Bond Movies 06 - The World Is Not Enough (13 page)

The men manoeuvred the bomb toward the curving passageway.

‘Nyet,’ Colonel Akakievich said. ‘The bomb doesn’t move until I am satisfied. I want my payment. You owe me. All of you, to the surface, now.’

Renard stopped and turned. ‘You’re right, colonel.’ He nodded to two of his men. One quietly slipped away down the tunnel. The other innocently opened a container filled with frozen food packs. He released a false lining in the lid to reveal several machine guns.

‘We’ll all go up,’ Renard said. ‘I admire your devotion to the cause.’

One of the colonel’s men gestured with his gun for Bond to get up. Knowing it was now or never, Bond pushed him away, yanked the pistol from his hand, grabbed Christmas and leapt down into the bomb pit just as Renard’s men opened fire. Colonel Akakicvich and two soldiers were perforated. The bullets ricocheted around the chamber and ceased. One of the men carefully approached the pit, but he was forced back by a grazing shot from Bond’s gun.

‘Forget them,’ Renard said. He spoke into his radio. ‘Shut them in.’

A man at the other end of the radio, next to the lift, turned a switch that activated two red buttons and two green ones. He punched one green button and heavy iris-shaped steel doors sealed all the tunnels but the one leading to the lift. Renard and his three men started to push the bomb cart into this tunnel. It was slow, hard work. After a few minutes,

Renard became impatient and ran ahead. He began to pull the bomb along on the overhead tracks, leaving the cart behind. His henchmen were amazed that he had the strength of three men.

Bond and Christmas heard the hum of the doors closing.

‘They’re sealing us in!’ Christmas said.

‘We’ll find a way out. Quickly!’

‘Who are you?’ she asked.

Bond looked around the pit, forming a plan. ‘I work for the British government.’

Acting quickly, he pointed his wristwatch toward the catwalk above. He pressed a button and the tiny grappling hook shot out with Q’s filament wire. The hook caught on to a metal beam and stuck. Bond gave the line a tug to make sure it was secure, then rappelled up the side of the pit and into the test chamber. He dived through the iris of the doors, just as they slammed shut behind him. The nearest man swung his machine gun around, but Bond got off a shot first. The man fell and Bond ran to him. He was the one who had extracted the rectangular object from the bomb. Bond reached into his shirt, retrieved it, and put it in his own pocket.

Bond ran behind the abandoned cart and fired a couple of shots down the tunnel at Renard. Return fire ripped up the wall next to him. He ducked behind the cart until the barrage subsided. As he lay on his back, he got an idea. He aimed the pistol at the overhead work lights and shot them all out. His end of the tunnel was plunged into darkness; Renard and his men now had no visible target.

Meanwhile, in the pit, Christmas Jones managed to climb up the side to the closed iris door. She found a panel next to it and prised it open, revealing a mess of wiring. She started to work with the only tools she had . . . her fingers.

No longer a sitting duck, Bond inched out from behind the cart and fired toward the dimly lit figures in the tunnel.

A bullet grazed Renard’s arm. He clasped the wound, again noting the blood and the strange lack of sensation. One of his two remaining men sprayed the dark end of the corridor with gunfire. Renard and the other man continued to pull the bomb along the track. Shots from the opposite end of the tunnel whizzed past them.

‘Arrggh!’ Renard’s helper gasped. One of Bond’s rounds had hit him in the back. Moaning, he hung onto the bomb, impeding its progress. Renard tugged at it.

‘Let go!’ he shouted at the man. The wounded thug clung to the device, pleading for help. Renard pulled his gun and aimed it at the man’s head.

‘Here, this should help,’ he said, squeezing the trigger.

Two minutes later, Renard and his one remaining companion managed to clear a second set of blast doors at the midway point. He shouted into his radio, ‘Close the middle doors!’

Bond heard the command. Using all of his strength, he pushed the abandoned cart forward, using it as cover. Suddenly, the doors started closing. Bond realised that he wasn’t going to make it; with a superhuman effort he shoved the cart ahead of him so that it was caught in the closing doors, holding them back for a heartbeat — just long enough for Bond to take a diving leap through before the doors crushed the cart and sealed shut.

As soon as Bond hit the ground on the other side of the doors, he was fired upon. He rolled to the side for cover and shot out a few more lights above him. He then paused to reload.

Inside the pit, Christmas connected two coloured wires. The blast doors began to open. She glanced out and saw that the mid-section doors were still shut. She returned to the control panel and continued working.

Diving and shooting, Bond managed to progress three- quarters of the way up the tunnel. The man at the door controls fired back, attempting to pin Bond down.

Renard and his man were finally successful in getting the bomb past a pile of oil drums and wrestling it into the lift.

‘Let’s go!’ Renard shouted to the man at the controls. The thug raked the switches with gunfire, blowing them out, then raced for the lift. Unfortunately, the clear Lexsan bullet- proofed doors closed on his face before he could get inside. Stunned, he turned to see Bond rushing toward him. The Walther PPK spat fire and the man dropped to the floor.

Through the doors, Bond could see Renard and his man standing next to the bomb. Bond fired at Renard, but the bullets bounced off the Lexsan. The cab began to rise.

Renard smiled and shouted, ‘No hard feelings, Mister Bond! We’re even. Soon, you’ll feel nothing at all!’ He pointed down.

The cab disappeared up the shaft, and in its place was another bomb, rising into view. It wasn’t an atomic bomb, but it looked extremely formidable. The LED was ticking off the seconds: 10 ... 9 ... 8 .. . Horrified, Bond turned to see that the door switch panel was shredded. He was trapped. Then, he heard the familiar hum of the iris doors opening behind him. Doctor Jones!

Looking up, Bond noticed the pulley hook that was used to move Renard’s bomb along the overhead track. He made a running jump, grabbed it, and slid on the track toward the iris door.

Behind him, the bomb went off, igniting the oil drums. The fireball expanded, almost overtaking Bond on the pulley. Miraculously, the iris opened and Bond shot through at the right second. He saw that the next door was also open, and Christmas was standing just beyond.

‘Seal the door! Close it!’ Bond shouted.

Christmas’s eyes widened at the sight of Bond hurtling toward her with a massive fireball in pursuit. She turned to the control panel and sparked the wires. The iris began to close just as Bond, followed by two flying oil barrels, sailed through.

The barrels clattered down into the pit and burst into flame. As the fire licked the sides, Bond frantically searched for a way out and saw the arm of the robot lifter stretching toward an old shaft at the top of the ceiling. An abandoned lift? He took the chance that it might still be operational.

‘Up! Go!’ he shouted. He gave Christmas a boost. She grabbed the arm and crawled up and through some girders. Bond jumped up behind her and they emerged onto a catwalk just as the flames spread across the floor of the test centre.

‘No time to stop,’ Bond said, pulling her forward. ‘Those barrels down there will blow.’ They ran to the end of the walkway, where they indeed found an old hydraulic-powered lift.

‘I'm sure this old thing won't work,’ she said, her voice shaking.

‘We’ll never know unless we try!’

They got inside and Bond pushed the ‘Up’ button. The lift rumbled and then started to rise slowly. At that rate, they would suffocate. Bond peered over the side at the hydraulics.

‘Hang on,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ Christmas said. ‘So you’re a British spy. Do you have a name?’

Bond aimed his gun at the hissing hydraulics. He gave her a look out the comer of his eye.

‘The name is Bond . . .’

He fired the Walther. The hydraulic system blew out and the lift shot up through the shaft at breakneck speed, just as the entire pit exploded beneath them. Fire blew up the shaft, kissing the bottom of the cab. Bond lunged, covering Christmas. After a few moments, the smoke cleared.

‘. . .James Bond,’ he finished.

Outside the facility, Renard, Truhkin and their last man pushed the bomb into the back of the Land Rover. They got in and drove quickly to the runway.

The lift stopped at the top of the shaft, but the doors refused to open. Christmas was coughing, blinded from the smoke. Soon there wouldn’t be any oxygen left at all. Bond shone his illuminated wristwatch at the top of the cab and could make out a sealed duct cover.

‘Hold your ears!’ he shouted. He let off a few rounds at the edges of the cover. The noise reverberated deafeningly, but there were now thin beams of sunlight pouring into the cab.

‘Can you give me a leg-up?’ he asked her. She nodded and clasped her hands together. Bond stepped into them, lifted himself and pushed against the duct cover. He strained until Christmas cried, ‘I can’t hold you much longer!’

Then the cover gave way, loosened by the bullet holes. Bond pulled himself up and out, then helped Christmas out. They were standing in a cloud of dust some fifty feet from the main building. The heat of the sun had increased considerably.

Bond could make out people running about, panicked. Dead soldiers were on the ground. Then he heard the sound of jet engines.

‘Come on!’ he shouted, palling her toward the runway, but they were too late. Renard’s plane roared past them and lifted off. Bond followed it helplessly for a few steps, then gave up.

She caught up with him and said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I blew the whistle on you. I had no clue what they were up to. I thought they were with the Russian Atomic Energy Department.’ ‘Do you have any idea where they’re going?’

‘No, but they won’t get far,’ Christmas said. ‘Every warhead has a GPS locator card. We can track the signal.’ Bond took the object he had taken from the dead man and showed it to her. ‘You mean one of these?’

Her jaw dropped. ‘Damn,’ she said. 

Bill Tanner rushed into the Briefing Room at Castle Thane MI6 headquarters shortly after M had arrived for the morning’s work.

‘I have something,’ he said. ‘It may not mean anything, but we should look into it.’

M was standing with Robinson and other analysts examining printouts from Interpol. Apparently, the terrorist known as Renard had been sighted in at least six different countries on the same day, and they had to sort out which reports were reliable, if any. M looked up and said, ‘Well?’

‘We’ve been monitoring Russian military frequencies, of course. The Russian Army has reported that one of their transport planes was stolen from an airfield in Omsk two days ago.’

‘So?’

‘There’s more. The Russian Atomic Energy Department is searching for some missing Parahawks and a nuclear physicist who’s gone astray. A fellow named Arkov.’

‘What would any of that have to do with Renard?’ M asked, impatiently.

Tanner held up Sir Robert King’s report. ‘Russian Atomic Energy Department,’ he said. ‘Doctor Arkov was supposed to be on assignment decommissioning a testing facility in Kazakhstan. Intelligence reports that the site was destroyed this  

morning and a Russian transport plane matching the description of the one that was stolen was seen leaving the area. The worst part is that they believe a bomb is missing.’

‘A bomb?’

‘Plutonium core warhead. The Russian Army has put out an all-points arrest warrant for Colonel Akakievich, the officer who was in charge of the testing facility. Apparently he’s gone missing, too, and they believe he may be involved. It’s a long shot, but it just sounds like something Renard could be a part of.’

M was perturbed that she hadn’t put two and two together herself. ‘Right.’ She turned to Robinson. ‘Is there any way we can track that plane?’

Robinson almost laughed and pointed to the map. ‘It could be anywhere in this circle. Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan

‘Marvellous,’ she said.

Moneypenny entered the room and got everyone’s attention by announcing, ‘Elektra King is calling for M from Baku.’

M was surprised. She went for the telephone, but Moneypenny said, ‘It’s a video line.’

‘Put her on the wide screen.’

Moneypenny made the connection, and Elektra’s face materialised on the large wall monitor. She looked haggard and red-eyed.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I'm sorry. I would never call you except . . . your man Bond has disappeared. He ... he left my villa, some time in the middle of the night.’

M looked sideways at Tanner.

‘He’s been gone all day and hasn’t returned. I thought you should know. There’s already been one attempt on my life. And . . . my head of security has been found near a local airstrip, murdered . .

M leaned on the console in front of her. ‘I’ll send someone else out right away.’

Elektra furrowed her brow. ‘Could . . . could you come?’ M didn’t expect that. The request so flustered her that at first she didn’t know what to say. Then she studied the face of the giil who was like a daughter to her. Elektra King looked about as lost as she ever had.

‘I just can’t help thinking . . . that I’m next,’ Elektra said. M stared at the girl on the screen, her whole sordid history written in her pleading eyes. M turned away from the screen and said to Tanner, ‘Get me out there.’

Tanner started to protest. ‘Ma’am, I don’t think -’

‘Just do it!’ She turned back to Elektra. ‘I’ll be there as soon as possible. Don’t leave your villa.’

Elektra nodded, holding back tears of relief. ‘Thank you.’ The connection was terminated.

‘Where the devil is Double-0 Seven?’ M demanded.

‘I’ll try to find him,’ Robinson said, jumping to his station. ‘M . . .’ Tanner began, but M cut him short.

‘I know what you’re going to say, Chief-of-Staff, and I don’t want to hear it,’ she said. ‘I'll take my bodyguard and Robinson. Miss Moneypenny, please make the necessary arrangements for immediate departure. I’d like to get to Baku before tomorrow. Tanner, you’ll be in charge while I’m gone. See if you can track down that transport plane. And if you find Double-0 Seven, you tell him that I’ll speak to him in person