Part 19 (1/2)
”Sir Max, what aBut how? I mean”
”As soreatly exaggerated Maurice Goodwin you know, I think But you certainly haven't met my heavenly twins, Cathy and Anna There, say hello to the nice Dr Rexinus, and Anton Fritz, and we et the lovely Ms Motley” Then he raised his voice: ”Connie, stay up there and don't let anyone else come aboard”
There was the faint sound of Connie Spicer's voice, then the shuffle ofthean
”I shall do the talking for the ti a nice little party Are you not going to introduce lass of ouldn't come amiss either”
”Certainly I'm sorry Mr Felix Leiter, frouess” Felix raised his voice slightly, trying, Bond thought, to push up the levels of everyone's speech
”You guess correctly, Mr Leiter, though I'ard myself as an international citizen I've heard that name before, somewhere Leiter No, Felix Leiter, I've seen it in print”
”I doubt it, Sir Max, I'm just an old Texas cowboy”
”And I doubt that, Mr Leiter”
”Well, I owned the cows, and there were quite a lot of them”
”Really? Well, I fear that you've accepted an invitation to come aboard Mare Nostruee, well, I can et on with your party” There was a shi+fting sound as Felix got to his feet
”No!” Max Tarn barked ”You have a li and an arm”
”Sounds like you're a kinda Sherlock Holmes, Sir Max”
”Hardly Now I think I recall where I read about you You're a friend of a friend of mine A Mr Jaence Service Oh, Mr Leiter, I fear you've fallen a thieves, and I think you'd better stick around”
”Whatever your fancy, Sir Max But I guess you've been reading the wrong books I don't recall anyone by the name of Bond Knew a fella from Houston called Bind, and another one who hailed fro Jim Band, but no Bonds - except on the stock hed unpleasantly and told Cathy to watch Felix ”This is a live one, Cath We're going to have to take him into custody and keep him safe until SeaFire's over”
”Sir Max, if I could?” from Rexinus
”Dr Rex, please shut your mouth I've spent a fortune on you and your friends You said it would take a year You've had your year and now it's payback time The deht, and it's going to be quite so”
”But, Sir Max, I have to tell you”
”You don't have to tell ive you a briefing Operation SeaFire Has a nice ring to it, eh?”
Rexinus see with ”I don't think you quite understand, sir What Rex is trying to say is that the AAOPS isn't quite -”
”Please, no excuses and no explanations We run a public deht If you have final touches to perfect, then you'll just have to work at them in the next twenty-four hours” Pause ”Actually a shade less than twenty-four hours”
Through the door, Max Tarn's voice sounded even silkier than it had when Bond last heard hih undertow as though the s ripped apart Sir Max Tarn had reached some terrible pinnacle from which he could only fall It was the voice of a person utterly unbalanced A , even death
Vesta Motley also tried ”Sir Max, there is a problem We -”
”There is no proble while to set this up We go ahead to and be quiet, I'll give you the briefing”
Barking ht Just as he had predicted Tarn probably already knehat they were trying to tell hi ahead whatever the outcoain ”The oil co into this harbor at precisely eight o'clock toe affair and will be fully loaded Thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil and gasoline The naular visitor to these shores, so her tih contains will ht Golden with fire and fla is that there's already a precedent for ill happen, because in the late sixteenth century no less a sailor than Sir Frances Drake set fire to every shi+p in this harbor”
”Which lit the way to his defeat,” said Leiter
Tarn did not even pause ”Your job, Dr Rexinus, will be to dash in and let the world see that an oil spill of this nitude can be contained It will be your triumph More importantly, it will beIt has to be impressive, for if it is not contained then this entire island will be surrounded by an oil slick which will nificant Every other major oil spill the world has seen will be as small as scum on bathwater”
There came the noise of ould nor slapped onto leather Felix was pushi+ng his luck
”What the devil does thatI' as I think she is, you'll do ht up the harbor here and run oil around the coastline It could drift a long way We're talking about almost total pollution of the Caribbean”
”You're not taking Dr Rexinus into account, Mr Leiter He and his companions are wonder workers With the flick of a switch they can pour trouble on oiled waters I've put several ht we see if I've wasted h ablaze? You got soave a s Yes, I do have special kindling in the form of a somewhat ancient Russian submarine She's old, rusty, noisy, I think a little leaky also, but I've put money into her as well”
”A submarine?” Rexinus's voice quavered
”And torpedoes - two of them Should have been three, but one asted At least we knoorks I had a slight probleentleman and I fear he bends his elbow a shade too eted one of my own cruise liners He tells me that he didn't know the torpedo tubes were loaded, or whatever the expression is My shi+p escaped with a little daht have fired the man - preferably from one of his own torpedo tubes - but I think we can trust hihly this tirunted, and Tarn repeated, ”Maurice?”
”Yes, Max, we can trust him now I don't relish the job, but I'll be with hihed ”It's a terrible thing when a s onto people he pays to do specialist jobs - pays handso to”
”You're going to watch the display froht help Flicka and Bond
”Not quite frorandstand view I shall watch it all frorand old fortress they call El Morro If you behave yourself, I ht even let you coood idea I'll leave you to the interesting charirls You think Beth would like to play with this one, Anna?”
Anna gave a sound that lay soh ”Beth would love to play with hi first She likes pulling the wings off flies” There was soly sinister in the way she said it, and Bond reached for his weapon, turning as though to put his shoulder to the door, but Flicka caught his arht It was his old trouble, guilt froain He looked down at Flicka, gave a sad little s from the main cabin ”This chart,” Tarn said ”Heedto have to follow my instructions to the letter You will leave this berth at seven o'clock toht On the dot of seven, so that you will reach here” He was obviously showing Rexinus a point on the chart, and aloud he gave a latitude and longitude ”This will bring you to within one nautical ins to spread, you will take Mare Nostruin to operate the AAOPS If I recall our previous conversations correctly, you will be able to move quite close to the center of both the fire and oil spill Did you not explain that to reened ”I think we'll take her for a run out toh the drill”
Good, Bond considered, he's going to make a dash for it