'Tell me.' His eyes glittered with interest.
'They got the third Bulgar, on the road to Paris. He was in a Citro?n and he had picked up two English hikers as protective colouring. At the road-block his French was so bad that they asked for his papers and he brought out a gun and shot one of the motor-cycle patrol. But the other man got him, I don't know how, and managed to stop him committing suicide. Then they took him down to Rouen and extracted the story - in the usual French fashion, I suppose.
'Apparently1 they were part of a pool held in France for this sort of job - saboteurs, thugs, and so on - and Mathis's friends are already trying to round up the rest. They were to get two million francs for killing2 you and the agent who briefed them told them there was absolutely no chance of being caught if they followed his instructions exactly.'
She took a sip3 of vodka. 'But this is the interesting part.'
'The agent gave them the two camera-cases you saw. He said the bright colours would make it easier for them. He told them that the blue case contained a very powerful smoke-bomb. The red case was the explosive. As one of them threw the red case, the other was to press a switch on the blue case and they would escape under cover of the smoke. In fact, the smoke-bomb was a pure invention to make the Bulgars think they could get away. Both cases contained an identical high-explosive bomb. There was no difference between the blue and the red cases. The idea was to destroy you and the bomb-throwers without trace. Presumably there were other plans for dealing4 with the third man.'
'Go on,' said Bond, full of admiration5 for the ingenuity6 of the double-cross.
'Well, apparently the Bulgars thought this sounded very fine, but cannily7 they decided8 to take no chances. It would be better, they thought, to touch off the smoke-bomb first and, from inside the cloud of smoke, hurl9 the explosive bomb at you. What you saw was the assistant bomb-thrower pressing down the lever on the phoney smoke-bomb and, of course, they both went up together.
'The third Bulgar was waiting behind the Splendide to pick his two friends up. When he saw what had happened, he assumed they had bungled10. But the police picked up some fragments of the unexploded red bomb and he was confronted with them. When he saw that they had been tricked and that his two friends were meant to be murdered with you, he started to talk. I expect he's still talking now. But there's nothing to link all this with Le Chiffre. They were given the job by some intermediary, perhaps one of Le Chiffre's guards, and Le Chiffre's name means absolutely nothing to the one who survived.'
She finished her story just as the waiters arrived with the caviar, a mound11 of hot toast, and small dishes containing finely chopped onion and grated hard-boiled egg, the white in one dish and the yoke12 in another.
The caviar was heaped on to their plates and they ate for a time in silence.
After a while Bond said: 'It's very satisfactory to be a corpse13 who changes places with his murderers. For them it certainly was a case of being hoist15 with their own petard. Mathis must be very pleased with the day's work - five of the opposition16 neutralized17 in twenty-four hours,' and he told her how the Muntzes had been confounded.
'Incidentally,' he asked, 'how did you come to get mixed up in this affair? What section are you in?'
'I'm personal assistant to Head of S.' said Vesper. 'As it was his plan, he wanted his section to have a hand in the operation and he asked M if I could go. It seemed only to be a liaison18 job, so M said yes although he told my chief that you would be furious at being given a woman to work with.' She paused and when Bond said nothing continued: 'I had to meet Mathis in Paris and come down with him. I've got a friend who is a vendeuse with Dior and somehow she managed to borrow me this and the frock I was wearing this morning, otherwise I couldn't possibly have competed with all these people.' She made a gesture towards the room.
'The office was very jealous although they didn't know what the job was. All they knew was that I was to work with a Double O. Of course you're our heroes. I was enchanted19.'
Bond frowned. 'It's not difficult to get a Double O number if you're prepared to kill people,' he said. 'That's all the meaning it has. It's nothing to be particularly proud of. I've got the corpses20 of a Japanese cipher21 expert in New York and a Norwegian double agent in Stockholm to thank for being a Double 0. Probably quite decent people. They just got caught up in the gale22 of the world like that Yugoslav that Tito bumped off. It's a confusing business but if it's one's profession, one does what one's told. How do you like the grated egg with your caviar?'
'It's a wonderful combination,' she said. 'I'm loving my dinner. It seems a shame . . .' She stopped, warned by a cold look in Bond's eye.
'If it wasn't for the job, we wouldn't be here,' he said.
Suddenly he regretted the intimacy23 of their dinner and of their talk. He felt he had said too much and that what was only a working relationship had become confused.
'Let's consider what has to be done,' he said in a matter-of-fact voice. 'I'd better explain what I'm going to try and do and how you can help. Which isn't very much I'm afraid,' he added.
'Now these are the basic facts.' He proceeded to sketch24 out the plan and enumerate25 the various contingencies26 which faced them.
The ma?tre d'h?tel supervised the serving of the second course and then as they ate the delicious food, Bond continued.
She listened to him coldly, but with attentive27 obedience28. She felt thoroughly29 deflated30 by his harshness, while admitting to herself that she should have paid more heed31 to the warning of Head of S.
'He's a dedicated32 man,' her chief had said when he gave her the assignment. 'Don't imagine this is going to be any fun. He thinks of nothing but the job on hand and, while it's on, he's absolute hell to work for. But he's an expert and there aren't many about, so you won't be wasting your time. He's a good-looking chap, but don't fall for him. I don't think he's got much heart. Anyway, good luck and don't get hurt.'
All this had been something of a challenge and she was pleased when she felt she attracted and interested him, as she knew intuitively that she did. Then at a hint that they were finding pleasure together, a hint that was only the first words of a conventional phrase, he had suddenly turned to ice and had brutally33 veered34 away as if warmth were poison to him. She felt hurt and foolish. Then she gave a mental shrug35 and concentrated with all her attention on what he was saying. She would not make the same mistake again.
'. . . and the main hope is to pray for a run of luck for me, or against him.'
Bond was explaining just how baccarat is played.
'It's much the same as any other gambling36 game. The odds37 against the banker and the player are more or less even. Only a run against either can be decisive and 'break the bank', or break the players.
'Tonight, Le Chiffre, we know, has bought the baccarat bank from the Egyptian syndicate which is running the high tables here. He paid a million francs for it and his capital has been reduced to twenty-four million. I have about the same. There will be ten players, I expect, and we sit round the banker at a kidney-shaped table.
'Generally, this table is divided into two tableaux38. The banker plays two games, one against each of the tableaux to left and right of him. In the game that banker should be able to win by playing off one tableaux against the other and by first-class accountancy. But there aren't enough baccarat players yet at Royale and Le Chiffre is just going to pit his luck against the other players at the single tableau39. It's unusual because the odds in favour of the banker aren't so good, but they're a shade in his favour and, of course, he has control of the size of the stakes.
'Well, the banker sits there in the middle with a croupier to rake in the cards and call the amount of each bank and a chef de partie to umpire the game generally. I shall be sitting as near dead opposite Le Chiffre as I can get. In front of him he has a shoe containing six packs of cards, well shuffled40. There's absolutely no chance of tampering41 with the shoe. The cards are shuffled by the croupier and cut by one of the players and put into the shoe in full view of the table. We've checked on the staff and they're all okay. It would be useful, but almost impossible, to mark all the cards, and it would mean the connivance42 at least of the croupier. Anyway, we shall be watching for that too.'
Bond drank some champagne43 and continued.
'Now what happens at the game is this. The banker announces an opening bank of five hundred thousand francs, of five hundred pounds as it is now. Each seat is numbered from the right of the banker and the player next to the banker, or Number 1, can accept this bet and push his money out on to the table, or pass it, if it is too much for him or he doesn't want to take it. Then Number 2 has the right to take it, and if he refuses, then Number 3, and so on round the table. If no single player takes it all, the bet is offered to the table as a whole and everyone chips in, including sometimes the spectators round the table, until the five hundred thousand is made up.
'That is a small bet which would immediately be met, but when it gets to a million or two it's often difficult to find a taker or even, if the bank seems to be in luck, a group of takers to cover the bet. At the moment I shall always try and step in and accept the bet - in fact, I shall attack Le Chiffre's bank whenever I get a chance until either I've bust44 his bank or he's bust me. It may take some time, but in the end one of us is bound to break the other, irrespective of the other players at the table, although they can, of course, make him richer or poorer in the meantime.
'Being the banker, he's got a slight advantage in the play, but knowing that I'm making a dead set at him and not knowing, I hope, my capital, is bound to play on his nerves a bit, so I'm hoping that we start about equal.'
He paused while the strawberries came and the avocado pear.
For a while they ate in silence, then they talked of other things while the coffee was served. They smoked. Neither of them drank brandy or a liqueur. Finally, Bond felt it was time to explain the actual mechanics of the game.
'It's a simple affair,' he said, 'and you'll understand it at once if you've ever played vingt-et-un, where the object is to get cards from the banker which add up more closely to a count of twenty-one than his do. In this game, I get two cards and the banker gets two, and unless anyone wins outright45, either or both of us can get one more card. The object of the game is to hold two, or three cards which together count nine points, or as nearly nine as possible. Court cards and tens count nothing; aces14 one each; any other card its face value. It is only the last figure of your count that signifies. So nine plus seven equals six - not sixteen.
'The winner is the one whose count is nearest to nine. Draws are played over again.'
Vesper listened attentively46, but she also watched the look of abstract passion on Bond's face.
'Now,' Bond continued, 'when the banker deals me my two cards, if they add up to eight or nine, they're a 'natural' and I turn them up and I win, unless he has an equal or a better natural. If I haven't got a natural, I can stand on a seven or a six, perhaps ask for a card or perhaps not, on a five, and certainly ask for a card if my count is lower than five. Five is the turning point of the game. According to the odds, the chances of bettering or worsening your hand if you hold a five are exactly even.
'Only when I ask for a card or tap mine to signify that I stand on what I have, can the banker look at his. If he has a natural, he turns them up and wins. Otherwise he is faced with the same problems as I was. But he is helped in his decision to draw or not to draw a third card by my actions. If I have stood, he must assume that I have a five, six, or seven: if I have drawn47, he will know that I had something less than a six and I may have improved my hand or not with the card he gave me. And this card was dealt to me face up. On its face value and a knowledge of the odds, he will know whether to take another card or to stand on his own.
'So he has a very slight advantage over me. He has a tiny help over his decision to draw or to stand. But there is always one problem card at this game - shall one draw or stand on a five and what will your opponent do with a five? Some players always draw or always stand. I follow my intuition.
'But in the end,' Bond stubbed out his cigarette and called for the bill, 'it's the natural eights and nines that matter, and I must just see that I get more of them than he does.'
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1
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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6
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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7
cannily
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| 精明地 | |
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8
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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9
hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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10
bungled
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| v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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11
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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12
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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13
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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aces
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| abbr.adjustable convertible-rate equity security (units) 可调节的股本证券兑换率；aircraft ejection seat 飞机弹射座椅；automatic control evaluation simulator 自动控制评估模拟器n.擅长…的人( ace的名词复数 )；精于…的人；（ 网球 ）（对手接不到发球的）发球得分；爱司球 | |
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15
hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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16
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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neutralized
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| v.使失效( neutralize的过去式和过去分词 )；抵消；中和；使（一个国家）中立化 | |
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18
liaison
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| n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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26
contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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27
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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30
deflated
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| adj. 灰心丧气的 | |
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31
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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32
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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34
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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35
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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36
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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37
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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38
tableaux
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| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
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39
tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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40
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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41
tampering
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| v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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42
connivance
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| n.纵容；默许 | |
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43
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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44
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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45
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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46
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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47
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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