Carte Blanche - Jeffery Deaver [167]
The plaintive baritone call of a horn reached up to them from the harbour.
Bond wondered if its source was one of the ships delivering food.
Or perhaps it was from a tour boat bringing people back from the prison museum on nearby Robben Island where people like Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma – all of whom had become presidents of South Africa – had been locked away for so many hard years during apartheid.
Or maybe the horn was from a cruise ship preparing to depart for other ports of call, summoning tired passengers, carrying bags of clingfilm-wrapped biltong, pinotage wine and ANC black, green and yellow tea towels, along with their tourist impressions of this complicated country.
Bond gestured to the waiter, who proffered menus. As the policewoman took one, her wounded arm brushed his elbow briefly. And they shared a smile, which was slightly less brief.
Yet despite the personal truth-and-reconciliation occurring between them at the moment, Bond knew that, when dinner concluded, he would put her into a taxi to take her to Bo-Kaap, and return to his room to pack for his flight to London tomorrow morning.
He knew this, as Kwalene Nkosi would say, without doubt.
Oh, the idea of a woman who was perfectly attuned to him, with whom he could share all secrets – could share his life – appealed to James Bond and had proved comforting and sustaining in the past. But in the end, he now realised, such a woman, indeed any woman, could occupy but a small role in the peculiar reality in which he lived. After all, he was a man whose purpose found him constantly on the move, from place to place, and his survival and peace of mind required that this transit be fast, relentlessly fast, so that he might overtake prey and outpace pursuer.
And, if he correctly recalled the poem Philly Maidenstone had so elegantly quoted, travelling fast meant travelling forever alone.
GLOSSARY
AIVD: Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst. The Netherlands security service, focusing on intelligence gathering and combating internal, non-military threats.
BIA: Bezbednosno-informativna Agencija. The Serbian foreign intelligence and internal security agency.
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency. The main foreign intelligence gathering and espionage organisation of the United States. Ian Fleming reportedly played a role in the founding of the CIA. During the Second World War, he penned an extensive memo on creating and running an espionage operation for General William ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, head of America’s Office of Strategic Services. Donovan was instrumental in the formation of OSS’s successor, the CIA.
COBRA: Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. A senior-level crisis-response committee in the United Kingdom, usually headed by the prime minister or other high-ranking government official and composed of individuals whose jobs are relevant to a particular threat facing the nation. Although the name usually includes, in the media at least, a reference to Conference Room A in the main Cabinet Office building in Whitehall, it could convene in any meeting room.
CCID: Crime Combating and Investigation Division of the South African Police Service (see below): The major investigative unit. It specialises primarily in serious crimes, such as murder, rape and terrorism.
DI: Defence Intelligence. The British military’s intelligence operation.
Division Three: A fictional security organ of the British government based in Thames House. Loosely affiliated with the Security Service (see below), Division Three engages in tactical and operational missions within the UK’s borders to investigate and neutralise threats.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation. The main domestic security agency in the United States,