James Bond - 027 - Death is Forever by John Gardner

Author:John Gardner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Thrillers, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9781409127277
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1993-08-02T07:00:00+00:00

12

KEEPS DEATH HIS COURT

Bond slowly folded his newspaper and tucked it into the seat pocket in front of him.

‘Well, what a pleasant surprise.’ He smiled warmly at Axel Ritter’s stone face. ‘I thought this was going to be the usual boring flight: sitting looking at clouds and listening to the Captain telling us about the problems he was having with Air Traffic Control.’

‘I wouldn’t be too happy if I were you, Mr Bond. You’ve caused enough trouble already.’ He spoke softly, leaning in towards Bond’s ear.

‘Oh, they say it’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive.’

Ritter nodded. ‘So I’ve heard, but the arrival will be more interesting than usual.’

‘I dare say.’

They were taxiing out, and the flight attendants were going through their dance of death, arms and hands moving to the accompaniment of a tape – pointing out the exits in case of an unlikely emergency, and telling passengers what would happen should they suffer a severe decompression: they stressed that this was most unlikely. This routine rarely varied, and gave Bond little comfort. He knew what would almost certainly happen if they suffered one of those ‘unlikely’ severe decompressions. You would probably not have need of dangling oxygen masks if the worst happened.

‘I hear some mugger offed your little jockey friend.’ He retained the friendly smile. ‘Dmitri, wasn’t it?’

A storm cloud crossed Ritter’s face. ‘It was no mugger,’ he all but snarled, then the Captain blotted him out, coming through on the communications system to say they were seventh in line for take-off.

‘Oh, I was told some crack-head with a knife . . .’

‘Then you were told wrong, and I suspect you know exactly who pulled that stunt.’

For a few seconds Bond was thrown. He glanced away, looking out of the window. An El Al 747 was piling on the thrust and rumbling away on take-off. He felt their aircraft shake from the reverberation. London had told him that the stabbing of Dmitri had been a genuine, common or garden mugging, nothing to do with Cabal, or what was going on with those members who still lived. Presumably London had got its information directly from the police in Paris. Somewhere along the line either the tale had been garbled, or something was wrong with the story to begin with.

‘No, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it. Nor do I regard death as a stunt.’

‘You didn’t appear to have any problems with it on the Ost-West Express.’

‘I thought I was saving our lives then, Axel, remember? That was when I used to call you Harry, and you know that I’m not proud of the incident. Killing people is an unpleasant occupation.’

‘But someone has to do it, eh?’

‘It appears to be constantly inevitable. That doesn’t change the basic immorality. There’s enough death and destruction in the world as it is.’

Ritter laughed. A shade too loud. ‘You’re getting scruples, then, James Bond?’

‘Not really. When I have to do my country’s dirty work I regard it as pest control.’ He turned away from Ritter and stared out of the window again.

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