that he had jeopardized the whole business bythe trip out to Tarnenwerder
After ten minutes he was sure that nobody had followed, but he considered that would only be a ood look at the car, so it would not take the to report the matter When that was done, Tarn's orders could take only one form - Bond's death warrant
It was al lot, where he chose a space close to the exit For a few e to his forearone deep He counted four long lacerations, which he covered with a handkerchief tied tightly and soaking up the blood immediately
Time was now at a premiue, relove co away toward the rear of the buildings on the side of the Marienplatz in which Saal, Saal u Rollen was situated
It took less than five minutes to reach the back of the lawyers' offices, and only thirty seconds to slide a credit card between the curved bolt and its housing nobody, it seemed, had bothered to clip down the retainer, which would have posed difficulties
He stood for aon the flashlight and shi+elding it with his hand, then e entrance hall All was silence, and he could see the co Not a sound, so he began to , and to the door with its little notice that read ”H Saal”
He had expected to need his lockpicks to get into Hel the flashlight beae desk was similar to the one in Fritz's office, but the wall opposite was lined with a tall bank of gray filing cabinets
Listening again for a few seconds, he went over to the oneand pulled down the blind, then made for the cabinets, which were neatly lettered by alphabet The letter T took up half of the wall, so it took little brain to realize that Hele number of documents on Tarn and Tarnenwerder there in his office
The latest legal work for Tarn, Bond decided, would be in the last drawer labeled T Slowly he reuise, and got down to the business at hand
The cabinets were normal commercial pieces of equipment, about as easy to unlock as a child's ht, or Hel nature The last drawer clicked and slid open, displaying about ten files hanging neatly on their rails As he reic on the situation Helmut Saal had installed no special alar, in all probability, had a low crime rate The people of this unique little toere all descendants of families who had lived and died here over the centuries Wasserburg was not the kind of place you moved into froiven fact,Tarn and the estate True, there had been sal skirmishes over the years, when consortiums, and even the authorities in Munich, had tried to take over the estate, but even that would not be any cause for concern Possibly there were very old documents that traced the estate's history back over centuries, but they would be stored in some safe vault More recent papers could be kept here in the office with i to archaic laws concerning generations of Saals and Rollens would not give a thought to having its docu devices
He an to exaht in his teeth The very first item showed that he had struck pay dirt, for it was a copy of an application for one Maximilian Erwen von Tarn to reclaim his German citizenshi+p Attached to it were copies of the official correspondence concerning the application, and the final page showed that the whole thing had been granted in March of 1992
Other papers in this one file alone concerned the issue of a passport to Tarn, while the last section of docu anyone else's claim to ownershi+p of the house called Tarnenwerder and its considerable estates The whole shooting ed to the said Maxih he had not officially reclaimed his Gerh here to satisfy The Committee that Sir Max Tarn, business tycoon and philanthropist, was not quite what he seemed Certainly, as dual nationality could not apply, he had been sailing and flying under a false flag for so it in order to get clear, well-lit shots of the papers As he put his hand down on the corner of Helht-hand set of drawers that ran down to the floor The bottoli it further revealed a coes He touched the little arrowed buttonabout rewinding the tape after they had played it back When it stopped he pressed the Play Messages button, heard the beep and then the second shock of the night ”This is ent froence Service is on his way to Wasserburg His mission is to run a check on Max and on the current Tarnenwerder situation Theunder the naive hi treatether with a few other facts - facts pertaining to MicroGlobe One and the current situation in England
It was not so e as the voice that rocked Bond on his heels It was one he recognized immediately Someone hoht capable of penetrating an organization like Two Zeros or even MicroGlobe One Reaching down, he removed the tape fro back to the job of photographing the docu like an automaton The identity of the person who had betrayed hi that he could think of little else, but he completed the work, returned the file to its place in the cabinet and, using his picks again, relocked the drawer It was one of the things he had learned very early in his training If you becolary it is always best to leave things at least approximately how you found them
He even did a quick search of the other drawers in Helmut's desk to see if there was an extra tape for the answer-phone Eventually he found a small packet of these tucked away beside the instrument itself and cursed that he had not looked et back to the hotel, pay his account, and head for Munich If he et that far, it was possible that, by then, Tarn'sout for him, which would pose a new and difficult threat
There was still no sign of life outside the offices of Saal, Saal u Rollen, and as he quietly an to think that et aith it
He reached the bottohts came on
”So, Mr Boldman, or should I call you Mr Bond? Would you like to talk withas ever, in ahe did not like about her noas the lethal little autoht hand, very close to her delicious body
”Heidi? Hi,” he said, allowing a sot n of having seen the pistol as he walked forward, his arh to e about, Mr?” His greeting had thrown Heidi just enough for her to pause before doing anything - like pulling the trigger
Bond kept on going, straight toward her ”Heidi, I'm so pleased Nohere would you like to have dinner?” By this time he was only two steps away and could clearly see the puzzled expression
He ht hand brushed his left side so that he could trap the wrist and gun with his left ar in like a vise She opened her ht elbow and struck her violently on the side of the jaw
”I do hate striking woirl” The pistol dropped to the floor as he applied more pressure with his left arm, while the next bloas a hard chop to the base of the neck with the heel of his right hand
She went down completely, sprawled at his feet Quickly he felt the pulse in her neck to h she would probably reood tenup her pistol, he headed straight to the rear of the building, letting hi the door behind hi lot, nowto banish any thought of the pain fro that he did not have the ti the bill at the Paulanerstuben