Why don't I go and change into something loose and stimulating while you call down for room service?' As Fraulein von Grusse said the next morning, it was a night during which they both deserved to be awarded gold medals. `World champions,' Bond agreed with a sly smile.
They were seated at a small restaurant in Milan's famous Gallerie possibly the world's first shopping mall, Fredericka said lunching in style and watching all the girls go by. Bond had said that he thought the smartest women in the world were to be found in Milan, and Fredericka, after only a few minutes, said she felt positively dowdy.
LemPke arrived on the dot of twelve noon.
`You've got everything?' Fredericka asked.
`Funnies.' Bodo made his clown's la' looked from side to side furtively. `For you. Don't know why I put my the lamb for you.
`I think you mean on a limb, Bodo, but I know you do it for me because you love me to distraction.' Fredericka took a long sip of her wine, looking up at the fat cop from under batting eyelids.
Bodo followed her lead with his glass of red.
`Adds more to my little pink cells, eh?' He refused to say anything worth hearing until he had eaten. `If lam playing hockey from my job, then at least someone should buy me a good meal,' he announced.
It took Bodo a good ninety minutes to dispatch antipasto, minestrone, spaghetti alla Milanese, and a huge piece of disgustingly rich chocolate cake.
With thick cream. When the coffee was served he wiped his mouth with a napkin and settled back.
`I think I told you everything already, but your friend with the strange name, the David Dragonpol, isn't about to start killing anyone here in Milan, or Athens. Mind you, it would not surprise me if he tried to knock the pair of you into oblivion.' `Contacts,' Fredericka prodded. `I asked you to fix up some discreet contacts for us here in Milan.
`Sure. I done it. Just like you asked. But, as I said, I'm not going tolose my pension for a couple of busybody funnies.
`So who is he?' `Who is who?' `The contact you've arranged?' `Ah, I have to take you to him. Cloak and dagger.' He laid a pudgy finger against the side of his nose. `The pair of you should know all about cloaks and daggers.' `One question. Bond, rightly, felt that somewhere along the way he had been left out.
`Just one small question to put me into the picture.' `Sure.' Bodo gave him another of his clown's faces.
`You seem to have done some snooping and also arranged things for us. How do we know Dragonpol's still here in Milan?' `Trust us, James.' Fredericka laid a hand on his sleeve. `If Bodo's here, then Dragonpol is almost certainly still in town. Someone had to get in touch with authority, and that's just what I've done, through Bodo. We can't do this alone.' She turned to Lempke who was looking at the bill with a face which spoke of heart attacks.
`You bought lunch for the entire restaurant.' He passed the slip of paper over to Bond, who paid with a credit card.
`Okay,' Bodo appeared much relieved. `Okay, I take you to my man now. Come.
None of them even noticed the dapper Englishman dressed in navy blazer and slacks, one hand smoothing a mane of grey hair, the other clutching a stout walking stick with a brass duck's head handle. The Englishman had been sitting only a few tables from them. Now, as they left the restaurant, he too paid his bill and followed them, at a distance, as they walked out on to the street.
The traffic was snarled in a way unique to Milan, the air heavy with the smell of diesel and gasoline. Bodo sniffed. `The end of summer,' he said. `Soon, you won't be able to get a flight in or out.
Always the same in Milan. Come autumn and the place gets socked in.
Soon it will be time for the smog again.' He lifted a hand, and a sleek Ferrari seemed to materialize out of the banked-up traffic, snaking over and pulling up by the curb.
`Have to be quick or we'll get a ticket.' Bodo hustled them in, and the driver, a short young man with the eyes of a pickpocket, smiled and nodded.
`Just going for a little ride, like the old gangster movies say.
A ride in the country.' On the pavement, outside the Gallene, the very obvious Englishman, with his military blazer and the stick with the duck's head handle, watched them drive away. He saw other cars, weaving behind them in the traffic and he frowned. There was no way he would be able to follow them now.
He made a small, petulant gesture with his head, then turned back to find a telephone. The meddling Swiss woman and her English boyfriend would have to return to their hotel, and he had plenty of time. Everyone would wait, but one person had to know what was going on if the whole business was to be pulled off with a minimum of fuss.
Somebody had to be lured, and he knew just the woman to do the luring.
`There are a couple of cars on our tail,' Bond said as they pulled away. `A black Fiat, and a dark green Lamborghini. Possibly a taxi as well.' `Good.' Bodo turned to him and smiled. `We don't want unauthorized vehicles on our tail, do we?' Within minutes they were taking the road out of Milan, heading towards Lake Como and Cernobbio.
`We wouldn't be going to the Villa d'Este by any chance?' Bond asked.
`You know Milan well?' Bodo gave him another smile.
`I know the Villa d'Este. It's pretty high profile for a secret meeting with your contact. Also, your man must be a very well-connected Italian policeman if we're meeting him there.' `Who said he was a policeman? Anyway, you'd be surprised who stays at the Villa d'Este these days.' With that, Bodo made himself comfortable and appeared to go to sleep.
The Villa d'Este is, arguably, one of Italy's greatest hotels.
For almost five centuries it was a private estate on the shores of Lake Como, some thirty miles from Milan. For over a hundred years it has been a summer oasis for the rich and noble: a refreshing gem set in parkland, with tennis courts, swimming pool, horses, an eighteen-hole golf course and amazing Lombardian food. Its famous park and terrace have been the meeting place for deposed and reigning royalty, politicans, and people whose names are legends, while the service approaches the grandeur of a lost age.
They were expected. Bond spotted two security men watching in the parkland, and a small black van placed strategically near the main entrance.
Ten miles from the hotel, a pair of nondescript bikers had pulled in front of their car, while the other vehicles he had spotted, as they left Milan, now closed up in convoy. They swept up to the main entrance like a visiting presidential party, and an overtly plainclothed policeman opened the door.
`Straight through to the elevators. Suite one-twenty on the first floor.' He spoke in almost unaccented English and escorted them through the grand foyer and up to one-twenty, where he tapped softly at the door, and ushered them in.
`James, how nice to see you. And this must be the lovely Fraulein Von Grusse.' M sat, looking incongruous, behind a delicate Louis XV desk. Bill Tanner stood beside one of the windows, and a short Armaniand Gucci-clad Italian hovered in the background. Bond quickly introduced Fredericka to his Chief, and M took her hand, holding it for considerably longer than necessary.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AT THE VILLA D'ESTE
`Do sit down, the pair of you.' M waved them towards chairs, and they realized that Bodo Lempke had somehow disappeared along the way.
`I did say that I'd be in touch, James.' He was in a suspiciously good humour, and Bond must have shown surprise. `Incidentally, your nice Swiss policeman's returned to his duty. Good man, Lempke. As soon as he was able to answer Fraulein von Grusse's questions, he did the right thing and got straight on to us. Filled us in with all the details we did not know, and arranged the little clandestine runaround, so that we would be able to have a talk without any interruptions.' He smiled as though this were all a game. `You didn't think we'd let you get into difficulties in that odd German castle, did you?' `I didn't notice any surveillance, sir.
`Good. You failed to spot anyone at Brown's, I recall, which means my people are much better than MIS's Watcher Section. Rest assured, though, we have been tracking you all the way.
And now we've reached the really dangerous part, James, bearing in mind that we now know what we're up against.' `We do?' `Tell them, Chief of Staff.' M moved his head slightly in the direction of Bill Tanner.
