Raymond Benson - Doubleshot

The shoemaker, who was sitting and working on the floor, looked at Bond with bewilderment. Bond said, “Forgive me,” then pulled down the rack of shoes, blocking the front door. He then leaped over the shoemaker and ran to the back door.

It emptied into another part of the twisting medina. Bond ran outside and turned a corner as quickly as he could. Now he was truly lost in the maze, so he simply kept running, turning this way and that, hoping that he could lose the police. Up ahead was a small mosque with scaffolding on one side. Bond tried to go inside the building, but a man standing in front blocked his entrance. Only Muslims were allowed in the mosque.

Bond didn’t have time to argue. He heard the police running at the end of the street, so he leaped onto the scaffolding and began to climb. Another shot rang out, barely missing him, as the police arrived at the foot of the scaffolding. Bond got to the roof and ran across, jumping over a large hole where repairs were being made. At the edge of the building, he found that he could make another leap to the top of the adjoining building.

The horrible smell there was overpowering. It reminded Bond of manure and vomit mixed with chemicals … turpentine or something. A stone staircase led down into a courtyard that was revealed to be part of a small tannery. The pungent odors were coming from the vats where men were up to their knees in red and orange liquids, scrubbing hides. The exotic ingredients used in the process included pigeon dung, cow urine, fish oils, animal fats and brains, chromium salts, and sulphuric acid.

Bond held his breath and leaped over the vats, one by one, causing the men to shout at him in anger. He ran past a wall of hides that had been hung up to dry after they had been scraped of the hair and extraneous flesh and soaked in the putrid dyes. Not seeing a convenient way out, Bond took a running jump and gained a handhold in the cracks in the wall. He swung one leg up and over, but unfortunately wiped the front of his body over one of the wet hides. He dropped down the other side of the wall and was in another street full of people and mule carts.

Bond pushed his way through, slowing his pace so as not to attract too much attention. He could see a horseshoe-shaped arch at the end of the street, one of the medina’s exits. He made his way toward it, but three policemen suddenly appeared there. They were looking intently at the crowd. Bond turned around abruptly and merged with a group of men in jellabas marching in the opposite direction. As soon as he could, Bond rounded a corner and got off the street. Unluckily, it was a dead end, with a wall much too high to climb.

He looked back around the corner and saw that the three policemen were headed his way. Surely they would notice a Westerner emerge from the passageway if he attempted to do so.

A rope suddenly dropped and dangled beside him.

“Up here!” whispered a female voice. Bond looked up. It was one of the Taunt twins! She was standing on the roof of the building and was holding the rope.

“Don’t just stand there. Climb!” she ordered.

Bond did as he was told. He climbed the wall and bolted onto the roof just as the policemen reached the street and inspected it. All they saw was a rope being pulled up the building.

“Am I glad to see you,” he said. She was wearing the same tight blue jeans, but was now dressed in a red silk blouse with the sleeves rolled up.

“Hush up and follow me,” the girl commanded. She ran across the roof to the other side. Bond accompanied her, dazed by this sudden turn of events.

“Which one are you?” he asked.

“I’m Hedy.” She took a sniff and grimaced at the stains on his clothing. “Lovely smell. Come this way.” She took a running start and leaped across the eight-foot gap between buildings, then turned and shouted, “Don’t just stand there. Come on!”

Bond mimicked her action, then they both ran across the second rooftop.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Just shut up and don’t stop. We’re trying to save your ass.”

She led him across two more rooftops until she pointed to a fire escape. “Down, mister. Go in the open window, first floor down.”

Bond climbed down the stairs and slipped into the window. He was in a bedroom with Western furnishings. Hedy slithered inside behind him. She led him out of the bedroom, down a hallway, and into what was some kind of office. Heidi was dressed identically and sitting at a desk, looking at a computer monitor. Neither of them wore the red wig. Filing cabinets, a fax machine, a copier, telephones, and other pieces of high-tech equipment dominated the room.

“What the hell is going on?” Bond asked.

“Welcome to the Casablanca headquarters of the CIA, Mr. Bond,” Hedy said.

Bond’s jaw dropped.

Heidi pointed to the monitor, where a satellite image of the medina was magnified hundreds of times. “We thought they had you there for a second. It’s a good thing you found us.”

“I found you? ”

Bond dropped into a chair. He was trying to project some semblance of composure, but he was, nonetheless, dumbfounded.

Heidi laughed when saw the expression on his face. “We got you good, didn’t we?” Then she noticed the stains. “Pee-uuu … ! What did you get on you?”

“Someone better start explaining. I’m in no mood for jokes,” Bond said.

“We are travel writers,” Heidi said. “But that’s just a cover. Hedy’s a senior agent with the CIA. I’m a junior agent. We don’t live in Japan. We live right here, in this building.”

Hedy added, “I’m the one who went into the CIA first. When they found out I had an identical twin, they came up with an unorthodox plan and made us a proposal.”

“As far as official records go, I don’t exist,” Heidi said.

“And neither do I,” Hedy continued. “But there does exist a Hillary Taunt, CIA agent, who works in the North African sector. Either one of us can pose as Hillary during the course of our work. The boys in Virginia figured that Heidi could be used as a decoy in special cases. We rarely travel together, which is why you never saw us at the same time on the train. We rode in separate cars on purpose. We confuse a lot of people, especially conductors and flight attendants.”

“If we have to be seen in public together, one of us wears the wig,” Heidi said. “The only people that know that we aren’t Hillary Taunt are our bosses at the Company. If, say, your own organization at SIS wanted to find out information about CIA agent Hillary Taunt there would be nothing in her file to indicate she might be an identical twin. This can be very advantageous in the field.”

“I can see that,” Bond said. “So you’ve known who I am all along.”

“Sure,” Heidi said. “We were sent to track you down. We got lucky and made contact with you on the train. If you hadn’t found us this morning, we would have had to come after you. You’re in a lot of hot water, mister.”

“Tell me about it,” Bond said. “I’m not sure what happened back there. The Union headquarters was blown up. Someone made it look like I was responsible.”

“To hell with Union headquarters,” Hedy said. “What about that doctor in London and the ferry in Tangier? What do you have to say about those things? You’re a wanted man. Your chief has put out an all-points alert for your arrest.”

Bond winced. “I didn’t do any of those things.”

“Tell it to the judge,” Hedy said. “Our orders are to escort you to London. We’ve already checked you out of the hotel and we have your things.” She pointed to his holdall on the floor in the corner. “Now, you have to hand over your weapons. All of them.” She held out her hand.