Authors: John Gardner
He stood on the chill balcony, repeating the tiny signal, Scratch-Scratch-Scratch-Scratch again and again. They would have it by now, so he went back inside, closed the balcony windows, pulled the curtains, destroyed the Scratch tape, and put the little transceiver into its imitation-leather case then made certain the other two tapes were there, ready for use.
He placed the machine back on his bedside table, then changed his mind, opened it all up again and inserted the Desecrate tape, just to be on the safe side. If they did doublecross him, make an attempt on his life, try to arrest him on the way to the airport, or come thundering down on him with jets as he picked up the money, he would at least have time to press the button. This was a very high quality machine, and, if anything went wrong - even though the thought was remote - he would be able to see things through to the end.
But how could anything go wrong? They had agreed. These people did not normally agree, but, in these special circumstances, it was the only thing they could do - give in to his demands. He lay down on the bed, but only dozed, waking again at six in such a state of elation that he might as well have been high on some drug.
He calmed down, drifting into a light sleep, waking again at seven-thirty. Outside, the sun was shining. An omen, he thought.
Baradj rang down for breakfast, which came within twenty minutes.
He ate heartily: grapefruit juice, toast, bread rolls, preserves and coffee. Then he showered, towelled himself off and looked at himself in the mirror, turning this way and that to admire his physique. He was not a vain man, nor a stupid man.
Far from it. But he had come a long way, and part of his success had been to keep fit. He might lack a six-foot stature, but his muscle tone, and high degree of fitness made up for that. Nobody could deny that Bassam Baradj - who, by tonight, would have the name and identity of someone else - was very fit for his age.
He sat, naked, on the bed and put a call through to Switzerland.
At the clinic, high in the mountains above Zurich, they confirmed his booking. Even the timing had been immaculate. He began to dress, thinking he had been foolish and paranoid yesterday.
Yesterday, when he had gone out for his walk, he thought they were watching him. There was a man in the foyer who followed him a little way, then another, different man appeared behind him. When he got back to the hotel there had been a woman, who seemed to be observing him with almost nonchalant care.
Or had he imagined it?
He dressed, the light-weight beige suit made for him in Savile Row; the cream shirt, from Jermyn Street; and the gold cufflinks he had bought in Asprey’s; the British Royal Marine tie. He laughed as he knotted the tie. This was the supreme two-fingered gesture.
Last, he took the soft pigskin shoulder-holster out of the drawer, and strapped it on, adjusting it so that it lay comfortably just under his left arm. He put on his jacket and picked up the mm Beretta 93A, slammed a magazine into the butt and worked the slide mechanism. He did not leave it on safety. Baradj had more than a passing acquaintance with pistols and he knew that, as long as you were safe, careful and practised often, there was no point in putting the weapon on safety. A man could lose precious seconds by using the safety catch. He was wrong, of course, according to the manuals and instructors, but he always played things his way.
The Beretta was comfortable under his shoulder, and he hummed a phrase from “My Way” as he slipped three spare magazines into the specially built pockets in the jacket. He picked up his wallet and credit-card folder, dumping them in the pockets he always used for them, then slung the transceiver’s thin strap over one shoulder, and his camera over the other. He was ready.
The maid could keep the pyjamas, and there was nothing to incriminate him. Another pigskin shaving-bag would cost him a great deal less than the hotel bill, so why pay the hotel bill?
It was hard to believe this was February. The sun shone and the sky was blue. A faint breeze stirred the flowers. But all was well with the world, and he had spotted no familiar figures in the hotel foyer. It must have been his imagination. So, he could walk. Walking was good, and, in the end, faster than facing the crammed Gibraltar traffic.
He started away from the hotel, with the sheer rock face on his right. Bassam Baradj was less than three minutes into his stride when the hair at the nape of his neck began to prickle.
There were steady footsteps behind him. Not just the footsteps of idle tourists, but official footsteps.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw them: a man and a woman in jeans about ten paces from him. The man wore a leather bomber jacket, the woman had a short canvas jacket.
Then he made eyecontact with the man. It was a face he knew.
A face from the files. He had ordered this man dead on at least three occasions. The man was James Bond.
Bond saw that Baradj had made him so he acted quickly, his hand going for the Browning behind his right hip, covered by the bomber jacket, his legs moving apart to take up the shooting stance.
But he was not quick enough. By the time the pistol was out, Baradj had leaped up the low mck lace and clambered out of sight.
If I am to take this man, Baradj thought, then I shall do it on my own terms.
Back on the narrnw road, Beatrice also had a pistol out and was speaking rapidly into a walkie-talkie, calling up the police and SAS reserves. Bond had insisted on going in alone. “I want to bring this guy back alive,” he had said.
“Careful, James!” Beatrice called as he jumped from the road into the rocks. Boulders like sculpture, huge and rough, were strewn everywhere up the slope, but he could see no sign of Baradj.
Beatrice him and they fanned out, watching each other’s backs. In this terrain it would be relatively simple for Baradj to outflank them and take a shot from behind. But, when the shot came, it was from high up, and nothing thumped or ricocheted near either Bond or Beatrice.
Still spread out, they moved forward until they came to a wide-arched opening, like a man-made cave in the face of the rock. It had been barred by a large iron gate, fastened with a padlock. The padlock had been shot away, and one of the gates was half open.
“The tunnels!” Beatrice whispered, and Bond nodded, “Yes, the tunnels, and we have no idea how well he knows them.”
“What about you?”
Bond shook his head, whispenng, “I’ve only ever been in the galleries open to the public. But, where he goes we’ll have to follow.”
The phrase “As Solid as the Rock of Gibraltar” is a misnomer, for the great Rock is, in reality, like a huge, giant ants’ nest of tunnels. All of them were military in nature, and the public were allowed to see the first true feats of engineering - the Upper and Middle Galleries, built under the instruction of Sergeant Major Ince of the Sappers in the 1780s. These faced Spain, were installed with cannon, and were largely responsible for holding the Rock during the Great Siege. But that was far from the end of the story. Later tunnelling played a key role during World War Two, and sections of the tunnels were still very much in use now.
Unless you knew the way, you could get lost very easily inside the Rock of Gibraltar.
Bond and Beatrice edged their way in, trying not to allow their bodies to be highlighted against the exterior.
Inside, the lights, drilled into the ceiling, were on, and they found themselves in a high, curved vault, big enough to take a three-lane highway.
They spread out, one taking each side of the rough-chiselled wall, their eyes straining ahead for any sign of movement. There was none, and the lights seemed to go on for ever.
They stopped beside two curved nissen huts, built into a cavern carved from the rock-face. But they were locked and empty, so they continued, moving slowly, very aware of the fact that, should Baradj find a hiding-place - some dug-out in the rock - he could pick them off as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
The tunnel branched oft’ and within a hundred yards Bond and Beatrice found themselves in the remains of what had once been a field hospital. Parts of tiled operating theatres remained, the sluices and lavatories were intact. But the hospital led nowhere and, in minutes, they were back in the wide main route.
Bond remembered now, that these tunnels were once full of men, tanks, lorries, field guns, and jeeps. Indeed, they had been used as one of the main staging posts for Operation Torch, the allied invasion of French North Africa in 1942, the force commanded by Eisenhower, way back when he was still only a Lieutenant-General. There were many ghosts in this dank and cold place, and Bond could feel them all closing in on him now as water dripped from the roof of this incredible stone highway.
“Over here,” Beatrice whispered, and he saw that there was another tunnel leading off, only large enough to drive a jeep into, and possibly reverse out again. They stopped, listened and went down the branch tunnel. The far end was blanked off by a high metal wall, into which a door had been set. Bond tried the door and it swung open easily.
Beatrice covered him while he leaped inside and was met by such an incredible sight that he almost forgot to follow the routine. He heard Beatrice gasp as she passed through the door, then the shot, echoing through this incredible place, and the bullet shattering only inches from Beatrice. They both dived for cover, and there was plenty of that.
They appeared to be in natural light, on what could have been a large film set, only the place as it appeared was so real it would be easy to imagine you were dreaming. There were streets, houses, shops, even a church in the distance.
It took Bond a few moments to realise what it was, for he had heard of this place, though never seen it before. Graffiti was daubed on walls. Jibes at the police and military.
It was all so real that it took time for the truth to sink in.
This was a training ground for troops resting in Gibraltar. A place where they could practise street fighting: the kind of work that was so often required in times of civil unrest. He had heard a rumour that some members of the quick-response teams, police and army, were sometimes flown here for training.
They were lying on a pavement, sheltering behind a wall which was part of The King’s Head, a pub that looked so real you could almost smell the beer.
Bond tried to assess where the shot had come from. “You work left,” he whispered. “I’ll cross the street and go right. Yell if you see him, or if he fires at you. Give it ten minutes.” He held up his watch. “Then we meet back here.” She nodded, and crouching low, scuttled along the wall, while Bond readied himself and made a crouching run for it, across the street to the far side, along the blank wall of Jack Berry, Family Butcher. The shop front, in the main street, was decorated with meat, carcasses hanging inside. He was almost at the angle of the wall on the far side, when two bullets came down, flinging shards off the pavement. He thought he saw the muzzle flash, from a doorway, three houses up the cramped, terraced street, and, still running, he fired, two lots of two shots, from the hip.
Bond was sure he had seen a figure duck back into the doorway.
He was panting, his back flat against the wall, working out the next move. If he went behind the butcher’s shop he should be able to make his way down the back of the parallel street, and head for the rear door opposite the house from which he thought Baradj had last fired.
Keeping his back against the wall, he edged himself behind the shop, and along the rear of the terraced houses. One. Two.
He tried the handle on the mean little door of the third house.
It moved and he stepped into a long dark passage. There were stairs going up to the right. He leaned his right shoulder against the stairs, listening, wondering if he should try the front door ahead of him, then decided to move left, into what would be the little front room. He heard nothing before the door crashed open, and two shots ripped against the stairs, one of them clipping his Browning, sending pain dancing up his arm and the pistol flying.
He waited for death to come quickly, looking up at the figure of Bassam Baradj, silhouetted in the doorway.
“Captain Bond,” Baradj said. “I am sorry about this, but in other ways pleased that the honour of being your executioner falls to me.
Goodbye, Captain Bond.” The pistol came up in the two-handed grip, and Bond winced at the shot, but felt nothing.
Tense, unable to move, he stared at Baradj who still appeared to be looking at him, his arms outstretched, the gun aimed.
Then, as in a dream sequence, Bassam Baradj buckled at the knees and toppled forward into the narrow passage.
Bond let out a deep, long breath and heard Beatrice’s sneakers thudding across the road. She stopped in the doorway. “James?”
she asked. Then, again, “James? You okay, James?”
He nodded, his arm still shaken from the thump when the bullet had caught his pistol. “Yes. Yes, I’m okay. I guess I owe you another life, my dear Beatrice.” He stepped forward, over the dead body of Bassam Baradj, and took her in his arms. “It’s one hell of a way to make a living,” he said.
“James?” she whispered. “Ilove me?”
He held her close. “I love you very much,” and he realised that he meant it.
Together, they walked back down the unreal-real street, to the door which would take them to the tunnels and finally to the light outside.
Some Die It was summer, and an hour before dusk: hot and pleasant.
The Villa Capricciani looked lovely at this time of day. Lizards basked under the foliage, the flowers were in full bloom, and the lilies buned yellow from the pond below the house.
James Bond came onto the terrace and plunged into the pool, swimming strongly, doing a couple of lengths before climbing out, rubbing his hair with a towel which had been thrown over one of the garden chairs, into which he now sank, stretching his body like a cat.
“Cat”, he thought, suddenly shivering. It was the word in his head. He had noticed that, since the business earlier in the year, he had a tendency to tense up at certain words: cat; viper; snake.