Devil May Care

they’re not telling us.’
    M nodded silently.
    Eventually, after a heavy silence, the chief of staff said, ‘If Gorner has some deal with the Russians so that he can use their Ekranoplan to transport his heroin, then he has to be repaying them in some way.’
    ‘Not just money,’ said M. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’
    ‘I believe that’s my job, sir,’ said the chief of staff.
    M put down his pipe on the desk and pressed a switch on the intercom. ‘Moneypenny,’ he said. ‘Get me the prime minister.’

14. The End of the World
    ‘It’s as well for you my hands are tied, Gorner,’ said Bond. He spat the words.
    ‘Tough talk, Bond, but I don’t think my men would let me come to much harm.’ Gorner nodded towards the two armed guards at the door. ‘Don’t you want to look at your little girlfriend? Everyone else is. And by the sound of it, they like her a lot.’
    Bond glanced through the window. Scarlett was running the gauntlet naked along the glass walkway, trying to preserve her modesty with her hands while an armed guard prodded her with a rifle butt and the slave workers roared their approval from below.
    ‘Kill Gorner,’ Poppy had told him. ‘Just kill him.’ Bond would have to wait for his moment, he thought, but when it came, he would relish it.
    ‘Don’t worry about the girls,’ said Gorner. ‘They’re just human flotsam. The kind of people your Empire found expendable.’
    Bond swore succinctly.
    ‘And if you find it so distasteful,’ said Gorner, now fully back in control and obviously enjoying himself, ‘you can return to your cell.’
    Gorner beckoned to the guard and gave him a brief instruction in Farsi. ‘We’ll send your little girlfriend in to join you later, Bond. We won’t let the men have her tonight. I want to build up their appetite first.’
    ∗
    In the solitude of the cell, Bond tried to form a plan of escape. It was possible that he could jump a guard and take his gun, but not until he had somehow loosened the nylon ropes that were biting into his wrists. Even then, he didn’t want to do anything until he had the basis of a plan for getting himself, Scarlett and Poppy out of Gorner’s lair.
    In the meantime, he thought his interests were better served by doing as Gorner said. Sooner or later Gorner would have to disclose the details of his proposed ‘military intervention’, and then Bond, given a chance, would at least be in a position to pass a worthwhile message back to London, or to Darius in Tehran. It was probable that he would die in the process, but if he could somehow get word back that enabled defences to be put in place, then at least he would have done his job.
    Eight hours passed with no food, no water and no sign of Scarlett. Bond was dozing fitfully when he was summoned back to Gorner’s office at gunpoint. This time, Chagrin was standing next to his master.
    ‘You’re going on an exercise, Bond,’ said Gorner. ‘You can view it as a kind of reconnaissance before the main action. Sometimes these preliminaries can be as dangerous as the real thing, however. You may not survive, but it will amuse me to see what you’re made of. And I’m sure it’ll be good for you. You’ll learn a lot. I’m going to place you in the care of Chagrin, my most trusted lieutenant.’
    The man in the kepi stepped forward at the sound of his name. He then muttered something to the guard, who clicked his heels and left.
    ‘I think it’s time you knew a little more about Chagrin,’ said Gorner. ‘His real name is Pham Sinh Quoc. He fought for the Viet Minh. He was a dedicated Communist soldieragainst the French. When the French colonized Indo-China they sent many nuns and missionaries. Religion was not good enough for the great lay Republic of France at home, where church and state had been separate since 1789, but they always exported Catholicism to the little coloured people whose land they stole. I suppose it eased their conscience.’
    The guard, accompanied by three others, had returned with a gibbering workman in a grey uniform. The man fell to his knees, clearly terrified of what lay in wait.
    ‘When Chagrin and his comrades came to a village in the north where the children had been listening to Bible classes, they used to tear out the tongue of the preacher with a pair of pliers. Then he couldn’t preach any more. That’s what we still do to people who talk too much.’
    Gorner nodded to Chagrin, who took a pair of chopsticks