Doubleshot

SIXTEEN

CHANGE OF PLANS

BOND PUSHED UP ON THE END OF THE FRUIT CART, CAUSING THE ENTIRE contents to topple to the ground. Oranges, apples, grapefruit, and assorted vegetables spilled across the street. He then shoved the entire cart forward on its wheels, toward the police, blocking their sight lines and giving Bond just the right amount of confusion he needed to make a run for it. A policeman fired his gun, but the bullet zinged off one of the walls. People screamed and parted the way for Bond as he rushed through the crowded bazaar.

Two teenage boys, trying to help the police, attempted to grab him as he ran by. One of them caught Bond’s legs, tackling him; the other one jumped on his back to pin him to the ground. Bond didn’t want to hurt them, but he didn’t want to be captured either. He rolled hard, knocking the boy off his back. He then kicked his legs wildly, preventing the other boy from holding on. Once he had freed himself, Bond got to his feet and continued to run. By now, though, the police had nearly caught up with him.

Bond took a sharp turn through a group of Berber women selling live chickens. The chickens squawked and fluttered, which prompted the women to shout at him and point the way for the police. The Berber men joined the chase, ready to make the rude foreigner pay for what he had done.

Bond ducked into a doorway and found himself in a shoemaker’s shop. The place was covered with all manner of footwear, from Moroccan cherbil slippers to the latest American athletic varieties. Bond looked around quickly and noted a large rack of shoes next to the front door and another door at the back of the shop. The policemen’s shouts were coming closer.

The shoemaker, who was sitting and working on the floor, looked at Bond with bewilderment. Bond said, “Forgive me,” then pulled down the rack of shoes, blocking the front door. He then leaped over the shoemaker and ran to the back door.

It emptied into another part of the twisting medina. Bond ran outside and turned a corner as quickly as he could. Now he was truly lost in the maze, so he simply kept running, turning this way and that, hoping that he could lose the police. Up ahead was a small mosque with scaffolding on one side. Bond tried to go inside the building, but a man standing in front blocked his entrance. Only Muslims were allowed in the mosque.

Bond didn’t have time to argue. He heard the police running at the end of the street, so he leaped onto the scaffolding and began to climb. Another shot rang out, barely missing him, as the police arrived at the foot of the scaffolding. Bond got to the roof and ran across, jumping over a large hole where repairs were being made. At the edge of the building, he found that he could make another leap to the top of the adjoining building.

The horrible smell there was overpowering. It reminded Bond of manure and vomit mixed with chemicals … turpentine or something. A stone staircase led down into a courtyard that was revealed to be part of a small tannery. The pungent odors were coming from the vats where men were up to their knees in red and orange liquids, scrubbing hides. The exotic ingredients used in the process included pigeon dung, cow urine, fish oils, animal fats and brains, chromium salts, and sulphuric acid.

Bond held his breath and leaped over the vats, one by one, causing the men to shout at him in anger. He ran past a wall of hides that had been hung up to dry after they had been scraped of the hair and extraneous flesh and soaked in the putrid dyes. Not seeing a convenient way out, Bond took a running jump and gained a handhold in the cracks in the wall. He swung one leg up and over, but unfortunately wiped the front of his body over one of the wet hides. He dropped down the other side of the wall and was in another street full of people and mule carts.

Bond pushed his way through, slowing his pace so as not to attract too much attention. He could see a horseshoe-shaped arch at the end of the street, one of the medina’s exits. He made his way toward it, but three policemen suddenly appeared there. They were looking intently at the crowd. Bond turned around abruptly and merged with a group of men in jellabas marching in the opposite direction. As soon as he could, Bond rounded a corner and got off the street. Unluckily, it was a dead end, with a wall much too high to climb.

He looked back around the corner and saw that the three policemen were headed his way. Surely they would notice a Westerner emerge from the passageway if he attempted to do so.

A rope suddenly dropped and dangled beside him.

“Up here!” whispered a female voice. Bond looked up. It was one of the Taunt twins! She was standing on the roof of the building and was holding the rope.

“Don’t just stand there. Climb!” she ordered.

Bond did as he was told. He climbed the wall and bolted onto the roof just as the policemen reached the street and inspected it. All they saw was a rope being pulled up the building.

“Am I glad to see you,” he said. She was wearing the same tight blue jeans, but was now dressed in a red silk blouse with the sleeves rolled up.

“Hush up and follow me,” the girl commanded. She ran across the roof to the other side. Bond accompanied her, dazed by this sudden turn of events.

“Which one are you?” he asked.

“I’m Hedy.” She took a sniff and grimaced at the stains on his clothing. “Lovely smell. Come this way.” She took a running start and leaped across the eight-foot gap between buildings, then turned and shouted, “Don’t just stand there. Come on!”

Bond mimicked her action, then they both ran across the second rooftop.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Just shut up and don’t stop. We’re trying to save your ass.”

She led him across two more rooftops until she pointed to a fire escape. “Down, mister. Go in the open window, first floor down.”

Bond climbed down the stairs and slipped into the window. He was in a bedroom with Western furnishings. Hedy slithered inside behind him. She led him out of the bedroom, down a hallway, and into what was some kind of office. Heidi was dressed identically and sitting at a desk, looking at a computer monitor. Neither of them wore the red wig. Filing cabinets, a fax machine, a copier, telephones, and other pieces of high-tech equipment dominated the room.

“What the hell is going on?” Bond asked.

“Welcome to the Casablanca headquarters of the CIA, Mr. Bond,” Hedy said.

Bond’s jaw dropped.

Heidi pointed to the monitor, where a satellite image of the medina was magnified hundreds of times. “We thought they had you there for a second. It’s a good thing you found us.”

“I found you? ”

Bond dropped into a chair. He was trying to project some semblance of composure, but he was, nonetheless, dumbfounded.

Heidi laughed when saw the expression on his face. “We got you good, didn’t we?” Then she noticed the stains. “Pee-uuu … ! What did you get on you?”

“Someone better start explaining. I’m in no mood for jokes,” Bond said.

“We are travel writers,” Heidi said. “But that’s just a cover. Hedy’s a senior agent with the CIA. I’m a junior agent. We don’t live in Japan. We live right here, in this building.”

Hedy added, “I’m the one who went into the CIA first. When they found out I had an identical twin, they came up with an unorthodox plan and made us a proposal.”

“As far as official records go, I don’t exist,” Heidi said.

“And neither do I,” Hedy continued. “But there does exist a Hillary Taunt, CIA agent, who works in the North African sector. Either one of us can pose as Hillary during the course of our work. The boys in Virginia figured that Heidi could be used as a decoy in special cases. We rarely travel together, which is why you never saw us at the same time on the train. We rode in separate cars on purpose. We confuse a lot of people, especially conductors and flight attendants.”

“If we have to be seen in public together, one of us wears the wig,” Heidi said. “The only people that know that we aren’t Hillary Taunt are our bosses at the Company. If, say, your own organization at SIS wanted to find out information about CIA agent Hillary Taunt there would be nothing in her file to indicate she might be an identical twin. This can be very advantageous in the field.”

“I can see that,” Bond said. “So you’ve known who I am all along.”

“Sure,” Heidi said. “We were sent to track you down. We got lucky and made contact with you on the train. If you hadn’t found us this morning, we would have had to come after you. You’re in a lot of hot water, mister.”

“Tell me about it,” Bond said. “I’m not sure what happened back there. The Union headquarters was blown up. Someone made it look like I was responsible.”

“To hell with Union headquarters,” Hedy said. “What about that doctor in London and the ferry in Tangier? What do you have to say about those things? You’re a wanted man. Your chief has put out an all-points alert for your arrest.”

Bond winced. “I didn’t do any of those things.”

“Tell it to the judge,” Hedy said. “Our orders are to escort you to London. We’ve already checked you out of the hotel and we have your things.” She pointed to his holdall on the floor in the corner. “Now, you have to hand over your weapons. All of them.” She held out her hand.

Bond was aghast. “You’re not serious.”

“Please don’t make me use force,” Hedy said. “I’m pretty good at what I do.”

“I believe you,” Bond said. He reached into his jacket.

“Carefully,” Hedy commanded.

Bond froze, then continued in slow motion. He brought out the PPK and tossed it on the desk.

“The knife?” she asked.

“Oh, right,” Bond muttered, and took the sheath off the back of his belt. “This really isn’t necessary, you know. I’d much rather be arrested by you two than the Moroccan police. I’ll be a good boy.”

“We’re just playing it safe,” Hedy said. She was definitely the “bad cop” of the two.

“I seem to have lost a Walther P99 in Tangier,” he said.

“Yeah, you left it on that ferry after killing those civilians,” Hedy said.

“No, I didn’t. I wasn’t there.”

“Sure,” Hedy said with a sneer.

“I’m sorry, James,” Heidi said with sincerity. “We might have had some fun together.”

“We still can,” Bond said. “It’s a long way to London.”

“Hush,” Hedy snapped. “We’ve got a car outside. We’re going to take a drive to the airport. There’s a plane that leaves in three hours. But first you’re going to shower and change out of those stinky clothes.”

“I must know what you think is going on,” Bond said.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” Hedy said. “All we know is that we have to escort you to London and hand you over to your chief.”

“You do know that was the Union headquarters that blew up this morning?” Bond asked.

“We had come to that conclusion but didn’t have proof,” Hedy replied. “Actually, our suspicions were focused on another part of town, the Central Market, southeast from here. Maybe what you found this morning could have been another entrance. Anyway, we were already in the process of coordinating a raid on the Central Market entrance with Interpol and the Moroccan police when all this business with you and the ferry happened. I guess that sorta screwed up our plans.”

“Sorry.”

“We were told that you had gone renegade, had joined the Union,” she added.

“That’s why you were in Casablanca, we thought,” Heidi said.

“Well, it looks like the Union might have suspected something and got the hell out of Dodge,” Hedy continued. “That building was completely empty. The police reports are still coming in. They’ve begun to explore it and apparently there’s some kind of underground complex. If I didn’t have to deal with you, I’d be one of the first officials in there to find out if it really was Union headquarters.” Hedy looked at him out the corner of her eye. “You sure you’re not Union?”

“I’m not a member of the bloody Union,” Bond said.

“I’d like to believe you,” Hedy said.

“I believe you,” Heidi added.

Hedy rolled her eyes. “My sister has a one-track mind.”

“Look,” Bond said. “There’s something … there’s something going on. Some kind of plot that the Union have cooked up. I’m a part of it. I can’t explain it, though. Not yet. If you take me to London, something terrible will happen. My hunches are usually pretty good.”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hedy said. “Better hit the shower so we can get going.”

“Wait a minute,” Bond insisted. “Listen to me. For the past few days, I’ve felt as if I’ve been knocked here and there like a pinball. Whoever committed those crimes in London and Tangier—he’s some kind of double. I think I’ve seen him. Once, in London. He looks just like me and he’s certainly Union. I’m also pretty damned sure that I’m being manipulated by them; to what end, I don’t know, but I would bet my life that there’s something monstrous behind everything that’s happened. The murder of Dr. Feare … the shootings on the ferry … the explosion in the medina today … They’re all connected somehow, and I think that this Spaniard, Domingo Espada, is involved.”

Heidi and Hedy looked at each other. “What do you mean?”

Bond reached into his pocket and pulled out the envelope he had taken from van Breeschooten. “I got this from one of the Union’s top men. He was responsible for recruiting—and killing—someone close to me at SIS. I tracked him from London to the very location where that explosion occurred this morning. As you can see, he had something to do with Espada.”

The girls looked at the bullfight ticket and the map. “What’s this ‘X’?” Hedy asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

“It’s not far from Marbella,” Heidi observed. “Domingo Espada’s home is just north of there. I think that ‘X’ marks the spot.”

“Hey, I think you’re right, Heidi,” Hedy said. They gave the material back to Bond. “The U.S. government is very concerned about Espada. We’ve been on alert ever since he started all the ruckus in Spain over Gibraltar. We’re afraid your people might get into a nasty scuffle with Spain over it.”

“We’re all afraid of that,” Bond said. “You’ve got to give me the benefit of the doubt. If I’m taken out of the picture, we’ll never know what’s going on. I’m a part of it, don’t you see? The Union needs me for something. If I don’t follow this scheme through to the end, then we’ll never know what it is.”

The girls were silent. Finally, Hedy said, “I want to talk to Heidi in the other room. Don’t try anything.”

“I wouldn’t dare leave,” Bond said. “Being with you two is the safest I’ve felt in days.”

When the girls went into the bedroom, Bond shut his eyes and tried to relax. They returned, and Hedy sat down in front of him. Heidi draped herself on the desk, one long leg bent like an inverted V.

“All right, James,” Heidi said. “We’re going to play it your way. But we’re going to have to clear it first.”

“You have to call your boss,” Hedy said. “You have to convince her. If she gives us the okay, then we’ll trust you on this one.”

“Give me the phone,” Bond said. He fought a wave of panic. Could he convince M that he was sane and not guilty of the crimes he was accused of? Would she allow him to continue this possibly aimless wild goose chase?

Hedy handed him a white phone. “It’s a secure line.”

Bond dialed the number and was put through to Bill Tanner.

“My God, James, are you all right?” The Chief-of-Staff sounded very alarmed.

“Yes, Bill.”

“I’m glad to hear that. We were very relieved a few minutes ago when we got the message that the CIA had found you. You have to come back, James. You know you do.”

“Bill, I didn’t do those things, and you know it.”

“I believe you. But …”

“No ‘buts,’ ” Bond said angrily. “You have to trust me. I’m on to something and must speak with M.”

“Certainly,” Tanner said. “I’m sure she’ll want a word.”

Bond waited a moment. He looked at the twins, who suddenly felt uncomfortable and exchanged glances, but didn’t bother to get up and give him some privacy.

“Double-O Seven.” The voice was hard.

“Ma’am.”

“Well? Are you on your way back to London with Agent Taunt?”

“Agent Taunt?” Bond asked.

“That’s what it says here, Double-O Seven, agent Hillary Taunt.”

“Are you listening, Bill?” Bond asked. He knew that Tanner monitored some of M’s phone calls when she gave him the order, and he was sure that this would be one of them.

“Yes,” came the voice, after a beat.

“I’m with … er, Miss Taunt, now,” Bond said. “If you insist on it, ma’am, yes, I will come back to London. However, I must ask that you hear me out first.”

“Very well.”

“I may have evidence that Domingo Espada is linked to the Union.”

That got her attention. “Go on.”

“I disobeyed your orders, ma’am; I freely admit that,” he said. It was one of the most difficult things he had ever confessed in his life. “But I had to go after the Union. If not for Britain, then I had to do it for myself. I swear to you that I’m not responsible for Dr. Feare’s murder, or the terrorist attack on the ferry. I identified and traced Helena Marksbury’s recruiter and killer to Casablanca and almost got into the Union’s main headquarters. The CIA here was on to them, too. The Union must have suspected discovery, so they left. Vanished.”

“What’s this about Espada?”

“The man I followed here had a map on his person with the location of Espada’s home marked on it. He also had a ticket to a political rally and bullfight at which Espada is speaking.”

“When is that?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

“Interesting,” M said. “The summit meeting in Gibraltar has been scheduled for the day after that.”

“Who’s going to this summit meeting?” Bond asked.

“The PM. Spain’s PM. Espada …” Tanner answered.

“Ma’am, all this is connected somehow,” Bond said. “I’m sure of it.”

“But you have nothing, Double-O Seven. What does a ticket tell you? Perhaps this man simply likes bullfighting.”

“Liked, ma’am,” Bond said. “He’s, uhm, no longer with us.”

“I see.”

“Why would he have a road map to Espada’s house? This man was Union! It either means that the Union is involved somehow with Espada, or that they are interested in him for some reason. Maybe someone has paid the Union to kill him! I think I should try to meet Domingo Espada before the summit meeting and see what I can determine.” He then presented M the same argument that he had given the twins—that he believed he was a cog in the Union’s plan. If he were taken out of it, something awful might happen.

“Agent Taunt … and I … would like your permission to pursue this,” he said.

M was silent. After a moment, she said, “Hold the line, Double-O Seven.”

Bond heard a click. She was conferring with Tanner, and probably the Minister of Defence.

She was back in three minutes. “Double-O Seven.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ve just spoken to my opposite number in the CIA. I should probably have cleared this with the PM, but I’m not going to. You are to stay in Agent Taunt’s company at all times. You are under house arrest, although you’ll be mobile. You are not to attempt to escape, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You can go to Spain. I realize that you’re interested in this because you think it will bring you closer to the Union. Be that as it may, I think you might be on to something with regard to Espada. Providing you can get close to the man, you are to gather any information that you can that might link him to something as reprehensible as the Union. He’s already a controversial figure in Spain, but I think that would all but destroy the people’s confidence in him. It would give us more bargaining power. At the same time, we wouldn’t want any harm to come to him before the meeting in Gibraltar. It’s the most important thing on the government’s plate right now. We can’t have it jeopardized, but we can certainly have it slanted in our favor. Do we understand each other, Double-O Seven?”

“Clearly, ma’am.”

“Very well.”

“One more thing. One of the Union recruiters I tracked to Morocco—Michael Clayton—has a cousin in London who is connected to the Union. You might want to investigate that.”

“Noted. Now let me talk with Agent Taunt. Good luck.”

Bond thanked her and held the phone up for one of the twins to take. Hedy grabbed it and listened, occasionally replying, “Yes, ma’am.” Then she said, “I’ll call him right now. Thank you.”

She rang off and said, “I have to call my chief in the States.” She received the same instructions, and then she hung up and looked at Bond.

“Well. Looks like we’ll be spending more time together after all. Heidi, I think we should use the yacht to get up to Spain, what do you think?”

Heidi nodded. “That’s the safest. We can’t risk bringing him through Immigration anywhere.”

Hedy explained. “The Company has a boat in a hidden marina on the coast not far from Tangier. We can use it, but we’ll have to drive to Tangier.”

“Let’s go, then,” Bond said, standing.

“Oh boy!” Heidi cried, jumping up. “This is going to be fun!”

“Just watch it, pal,” Hedy told Bond. She patted the Browning 9mm at her side. “I’m pretty good with this. And we also carry extrastrength, high-powered OC pepper spray that will stun an elephant. So don’t try anything that would be considered conduct unbecoming of a gentleman.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Bond replied.

“Now go shower and get dressed,” Hedy ordered.

“Wow,” Heidi said. “I just thought of something.”

“What?” Hedy asked.

“That for the next couple of days we get to baby-sit a British Double-O agent who’s suspected of being a terrorist!”

“So?”

“It doesn’t get much cooler than that!”