Devil May Care

street. It was a farce. Of course, the chador was only ever a city phenomenon. Country women had their own clothes and didn’t cover their faces anyway. Persian women today are very … What’s the word I read in all the London papers nowadays? “Liberated”! After dinner, I’ll show you what I mean. Your good health.’
    Darius raised his glass and Bond lifted his in return. He thought back to his lengthy sabbatical and the doubts about his future that had troubled him in Rome. It seemed a long time ago. Darius Alizadeh’s company was enough to extinguish any sense of uncertainty. Merely sitting next to him was like being plugged into a high-voltage power source. Darius would be paid modestly by the Service for his work in Tehran, Bond thought – though his house suggested family wealth, or at least happy dealings on the stock exchange, which had perhaps made the salary unimportant. In any case, Bond saw in Darius a kindred spirit, someone who was prepared to risk his life not for money but for the thrill of the game.
    Thinking of Rome brought to mind Mrs Larissa Rossi, as he had first known her. Bond never allowed personal sentiment to influence his work, but it would be foolish to deny that the urgency of his mission for M, and for his country, was made more intense by his recollection of the tears he had seen Scarlett shed when she spoke of Gorner’s treatment of her sister.
    The black-haired waitress bent over the table once more. This time she put down an iron pan still spitting from theflame, containing sautéed shrimps with herbs and tamarind. Then came a flat earthenware dish piled up with concentric layers – orange, green, white and scarlet – like a multicoloured volcano on the point of erupting. It seemed amazing that something so exotic and bright could have been conjured from the darkness at the back of this subterranean room.
    ‘ Javaher polow, ’ said Darius. ‘Jewelled rice. The layers are orange peel, saffron, barberries and – I forget what else. Anyway, it tastes almost as good as it looks. Nush-e Jan! ’
    ‘Same to you,’ said Bond. ‘Now, Darius, is there anything more I need to know about Gorner? For instance, where to find him.’
    Darius looked serious for a moment. ‘You won’t need to look, James. He’ll find you. He has more spies out there than Savak. It wouldn’t surprise me if the car on our tail was one of his. He has an office in Tehran, which is connected with his pharmaceutical business. It’s near Ferdowsi Square. I’m pretty certain he’s got something going on in the Caspian as well. But it’s very hard to get near him there. It looks like a boat-building yard, nothing more than that. It’s in Noshahr, which is a smart resort. It’s a Shemiran-sur-Mer, where the richer people from Tehran go in the summer to escape the heat and fumes. The Shah has a summer palace there. But it’s got commercial docks as well and that’s where we think Gorner has some secret activity. As for his main base, that’s somewhere in the desert.’
    ‘Do we know where?’ said Bond.
    Darius shook his head. ‘Nobody knows. He’s a hard man to track down. He has at least two small planes and a helicopter as well, I think. Savak, if you know who I mean –’
    ‘I know them by reputation,’ said Bond. ‘Your very ownsecret police, trained by Mossad and the CIA, with Israeli ruthlessness and American guile.’
    ‘Indeed. They’re not something we’re always proud of, James, but … Anyway, Mossad dispatched a four-man squad to Bam, on the southern edge of the desert, with a brief merely to search from there and send back photographs or details of any desert hideout or unusual activity.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Nothing came back.’
    ‘Nothing? Not even the men?’
    ‘Nothing. Well, to be strictly accurate, a parcel came back, addressed to Savak headquarters in Tehran, postmarked Bam. It contained two tongues and a hand.’
    ‘Delightful,’ said Bond.
    ‘Characteristic,’ said Darius.
    The waitress leaned over the low table to take away the plates. She was barefoot, with a long blue linen dress whose bodice was inlaid with small golden sequins and mother-of-pearl decorations. It was cut modestly across the top, though low enough to give Bond a close-up of her golden skin as she bent over him. She smiled in a natural, unembarrassed way as she drew herself up.
    A few minutes later she brought a bottle of French wine with bowls of stuffed peppers, aubergine and tomatoes.