There was a clang of bolts and the door opened. A negro in evening dress with a gun in his hand stepped aside and they went through into a carpeted hallway.
'Yo kin2 go on in, Tee-Hee,' said the man in evening dress.
Tee-Hee knocked on a door facing them, opened it and led the way through.
In a high-backed chair, behind an expensive desk, Mr. Big sat looking quietly at them.
'Good morning, Mister James Bond.' The voice was deep and soft. 'Sit down.'
Bond's guard led him across the thick carpet to a low armchair in leather and tubular steel. He released Bond's arms and Bond sat down and faced The Big Man across the wide desk.
'It was a blessed relief to be rid of the two vice-like hands. All sensation had left Bond's forearms. He let them hang beside him and welcomed the dull pain as the blood started to flow again.
Mr. Big sat looking at him, his huge head resting against the back of the tall chair. He said nothing.
Bond at once realized that the photographs had conveyed nothing of this man, nothing of the power and the intellect which seemed to radiate from him, nothing of the over-size features.
It was a great football of a head, twice the normal size and very nearly round. The skin was grey-black, taut5 and shining like the face of a week-old corpse6 in the river. It was hairless, except for some grey-brown fluff above the ears. There were no eyebrows7 and no eyelashes and the eyes were extraordinarily9 far apart so that one could not focus on them both, but only on one at a time. Their gaze was very steady and penetrating10. When they rested on something, they seemed to devour11 it, to encompass12 the whole of it. They bulged13 slightly and the irises14 were golden round black pupils which were now wide. They were animal eyes, not human, and they seemed to blaze.
The nose was wide without being particularly negroid. The nostrils15 did not gape16 at you. The lips were only slightly everted, but thick and dark. They opened only when the man spoke17 and then they opened wide and drew back from the teeth and the pale pink gums.
There were few wrinkles or creases18 on the face, but there were two deep clefts19 above the nose, the clefts of concentration. Above them the forehead bulged slightly before merging20 with the polished, hairless crown.
Curiously21, there was nothing disproportionate about the monstrous22 head. It was carried on a wide, short neck supported by the shoulders of a giant. Bond knew from the records that he was six and a half foot tall and weighed twenty stone, and that little of it was fat. But the total impression was awe-inspiring, even terrifying, and Bond could imagine that so ghastly a misfit must have been bent23 since childhood on revenge against fate and against the world that hated because it feared him.
The Big Man was draped in a dinner-jacket. There was a hint of vanity in the diamonds that blazed on his shirt-front and at his cuffs24. His huge flat hands rested half-curled on the table in front of him. There were no signs of cigarettes or an ash-tray and the smell of the room was neutral. There was nothing on the desk save a large intercom with about twenty switches and, incongruously, a very small ivory riding-crop with a long thin white lash8.
Mr. Big gazed with silent and deep concentration across the table at Bond.
After inspecting him carefully in return, Bond glanced round the room.
It was full of books, spacious25 and restful and very quiet, like the library of a millionaire.
There was one high window above Mr. Big's head but otherwise the walls were solid with bookshelves. Bond turned round in his chair. More bookshelves, packed with books. There was no sign of a door, but there might have been any number of doors faced with dummy26 books. The two negroes who had brought him to the room stood rather uneasily against the wall behind his chair. The whites of their eyes showed. They were not looking at Mr. Big, but at a curious effigy27 which stood on a table in an open space of floor to the right, and slightly behind Mr. Big.
Even with his slight knowledge of Voodoo, Bond recognized it at once from Leigh Fermor's description.
A five-foot white wooden cross stood on a raised white pedestal. The arms of the cross were thrust into the sleeves of a dusty black frock-coat whose tails hung down behind the table towards the floor. Above the neck of the coat a battered28 bowler29 hat gaped30 at him, its crown pierced by the vertical31 bar of the cross. A few inches below the rim32, round the neck of the cross, resting on the cross-bar, was a deep starched33 clergyman's collar.
At the base of the white pedestal, on the table, lay an old pair of lemon-coloured gloves. A short malacca stick with a gold knob, its ferrule resting beside the gloves, rose against the left shoulder of the effigy. Also on the table was a battered black top hat.
This evil scarecrow gazed out across the room - God of the Cemeteries34 and Chief of the Legion of the Dead-Baron Samedi. Even to Bond it seemed to carry a dreadful gaping35 message.
Bond looked away, back to the great grey-black face across the desk.
Mr. Big spoke.
'I want you, Tee-Hee.' His eyes shifted. 'You can go, Miami.'
'Yes, Sir, Boss,' they both said together.
Bond heard a door open and close.
Silence fell again. At first, Mr. Big's eyes had been focused sharply on Bond. They had examined him minutely. Now, Bond noticed that though the eyes rested on him they had become slightly opaque36. They gazed upon Bond without perception. Bond had the impression that the brain behind them was occupied elsewhere.
Bond was determined37 not to be disconcerted. Feeling had returned to his hands and he moved them towards his body to reach for his cigarettes and lighter38.
Mr. Big spoke.
'You may smoke, Mister Bond. In case you have any other intentions you may care to lean forward and inspect the keyhole of the drawer in this desk facing your chair. I shall be ready for you in a moment.'
Bond leant forward. It was a large keyhole. In fact, Bond estimated, .45 centimetres in diameter. Fired, Bond supposed, by a foot-switch under the desk. What a bunch of tricks this man was. Puerile39. Puerile? Perhaps, after all, not to be dismissed so easily. The tricks - the bomb, the disappearing table - had worked neatly40, efficiently41. They had not been just empty conceits42, designed to impress. Again, there was nothing absurd about this gun. Rather painstaking43, perhaps, but, he had to admit, technically44 sound.
He lit a cigarette and gratefully drew the smoke deep into his lungs. He did not feel particularly worried by his position. He refused to believe he would come to any harm. It would be a clumsy affair to have him disappear a couple of days after he arrived from England unless a very expert accident could be contrived45. And Leiter would have to be disposed of at the same time. That would be altogether too much for their two Services and Mr. Big must know it. But he was worried about Leiter in the hands of those clumsy black apes.
The Big Man's lips rolled slowly back from his teeth.
'I have not seen a member of the Secret Service for many years, Mister Bond. Not since the war. Your Service did well in the war. You have some able men. I learn from my friends that you are high up in your Service. You have a double-o number, I believe - 007, if I remember right. The significance of that double-o number, they tell me, is that you have had to kill a man in the course of some assignment. There cannot be many double-o numbers in a Service which does not use assassination46 as a weapon. Whom have you been sent over to kill here, Mister Bond? Not me by any chance?'
The voice was soft and even, without expression. There was a slight mixture of accents, American and French, but the English was almost pedantically47 accurate, without a trace of slang.
Bond remained silent. He assumed that Moscow had signalled his description.
'It is necessary for you to reply, Mister Bond. The fate of both of you depends upon your doing so. I have confidence in the sources of my information. I know much more than I have said. I shall easily detect a lie.'
Bond believed him. He chose a story he could support and which would cover the facts.
'There are English gold coins circulating in America. Edward IV Rose Nobles,' he said. 'Some have been sold in Harlem. The American Treasury48 asked for assistance in tracing them since they must come from a British source. I came up to Harlem to see for myself, with a representative of the American Treasury, who I hope is now safely on his way back to his hotel.'
'Mr. Leiter is a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency, not of the Treasury,' said Mr. Big without emotion. 'His position at this moment is extremely precarious49.'
He paused and seemed to reflect. He looked past Bond.
'Tee-Hee.'
'Yassuh, Boss.'
'Tie Mister Bond to his chair.'
Bond half rose to his feet.
'Don't move, Mister Bond,' said the voice softly. 'You have a bare chance of survival if you stay where you are.'
Bond looked at The Big Man, at the golden, impassive eyes,
He lowered himself back into his chair. Immediately a broad strap50 was passed round his body and buckled51 tight. Two short straps52 went round his wrists and tied them to the leather and metal arms. Two more went round his ankles. He could hurl53 himself and the chair to the floor, but otherwise he was powerless.
Mr. Big pressed down a switch on the intercom.
'Send in Miss Solitaire,' he said and centred the switch again.
There was a moment's pause and then a section of the bookcase to the right of the desk swung open.
One of the most beautiful women Bond had ever seen came slowly in and closed the door behind her. She stood just inside the room and stood looking at Bond, taking him in slowly inch by inch, from his head to his feet. When she had completed her detailed54 inspection55, she turned to Mr. Big.
'Yes?' she inquired flatly.
Mr. Big had not moved his head. He addressed Bond.
'This is an extraordinary woman, Mister Bond,' he said in the same quiet soft voice, 'and I am going to marry her because she is unique. I found her in a cabaret, in Haiti, where she was born. She was doing a telepathic act which I could not understand. I looked into it and I still could not understand. There was nothing to understand. It was telepathy.'
Mr. Big paused.
'I tell you this to warn you. She is my inquisitor. Torture is messy and inconclusive. People tell you what will ease the pain. With this girl it is not necessary to use clumsy methods. She can divine the truth in people. That is why she is to be my wife. She is too valuable to remain at liberty. And,' he continued blandly56, 'it will be interesting to see our children.'
Mr. Big turned towards her and gazed at her impassively.
'For the time being she is difficult. She will have nothing to do with men. That is why, in Haiti, she was called "Solitaire".'
'Draw up a chair,' he said quietly to her. 'Tell me if this man lies. Keep clear of the gun,' he added.
The girl said nothing but took a chair similar to Bond's from beside the wall and pushed it towards him. She sat down almost touching57 his right knee. She looked into his eyes.
Her face was pale, with the pallor of white families that have lived long in the tropics. But it contained no trace of the usual exhaustion58 which the tropics impart to the skin and hair. The eyes were blue, alight and disdainful, but, as they gazed into his with a touch of humour, he realized they contained some message for him personally. It quickly vanished as his own eyes answered. Her hair was blue-black and fell heavily to her shoulders. She had high cheekbones and a wide, sensual mouth which held a hint of cruelty. Her jawline was delicate and finely cut. It showed decision and an iron will which were repeated in the straight, pointed59 nose. Part of the beauty of the face lay in its lack of compromise. It was a face born to command. The face of the daughter of a French Colonial slave-owner.
She wore a long evening dress of heavy white matt silk whose classical line was broken by the deep folds which fell from her shoulders and revealed the upper half of her breasts. She wore diamond earrings60, square-cut in broken bands, and a thin diamond bracelet61 on her left wrist. She wore no rings. Her nails were short and without enamel62.
She watched his eyes on her and nonchalantly drew her forearms together in her lap so that the valley between her breasts deepened.
The message was unmistakable and an answering warmth must have showed on Bond's cold, drawn63 face, for suddenly The Big Man picked up the small ivory whip from the desk beside him and lashed64 across at her, the thong65 whistling through the air and landing with a cruel bite across her shoulders.
Bond winced66 even more than she did. Her eyes blazed for an instant and then went opaque.
'Sit up,' said The Big Man softly, 'you forget yourself.'
She sat slowly more upright. She had a pack of cards in her hands and she started to shuffle67 them. Then, out of bravado68 perhaps, she sent him yet another message - of complicity and of more than complicity.
Between her hands, she faced the knave69 of hearts. Then the queen of spades. She held the two halves of the pack in her lap so that the two court cards looked at each other. She brought the two halves of the pack together until they kissed. Then she riffled the cards and shuffled70 them again.
At no moment of this dumb show did she look at Bond and it was all over in an instant. But Bond felt a glow of excitement and a quickening of the pulse. He had a friend in the enemy's camp.
'Are you ready, Solitaire?' asked The Big Man.
'Yes, the cards are ready,' said the girl, in a low, cool voice.
'Mister Bond, look into the eyes of this girl and repeat the reason for your presence here which you gave me just now.'
Bond looked into her eyes. There was no message. They were not focused on his. They looked through him.
He repeated what he had said.
For a moment he felt an uncanny thrill. Could this girl tell? If she could tell, would she speak for him or against him?
For a moment there was dead silence in the room. Bond tried to look indifferent. He gazed up at the ceiling - then back at her.
Her eyes came back into focus. She turned away from him and looked at Mr. Big.
'He speaks the truth,' she said coldly.
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收听单词发音
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1
warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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crates
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| n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱 | |
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4
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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6
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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10
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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11
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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encompass
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| vt.围绕，包围；包含，包括；完成 | |
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bulged
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| 凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 )； 充满； 塞满（某物） | |
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irises
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| n.虹( iris的名词复数 )；虹膜；虹彩；鸢尾（花） | |
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15
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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17
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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18
creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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24
cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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26
dummy
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| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
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effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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30
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cemeteries
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| n.（非教堂的）墓地，公墓( cemetery的名词复数 ) | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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opaque
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| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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puerile
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| adj.幼稚的，儿童的 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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conceits
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| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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45
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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46
assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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47
pedantically
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48
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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49
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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50
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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51
buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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52
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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53
hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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54
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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55
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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56
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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57
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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58
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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59
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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60
earrings
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| n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子 | |
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61
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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62
enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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63
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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64
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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65
thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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66
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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68
bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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69
knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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70
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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