Duty Officer, though, just in case. Right?' `Thank you, sir. Yes. He turned and nodded Fredericka towards the door.
`Oh, James?' `Sir?' `Maeve Horton?' `What about her, sir?' `She strike you as being odd?' `Not really. Gave me a bit of a come-on.
Attractive enough, in a gipsyish kind of way. Why?' `I'm unhappy about what Dragonpol said. Just a hunch. A thought.' He sniffed the air, as an old seaman will sniff for signs of a change in the weather.
`I'm going to have her pulled in by our German friends. Maybe get them to take her to London. We'll be moving Daniel back as well, if the Italians are cooperative.' `Right, sir.' He thought it was not for him to reason why. The words, `but to do or die' came into his head and he went deathly cold. Tiredness, he thought.
One of the Italian uniformed men drove them back to the hotel, and on the way, he suggested to Fredericka that they should leave Italy. `We have seats booked on that flight to Athens on Thursday. Why don't we see if we can change them? Get out now?
I don't know about you, Flick, but I'm fed up with Milan. Fed up with the Dragonpol business as well.
`Oh, yes please. Please let's do that.
`Then can we do it before we pass out? Just get our stuff, check out and head for the airport.' `Gladly. I've never been to Athens.' * By eleven-thirty that morning, they were driving into Athens, in a hired white Porsche. From the airport, they had tried to get bookings at the famous Grande Bretagne, and the equally famous Le King George.
Eventually they settled for the Hilton which he assured Fredericka was the most beautiful of all that chain's hotels.
She believed him only when they arrived and walked through the brown and white marble entrance into the lavish interior with its never-ending halls, restaurants, arcades and the two beautiful atria.
She was even more ecstatic about the suite which had everything, it appeared, in triplicate.
`Oh, darling, I'm going to have a lovely time here.' `Yes, Flick.
We can do the Acropolis and the Parthenon..
`Yes, I suppose we could fit those in as well.' She gave him a dazzling smile and said she was going to freshen up. Why, he thought, did everyone else seem to be fit and wide awake when he felt absolutely shattered?
He picked up the telephone and dialled the international number for the screened line which would put him in touch, in complete privacy, with the Duty Officer at the headquarters building in London.
`Predator,' he announced when the other end picked up.
`Yes, Predator?' `The boss wanted me to leave an address. I'm at the Hilton in Athens.
`Lucky somebody.' The Duty Officer was a woman. She was also, he considered, not politically correct.
There were two bathrooms, so he took a shower, then briskly rubbed himself down with a towel, slipped into the bathrobe and went out into the bedroom.
Fredericka was lying on the bed wearing next to nothing.
`I've put the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, darling. Come and disturb me.
It was almost two hours later before they both fell into a deep and contented sleep.
He was wakened by the telephone and, for a moment, did not know where he was. Forcing himself up from the ocean bed of sleep, he reached out for the phone, while Fredericka grumbled as she came awake.
`Predator?' the voice at the distant end asked.
`Who wants to know?' `Levon.
`What's your occupation?' `I make cartoon balloons.
`Then you're a good man.' `Predator?' `Yes.' `Flash urgent from M.
Return London soonest.
The dragons are loose. You want me to repeat that?' `The last sentence.' `The dragons are loose.' `Is that dragons plural?' `Yes, sir. You copy?' `Tell him I'll be back soonest.' He replaced the instrument and cursed. Twice.
`What is it?' Fredericka, naked, leaning up on one arm.
`Get yourself dressed. We have to get to London.' Already he was dialling the airport to see if they could get a flight out that night.
It was already eight-thirty.
Seconds later he was pulling on clothes, and throwing things into the garment bag, checking the shielded section of the briefcase, and calling for - Fredericka to hurry. `We've got just over an hour and a half to get a plane to Heathrow via Paris.' `Why this?' He told her and she queried dragons just as he had done.
They had the bill ready for him at Reception. `If you miss the flight, there'll be a room for you here tonight, Mr Bond,' the girl at the desk told him.
Outside, one of the car valets asked for the number and Bond gave him the little brass ticket.
The boy retrieved the keys and walked the fifty yards or so to where they could see the little white Porsche was parked.
Bond tapped his foot, willing the boy to get the thing going. The streets out of Athens are nearly always a race track no matter what time of day or night. The boy was sliding behind the wheel. Then the whole area lit up. A great crimson flame shot from within the car before anyone's eardrums were assaulted by the explosion.
Bond pushed Fredericka to the ground, covering his head and flattening himself across her as pieces of metal clattered around them.
Then came the silence followed by the screams and the terrible scent-a mixture of gasoline and the sweet sickly odour of incinerated flesh.
Fredericka was just behind him as he raced to what was left of the car. `Dear God,' she said, with a curious little sob. `Oh, dear God,' pointing.
His eyes followed her finger. Something had been thrown out, landing intact just to the right of the shattered and burning wreck that had been their car.
`Jesus,' he said.
There, on the ground, almost at his feet, was a pure white rose, its petals tipped in blood red.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE WHITE KNIGHT
In spite of urgent appeals by M, the Greek police did not let Bond and Fredericka leave for London.
Instead, they were subjected to lengthy interrogations, and it was almost thirty-six hours before they were allowed to sign statements and go. As with anything else in Greece, time appeared to have no meaning.
So it was not until late afternoon on the Thursday that they attended what amounted to a Council of War in M's office.
Bill Tanner drove them in from Heathrow, talking the whole way, briefing them on the situation.
The villa, on the outskirts of Milan, in which they had interrogated Daniel Dragonpol, belonged to the local police, who shared it with the Italian equivalent of the Security Service. For several years they had used this house as offices and a special briefing centre for police and troops preparing for VIP visitors. Because of the limitations of its use, the facility had no truly secure area in which to keep anyone under detention.
During Dragonpol's long debriefing, the Italians had argued about the relative merits of preparing some makeshift accommodation on the spot, or driving Daniel five miles or so to a police precinct with cells. In the end, it was decided to secure an area on the spot, so new locks and some bars were fitted to one of the outbuildings. They reasoned that, if they left a pair of police officers with the subject, he could be kept safe until midday, when M had asked for the next session to begin. There was no cause for alarm. After all this was not a high-risk suspect.
Unfortunately the bulk of those who had been working the case had done almost twenty-four hours on duty by the time M stopped the interrogation. The result was some very tired people who wanted sleep, and only sleep.
The two police officers detailed to act as guards for Daniel Dragonpol were as tired as anybody else. They locked themselves into the specially prepared outbuilding which had been equipped with two bunks and a chair. Their instructions were to see that Daniel got as much rest as possible, and they planned to watch over him in shifts one man sleeping on the spare bunk while the other remained awake. They had taken two flasks of coffee in with them, and nobody seriously considered Daniel Dragonpol to be dangerous. As one of the senior police officers later said, `He seemed relieved that his brother was dead, and untroubled about the future. He appeared to have
