by John Gardner
`Because of Paris?" `Maybe. We sincerely hope not, but maybe.
No, he really has nowhere else to go." `Not even back to Schloss Drache?" `Most certainly not back to Schloss Drache. The German police have that tied up, and his sister, the rose-growing Maeve Horton, is being questioned..
`Has she talked?" It was Tanner who replied. `Unfortunately she won't say a thing. I understand that she's screaming bloody murder and asking for lawyers.
She just will not say a word about her brother. By the way, there's one odd thing about Charles and William that you might not know." `I know they were trained bodyguards." `Yes, they were, but also trained nurses. They'd seen action in some of the best high-class mental institutions in the world." Nobody spoke. The silence twisted around the room. Bond glanced at Fredericka, and she raised her eyebrows at him. Finally he opened his mouth.
`Basically, what you're saying is that you'd like us to do a trick that I've had to perform several times before?" `And what trick would that be, James?" Coolly, from M.
`The one where I go out and play at being a tethered goat. A target for the crazy Dragonpol." M nodded like a Buddha. `That was the general idea. You won't, of course, be in any danger..
`Of course not." `Gianne-Franco `5 ladies and gentlemen will always be near at hand." He smiled his foxy smile.
`There's no danger at all." `If you'll forgive the expression, sir, balls." M grunted. `Ideally,' he continued as though Bond had never spoken, `ideally it would be nice for you and Fraulein von Grusse to take in a bit of sightseeing together, here in Milan, and then, when Gianne-Franco tips you the wink, in Athens.
But I cannot order you to do that. I can ask you, James, but I really can't even ask Fraulein von Grusse for she is a completely,free agent." `With respect again, sir, there's no such thing as a free agent.
`Oh, there is in Fraulein von Grusse's case, but she probably doesn't even know about it yet." He turned to Fredericka with the look of a saint. `Has your former service been in touch, Fraulein?" `No, sir." `They will be. As of yesterday you ceased to work for them.
Discharged for acts prejudicial to good order and discipline, etc.
Fredericka gave a little, `Oh,' and looked as though she might burst into tears.
`However, I can offer you a job." `A job? With your service?" `Naturally. My Chief of Staff brought along the necessary forms, just in case you fancied coming aboard.
`And if I took the job, I would remain on the current assignment with Captain Bond?" `Officially, Captain Bond is on leave awaiting the result of a board of enquiry, but as he well knows that's a bit of a bluff." It was Bond's turn to grunt.
`Well, my dear, what do you say? You and Captain Bond seem to make a nice team. When this business is over, we have plans for reorganization. You could be a great asset to us." `I would still work with Jam-Captain Bond?" `A consummation devoutly to be wished, to quote the Bard." `Then I'll take the job, sir." `Good. Then you'll both go and do some sightseeing, yes?" `Give us the guidebook, sir." Bond knew it was no good arguing. `But what happens if we haven't got him after his stay in Athens?" `Do not even think about that, James." M had gone deathly serious, all good humour dropping away like a snake shedding its skin. `If you have to go on to Paris, then we're all in trouble.
The target there is unmistakable, and refuses to alter plans.
We have four days before Mr Dragonpol's one possible kill on this particular outing." `Don't you mean three possible kills?" Bill Tanner asked.
`One or three, it's all the same. If it came to that, we would face a terrible decision, and the target for Paris just will not budge." `Then Fli Fraulein von Grusse and I will have to drag him out either here or in Athens, sir." `Your head's in a noose if you don't, 007 M, Bond thought, was all heart.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
Before they left, Bill Tanner produced an expensive-looking briefcase, `With the armourer's compliments, James. He says there's nothing new or special. But he claimed you'd know what to do with it." Bond nodded and treated the case as though it contained gold bullion.
M, looking very serious, delivered the final instructions. `We'll stay here until it's all over, but you must not attempt to contact anyone, unless there is another death, of course. This man is very dangerous and, if it weren't for the Security Service's involvement, we'd have left it all to the police. Give it three days here,' he said. `Three, and three only. In fact, I think you should reserve seats on a flight to Athens, and do it as openly as possible. Go about your business, loiter, behave as tourists, but do not look for our own people, or Gianne-Franco's ladies and gentlemen. They'll be there.
Just try to be unaware of them. Your focus must be on Dragonpol, and he's likely to be doing aLon Chaney." `What is Lon Chaney?" Fredericka asked, and Bond explained that he was a famous movie actor of the twenties and thirties. `Man of a Thousand Faces." `So, why don't you just say Dragonpol will probably be in disguise?" `You have a very literal mind, Fraulein von Grusse,' M smiled. `I like that in a woman.
All right, Dragonpol will probably be in disguise; and he's the only one you have to look out for. When, and if, you do spot him, your job is to lead him to a place of your choosing. Somewhere public, where Gianne-Franco's people can take him. I want him alive, James, you understand?" He understood all right. He also understood that Dragonpol would probably be harder to spot than Gianne-Franco Orsini's watchers.
Now Bond sat close to Fredericka in the back of a cab with the unopened briefcase between his knees. It was very late.
`I feel naked." She leaned towards him, half whispering. The taxi was an ordinary saloon and had no partition, so the driver had already tried to make light conversation, first in Italian, and later in fractured English. They had pretended to know neither.
The Italian driver with the pickpocket's eyes had taken them along the lake, dropping them off in Como itself, where, for a few hours, they forgot the dangers lurking in the shadowy world in which they now found themselves. `I never thought I'd end up as some kind of superdetective,' Bond said with the hint of a smile.
`What they call a hardboiled dick, eh?" `If you say so.
Hand in hand they wandered around like young lovers, even buying the kind of souvenirs they would normally not touch with a barge pole: little pots and ashtrays with `Lake Como' printed on them, and a pen and ink drawing of Como.
At one point, Fredericka slipped away, returning with a small box containing a pair of exquisite cufflinks: narrow strips of what looked like woven gold with a large clasp at each end. Bond opened his gift as they sat outside a small bar. She sipped a Campari and he nursed his usual vodka martini.
His pleasure in the gift was like that of a small child on Christmas morning. `People don't often actually give me presents,' he said, then told her to stay where she was as he strolled off up the street.
He returned with a gold ring containing a magnificent sapphire, in a claw setting, surrounded by a circlet of diamonds.
`Oh, James, you darling man." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. `Please, you put it on my finger." She stretched out her left hand and indicated the third finger. For a moment he hesitated, then took her right hand, whispering, `Not until this is all over.
Tenderly, almost erotically, he slipped it on to the third finger of her right hand. `I don't want to tempt fate. Women with whom I get deeply involved have a tendency to meet what bad novelists call an untimely end.
He kissed her gently, and they walked down to the lakeside where they found a small restaurant.
The sky was like velvet, speckled with stars. Out on the lake there seemed to be a thousand lights from the small coracle-like fishing boats which trawl the waters of Lake Como and the neighbouring Maggiore.
It was a night of magic, and during dinner they spoke to each other more with their eyes than voices.
Then, suddenly it was over, and they were haggling with a cab driver over the price of a ride back to Milan.
`I sti
ll feel naked,' she said.
`Soon you will be." `No. No, I didn't mean that. I feel we're going back into a war zone and I'm not armed.
`We can probably change that." He indicated the briefcase which he lifted on to his lap, taking care their driver could not see them through his mirror.
Inside the case were documents, a couple of files, and a diary, but that was mere window dressing. He touched the hidden pressure points and lifted out the false bottom to reveal a pair of weapons, ammunition and two holsters: a shoulder rig for himself, and a thigh strap for Fredericka.
The guns were Browning 10 mm automatic pistols. Both were loaded, and the false bottom of the briefcase contained a shielded partition which meant it could be safely carried through any security checks.
Keeping the pistols below the driver's sight lines, Fredericka transferred one to her shoulder bag while Bond stuck his into his waist band, behind his right hip.
`Like carrying a cannon,' she whispered.
`They're not peashooters. These things're real stoppers. The FBI are using them now instead of the old 9 mm." They pulled up in front of the Palace at a little after midnight.
As he paid off the driver, Bond spotted at least two of the Italian team. He did not notice the smart Englishman who was out for a late stroll, still wearing slacks and a navy blue blazer, striding out with the aid of his walking stick which sported a brass duck's head as its handle.
At reception, the duty manager smiled at them and spoke in his near flawless English. `Mr and Mrs Bond. A nice surprise for you.
Your sister, Mr Bond. She has arrived earlier this evening.
Naturally I allowed her to wait in your room. She's there now, and said you'd be delighted to see her." `Your sister?" Fredericka asked once they were in the elevator cage.
He shook his head. `I'm an only child. Could even be friend Dragonpol in drag. He's done it before the Russian in Paris." At the door to their room, he cautioned her to wait, flat against the wall to one side. Then, slipping the lock he went in, crouching low, the pistol ready at his side.
`I'm sorry to arrive like this." Carmel Chantry sat in the one easy chair facing the door. She was dressed in a white silk suit and looked as though she had just stepped from the pages of Vogue.
The introductions were embarrassingly stilted, with Fredericka watching Carmel's every move, speaking only when necessary.
`Your Chief asked me to come,' Carmel began.
`I went through everything with him, and his people in London.. ` `Yes, he told me." Bond was also suspicious and wary of this sudden intrusion. `He gave me a rundown on what you had said.
Carmel shook her head. `I have to tell you, face to face, James.
You see I did not tell your people everything. This afternoon, my conscience Well, I felt bad about it, so I got in touch with your office. They put me through to your Chief and I gave him the gist of what I had left out. He told me to contact you, tell you everything.
You see, I might possibly be able to lead you to David. To Dragonpol." `Really?" Fredericka remained cool and distant. `How could you do that, His ... er ... Chancy?" `Chantry,' Carmel said with a sweetness that could have withered flowers.
They raided the bulging mini-bar again and opened a couple of half bottles of wine, drinking while Carmel Chantry told her story.
`When they debriefed me-after the business at Brown's Hotel I was quite frightened,' she began. `I knew far more than I even told you, so I let them have a little of it." `According to my Chief, you said that it was Laura who broke off the engagement." `Yes, that was part of it. What I didn't tell him was that I really became quite close to Laura, and to David. I visited the castle with her several times.
Got to know David and Maeve quite well. Yes, it was Laura who broke it off..
`You were with her that weekend?" `No. No, I didn't go, though she asked me to come along as moral support. The point was that David finally told her there was a history of mental instability in his family. He even confessed the full reason for giving up acting. David Dragonpol had a complete nervous breakdown. During the year before he announced his retirement he had twice gone through memory losses, and on occasions, he would completely lose control of his temper." `And?" `He was afraid. Very frightened of what might happen, but he did hope that Laura would help him. He felt that, with her as his wife, he could return to normality. He really needed care and treatment.
`He wasn't getting treatment?" `Only a self-imposed treatment. He had a pair of male nurses...
`We met them,' Fredericka murmured.
`A pair of male nurses who were with him, or near him, at all times. Also he had a secure room built into the Great Tower at Schloss Drache `We saw that as well.
`When he began to get hyperactive, or there were signs that he was about to go into what he called one of his "lost phases", they would take him up to the secure room in the tower and make sure he was looked after and kept safe. But Laura couldn't take the strain. They really did care for each other, and they wanted children, though when she found out the extent of his condition, she knew the engagement had to be broken off as soon as possible. David was fine for ninety percent of the time, but the other ten percent was truly frightening. And it was dangerous. There's no doubt about that, it was very dangerous." `So the only new things you're telling us are that you know him quite well and that it was Laura who broke off the engagement? You've told nobody else about your side of the relationship?" She gave a little nod. `I knew him very well. Too well, in fact, and he knew me, in all senses. He also knew about my ... well, my preferences. Laura never had any idea that there was a kind of relationship between David and myself, but I went out to see him the weekend after she broke it off.
He was becoming very hyperactive. Charles that was one of the nurses-said he was concerned.
David had begun saying that if he couldn't have Laura, nobody else would. James, I knew he had killed Laura as soon as I heard the news of her death. I then got worried that he might just come after me.`So why are you really here, Carmel? You haven't flown all the way to Milan, just to unburden your soul, and make your confession to me." `No. I think this all has to end. I talked to Maeve on the telephone before I spoke to your Chief. I have a pretty good idea where David will be." `Then tell us, and we can do something about it." She shook her head again. `No. I don't want him hurt, or hunted down." `He won't be hurt. The orders are to get him alive." `He won't know that, nor will he believe it. But I can probably lead you to him. If anyone can talk him down, I can. Maeve never could. Laura was good with him, but I can really do the trick." `So what do you propose?" `I'm going to try to contact him. Then I'll bring him to you. I'll arrange things so that he'll suspect nothing, and I'll bring him to somewhere open; a public place." `You really think you can do this?" `I'm a hundred percent certain I can." `Where do you plan to spend the night?" Fredericka asked, making it perfectly clear that she wanted the girl out of their room.
`I have somewhere. It's okay, I'm going now. I'll be in touch tomorrow: probably some time in the afternoon. If I'm lucky, I'll have got hold of him and talked him into a meeting with you." There was silence for a full minute, then Bond asked, `Carmel, what's your true relationship with him?" `With David? I suppose I'm now like a sister different to Maeve, because she could never control him. I can calm David when the going gets rough for him. It really works. I can influence him in a way that neither Maeve nor the nurses ever could nor Laura really." She gave a bitter little laugh. `I suppose he looks on me as a sister, and, as such, I am my brother's keeper." `Do we trust her?" Fredericka asked after Carmel Chantry had left.
`We have no other option." `I don't buy her whole story." `Neither do I. But we can't check her out, and we re on our own. I suggest that, in the morning, we do what we've been told to do. We go out and behave as though nothing has happened. We buy ourselves tickets on the first flight out to Athens on Thursday which will give us the full three days.
Maybe we can take one of the Scala tours a
s well.
Then we come back here and wait. If Carmel doesn't get in touch by, say, three tomorrow afternoon, then we go out again. Show ourselves, and hope that we spot him before anything desperate happens." Below them, Carmel Chantry walked slowly across the foyer of the Palace Hotel. She wore a stylish white, belted, thin trenchcoat that had cost her a fortune in Paris.
Outside, the doorman asked if she wanted a cab.
`No,' she nodded to him, looking left and right up and down the street. Even at this time in the morning there was still a fair drizzle of traffic. `No, I'm waiting for someone.
`I'll stay out here, until your friend arrives, signorina." The doorman thought she might possibly be a high-class whore, and he was really letting her know that she should move on.
Five minutes later, she saw the car flash its headlights as it approached. When it came to a stop, the doorman ran across to open the passenger-side door for her. She tipped him with a smile.
`It worked?" the driver asked as she settled next to him.
`I did just as you told me. They bought most of it, I think." He nodded, put the car in gear and smoothly pulled out into the traffic.
`Then we only have to draw all the threads together.
`You think it's going to work?" `I hope so. It's a last chance.
Possibly the only chance we're going to get. Thank you for coming at such short notice." She looked at him in the dim light. Nobody would recognize him now, dressed and disguised as he was. He had become an expert in disguise, and had learned a great deal, she thought.
Glancing towards the rear of the car, she saw the long walking stick with the brass duck's head handle.
`You brought it then,' she said.
`As a last resort, yes. For proof, if necessary." `And you'd use it?" `Only if I have to. If there's no other way.