Drax broke the silence. "Well, that seems to settle it," he said, looking to Bond for confirmation2. Bond gave a noncommittal nod. "Just have to leave him to you. At all events, we must see he is kept well away from the site. As a matter of fact I shall be taking him to London tomorrow. Last-minute details to be settled with the Ministry3 and Walter can't be spared. Krebs is the only man I've got who can do the work of an ADC. That'll keep him out of trouble. We'll all have to keep an eye on him until then. Unless of course you want to put him under lock and key straight away. I'd prefer not," he said candidly4. "Don't want to upset the team any more."
"It shouldn't be necessary," said Bond. "Has he got any particular friends among the other men?"
"Never seen him speak to any of them except Walter and the household;" said Drax. "Daresay he considers himself a cut above the others. Personally, I don't believe there's much harm in the chap or I wouldn't have kept him. He's left alone in that house all day long and I expect he's one of those people who like playing the detective and prying5 into other people's affairs. What do you say? Perhaps we could leave it like that?"
Bond nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself.
"Well, then," said Drax, obviously glad to leave a distasteful subject and get back to business, "we've got other things to talk about. Two more days to go and I'd better tell you the programme." He got up from his chair and paced heavily up and down the room behind his desk. "Today is Wednesday," he said. "At one o'clock the site will be closed for fuelling. This will be supervised by Dr Walter and myself and two men from the Ministry. Just in case anything goes wrong a television camera will record everything we do. Then, if there is an explosion, our successors will know better next time," he barked a short laugh. "Weather permitting, the roof will be opened tonight to allow the fumes6 to clear. My men will stand guard in watches at ten-yard intervals7 a hundred yards from the site. There will be three armed men on the beach opposite the exhaust hole in the cliff. Tomorrow morning the site will be opened again until midday for a final check and from that moment, except for the gyro settings, the Moonraker will be ready to go. The guards will be permanently8 on duty round the site. On Friday morning I shall personally supervise the gyro settings. The men from the Ministry will take over the firing point and the RAF will man the radar9. The BBC will set up their vans behind the firing point and will begin their running commentary at eleven-forty-five. At midday exactly I shall press the plunger, a radio beam will break an electric circuit and," he smiled broadly, "we shall see what we shall see." He paused, fingering his chin. "Now what else? Well now. Shipping10 will be cleared from the target area from midnight on Thursday. The Navy will provide a patrol of the boundaries of the area all through the morning. There will be a BBC commentator11 in one of the Ships. The Ministry of Supply experts will be in a salvage12 ship with deep-sea television and after the rocket has landed they will try to bring up the remains13. You may be interested to know," continued Drax, rubbing his hands with almost childish pleasure, "that a messenger from the Prime Minister has brought me the very welcome news that not only will there be a special Cabinet Meeting to listen to the broadcast, but the Palace will also be listening in to the launching."
"Splendid," said Bond, pleased for the man's sake.
"Thank you," said Drax. "Now I want to be quite certain that you are satisfied with my security arrangements on the site itself. I don't think we need worry about what goes on outside. The RAF and the police seem to be doing a very thorough job."
"Everything seems to have been taken care of," said Bond. "There doesn't seem to be very much for me to do in the time that's left."
"Nothing that I can think of," agreed Drax, "except our friend Krebs. This afternoon he will be in the television van taking notes, so he will be out of trouble. Why don't you have a look at the beach and the bottom of the cliff while he's out of action? That's the only weak spot I can think of. I've often thought that if someone wanted to get into the site he would try the exhaust pit. Take Miss Brand with you. Two pairs of eyes, and so forth14, and she won't be able to use her office until tomorrow morning."
"Good," said Bond. "I'd certainly like to have a look at the seaward side after lunch, and if Miss Brand's got nothing better to do…" He turned towards her with his eyebrows15 raised.
Gala Brand looked down her nose. "Certainly, if Sir Hugo wishes," she said without enthusiasm.
Drax rubbed his hands together. "Then that's settled," he said. "And now I must get down to work. Miss Brand, would you ask Dr Walter to come along if he's free. See you at lunch," he said to Bond, on a note of dismissal.
Bond nodded. "I think I'll walk over and have a look at the firing point," he said, not quite knowing why he lied. He turned and followed Gala Brand out through the double doors into the base of the shaft16.
A huge black snake of rubber piping meandered17 over the shining steel floor and Bond watched the girl pick her way among its coils to where Walter was standing18 alone. He was gazing up at the mouth of the fuel pipe being hoist19 to where a gantry, outstretched to the threshold of an access door halfway20 up the rocket, indicated the main fuel tanks.
She said something to Walter and then stood beside him looking upwards21 as the pipe was delicately manhandled through into the interior of the rocket.
Bond thought she looked very innocent standing there with her brown hair falling back from her head and the curve of her ivory throat sweeping22 down into the plain white shirt. With her hands clasped behind her back, gazing raptly upwards at the glittering fifty feet of the Moonraker, she might have been a schoolgirl looking up at a Christmas tree-except for the impudent23 pride of the jutting24 breasts, swept up by the thrown-back head and shoulders.
Bond smiled to himself as he walked to the foot of the iron stairway and started to climb. That innocent, desirable girl, he reminded himself, is an extremely efficient policewoman. She knows how to kick, and where; she can break my arm probably more easily and quickly than I can break hers, and at least half of her belongs to the Special Branch of Scotland Yard. Of course, he reflected, looking down just in time to see her follow Dr Walters into Drax's office, there is always the other half.
Outside, the brilliant May sunshine seemed particularly golden after the blue-white of the arcs and Bond could feel it hot on his back as he walked purposefully across the concrete towards the house. The foghorn25 from the Goodwins was silent and the morning was so quiet that he could hear the rhythmic26 thump27 of a ship's engines as a coaster negotiated the Inner Leads, between the Goodwins and the shore, on its way northwards.
He approached the house under cover of the wide blast-wall and then quickly crossed the few yards to the front door, the crepe rubber soles of his shoes making no noise. He eased open the door and left it ajar and walked softly into the hall and stood listening. There was the early summer noise of a bumble-bee fussing against the pane28 of one of the windows and a distant clatter29 from the barracks behind the house. Otherwise the silence was deep and warm and reassuring30.
Bond walked carefully across the hall and up the stairs, placing his feet flat on the ground and using the extreme edges of the steps where the boards would be less likely to creak. There was no noise in the corridor but Bond saw that his door at the far end was open. He took his gun from under his armpit and walked swiftly down the carpeted passage.
Krebs had his back to him. He was kneeling forward in the middle of the floor with his elbows on the ground. His hands were at the wheels of the combination lock of Bond's leather case. His whole attention was focused on the click of the tumblers in the lock.
The target was tempting31 and Bond didn't hesitate. His teeth showed in a hard smile, he took two quick paces into the room and his foot lashed32 out.
All his force was behind the point of his shoe and his balance and timing33 were perfect.
The scream of a jay was driven out of Krebs as, like the caricature of a leaping frog, he hurtled over Bond's case, across a yard or so of carpet, and into the front of the mahogany dressing-table. His head hit the middle of it so hard that the heavy piece of furniture rocked on its base. The scream was abruptly34 cut off and he crashed in an inert35 spreadeagle on the floor and lay still.
Bond stood looking at him and listening for the sound of hurrying footsteps, but there was still silence in the house. He walked over to the sprawling36 figure and bent37 down and heaved it over on its back. The face around the smudge of yellow moustache was pale and some blood had oozed38 down over the forehead from a cut in the top of the skull39. The eyes were closed and the breathing was laboured.
Bond knelt down on one knee and went carefully through every pocket of Krebs's neat grey pinstripe suit, laying the disappointingly meagre contents on the carpet beside the body. There was no pocketbook and no papers. The only objects of interest were a bunch of skeleton keys, a spring knife with a well-sharpened stiletto blade, and an obscene little truss-shaped black leather cosh. Bond pocketed these and then went to his bedside table and fetched the untouched bottle of Vichy water.
It took five minutes to revive Krebs and get him into a sitting position with his back to the dressing-table and another five for him to be capable of speaking. Gradually the colour came back to his face and the craftiness40 to his eyes.
"I answer no questions except to Sir Hugo," he said as Bond started the interrogation. "You have no right to question me. I was doing my duty." His voice was surly and assured.
Bond took the empty Vichy bottle by the neck. "Think again," he said. "Or I'll beat the daylight out of you until this breaks and then use the neck for some plastic surgery. Who told you to go over my room?"
"Leck mich am Arsch." Krebs spat41 the obscene insult at him.
Bond bent down and cracked him sharply across the shins.
Krebs's body cringed, but, as Bond raised his arm again, he suddenly shot up from the floor and dived under the descending42 bottle. The blow caught him hard on the shoulder, but it didn't check his momentum43 and he was out of the door and halfway down the corridor before Bond started in pursuit.
Bond stopped outside the door and watched the flying figure swerve44 down the stairs and out of sight. Then, as he heard the scurrying45 squeak46 of the rubber-soled shoes as they fled down the stairs and across the hall, he laughed abruptly to himself and went back into his room and locked the door. Short of beating the man's brains out it hadn't looked as if he would get much out of Krebs. He had given him something to think about. Crafty47 little brute48. His injuries couldn't have been so bad after all. Well, it would be up to Drax to punish him. Unless, of course, Krebs had been carrying out Drax's orders.
Bond cleaned up the mess in his room and sat down on his bed and gazed at the opposite wall with unseeing eyes. It had not been only instinct that had made him tell Drax he was going to the firing point instead of to the house. It had seriously crossed his mind that the snooping of Krebs was on Drax's orders, and that Drax ran his own security system. And yet how did that tally49 with the deaths of Tallon and Bartsch? Or had the double killing50 been a coincidence unrelated to the marks on the chart and the fingerprints51 of Krebs?
As if summoned by his thoughts, there came a knock on the door and the butler came in. He was followed by a police sergeant52 in road patrol uniform who saluted53 and handed Bond a telegram. Bond took it over to the window. It was signed Baxter, which meant Vallance, and it read :
FIRSTLY CALL WAS FROM HOUSE SECONDLY54 FOG REQUIRED OPERATION OF FOGHORN SO SHIP HEARD COMMA OBSERVED NOTHING THIRDLY YOUR COMPASS RECKONING TOO NEAR SHORE THUS OUT OF SIGHT OF SAINT MARGARETS OR DEAL COASTGUARD ENDS.
"Thank you," said Bond. "No answer."
When the door was closed Bond put his lighter55 to the telegram and dropped it in the fireplace, scuffing56 the charred57 remains into powder with the sole of his shoe.
Nothing much there except that Tallon's call to the Ministry might indeed have been heard by someone in the house, which might have resulted in the search of his room, which might have resulted in his death. But what about Bartsch? If all this was part of something much bigger how could it be linked up with an attempt to sabotage58 the rocket? Wasn't it much simpler to conclude that Krebs was a natural snooper, or more likely that he was operating for Drax, who seemed to be meticulously59 security-conscious and who might want to be sure of the loyalty60 of his secretary, of Tallon, and certainly, after their encounter at Blades, of Bond? Wasn't it just acting61 like the chief (and Bond had known many of them who would fit the picture) of some super-secret project during the war who had reinforced official security with his own private spy system?
If that theory was correct there only remained the double killing. Now that Bond had caught the magic and the tension of the Moonraker the facts of the hysterical62 shooting seemed more reasonable. As for the mark on the chart, that might have been made any day in the past year; the night-glasses were just night-glasses and the moustaches on the men were just a lot of moustaches.
Bond sat on in the silent room, shifting the pieces in the jigsaw63 so that two entirely64 different pictures alternated in his mind. In one the sun shone and all was clear and innocent as the day. The other was a dark confusion of guilty motives65, obscure suspicions, and nightmare queries66.
When the gong sounded for lunch he still did not know which picture to choose. To shelve a decision he cleared his mind of everything but the prospect67 of his afternoon alone with Gala Brand.
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1
talon
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| n.爪；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物 | |
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2
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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3
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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4
candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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6
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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9
radar
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| n.雷达，无线电探测器 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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commentator
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| n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员 | |
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salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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13
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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15
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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16
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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meandered
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| （指溪流、河流等）蜿蜒而流( meander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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21
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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22
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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23
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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24
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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25
foghorn
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| n..雾号（浓雾信号） | |
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26
rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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27
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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28
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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29
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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30
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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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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timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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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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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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39
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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craftiness
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| 狡猾，狡诈 | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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42
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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43
momentum
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| n.动力，冲力，势头；动量 | |
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44
swerve
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| v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离 | |
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45
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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46
squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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47
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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48
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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49
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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50
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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51
fingerprints
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| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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53
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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55
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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56
scuffing
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| n.刮[磨，擦，划]伤v.使磨损( scuff的现在分词 )；拖着脚走 | |
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charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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58
sabotage
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| n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏 | |
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meticulously
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| adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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61
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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63
jigsaw
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| n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接 | |
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64
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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65
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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66
queries
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| n.问题( query的名词复数 )；疑问；询问；问号v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的第三人称单数 )；询问 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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