`Slow,' said Kerim softly. They crept round the square under the shadow of the lime trees. Down a street on the east side, the lighthouse below the Seraglio Palace gave them a great yellow wink6.
`Stop.'
The car pulled up in the darkness under the limes. Kerim reached for the door handle. `We shan't be long, James. You sit up front in the driver's seat and if a policeman comes along just say ``Ben Bey Kerim'in ortagiyim''. Can you remember that? It means ``I am Kerim Bey's partner''. They'll leave you alone.'
Bond snorted. `Thanks very much. But you'll be surprised to hear I'm coming with you. You're bound to get into trouble without me. Anyway I'm damned if I'm going to sit here trying to bluff7 policemen. The worst of learning one good phrase is that it sounds as if one knew the language. The policeman will come back with a barrage8 of Turkish and when I can't answer he'll smell a rat. Don't argue, Darko.'
`Well, don't blame me if you don't like this.' Kerim's voice was embarrassed. `It's going to be a straight killing9 in cold blood. In my country you let sleeping dogs lie, but when they wake up and bite, you shoot them. You don't offer them a duel10. All right?'
`Whatever you say,' said Bond. `I've got one bullet left in case you miss.'
`Come on then,' said Kerim reluctantly. `We've got quite a walk. The other two will be going another way.'
Kerim took a long walking-stick from the chauffeur11, and a leather case. He slung12 them over his shoulder and they started off down the street into the yellow wink of the lighthouse. Their footsteps echoed hollowly back at them from the iron-shuttered shop frontages. There was not a soul in sight, not a cat, and Bond was glad he was not walking alone down this long street towards the distant baleful eye.
From the first, Istanbul had given him the impression of a town where, with the night, horror creeps out of the stones. It seemed to him a town the centuries had so drenched13 in blood and violence that, when daylight went out, the ghosts of its dead were its only population. His instinct told him, as it has told other travellers, that Istanbul was a town he would be glad to get out of alive.
They came to a narrow stinking14 alley15 that dived steeply down the hill to their right. Kerim turned into it and started gingerly down its cobbled surface. `Watch your feet,' he said softly. `Garbage is a polite word for what my charming people throw into their streets.'
The moon shone whitely down the moist river of cobbles. Bond kept his mouth shut and breathed through his nose. He put his feet down one after the other, flat-footedly, and with his knees bent16, as if he was walking down a snow-slope. He thought of his bed in the hotel and of the comfortable cushions of the car under the sweetly smelling lime trees, and he wondered how many more kinds of dreadful stench he was going to run into during his present assignment.
They stopped at the bottom of the alley. Kerim turned to him with a broad white grin. He pointed17 upwards18 at a towering block of black shadow. `Mosque of Sultan Ahmet. Famous Byzantine frescoes19. Sorry I haven't got time to show you more of the beauties of my country.' Without waiting for Bond's reply, he cut off to the right and along a dusty boulevard, lined with cheap shops, that sloped down towards the distant glint that was the Sea of Marmara. For ten minutes they walked in silence. Then Kerim slowed and beckoned20 Bond into the shadows.
`This will be a simple operation,' he said softly. `Krilencu lives down there, beside the railway line.' He gestured vaguely21 towards a cluster of red and green lights at the end of the boulevard. `He hides out in a shack22 behind a bill-hoarding23. There is a front door to the shack. Also a trapdoor to the street through the hoarding. He thinks no one knows of this. My two men will go in at the front door. He will slip out through the hoarding. Then I shoot him. All right?'
`If you say so.'
They walked on down the boulevard, keeping close to the wall. After ten minutes, they came in sight of the twenty-foot-high hoarding that formed a facing wall to the T intersection24 at the bottom of the street. The moon was behind the hoarding and its face was in shadow. Now Kerim walked even more carefully, putting each foot softly in front of him. About a hundred yards from the hoarding the shadows ended and the moon blazed whitely down on the intersection. Kerim stopped in the last dark doorway25 and stationed Bond in front of him, up against his chest. `Now we must wait,' he whispered. Bond heard Kerim fiddling26 behind him. There came a soft plop as the lid of the leather case came off. A thin, heavy steel tube, about two feet long, with a bulge27 at each end, was pressed into Bond's hand. `Sniperscope. German model,' whispered Kerim. `Infrared lens. Sees in the dark. Have a look at that big film advertisement over there. That face. Just below the nose. You'll see the outline of a trap-door. In direct line down from the signal box.'
Bond rested his forearm against the door jamb and raised the tube to his right eye. He focused it on the patch of black shadow opposite. Slowly the black dissolved into grey. The outline of a huge woman's face and some lettering appeared. Now Bond could read the lettering. It said: `NIYAGARA. MARILYN MONROE YE JOSEPH GOTTEN' and underneath28, the cartoon feature, `BONZO FUTBOLOU'. Bond inched the glass down the vast pile of Marilyn Monroe's hair, and the cliff of forehead, and down the two feet of nose to the cavernous nostrils29. A faint square showed in the poster. It ran from below the nose into the great alluring30 curve of the lips. It was about three feet deep. From it, there would be a longish drop to the ground.
Behind Bond there sounded a series of soft clicks. Kerim held forward his walking-stick. As Bond had supposed, it was a gun, a rifle, with a skeleton butt31 which was also a twist breech. The squat32 bulge of a silencer had taken the place of the rubber tip.
`Barrel from the new 88 Winchester,' whispered Kerim proudly. `Put together for me by a, man in Ankara. Takes the .308 cartridge33. The short one. Three of them. Give me the glass. I want to get that trap-door lined up before my men go in at the front. Mind if I use your shoulder as a rest?'
`All right.' Bond handed Kerim the Sniperscope. Kerim clipped it to the top of the barrel and slid the gun along Bond's shoulder.
`Got it,' whispered Kerim. `Where Vavra said. He's a good man that.' He lowered his gun just as two policemen appeared at the right-hand corner of the intersection. Bond stiffened34.
`It's all right,' whispered Kerim. `That's my boy and the chauffeur.' He put two fingers in his mouth. A very quick, very low-pitched whistle sounded for a fraction of a second. One of the policemen lifted his hand to the back of his neck. The two policemen turned and walked away, their boots ringing loudly on the paving stones.
`Few minutes more,' whispered Kerim. `They've got to get round the back of that hoarding.' Bond felt the heavy barrel of the gun slip into place along his right shoulder.
The moonstruck silence was broken by a loud iron clang from the signal box behind the hoarding. One of the signal arms dropped. A green pinpoint35 of light showed among the cluster of reds. There was a soft slow rumble36 in the distance, away to the left by Seraglio Point. It came close and sorted itself into the heavy pant of an engine and the grinding clangour of a string of badly coupled goods trucks. A faint yellow glimmer37 shone along the embankment to the left. The engine came labouring into view above the hoarding.
The train slowly clanked by on its hundred-mile journey to the Greek frontier, a broken black silhouette38 against the silver sea, and the heavy cloud of smoke from its cheap fuel drifted towards them on the still air. As the red light on the brake van glimmered39 briefly40 and disappeared, there came the deeper rumble as the engine entered a cutting, and then two harsh, mournful whoops41 as it whistled its approach to the little station of Buyuk, a mile further down the line.
The rumble of the train died away. Bond felt the gun press deeper into his shoulder. He strained his eyes into the target of shadow. In the centre of it, a deeper square of blackness showed.
Bond cautiously lifted his left hand to shade his eyes from the moon. There came a hiss42 of breath from behind his right ear. `He's coming.'
Out of the mouth of the huge, shadowed poster, between the great violet lips, half-open in ecstasy43, the dark shape of a man emerged and hung down like a worm from the mouth of a corpse44.
The man dropped. A ship going up towards the Bosphorus growled45 in the night like a sleepless46 animal in a zoo. Bond felt a prickle of sweat on his forehead. The barrel of the rifle depressed47 as the man stepped softly off the pavement towards them.
When he's at the edge of the shadow, he'll start to run, thought Bond. You damn fool, get the sights further down.
Now. The man bent for a quick sprint48 across the dazzling white street. He was coming out of the shadow. His right leg was bent forward and his shoulder was twisted to give him momentum49.
At Bond's ear there was the clunk of an axe50 hitting into a tree-trunk. The man dived forward, his arms outstretched. There was a sharp `tok' as his chin or his forehead hit the ground.
An empty cartridge tinkled51 down at Bond's feet. He heard the click of the next round going into the chamber52.
The man's fingers scrabbled briefly at the cobbles. His shoes knocked on the road. Then he lay absolutely still.
Kerim grunted53. The rifle came down off Bond's shoulder. Bond listened to the noises of Kerim folding up the gun and putting away the Sniperscope in its leather case.
Bond looked away from the sprawling54 figure in the road, the figure of the man who had been, but was no more. He had a moment of resentment55 against the life that made him witness these things. The resentment was not against Kerim. Kerim had twice been this man's target. In a way it had been a long duel, in which the man had fired twice to Kerim's once. But Kerim was the cleverer, cooler man, and the luckier, and that had been that. But Bond had never killed in cold blood, and he hadn't liked watching, and helping56, someone else do it.
Kerim silently took his arm. They walked slowly away from the scene and back the way they had come.
Kerim seemed to sense Bond's thoughts. `Life is full of death, my friend,' he said philosophically57. `And sometimes one is made the instrument of death. I do not regret killing that man. Nor would I regret killing any of those Russians we saw in that office today. They are hard people. With them, what you don't get from strength, you won't get from mercy. They are all the same, the Russians. I wish your government would realize it and be strong with them. Just an occasional little lesson in manners like I have taught them tonight.'
`In power politics, one doesn't often have the chance of being as quick and neat as you were tonight, Darko. And don't forget it's only one of their satellites you've punished, one of the men they always find to do their dirty work. Mark you,' said Bond, `I quite agree about the Russians. They simply don't understand the carrot. Only the stick has any effect. Basically they're masochists. They love the knout. That's why they were so happy under Stalin. He gave it them. I'm not sure how they're going to react to the scraps58 of carrot they're being fed by Khrushchev and Co. As for England, the trouble today is that carrots for all are the fashion. At home and abroad. We don't show teeth any more-only gums.'
Kerim laughed harshly, but made no comment. They were climbing back up the stinking alley and there was no breath for talk. They rested at the top and then walked slowly towards the trees of the Hippodrome Square.
`So you forgive me for today?' It was odd to hear the longing59 for reassurance60 in the big man's usually boisterous61 voice.
`Forgive you? Forgive what? Don't be ridiculous.' There was affection in Bond's voice. `You've got a job to do and you're doing it. I've been very impressed. You've got a wonderful set-up here. I'm the one who ought to apologize. I seem to have brought a great deal of trouble down on your head. And you've dealt with it. I've just tagged along behind. And I've got absolutely nowhere with my main job. M will be getting pretty impatient. Perhaps there'll be some sort of message at the hotel.'
But when Kerim took Bond back to the hotel and went with him to the desk there was nothing for Bond. Kerim clapped him on the back. `Don't worry, my friend,' he said cheerfully. `Hope makes a good breakfast. Eat plenty of it. I will send the car in the morning and if nothing has happened I will think of some more little adventures to pass the time. Clean your gun and sleep on it. You both deserve a rest.'
Bond climbed the few stairs and unlocked his door and locked and bolted it behind him. Moonlight filtered through the curtains. He walked across and turned on the pink-shaded lights on the dressing-table. He stripped off his clothes and went into the bathroom and stood for a few minutes under the shower. He thought how much more eventful Saturday the fourteenth had been than Friday the thirteenth. He cleaned his teeth and gargled with a sharp mouthwash to get rid of the taste of the day and turned off the bathroom light and went back into the bedroom.
Bond drew aside one curtain and opened wide the tall windows and stood, holding the curtains open and looking out across the great boomerang curve of water under the riding moon. The night breeze felt wonderfully cool on his naked body. He looked at his watch. It said two o'clock.
Bond gave a shuddering62 yawn. He let the curtains drop back into place. He bent to switch off the lights on the dressing-table. Suddenly he stiffened and his heart missed a beat.
There had been a nervous giggle63 from the shadows at the back of the room. A girl's voice said, `Poor Mister Bond. You must be tired. Come to bed.'
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1
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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2
mosques
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| 清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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3
minarets
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| n.（清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的）光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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bazaar
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| n.集市，商店集中区 | |
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ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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6
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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7
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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barrage
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| n.火力网，弹幕 | |
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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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duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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11
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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12
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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13
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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14
stinking
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| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
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15
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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16
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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17
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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18
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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frescoes
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| n.壁画( fresco的名词复数 )；温壁画技法，湿壁画 | |
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20
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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22
shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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23
hoarding
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| n.贮藏；积蓄；临时围墙；囤积v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的现在分词 ) | |
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24
intersection
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| n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集 | |
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25
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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26
fiddling
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| 微小的 | |
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27
bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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29
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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30
alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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31
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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32
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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33
cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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pinpoint
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| vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置 | |
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36
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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37
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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38
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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39
glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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41
whoops
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| int.呼喊声 | |
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42
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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43
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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44
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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45
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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46
sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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47
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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48
sprint
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| n.短距离赛跑；vi. 奋力而跑，冲刺；vt.全速跑过 | |
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49
momentum
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| n.动力，冲力，势头；动量 | |
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50
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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51
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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52
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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53
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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54
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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55
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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56
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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philosophically
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| adv.哲学上；富有哲理性地；贤明地；冷静地 | |
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58
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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59
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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60
reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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61
boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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62
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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63
giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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