Part 20 (1/2)
She clung to hioodbye for the last ti Ja, remember?”
”I'll be there, with a s intact”
”I''s in working order I'd hate you to be encumbered with prosthetic body parts like Felix”
Minutes later he retrieved the car fro out of San Juan, taking the most direct road across the island to Ponce
Flicka pulled herself together once he had left the hotel She even cursed herself During the years she had spent with Swiss Intelligence and security services she had been known for her cool and decisive courage Now that Bond was in her life she seemed to have lost some of that calm reserve, and she was not overjoyed by the lapse She presu to do with her body chemistry, for Fredericka von Grusse had to admit she had never, in her entire life, loved a ht as she began to undress, he really only has until nine in theThen I'll make such a fuss that London and the Aroup if necessary
She went into the bathroom, pulled a shower cap over her hair, and surrendered to the soothing ater When she eventually turned off the shower, she reached fro out
She screairl called Beth They stood just inside the bathroom door, and Beth held the Beretta that Flicka had left with her clothes on the bed
”Honey, you're all alone here Thought we'd keep you co her unpleasantly ”It's okay,” she continued ”Maurice has to go out, but I can keep you company until your friend coful of air ”He isn't co back” She kept her voice level
”A likely tale If I was a man, there's no way I'd leave a sweet piece like you on your own”
”Please yourself But he's not coone?” Goodwin eyed her lecherously ”I need to know, Fraulein von Grusse, and I need to know fast Beth here is clever at inflicting pain She's one?”
”Off the island If you want to knoe've had what you -out He stormed out of the hotel and said he wouldn't be back”
”You tellin' the truth, honey?” Beth came toward her Close up she was a little older than Flicka had thought Late thirties Her fingers were heavy with rings and her eyes looked red and sore, like so, flicking froh she had the extraordinary vision of a chameleon
”You tellin' the truth, honey?” she repeated, and before Flicka had a chance to reply, Beth's right hand whipped back and slapped her full and hard on the cheek, the heavy rings scraping at her flesh and knocking her head sideways
She fell against the wall, steadied herself, and tried not to sho much the blow had hurt her ”Talk to htly slurred note, and it crossed Flicka's
”I've told you -” Her words were cut off by another stinging, pain-drenched slap This time harder, and followed by an even heavier backhander to her other cheek
Taken by surprise, and stark naked from the shower, there was little she could do, but she had to fight back Turning her body to present a set, she launched herself toward the wo at her assailant's neck It was like hitting a solid punching bag and only seeed hand caught her hard with two heavy blows to the breasts
”Talk to one?”
”I don'tTruly, I don't know”
”The truth, honey The truth shall set you free, that's what's in the Good Book Now, set yourself free” The hand rose again, and this time Flicka could hardly see from the pain that saturated her face The backhander that followed almost made her black out, but she could still hear the voice, inti and relentless ”The truth, honey, just tell me the truth, then we can all have some real fun”
She heard her own voice fro way off ”I've told you the truth I don't -”
The pain again Noas as if she were living in her own private world of agony, though the voice of her conscience repeated to her again and again: Don't tell the Keep James safe
She felt for the corner of the ith her feet and tried to push herself toward Beth, hands bunched into fists, striking out for the woet, another blow sent her sprawling back onto the floor
”Talk to me, bitch”
”I really don't know Stop I don't”
She prayed for the darkness of unconsciousness or even death, and knew that at least one of her cheekbones was almost certainly broken The hands of this black horror, reinforced by the heavy rings, were like pieces of steel The hurt filling her life
Again: ”The truth shall set you free, honey Where's he gone?”
Then one ht She felt blood wet on her cheek and running down her nose, while Beth's voice sounded distorted ”Tell me the truth, bitch” Crack A whole avalanche of torment A nu fro dark tunnel
”You've done it again, Beth She's out”
Flicka could hardly uess she tellin' the truth You've seen this before, Mo -”
”Don't call me Mo The name's Maurice”
”She don't knohere he is, that's for sure”
”Then we'd better get her out of here Take her to Max's place You can work on her quietly there, just in case you're wrong”
”I', baby You know that She tellin' the truth, so why don' I just set her free here and now?”
”No Let's get her across the island You've got the white coats in the car Let's do it Let's”
The voices faded as Flicka slipped deeper into the co, nor could she understand anything
Bond drove fast, but with great concentration His conscience was already pricking hiht They should have called in Passed the whole business over to their superiors and got out, knowing that Tarn and hiswith the deployht forces
Yet a part of hilory? A reluctance to give up the life of danger for a desk and the boredo other people to this kind of work?
Then he switched his lanced at the dashboard digital clock Ten PM; he had eleven hours, and if nobody was guarding the submarine he could set his little jewels For a couple of seconds he wondered what intuition had made him ask Ann Reilly for these particular items Each consisted of two pounds of plastique explosive, a recently developed substance with three times the effect of See, especially if it were placed in the right spots The heat it generated, for one thing, had the power of a therh it were butter
Pushed into the two-pound blocks of plastique was a fuse with the latest in electronic ti devices Small, with tiny powerful batteries, the fuse could be set like the mechaniser than an A a tiny screwdriver, over a twenty-four-hour period Now, he had plans for these deadly devices, and once they were set, theto find the submarine All he could do was hope and pray that the sub had been left unguarded that night