James Bond - 019 - Role of Honor by John Gardner

Author:John Gardner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Unknown
ISBN: 9781605983394
Publisher: Pegasus
Published: 2012-05-01T07:00:00+00:00

12

RETURN TO SENDER

Two more explosions came from below, followed by another heavy burst of fire. The second team of two men was clearing the ground floor. Bond could hear the feet of the first team on the stairs. In a few seconds there would be the dance of death on the landing – a couple of stun grenades or smoke canisters would be thrown through the door to his right, then lead would hose down the passage, taking him on that short trip into eternity.

Simon’s voice kept running in his head like a looped tape: ‘Use your initiative . . . Use your initiative . . .’ Was that a hint? A clue? There was certainly something of a nudge in the tone he had adopted.

Move. Bond was off down the corridor, making for the room to his left. He had some vague idea that he might leap from the window. Anything to remove himself from the vicious hailstorm of bullets.

He took rapid strides into the room and, trying to make as little noise as possible, closed the door, automatically sliding a small bolt above the handle. He started to cross the floor, heading for the windows, clutching the useless ASP as though his life depended on it. As he sidestepped a chair, he saw them – two ASP magazines, cutaway matt black oblongs, lying on a rickety table between the high windows. Grabbing at the first, he saw immediately that they were his own reserves, both full, loaded with Glasers.

There is a fast routine for reloading the ASP, a fluent movement that quickly jettisons an empty magazine, replacing it with a full one. Bond went through the reload procedure in a matter of five seconds, including dropping his eyes to check that a live round had entered the chamber.

He performed the reloading on the move, finally positioning himself hard against the wall to the left of the door. The team would leap in after the grenades had accomplished their disorientating effect, one to the left and one right. They would be firing as they came, but Bond gambled on their first bursts going wide across the room.

Flattening himself against the wall, he held the powerful little weapon at arm’s length in the two-handed grip, at the same time clutching the spare magazine almost as an extension to the butt.

They were making straight for this room. As he reloaded, Bond had been conscious of the bangs and rattle of their textbook assault through the landing door. Bullets spat and splintered the woodwork to his right. A boot smashed in the handle and broke the flimsy bolt, while a pair of stun grenades hit the bare boards, making a heavy clunk, one of them rolling for a split second before detonation.

He closed his eyes, head turning slightly to avoid the worst effect – the flash that temporarily blinds – though nothing could stop the noise which seemed to explode from within his own cranium, putting his head in a vice, and ringing in his ears like a magnified bell.

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