Devil May Care - Sebastian Faulks [76]
Gorner walked back to the electric cart. ‘After all,’
he said, as the driver engaged the forward gear and they set off towards the open steel doors, ‘you won’t have to do the difficult bit. You won’t have to land it.’
Bond was relieved to be back in the cell. He checked with his fingers that the slivers of windscreen glass were still under the sand, then turned to Scarlett. He said, ‘I’m sorry about the parade. The walkway.’
Scarlett looked down. ‘It’s all right. I . . . I survived.’
‘We need to make a move now,’ said Bond. ‘Before it’s too late. Come closer so I can talk to you quietly. We should make it look as though I’m comforting you.’
Scarlett crawled across the sand and leaned against his chest. She turned her face up to his. She looked exactly as she had on the first night he had seen her in Rome. She said softly, ‘Did you see me? You know. On the walkway?’
‘No. I turned my back. I didn’t want to look. One day, Scarlett.’
‘If we get out of here, my darling, you can look all you want.’
Bond smiled. ‘Where do you think Gorner’s keeping Poppy? Did she ever say anything about her quarters or where they are?’
‘No. But I’m sure that as soon as he saw me, he decided to keep her out of sight. He clearly doesn’t want to talk about her.’
Bond drew in a deep, tight breath. ‘Scarlett, we’re going to have to leave Poppy behind. We won’t have time to find her. I’m going to go on that plane and you have to be with me. If I leave you, Gorner will throw you to the workers.’
‘No, I can’t do that,’ said Scarlett. ‘I came here to rescue my sister and I’m not leaving without her.’
‘No, you didn’t,’ said Bond. ‘You came here to be near at hand while I rescued her.’
‘Don’t split hairs with me, James. Poppy is my twin, my own flesh and blood, and I’m not leaving here without her.’
‘Please try not to be emotional, Scarlett. Just consider the facts. If we can stop Gorner today, then as early as tomorrow we can get people in here to close the plant and rescue her. Police, the army, everyone.’
‘No, James, I – ’
‘Be quiet.’ Bond raised his voice. ‘In the mayhem, Gorner’s not going to be thinking about Poppy. She’s just another girl on the walkway to him. He’ll have bigger fish to fry. He’ll be thinking of his money, his plant, his machinery, his future. He won’t have time to worry about one girl, however dear to you she may be.’
Scarlett turned her back on him. ‘You cold bastard,’ she said. ‘I should never have trusted you.’
She lowered her face into her hands, knelt down on the sand and sobbed.
‘ The fact is,’ said Bond, flatly, ‘that Poppy’s best chance lies with you and me. If we can get out safely and bring down Gorner, she’ll be all right. But tonight, my dear Scarlett, we have to leave without her.’
Almost five minutes passed in silence before Scarlett finally lifted her head and turned her tearstreaked face up to him. He saw submission in her swollen features and lifted her gently to her feet. She put her mouth to his ear. ‘I suppose you may be right,’ she said sullenly, ‘but do you have any idea how to do it? How to get me out before they . . . before the workers take me and – and – kill me?’
‘Move slowly round and put your fingers against mine,’ said Bond. ‘Can you feel something sharp?’
‘Yes.’
‘ Twist yourself so it’s against the rope on your wrist, then slowly start to rub. I don’t know if there really is a camera up there – I suspect not – but we can take no chances.’
It took Scarlett almost two hours of imperceptible movement to fray the nylon cord sufficiently to break it before she set to work at the knots that secured Bond’s wrists.
‘Do you have an ear for music, Scarlett?’
‘I used to play the violin and the piano. My father was very keen on it. Russians love music. It makes them cry. Why do you ask?’
‘If I could sing to you or hum a sequence of five notes, could you work out what numbers from one to nine they might represent?’
‘I might.’
‘Lay your head on my shoulder.’
In the course of the next hour Bond transferred into Scarlett’s mind the sequence