Raymond Benson - High Time To Kill

A mug shot of a man with glasses and a pockmarked face flashed on the screen. “Norman Nicholas Kalway, a midlevel official at the CIA, was caught red-handed with classified documents. It was learned that he had provided over ten million dollars’ worth of data to the Union. His story was that he had been blackmailed by the organization with evidence of unusual and felonious sexual practices (all of which came out publicly after Kalway was caught). Whether the CIA agent was a victim or not, his case is indicative of the lengths that the Union will go to in order to ensnare workers.”

Another mug shot replaced Kalway’s, an attractive woman in her twenties, except that she had bruises on her face and hate in her eyes.

“The Mossad experienced a similar scandal when one of the:r agents, Katherine Laven, was found to be Union after she had poisoned her lover, Israeli cabinet member Eliahu Digar. Digar had a number of enemies, any one of whom might have tempted agent Laven with a large payoff to get rid of him. It was this case that alerted authorities to what has been called the Union’s ‘signature’ when it comes to assassinations. Apparently poisoning Mr. Digir wasn’t enough. After he had died, Miss Laven slit the man’s throat from ear to ear with an extremely sharp instrument. Other murders in which the victims’ throats were cut in this manner have been reported as being Union-related.”

Bond was familiar with all of the Union’s alleged cases. He clicked back to the “projects” menu and clicked on the most recent addition. The picture changed again to that of Bond’s friend.

“The latest notch on the Union’s board is the March 1999 assassination of the former governor of the Bahamas.”

The photo was replaced by one of the Bahamian man who had cut the governor’s throat. “Lawrence Littleby, aged twenty-seven, was responsible for the murder. He was a troublemaker who had been in and out of the local jails on various misdemeanors. He had most likely been approached with the lure of a sizable amount of money. Investigators found ten thousand U.S. dollars hidden in the man’s bedroom.”

Bond clicked out of “projects” and clicked on the “exit” button.

The visuals became a full-motion montage of newspaper headlines, news photos, and newsreel footage of soldiers in various forms of combat. “We believe that the Union have become more powerful in the last year. When they cannot buy someone’s services, they find other, less pleasant means to persuade them to work. They are experts at everything from petty street crime to elaborate espionage schemes. It cannot be stressed enough that the Union should never be underestimated and that they should always be considered extremely dangerous.”

The presentation ended. Bond thought of his old enemies, SPECTRE. They were a lot like the Union. They had been interested only in making money, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld had run the cabal with the efficiency of a corporation. The Union were different in that their tactics were more guerrilla oriented. SPECTRE had gone for grand, world-shaking events. The Union weren’t particular in the jobs they performed. There was no social status or class prejudices in the Union. It was one of the keys to their success in recruiting members.

The phone by the keypad buzzed. Bond picked it up. “Yes?”

It was Miss Moneypenny. “James, I thought you were in there. You’re wanted in the Briefing Room at eleven hundred sharp.” Bond glanced at his watch. It was 10:50.

“Nothing like twenty-four hours’ notice, Penny,” he said.

“Never mind that. This is serious. Some big brass will be sitting in. See you there.” She rang off and left Bond to ponder the empty, dark monitor in front of him. He sighed heavily, gathered his materials, punched the keypad so that a complete printout of the Union presentation would be delivered to his office, then left the Visual Library and took the lift to the top floor.

The place was buzzing with activity. Secretaries were rushing back and forth and phones were ringing. Bond caught up with Miss Moneypenny, who was walking fast and carrying a stack of folders toward the briefing room.

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

“M declared a Code Three a few minutes ago, James. You had better get in there. The Minister of Defence and a lot of military brass are here.”

“Someone probably lost a contact lens,” Bond muttered, and went into the room.

The Briefing Room could easily sit a hundred people or more. Similar to the Situation Room, it contained large screens on the walls for multimedia presentations, rows of school-type chairs with attached desktops arranged in a semicircle facing the podium, and an abundance of electronic equipment. Bond eased into the room and found a place near the end of a row of chairs. Looking around, he was surprised to see some of the people there.

M was quietly conversing with the Minister of Defence near the podium. Bill Tanner was standing by, awaiting instructions. Occupying the other chairs were various top staff members such, as Head of S., Head of Records, and Head of Counterintelligence. There were several visitors next to them, including Air Marshal Whipple, the head of MI5, and none other than Group Captain Roland Marquis.

Tanner called the meeting to order. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Minister of Defence wishes to address you first.”

The Minister took the stand and cleared his throat. “Last night an act of industrial espionage and terrorism was committed against our country. A top secret formula for a hot plasma bonding process known as Skin 17 was stolen from one of the DERAs secret research facilities in Fleet. It is of vital importance to Great Britain that we track down the individuals responsible for this and retrieve the formula. Christopher Drake, a director of the DERA, will explain further.”

The Minister relinquished the floor to Mr. Drake, a tall, distinguished man of fifty.

“Good morning. I’ve been asked to explain in layman’s terms what we at the DERA were developing for the RAF It has been a longtime goal for the UK to be the first country in the world to develop an aircraft material that could withstand a speed of Mach 7. An as-yet-unattainable speed, Mach 7 is the Holy Grail in the aerospace industry. Now, we all know that the technology has existed for years to create the power to push a plane to that speed, and the materials exist to build an airplane. Think of it. The benefits to both civil and especially military aviation are self-evident. One could fly from London to New York in forty minutes—or bomb three countries in a half hour. Two years ago the Minister of Defence ordered us, along with the RAF, to develop a material that could stand up to the wear and tear that would occur at a speed of Mach 7.

“The problem has always been that at such a high speed mere atmospheric dust is sufficient to dent and tear the skin off the plane. The way around this dilemma is found in the science of fluid dynamics. An object traveling through a fluid creates around itself a boundary layer which essentially pushes the elements of the fluid out of the way, creating a ‘tunnel effect.’ It’s through this tunnel that the object travels relatively unimpeded. Turbulence issues abound in this science; the mathematics are extremely complicated; the engineering problems are bigger. The trick is to create ‘Smart Skin’ materials for the plane that would expand and alter this boundary layer, essentially forming the optimal aerodynamic configuration through which the plane would fly. This material would be a carbon-fiber and silica ceramic. But because carbon-fiber and silica do not easily bond, the DERA spent two years developing a hot plasma bonding process.”

Slides began to appear on the large screens. The first was a photo of Dr. Wood.