helpers. Mr De Graaf I think you know, and Dr Lohmann from the same occasion. You've met Mr Aria before, too, though only at a distance, as it were, during one of your more successful seaborne operations. He took a lot of trouble to bring me news of you. My servant Evgeny' - ludicrously, like a well-trained butler, the Russian made a slight, respectful bow - 'and myself. Sun's the name, Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the Chinese People's Army.'
During this speech, Bond had prevented himself from inquiring after Litsas, whose continued absence was the only factor making for any sort of hope - if he were not already shot or drowned. Pausing for a moment, the Chinese settled himself on a padded olive-wood stool a couple of feet away. His smile turned thoughtful and sympathetic.
'Bad luck has been a marked feature of this whole affair,' he said in his curious accent. 'You've certainly had your full share of it tonight, Mr Bond. Not even you could have predicted that our mutual friends the Russians would have advertised your approach so spectacularly - a real _son et lumiere__ effort, so to speak.' Sun chuckled briefly at his own wit. 'And then again you were unfortunate in being forced to swim ashore and thus allowing me ample time to get my little boatload of men along to your only possible landing-point. But then, that's life, isn't it?
'Anyway, a most hearty welcome from us all. Some of my colleagues, I know, are feeling very relieved as well as grateful at your arrival. They were in some doubt whether it would take place at all. I was not. I had faith. Thus I was unmoved by Mr De Graaf's opinion that not enough positive action was being taken to secure your services. My fears were that, on the contrary, some over-zealous person would kill you prematurely. I always knew that you would come here of your own accord while you still lived. It was inevitable. As you'll come to realize, you and I are destined for each other.' Here Colonel Sun allowed another pause, the smile fixed on his face, his metallic eyes trained unblinking on Bond. Then he became solicitous again.
'But forgive me - I'm being careless and unfeeling. How is your head? I hope it's not troubling you unduly?'
'Thank you, just a slight throbbing. Nothing to speak of.' Bond forced himself to match Sun's polite conversational tone. To remain calm, to give no sign of rage or despair, was all that could be done for the moment.
'Excellent; Dr Lohmann's little local anaesthetic has been effective, then. And Evgeny is an artist with the bludgeon. I hope further that you're suffering no ill effects from your long swim. As you'll have gathered, we took the liberty of drying your garments while you were unconscious. And of removing the knife strapped to your leg.'
'You've been most thoughtful,' said Bond easily. 'I've no complaints. I would like a little whisky if you have it.'
'Of course, my dear fellow, a pleasure. I've been keeping a bottle of Haig specially for this occasion. With ice and water?'
'I think neat, please.'
Sun nodded at Evgeny, taking his eyes from Bond for the first time. They soon returned to him. 'Then apart from some minor discomfort and fatigue your present physical state is satisfactory, it seems.'
'Perfectly.' Bond concealed his growing anger at the continuance of this absurd charade.
'I'm most relieved. The fatigue will be nothing to one of your physique and general condition. I am most relieved.'
The whisky appeared, a generous measure. Bond accepted it gratefully and took a sizeable draught of the honey-coloured fire. Sun watched. There was perhaps a slight edge to his tone when he next spoke.
'It's essential to my purposes, you see, that you cooperate with me to the fullest extent of which you are capable. At any rate for the next...' - the colonel consulted a wristwatch which had clearly not originated in People's China - 'five hours or so. After that time you will be incapable of cooperation.'
'There's no question of my co-operating with you for any of your _purposes__,' said Bond scornfully. 'Whatever they may be, I promise you I'll resist them as long as I'm physically able.'
'Bravely spoken, Mr Bond. But - quite naturally - you misunderstand me. Your resistance _is__ your co- operation. Hence my concern for your unimpaired power to resist. However, we can defer a full explanation of this question until later. For the moment, I'll explain my purposes' - here a tight grin was switched on and off - 'in the clearest terms. It's essential, absolutely essential, that you learn now just what lies ahead of you.
'Quite soon you'll be taken to the cellar that lies beneath the kitchen of this house. There, using the most sophisticated of the interrogation techniques I've been privileged to be able to develop, I shall torture you to the point of death. But you must realize that this won't be an interrogation in the more common sense of the word, i. e. no questions will be asked of you and whatever information you may volunteer, whatever promises you may make, anything of that kind will have no effect at all on the inexorable progress of the interrogation. Is that clear, Mr Bond?'
'Perfectly.'
'Good. I don't mind admitting, before the present company, that in this respect I'm exceeding my orders a trifle. Or - why not be honest? - actually disobeying them. I was instructed to obtain as much as possible of the specialized knowledge at your disposal before killing you. This was a most unimaginative requirement, typical of the sterile thinking of officialdom with its insistence on routine methods, standard procedures and the like. I imagine that all of us, in our different ways, have come up against the limitations of the bureaucratic mind. In this case, I'm just going to use my own initiative; I'm sure that, as an Englishman, you'll approve of that, Mr Bond. And, being like me an executive, and thus used to outwitting administrators, you'll understand that I'll experience no great difficulty in hoodwinking my masters by pleading that, in view of your well-known courage and the short time which the incompetence of others had allowed for my efforts, I can't be blamed for having failed to break you down. In fact, of course, if I wanted information from you, I could induce you or anyone else to start giving it in a matter of minutes. But, as before, a man of your experience will know how desirable it can be to allow one's bosses to underestimate one.'
It was hideously plain that the Chinese meant every word he said, that he spoke without irony and, in an odd way, without pleasure in his total power over his prisoner. Such an attitude would have suggested madness in a Western mind, but Bond had heard and read enough of the thought-processes of oriental Communism, with its sincere indifference to human suffering and its habit of regarding men and women as objects, statistics, scientific abstractions - enough to see that Sun might be, in a clinical sense, entirely sane. That made him more formidable.
Was there the thinnest, most fanciful hope that any of the others present might be feeling a stir of revolt at the idea of torture for its own sake, so much as a flicker of sympathy? He glanced stealthily at the two girls. The
