John Gardner - Brokenclaw

Neither the driver nor his murderous passenger even noticed the battered Buick that had seen better days pull out and follow them about two cars back in the traffic.

They had almost made it to the gate and Chi-Chi was just wondering aloud if the movie would be any good, when the two men came up on either side of them. The one next to Bond had Oriental looks, and was a very large man, the one who began to keep pace with Chi-Chi was shorter and Caucasian.

‘Just keep walking past the gate, Mr Abelard,’ the big one said.

‘And please don’t make a fuss, this is for your security.’ The smaller man’s accent could have passed for British.

‘My name is Ding,’ the large one continued without breaking his stride. ‘My friends call me Bone Bender Ding. My partner, here, beside the lovely lady is called Fox, but he answers to other, less salubrious names. Mr Lee felt it safer to send his private jet down for you both. That will make certain that nobody’s on your tails, if you’ll excuse the expression, ma’am.’

‘And what if we prefer American Airlines?’ asked Bond.

‘Oh, Mr Lee would be very upset, sir. Also it would become unpleasant and Mr Lee cannot abide unpleasantness. Now, straight down to the end of this walkway. We have a car there ready to take you out to the jet.’

10

FLIGHT OF DECEPTION

Ed Rushia was already in line, at the gate, waiting to board AA 15 when he saw Bond and Chi-Chi pass down the long walkway. An unobservant moron would have noticed them, he thought, for their companions were highly visible – the very large, silk-suited Chinese with the arms of a gorilla and the smaller white man whose eyes constantly moved as though looking for trouble. He acted immediately, heading for the nearest payphone and using an Amex card to dial the number Bond had contacted so successfully during the night. The usual response came from Curve’s Deli, and he immediately asked to be patched through to control.

In fact, the mythical Curve’s Deli was located in a large room some seventeen storeys up in an old apartment building on Lexington Avenue. The floor was bare wood, the walls could have done with several coats of paint and there was an all-pervading smell of damp. But these things were overshadowed by one wall which dominated the place. A series of long tables held a tall bank of sophisticated radio and electronics gear plus a portable automatic switchboard. There were four high-backed office chairs set at intervals along the entire working area and one man sat in the centre of this array while another lay asleep on a camp bed tucked into the opposite corner.

John Grant, the CIA officer who, with two other agents, had assisted on the aircraft carrier, was in charge of monitoring what they had dubbed Operation Curve . This New York electronics room was capable of patching through a plethora of information between the various protagonists and Grant’s team, which still sat tight with M’s people on the Nimitz class carrier, now back and anchored off Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

It was Grant himself who was on duty and took the patched through call from Rushia.

‘They’re not boarding,’ the Navy Intelligence man reported with unusual brusqueness.

‘Yes, I know.’ Grant was so clear on the secure line that it was difficult to believe that he was over three thousand miles away. ‘We’ve got a van out at Kennedy. They’ve just reported in. The homers have moved down to the end of the walkway. There’s also information concerning a private corporate jet parked off the end of the terminal spoke. Hang on, Rushia, there’s something else coming in.’

Rushia waited, glancing back to the boarding gate for AA15. The line was moving and he would have to get a decision whether to board or not.

‘Their luggage has been off-loaded from the American Airlines flight.’ Grant’s voice was a shade more tense.

‘You’ve got guys in there?’

‘We’ve got ’em everywhere . . .’

‘Well, what do you want me to do? Go and grab a bagel, book a flight to Jallaboo or take the AA15?’

‘They have to be heading this way. Take the AA and check in as soon as you reach SFO.’ SFO is the airport designator code for San Francisco International.

Rushia signed off and ambled back to the gate while Grant continued to give instructions to the New York officer. ‘You say the corporate jet’s a Gulfstream II?’

‘Grumman Gulfstream II, that’s the jet version, in the livery of a corporation called Silver Service, Inc.’

‘Okay, I’ll start the checks on Silver Service. You get your hooks on to that corporate’s flight plan and make damned certain he sticks to it. I don’t care if you have to go through the military satellites, the COMSATS, anything, but I want that bird tracked through every cloud. I want to know if it wanders one degree off course and I want to know if the captain farts. You’ve got enough staff?’

‘Only Dogface Two, and he did the day shift. I’m going to need about four extra sets of hands in here if we’re to do the job right. We’ve sleeping facilities for eight so I figure that we’re a tad undermanned.’

‘You’ve got six extra pairs as from midnight. I’ll see to it.’ Grant shut down and made two rapid telephone calls, then left his own Number Two in charge – a former field agent built like the proverbial brick wash-house and known to all as Mac. In M’s cabin, Grant found the old admiral talking with Bill Tanner and Franks. The doctor, Orr, and Q’ute had already left for London.

‘Your man and the girl’ve been cut out by a couple of Brokenclaw’s stalking-horses,’ Grant announced.

‘Serious?’ M clamped his pipe firmly between his teeth.

‘From the description, it’s probably a Chinese heavy known as Bone Bender Ding who’d rip out his own mother’s tongue if the money was right. The other’s a little guy called Fox. Ex-Special Forces and answers to various nicknames – “Gory” Fox; “Fatal” Fox, take your pick; he’s as pleasant as an asp in your pants.’

‘You do have them under surveillance?’

‘I’m having them tracked all the way sir. But I don’t have to remind you what you already know of Brokenclaw Lee. He appears to have the ability to move entire mountains without anyone even noticing until it’s done.’

M sucked at his pipe. ‘Grant,’ he tried to sound diffident, though it did not quite come off, ‘we’re damned grateful for what you fellows are doing, y’know. Damned grateful. Bond can be a difficult cuss at times, but he’s my best agent. Nobody else can touch him when it comes to jobs like this.’

‘And this ,’ Bill Tanner said quietly, ‘is like old-fashioned intelligence work. I was just thinking that we desperately need agents to cope with the turmoil of transition in Europe, and here we are, half a world away, dealing with stolen plans. It’s like a pre-World War I scenario.’

M made a noise which sounded like an embarrassed clearing of the throat. At the same time he glanced at Grant who was looking furtive. ‘What’s your Chief of Staff’s clearance, sir?’ he asked.

‘Stratospheric, though I’d hoped to keep the darker side out of the way. You think it’s gone too far for that now?’

‘I think within forty-eight hours we’ll know exactly how what you call the “darker side” is going to fall.’

Tanner was quite used to being educated further and given classified information long after an operation had begun to run. It was known in the trade as ‘need-to-know’. ‘There’s more than just Lords and Lords Day?’ he asked.

‘Possibly, Tanner. Quite possibly. Though the Lords device is about as classified as anyone can get, because the whole safety of the United States’ and our own fleets depends on it. I fear there’s a lot of woolly-headed thinking going on about the world’s future. The Forces of the Western Alliance have a long way to go yet. But, be that as it may, there is the possibility of a further threat connected with this man Brokenclaw Lee.’