'Well, that's certainly a great relief.' M's eye, frosty as ever, was on Bond.
'Yes, yes. And it's a relief to have you back with us, too, both of you. Now. That Greek friend of yours, Bond - Litsas, isn't it? I wonder if I ought just to have a word with him before I catch my plane.'
'I'm sure he'd appreciate it, sir,' said Bond. 'And I think he does deserve something in the way of thanks, after voluntarily risking his life on behalf of England. Don't you?'
'Yes. Yes, of course I do. Excuse me a moment.'
Bond grinned sardonically at the Minister's retreating back. M gave a faint snort.
'Difficult not to think hardly of a man like that, James. But I suppose politicians are necessary animals. Anyway, we can afford to feel tolerant about them this evening. I must say our hosts have exerted themselves. Special representative from Moscow and so on. They seem quite pleased with us. No more than they ought to be, of course. Occasion for rejoicing, after all. Except for one thing - the absence of Head of Station G. You won't see your friend Stuart Thomas again.'
'Is that certain, sir?'
'Pretty well, I'm afraid, after this time. My private bet is that he got himself killed rather than be used for whatever the Chinese party wanted him for. Better forget all that. Let me ask you a question, James. Your report. I'm curious to know why you didn't just sit back and let that Prussian blaze away at the people on the islet. They were no fiends of yours, after all.'
Bond nodded. 'I've asked myself that. I must have just got caught up - I wasn't thinking. The three of us had combined to smash the lot of them and the job had to be finished. But I hope you agree it was the right thing to do anyway.'
'I do. Very strongly. Quite against the cards, we've pulled off something that's going to have a favourable effect on the world balance of power. Or rather you have. The Russians realize that all right. Notably this delegate fellow. Who evidently wants a word with you.'
An elegant young Russian with high Tartar cheekbones had made his way over. 'Excuse me, Admiral, sir. Our Mr Yermolov from Moscow would like to have a talk with you, Mr Bond. Would you come, please?'
The man from Moscow was tall, stout, red-faced, with small authoritative eyes. Bond put him down as a veteran Bolshevik, old enough, probably, to have seen some service as a youth in the Wars of Intervention, working his way up through the Stalin machine, coming to real power since the fall of Khrushchev. He looked quick-witted and determined; he would have had to be both these things to be still alive.
Wasting no time on preliminaries, Yermolov led Bond to a pair of ornate pseudo-Empire chairs that had been placed, obviously with the present purpose in mind, near the marble fireplace.
'You have enough to drink, Mr Bond? Good. I shall not detain you long. I want to say first that you have done my country a considerable service and that we are properly grateful. Comrade Kosygin himself has of course been fully informed of your role in this affair, and he has asked me to convey to you his personal thanks and congratulations. But more of that later.
'Besides our gratitude, it's also suitable that we offer you our apologies. For certain specific failures of judgement on our part. I have to admit to you that our security apparatus in this area had been allowed to fall into disrepair. This was not the fault of the late Major Gordienko, a capable enough officer who- '
'One moment, Mr Yermolov, if I may.' Bond had grown tired of the official jargon he had had to talk and listen to and write for so much of the last three days - in being formally interviewed by Sir Ranald, in a six-hour session alongside Ariadne at the Russian Embassy, in compiling his own report. 'Can we talk naturally? For instance, just to satisfy my curiosity, what happened to the traitor in your set-up here that Gordienko talked to me and Miss Alexandrou about?'
Yermolov breathed in slowly through his nose. His little eyes looked quizzically at Bond. Without shifting their gaze he produced a cigarette that had apparently been lying loose in his pocket, inserted it into a stained amber holder and lit it with a cheap metal lighter. He said abruptly: 'Yes. Why not? I'm sorry, I've been opening too many power-stations recently. That sort of thing doesn't encourage informality. Let's talk naturally, then. But that's not so easy, you know, for a Russian. I'll have to have a serious drink, and I insist that you join me. Vodka. We can offer you Stolichnaya, not the best there is, but perfectly wholesome.'
He snapped his fingers at the high-cheekboned young man and went on talking.
'Putting it naturally, then, the traitor, or rather the double agent, tried to escape when he found his bosses' plans had gone wrong. He's been dealt with.'
'Throat cut and dropped into the harbour, I suppose.'
'If you go on putting things as naturally as that, it's going to be a strain to keep up with you, Mr Bond, but I'll do my best. No. We're trying to avoid that sort of method these days. He'll be going to prison on a number of civil charges. Genuine ones. We like to have insurance cover on certain of our employees abroad. What happens to him when he comes out has still to be decided. Ah, good.' The drinks had arrived. 'My very best respects. Long live England.'
'Thank you.'
'Hm. Now as to General Arenski and his ill-advised scepticism about the story Miss Alexandrou told him. Arenski has... had it. That's correct, isn't it? He was luckier than he deserved when the shells fired by that Nazi all exploded in the sea and did no more than give everybody a bad scare. It was lucky for us, too. I've had a strenuous day playing down the whole matter of the conference to the authorities here. I couldn't have managed that if they'd known who was involved. Which a few deaths would have given away unmistakably.'
'But surely... no amount of playing-down would have concealed the fact that your people had been shipping in illegal immigrants by the boatload.'
'A good point.' Yermolov did another slow inhalation. 'To answer that I'm afraid I'll have to fall back on not being natural. Just for the moment. A richer Power can always find ways of conciliating a poorer one about what are really only technical matters. The conference was over anyway. Is that acceptable?'
Bond grinned. 'It'll have to be, I suppose. Go on about Arenski.'
'Well, of course he tried to blame the shells on you. But that won't stick. All the governments concerned are being circulated with a very full account of Chinese responsibility for this act of attempted terrorism. You and
