'This is Yanni,' said Litsas. '_Yanni, o Kyrios Tzems__.... You and I could manage the boat together, but we need a relief for the wheel. Yanni knows boats and he knows these seas. This is all we need. I shall slip him a couple of hundred drachmas and put him ashore somewhere before we begin the shooting. Well, since you like the weapons we can get the gangway up.'
He spoke to Yanni, who nodded again and slipped away with the same almost noiseless tread. Just afterwards Ariadne joined them.
She looked coolly desirable and at the same time impressively businesslike in blue jeans and a man's fine cotton shirt several shades darker, her hair pinned back close to her head. She looked quickly from Bond to Litsas.
'Well, why aren't we moving?'
'We're ready, my dear. But only you know where we must move. Isn't it time you trusted us?'
'Not until I have to.' Ariadne, at her most strict, avoided Bond's eye. Her tenacity in holding on to this information struck him as about equally absurd and admirable. She blinked, came to a decision. 'Go toward the Cyclades group. I'll tell you which island when we're sailing.'
'Very good. Right, James. Let's go.'
Five minutes later, a man in a grubby linen suit arrived panting at the quayside, peered after the receding shape of the _Altair__, turned and ran for the cafe and its telephone.
Chapter 10
Dragon Island
'THAT'S WHERE we're going.' Ariadne's finger came down on the map. 'Vrakonisi.'
Looking over her shoulder, Litsas nodded. 'Fourteen hours at least - I don't want to make her go more than about eight knots. Longer if the weather's bad. And it might be.'
'It's calm enough at the moment,' said Bond.
The dark indigo-blue sea slid past almost unwrinkled. Two miles away, the larger detail on shore was still perfectly clear, but its colours were just beginning to change in the approaching September dusk, the white of the scattered buildings losing its glare, the green of the trees fading and turning bluish, the tan and ochre and gamboge of the hillsides seeming oddly to have become more intense. A fishing-boat with a chain of dinghies passed towards Piraeus between the _Altair__ and the coast, all the craft moving as smoothly as if they were running across ice.
'It's usually calm here,' said Litsas, 'but wait till we get past Cape Sounion and leave the shelter of Attica before you be sure. Out there you can meet a norther and it's often quite bloody. Right. We make over here towards Kea, run south past Kithnos and Seriphos, round Siphnos and sail due east. That part may not be good either, but if it's rough we'll get some shelter from Antiparos and Paros for the last miles. Right. I'll just go and speak with Yanni.'
Litsas left them. Bond sat back and gazed out at the coast with eyes that hardly saw. He felt wonderfully relaxed and confident. The broad caique hull thrust its way sturdily through the still water, the muffled roar of the engine was even and regular, accompanied by no vibration. There were big questions yet to be settled and battles to be fought, but until first light at least everything was secure. He had had to learn to get everything possible out of such interludes before action, to savour each moment of calm that lay between him and the shooting, the running in and out of cover, the final assault and the blood.
He glanced sidelong at Ariadne's profile. Along with its abundant sensual beauty, its strength and intelligence impressed him anew. In America, in England, anywhere in the developed countries a girl of this calibre would be carving out a brilliant career for herself in journalism or entertainment. In Greece these opportunities barely existed. He felt he understood a little more than nothing of what had driven her into the arms of Communism.
Bond picked up the map and found the sickle-shaped island.
A memory clicked in his mind. 'Vrakonisi. So that was where Theseus went after he'd dumped your namesake on Naxos.'
'I thought you didn't notice,' said Ariadne, smiling and biting her lower lip like an embarrassed schoolgirl. 'That was a silly mistake of mine.'
'I'd only to look up the books and I could have identified the place straight way.'
'You won't find this story in the books; it's just a local legend the old people tell.' Ariadne settled down to impart information, but with a warmth of manner she never showed when the subject was politics.
'None of the scholars know why Theseus took off from Naxos in so much hurry. The Vrakonisiots do. Their king had heard about Theseus slaying the Minotaur and so he sent some men to him and they begged him to come over and fight a dragon who was burning up their island with the flames of its breath. So Theseus left Ariadne sleeping and went over to Vrakonisi with the messengers. He thought he'd be back very soon.
'But the dragon was dangerous because he could hurt you when you couldn't see him. He'd hide himself behind the mountain and breathe fire at you over it. Theseus waited for him to get started and then swam around the island and took the dragon from the rear and pulled him into the sea. And the water boiled and the steam rose so high in the air that the gods on Mount Olympus saw it and wondered what it was. At last the dragon was drowned and sank to the bottom of the sea. When Theseus got to shore he found that the boiling waves had melted so much that only a tenth part of the island was left, but the king and his family and his palace had survived and his daughters took care of Theseus while he recovered from his burns. That was a big job, and when he got back to Naxos and looked for Ariadne she'd gone. He'd been too brave for his own good.
'They'll tell you that that's just a mythical story of what happened when the island was formed as it is today. A volcano was erupting and pouring down burning lava and at last it exploded and the sea rushed in. But I'd as soon believe in the dragon. Vrakonisi - they'll tell you it means just 'rocky island', not exciting. But that ought to be Vra_kh__onisi, with the letter _khi__. What it must really be is Thrakonisi. Dragon Island.'
'And now there's a dragon round the place again,' said Bond flatly. 'Only this time it's a Chinese dragon.'
Litsas reappeared at that moment and the words caught his ear. He checked in his stride.
'There's Chinese handwriting over every part of this business.' Bond offered cigarettes. 'The scale, the disregard for the unwritten rules of peacetime intelligence work, above all the recklessness. None of the smaller Powers who might want to resist Russian influence in this part of the Mediterranean or the Near East - Turkey, for
