The James Bond Anthology

13 | MINK-LINED PRISON

It was the sort of reception room the largest American corporations have on the President’s floor in their New York skyscrapers. It was of pleasant proportions, about twenty feet square. The floor was close-carpeted in the thickest wine-red Wilton and the walls and ceiling were painted a soft dove grey. Colour lithograph reproductions of Degas ballet sketches were well hung in groups on the walls and the lighting was by tall modern standard lamps with dark green silk shades in a fashionable barrel design.

To Bond’s right was a broad mahogany desk with a green leather top, handsome matching desk furniture and the most expensive type of intercom. Two tall antique chairs waited for visitors. On the other side of the room was a refectory-type table with shiny magazines and two more chairs. On both the desk and the table were tall vases of freshly cut hibiscus. The air was fresh and cool and held a slight, expensive fragrance.

There were two women in the room. Behind the desk, with pen poised over a printed form, sat an efficient-looking Chinese girl with horn-rimmed spectacles below a bang of black hair cut short. Her eyes and mouth wore the standard receptionist’s smile of welcome – bright, helpful, inquisitive.

Holding the door through which they had come, and waiting for them to move farther into the room so that she could close it, stood an older, rather matronly woman of about forty-five. She also had Chinese blood. Her appearance, wholesome, bosomy, eager, was almost excessively gracious. Her square cut pince-nez gleamed with the hostess’s desire to make them feel at home.

Both women were dressed in spotless white, with white stockings and white suede brogues, like assistants in the most expensive American beauty-parlours. There was something soft and colourless about their skins as if they rarely went out of doors.

While Bond took in the scene, the woman at the door twittered conventional phrases of welcome as if they had been caught in a storm and had arrived late at a party.

‘You poor dears. We simply didn’t know when to expect you. We kept on being told you were on your way. First it was teatime yesterday, then dinner, and it was only half an hour ago we heard you would only be here in time for breakfast. You must be famished. Come along now and help Sister Rose fill in your forms and then I’ll pack you both straight off to bed. You must be tired out.’

Clucking softly, she closed the door and ushered them forward to the desk. She got them seated in the chairs and rattled on. ‘Now I’m Sister Lily and this is Sister Rose. She just wants to ask you a few questions. Now, let me see, a cigarette?’ She picked up a tooled leather box. She opened it and put it on the desk in front of them. It had three compartments. She pointed with a little finger. ‘Those are American, and those are Players, and those are Turkish.’ She picked up an expensive desk-lighter and waited.

Bond reached out his manacled hands to take a Turkish cigarette.

Sister Lily gave a squeak of dismay. ‘Oh, but really.’ She sounded genuinely embarrassed. ‘Sister Rose, the key, quickly. I’ve said again and again that patients are never to be brought in like that.’ There was impatience and distaste in her voice. ‘Really, that outside staff! It’s time they had a talking to.’

Sister Rose was just as much put out. Hastily, she scrabbled in a drawer and handed a key across to Sister Lily who, with much cooing and tut-tutting, unlocked the two pairs of handcuffs and walked behind the desk and dropped them as if they were dirty bandages into the wastepaper basket.

‘Thank you.’ Bond was unable to think of any way to handle the situation except to fall in with what was happening on the stage. He reached out and took a cigarette and lit it. He glanced at Honeychile Rider who sat looking dazed and nervously clutching the arms of her chair. Bond gave her a reassuring smile.

‘Now, if you please.’ Sister Rose bent over a long printed form on expensive paper. ‘I promise to be as quick as I can. Your name please Mister – er …’

‘Bryce, John Bryce.’

She wrote busily. ‘Permanent address?’

‘Care of the Royal Zoological Society, Regent’s Park, London, England.’

‘Profession.’

‘Ornithologist.’

‘Oh dear,’ she dimpled at him, ‘could you please spell that?’

Bond did so.

‘Thank you so much. Now, let me see, Purpose of Visit?’

‘Birds,’ said Bond. ‘I am also a representative of the Audubon Society of New York. They have a lease of part of this island.’

‘Oh, really.’ Bond watched the pen writing down exactly what he had said. After the last word she put a neat query in brackets.

‘And,’ Sister Rose smiled politely in the direction of Honeychile, ‘your wife? Is she also interested in birds?’

‘Yes, indeed.’

‘And her first name?’

‘Honeychile.’

Sister Rose was delighted. ‘What a pretty name.’ She wrote busily. ‘And now just your next of kin and then we’re finished.’

Bond gave M.’s real name as next of kin for both of them. He described him as ‘uncle’ and gave his address as ‘Managing Director, Universal Export, Regent’s Park, London’.

Sister Rose finished writing and said, ‘There, that’s done. Thank you so much, Mr Bryce, and I do hope you both enjoy your stay.’

‘Thank you very much. I’m sure we will.’ Bond got up. Honeychile Rider did the same, her face still expressionless.

Sister Lily said, ‘Now come along with me, you poor dears.’ She walked to a door in the far wall. She stopped with her hand on the cut-glass doorknob. ‘Oh deary me, now I’ve gone and forgotten the number of their rooms! It’s the Cream Suite, isn’t it, Sister?’

‘Yes, that’s right. Fourteen and fifteen.’

‘Thank you, my dear. And now,’ she opened the door, ‘if you’ll just follow me. I’m afraid it’s a terribly long walk.’ She shut the door behind them and led the way. ‘The Doctor’s often talked of putting in one of those moving stairway things, but you know how it is with a busy man,’ she laughed gaily. ‘So many other things to think of.’

‘Yes, I expect so,’ said Bond politely.

Bond took the girl’s hand and they followed the motherly bustling figure down a hundred yards of lofty corridor in the same style as the reception room but lit at frequent intervals by discreetly expensive wall-brackets.

Bond answered with polite monosyllables the occasional twittering comments Sister Lily threw over her shoulder. His whole mind was focused on the extraordinary circumstances of their reception. He was quite certain the two women had been genuine. Not a look or a word had been dropped that was out of place. It was obviously a front of some kind, but a solid one, meticulously supported by the decor and the cast. The lack of resonance in the room, and now in the corridor, suggested that they had stepped from the Quonset hut into the side of the mountain and that they were now walking through its base. At a guess they would be walking towards the west – towards the cliff-face with which the island ended. There was no moisture on the walls and the air was cool and pure with a strongish breeze coming towards them. A lot of money and good engineering had gone into the job. The pallor of the two women suggested that they spent all their time inside the mountain. From what Sister Lily had said it sounded as if they were part of an inside staff that had nothing to do with the strong-arm squad outside and perhaps didn’t even understand what sort of men they were.

It was grotesque, concluded Bond as they came nearer to a door at the end of the corridor, dangerously grotesque, but it was no good wondering about it. He could only follow the lines of the gracious script. At least this was better than the backstage of the island outside.

At the door, Sister Lily rang. They had been expected. The door opened at once. An enchanting Chinese girl in a mauve and white flowered kimono stood smiling and bowing as Chinese girls are supposed to do. Again there was nothing but warmth and welcome in the pale, flowerlike face. Sister Lily cried, ‘Here they are at last, May! Mr and Mrs John Bryce. And I know they must be exhausted so we must take them straight to their rooms for some breakfast and a sleep.’ She turned to Bond. ‘This is May. Such a dear girl. She will be looking after you both. Anything you want, just ring for May. She’s a favourite with all our patients.’

Patients, thought Bond. That’s the second time she’s used the word. He smiled politely at the girl. ‘How do you do. Yes, we’d certainly both of us like to get to our rooms.’

May embraced them both with a warm smile. She said in a low, attractive voice, ‘I do hope you’ll both be comfortable, Mr Bryce. I took the liberty of ordering breakfast as soon as I heard you had come in. Shall we …?’ Corridors branched off to left and right of double lift-doors set in the wall opposite. The girl led the way to the right. Bond and Honeychile followed with Sister Lily taking up the rear.

Numbered doors led off the corridor on either side. Now the decor was in the lightest pink with a dove grey carpet. The numbers on the doors were in the tens. The corridor came to an abrupt end with two doors side by side, 14 and 15. May opened the door of 14, and they followed her in.

It was a charming double bedroom in modern Miami style with dark green walls, dark polished mahogany floor with occasional thick white rugs, and well-designed bamboo furniture with a chintz of large red roses on a white background. There was a communicating door into a more masculine dressing-room and another that led into an extremely luxurious modern bathroom with a step-down bath and a bidet.

It was like being shown into the very latest Florida hotel suite – except for two details which Bond noticed. There were no windows and no inside handles to the doors.

May looked hopefully from one to the other.

Bond turned to Honeychile. He smiled at her. ‘It looks very comfortable, don’t you think, darling?’

The girl played with the edge of her skirt. She nodded, not looking at him.

There was a timid knock on the door and another girl, as pretty as May, tripped in with a loaded tray balanced on her upturned hand. She put it down on the centre table and pulled up two chairs. She whisked off the speckless linen cloth that covered the dishes and pattered out of the room. There was a delicious smell of bacon and coffee.

May and Sister Lily backed to the door. The older woman stopped on the threshold. ‘And now we’ll leave you two dear people in peace. If you want anything, just ring. The bells are by the bed. Oh, and by the way, you’ll find plenty of fresh clothes in the cupboards. Chinese style, I’m afraid,’ she twinkled apologetically, ‘but I hope they’re the right sizes. The wardrobe room only got the measurements yesterday evening. The Doctor has given strict orders that you’re not to be disturbed. He’d be delighted if you’d join him for dinner this evening. He wants you to have the whole of the rest of the day to yourselves – to get settled down, you know.’ She paused and looked from one to the other, smiling inquiry. ‘Shall I say you …?’

‘Yes, please,’ said Bond. ‘Tell the Doctor we shall be delighted to join him for dinner.’

‘Oh, I know he’ll be so pleased.’ With a last twitter the two women softly withdrew and closed the door behind them.

Bond turned towards Honeychile. She looked embarrassed. She still avoided his eyes. It occurred to Bond that she could never have met such soft treatment or seen such luxury in her life. To her, all this must be far more strange and terrifying than what they had gone through outside. She stood and fiddled at the hem of her Man Friday skirt. There were streaks of dried sweat and salt and dust on her face. Her bare legs were filthy and Bond noticed that her toes were moving softly as they gripped nervously into the wonderful thick pile carpet.

Bond laughed. He laughed with real pleasure that her fear had been drowned in the basic predicament of clothes and how to behave, and he laughed at the picture they made – she in her rags and he in his dirty blue shirt and black jeans and muddy canvas shoes.

He went to her and took her hands. They were cold. He said, ‘Honey, we’re a couple of scarecrows. There’s only one problem. Shall we have breakfast first while it’s hot, or shall we get out of these rags and have a bath and eat the breakfast when it’s cold? Don’t worry about anything else. We’re here in this wonderful little house and that’s all that matters. Now then, what shall we do?’

She smiled uncertainly. The blue eyes searched his face for reassurance. ‘You’re not worried about what’s going to happen to us?’ She nodded at the room. ‘Don’t you think this is all a trap?’

‘If it’s a trap we’re in it. There’s nothing we can do now but eat the cheese. The only question is whether we eat it hot or cold.’ He pressed her hands. ‘Really, Honey. Leave the worrying to me. Just think where we were an hour ago. Isn’t this better? Now come on and decide the really important things. Bath or breakfast?’

She said reluctantly, ‘Well, if you think … I mean – I’d rather get clean first.’ She added quickly, ‘But you’ve got to help me.’ She jerked her head towards the bathroom door. ‘I don’t know how to work one of those places. What do you do?’

Bond said seriously, ‘It’s quite easy. I’ll fix it all ready for you. While you’re having your bath, I’ll have my breakfast. I’ll keep yours warm.’ Bond went to one of the built-in clothes cupboards and ran the door back. There were half a dozen kimonos, some silk and some linen. He took out a linen one at random. ‘You take off your clothes and get into this and I’ll get the bath ready. Later on you can choose the things you want to wear for bed and dinner.’

She said gratefully, ‘Oh yes, James. If you’ll just show me …’ She started to unbutton her shirt.

Bond wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her. Instead he said abruptly, ‘That’s fine, Honey,’ and went into the bathroom and turned on the taps.

There was everything in the bathroom – Floris Lime bath essence for men and Guerlain bathcubes for women. He crushed a cube into the water and at once the room smelled like an orchid house. The soap was Guerlain’s Sapoceti, Fleurs des Alpes. In a medicine cupboard behind the mirror over the washbasin were toothbrushes and toothpaste, Steradent toothpicks, Rose mouthwash, dental floss, Aspirin and Milk of Magnesia. There was also an electric razor, Lentheric after-shave lotion, and two nylon hairbrushes and combs. Everything was brand new and untouched.

Bond looked at his filthy unshaven face in the mirror and smiled grimly into the grey, sunburned castaway’s eyes. The coating on the pill was certainly of the very finest sugar. It would be wise to expect that the medicine inside would be of the bitterest.

He turned back to the bath and felt the water. It would be too hot for someone who presumably had never had a hot bath before. He let in some cold. As he bent over, two arms were thrown round his neck. He stood up. The golden body blazed in the white tiled bathroom.

She kissed him hard and clumsily on the lips. He put his arms round her and crushed her to him, his heart pounding. She said breathlessly at his ear, ‘The Chinese dress felt strange. Anyway, you told that woman we were married.’

Bond’s hand was on her left breast. Its peak was hard with passion. Her stomach pressed against his. Why not? Why not? Don’t be a fool! This is a crazy time for it. You’re both in deadly danger. You must stay cold as ice to have any chance of getting out of this mess. Later! Later! Don’t be weak.

Bond took his hand away from her breast and put it round her neck. He rubbed his face against hers and then brought his mouth round to hers and gave her one long kiss.

He stood away and held her at arm’s length. For a moment they looked at each other, their eyes bright with desire. She was breathing fast, her lips parted so that he could see the glint of teeth. He said unsteadily, ‘Honey, get into that bath before I spank you.’

She smiled. Without saying anything she stepped down into the bath and lay at full length. She looked up. The fair hair on her body glittered up through the water like golden sovereigns. She said provocatively, ‘You’ve got to wash me. I don’t know what to do. You’ve got to show me.’

Bond said desperately, ‘Shut up, Honey. And stop flirting. Just take the soap and the sponge and start scrubbing. Damn you! This isn’t the time for making love. I’m going to have breakfast.’ He reached for the door handle and opened the door. She said softly, ‘James!’ He looked back. She was sticking her tongue out at him. He grinned savagely back at her and slammed the door.

Bond went into the dressing-room and stood in the middle of the floor and waited for his heart to stop pounding. He rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head to get rid of the thought of her.

To clear his mind he went carefully over both rooms looking for exits, possible weapons, microphones – anything that would add to his knowledge. There were none of these things. There was an electric clock on the wall which said eight-thirty and a row of bells beside the double bed. They said, Room Service, Coiffeur, Manicurist, Maid. There was no telephone. High up in a corner of both rooms was a small ventilator grille. Each was about two feet square. Useless. The doors appeared to be of some light metal, painted to match the walls. Bond threw the whole weight of his body against one of them. It didn’t give a millimetre. Bond rubbed his shoulder. The place was a prison – an exquisite prison. It was no good arguing. The trap had shut tight on them. Now the only thing for the mice to do was to make the most of the cheese.

Bond sat down at the breakfast table. There was a large tumbler of pineapple juice in a silver-plated bowl of crushed ice. He swallowed it down and lifted the cover off his individual hot-plate. Scrambled eggs on toast, four rashers of bacon, a grilled kidney and what looked like an English pork sausage. There were also two kinds of hot toast, rolls inside a napkin, marmalade, honey and strawberry jam. The coffee was boiling hot in a large Thermos decanter. The cream smelled fresh.

From the bathroom came the sound of the girl crooning ‘Marion’. Bond closed his ears to the sound and started on the eggs.

Ten minutes later, Bond heard the bathroom door open. He put down his toast and marmalade and covered his eyes with his hands. She laughed. She said, ‘He’s a coward. He’s frightened of a simple girl.’ Bond heard her rummaging in the cupboards. She went on talking, half to herself. ‘I wonder why he’s frightened. Of course if I wrestled with him I’d win easily. Perhaps he’s frightened of that. Perhaps he’s really not very strong. His arms and his chest look strong enough. I haven’t seen the rest yet. Perhaps it’s weak. Yes, that must be it. That’s why he doesn’t dare take his clothes off in front of me. H’m, now let’s see, would he like me in this?’ She raised her voice. ‘Darling James, would you like me in white with pale blue birds flying all over me?’

‘Yes, damn you,’ said Bond through his hands. ‘Now stop chattering to yourself and come and have breakfast. I’m getting sleepy.’

She gave a cry. ‘Oh, if you mean it’s time for us to go to bed, of course I’ll hurry.’

There was a flurry of feet and Bond heard her sit down opposite. He took his hands down. She was smiling at him. She looked ravishing. Her hair was dressed and combed and brushed to kill, with one side falling down the side of the cheek and the other slicked back behind her ear. Her skin sparkled with freshness and the big blue eyes were alight with happiness. Now Bond loved the broken nose. It had become part of his thoughts of her and it suddenly occurred to him that he would be sad when she was just an immaculately beautiful girl like other beautiful girls. But he knew it would be no good trying to persuade her of that. She sat demurely, with her hands in her lap below the end of a cleavage which showed half her breasts and a deep vee of her stomach.

Bond said severely, ‘Now, listen, Honey. You look wonderful, but that isn’t the way to wear a kimono. Pull it up right across your body and tie it tight and stop trying to look like a call girl. It just isn’t good manners at breakfast.’

‘Oh, you are a stuffy old beast.’ She pulled her kimono an inch or two closer. ‘Why don’t you like playing? I want to play at being married.’

‘Not at breakfast time,’ said Bond firmly. ‘Come on and eat up. It’s delicious. And anyway, I’m filthy. I’m going to shave and have a bath.’ He got up and walked round the table and kissed the top of her head. ‘And as for playing, as you call it, I’d rather play with you than anyone in the world. But not now.’ Without waiting for her answer he walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

Bond shaved and had a bath and a shower. He felt desperately sleepy. Sleep came to him in waves so that from time to time he had to stop what he was doing and bend his head down between his knees. When he came to brush his teeth he could hardly do it. Now he recognized the signs. He had been drugged. In the coffee or in the pineapple juice? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. All he wanted to do was lie down on the tiled floor and shut his eyes. Bond weaved drunkenly to the door. He forgot that he was naked. That didn’t matter either. Anyway the girl had finished her breakfast. She was in bed. He staggered over to her, holding on to the furniture. The kimono was lying in a pile on the floor. She was fast asleep, naked under a single sheet.

Bond gazed dreamily at the empty pillow beside her head. No! He found the switches and turned out the lights. Now he had to crawl across the floor and into his room. He got to his bed and pulled himself on to it. He reached out an arm of lead and jabbed at the switch on the bed-light. He missed it. The lamp crashed to the floor and the bulb burst. With a last effort Bond turned on his side and let the waves sweep over his head.

The luminous figures on the electric clock in the double room said nine-thirty.At ten o’clock the door of the double room opened softly. A very tall thin figure was silhouetted against the lighted corridor. It was a man. He must have been six feet six tall. He stood on the threshold with his arms folded, listening. Satisfied, he moved slowly into the room and up to the bed. He knew the way exactly. He bent down and listened to the quiet breathing of the girl. After a moment he reached up to his chest and pressed a switch. A flashlight with a very broad diffused beam came on. The flashlight was attached to him by a belt that held it above the breast bone. He bent forward so that the soft light shone on the girl’s face.

The intruder examined the girl’s face for several minutes. One of his hands came up and took the sheet at her chin and softly drew the sheet down to the end of the bed. The hand that drew down the sheet was not a hand. It was a pair of articulated steel pincers at the end of a metal stalk that disappeared into a black silk sleeve. It was a mechanical hand.

The man gazed for a long time at the naked body, moving his chest to and fro so that every corner of the body came under the light. Then the claw came out again and delicately lifted a corner of the sheet from the bottom of the bed and drew it back over the girl. The man stood for another moment gazing down at the sleeping face, then he switched off the torch on his chest and moved quietly away across the room to the open door through which Bond was sleeping.

The man spent longer beside Bond’s bed. He scrutinized every line, every shadow on the dark, rather cruel face that lay drowned, almost extinct, on the pillow. He watched the pulse in the neck and counted it and, when he had pulled down the sheet, he did the same with the area round the heart. He gauged the curve of the muscles on Bond’s arms and thighs and looked thoughtfully at the hidden strength in the flat stomach. He even bent down close over the outflung open right hand and examined its life and fate lines.

Finally, with infinite care, the steel claw drew the sheet back up to Bond’s neck. For another minute the tall figure stood over the sleeping man, then it swished softly away and out into the corridor and the door closed with a click.