Devil May Care - Sebastian Faulks [66]
‘What speed?’ said M.
‘I think you’d better sit down for this bit, sir,’ said the chief of staff. ‘It can do four hundred kilometres an hour.’
‘What?’
‘Yes. That’s two hundred and fifty miles per – ’
‘I know exactly how fast it is,’ said M. ‘But what the hell is it doing in Persia?’
‘Well, Pistachio is only relying on word of mouth from a driver who took 007 to the docks, so we can’t really say. But it doesn’t look good. Particularly if it’s been modified.’
M puffed heavily at his pipe. ‘Well, I trust Pistachio. Did you get that sample he sent back analysed? The
bag of stuff from Noshahr that came in this morning?’
‘Yes. It’s pure heroin. If heroin can ever be ‘‘pure’’. Bound for . . . Well, God knows. It looks as though it was bound for Russia. In the Ekranoplan.’
‘ That means Gorner has some deal with the Russians. They’ll traffic the heroin on to the West through Eastern Europe. Maybe through the Baltic states. Estonia, probably.’
‘I’m rather afraid it looks that way, sir.’
M went over to the window again. With his back to the chief of staff, he said, ‘I don’t think that’s the whole story, though. I don’t believe it’s only commercial, just a drug deal – however enormous. The Americans are pouring people into Persia at the moment.’
‘Don’t they always?’
‘Yes. But not like this. I haven’t seen such panic in the Middle East since that man Philby surfaced in Beirut. The people in Langley know something big’s going on.’
‘Are things any better between us and Langley?’
said the chief of staff.
M shook his head. ‘Still cool, I’m afraid. It’s Vietnam that’s the problem. Until the politicians can see eye to eye on that or until we send some troops, there’ll be this degree of . . . reserve.’
‘You mean that as far as Persia’s concerned, we’re both in crash dive but we’re not talking to each other.’
M sighed heavily. ‘ That’s about the size of it, Bill. That’s why we so badly need to hear from 007.’
‘What about 004? Any word?’
‘Not a squeak. What really worries me is what I’m getting from Washington. Pretty much every spare agent is being shipped off to Tehran. Even some in semi-retirement. It’s all hands on deck.’
‘And we don’t really know why. There’s something 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