For Special Services by John Gardner

Author:John Gardner [Gardner, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781409135630
Google: PjYEXhgaankC
Amazon: 1409135632
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1982-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

14

REPELLENT INSECTS

The VP70 automatic was in Bond’s hand as he reached the door of Cedar’s cabin, seconds after the first scream.

His right leg came up in a vicious kick, smashing the handle and almost ripping the door back from its hinges. Bond jumped into the doorway, then to one side, the VP70 in the double-hand grip and the word ‘Freeze’ already on his lips.

But there was only Cedar, standing in the bedroom doorway, shrinking back in revulsion, her body shaking with fear.

Bond crossed the living room. He grasped her shoulder, ready to fire at anything – animal, reptile, or man – inside the bedroom.

Then, he also took an involuntary step back. The room was alive with them – large, dark, creeping, and malevolent ants. They covered the floor, walls, ceiling. The bed itself had turned black, a constantly moving sea of the creatures.

There were hundreds of them, the smallest a good inch in length, squirming together, fighting to get to the bed where the dummy was now a dark seething lump.

Bond slammed the door, behind them, then looked to see how much space remained between it and the floor.

‘Harvesters, I think, Cedar. Harvester ants. Out of their environment and looking for food.’

If they were Harvesters, Bond thought, they had not come in by accident. Harvesters live in arid areas and store seeds for food. They could never have drifted in from the desert – at least not in such large numbers.

The other fact he hesitated to mention was that one sting from a Harvester ant could be painful, it could even in the right circumstances be lethal. But hundreds – maybe a few thousand – of the large insects, out of their natural environment, excited, possibly searching for food, was another matter. Several stings from enraged Harvester ants would be deadly.

‘There’s only one way to deal with them.’ Bond bundled Cedar out of the cabin, swiftly looking behind him to make certain none of the ants had advanced into the living room. He closed the door behind him.

Bond hurried the girl across to his own cabin, one arm around her. Once inside he told her to stay in the main room – ‘And keep down. Right?’ – while he dashed to the bedroom for the briefcase.

Flicking the tumbler locks, Bond opened up the case, then slid and lifted the false bottom to reach what he needed: a small detonator and a couple of inches of fast-burning fuse. Quickly he inserted the fuse into the little metal core of the detonator, and, breaking all the rules, crimped the detonator to the fuse with his teeth. His old instructors would have winced. ‘You can lose your teeth and kissing equipment that way, Mr Bond,’ they used to tell him.

Reaching deeper into the briefcase, Bond retrieved one of the bags which contained plastic explosive. He tore off a small section and rolled the plasticine-like material until he had something roughly the size and shape of a golf ball.

Keeping fuse and detonator well away from the plastic, Bond ran out of the room again.

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