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had reached some terrible pinnacle from which he could only fall. It was the
voice of a person utterly unbalanced. A man who believed himself invincible,
safe from anything, even death.
Vesta Motley also tried. "Sir Max, there is a problem. We "
"There is no problem as far as I'm concerned, Ms. Motley. It's taken a long
while to set this up. We go ahead tomorrow night. Now, if you'll all cease
talking and be quiet, I'll give you the briefing."
Barking mad, Bond thought. Just as he had predicted. Tarn probably already
knew what they were trying to tell him, but was going ahead whatever the
outcome.
He was speaking again. "The oil company, MetroTex, has one of their
supertankers coming into this harbor at precisely eight o'clock tomorrow
night. It is a huge affair and will be fully loaded. Thousands upon thousands
of gallons of oil and gasoline. The name of that enormous ship is Golden
Bough, and she's a regular visitor to these shores, so her timing is like
clockwork.
"What Golden Bough contains will make this rich harbor golden, all right.
Golden with fire and flames. The amusing thing is that there's already a
precedent for what will happen, because in the late sixteenth century no less
a sailor than Sir Frances Drake set fire to every ship in this harbor."
"Which lit the way to his defeat," said Leiter.
Tarn did not even pause. "Your job, Dr. Rexinus, will be to dash in and let
the world see that an oil spill of this magnitude can be contained. It will be
your triumph. More importantly, it will be my triumph. The demonstration has
to be big. It has to be impressive, for if it is not contained then this
entire island will be surrounded by an oil slick which will make any other
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disaster of this kind look insignificant. Every other major oil spill the
world has seen will be as small as scum on bathwater."
There came the noise of what would normally be a slow handclap, only this
sounded like a hand being slapped onto leather. Felix was pushing his luck.
"What the devil does that mean, Mr. Leiter?"
"Simply applauding. I'm all in favor of spectacles, and if Golden Bough is as
big as I think she is, you'll do more than light up the harbor here and run
oil around the coastline. It could drift a long way. We're talking about
almost total pollution of the Caribbean."
"You're not taking Dr. Rexinus into account, Mr. Leiter. He and his companions
are wonder workers. With the flick of a switch they can pour trouble on oiled
waters. I've put several million into a brilliant idea, so tomorrow night we
see if I've wasted my money or not."
"How're you going to set Golden Bough ablaze? You got some special kindling to
do that?"
Tarn gave a small bark of a laugh. "Yes. Yes, good. Kindling. Yes, I do have
special kindling in the form of a somewhat ancient Russian submarine. She's
old, rusty, noisy, I think a little leaky also, but I've put money into her as
well."
"A submarine?" Rexinus's voice quavered.
"And torpedoes two of them. Should have been three, but one was wasted. At
least we know it works. I had a slight problem with the captain. He's a
Scottish gentleman and I fear he bends his elbow a shade too much. On a trial
run earlier this year he actually targeted one of my own cruise liners. He
tells me that he didn't know the torpedo tubes were loaded, or whatever the
expression is. My ship escaped with a little damage and no loss of life. In
other circumstances I might have fired the man preferably from one of his
own torpedo tubes but I think we can trust him to do the job thoroughly this
time, can't we, Maurice?"
Goodwin grunted, and Tarn repeated, "Maurice?"
"Yes, Max, we can trust him now. I don't relish the job, but I'll be with him
to make certain he doesn't go astray."
Tarn sighed. "It's a terrible thing when a man has to put his own watchdogs
onto people he pays to do specialist jobs pays handsomely, as well. I really
wonder what the world's coming to."
"You're going to watch the display from here, then?" Felix was feeding him
questions that might help Flicka and Bond.
"Not quite from here, Mr. Leiter. I prefer a grandstand view. I shall watch it
all from the top of that grand old fortress they call El Morro. If you behave
yourself, I might even let you come with me. No. No, I don't think that's a
good idea. I'll leave you to the interesting charms of one of my other girls.
You think Beth would like to play with this one, Anna?"
Anna gave a sound that lay somewhere between a cough and a laugh. "Beth would
love to play with him. Probably remove his false arm and leg first. She likes
pulling the wings off flies." There was something disgustingly sinister in the
way she said it, and Bond reached for his weapon, turning as though to put his
shoulder to the door, but Flicka caught his arm and shook her head silently.
He knew she was right. It was his old trouble, guilt from the past about
Felix. Now he had put his friend in danger again. He looked down at Flicka,
gave a sad little smile, nodded, and relaxed.
There was rustling from the main cabin. "This chart," Tarn said. "Heed me, Dr.
Rexinus, you're going to have to follow my instructions to the letter. You
will leave this berth at seven o'clock tomorrow night. On the dot of seven, so
that you will reach here." He was obviously showing Rexinus a point on the
chart, and aloud he gave a latitude and longitude. "This will bring you to
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