by John Gardner
`It seems that one of your people was with the royal detectives.
I haven't got the details, but she spotted Dragonpol's sister among the crowd. The lady in question had a very nasty hand grenade in her handbag. Your officer disarmed her. So, it's all over. The Princess made an immediate decision and called off the visit.
`Pity she didn't take notice earlier.
It was not until he arrived back in London, later in the day, that Bond learned the identity of the officer who had spotted Maeve Horton.
The taxi from Heathrow had dropped him in the King's Road and he walked, carrying his garment bag, to the Regency house. He was about to put his key in the lock when the door was opened by his elderly housekeeper, May, now returned from her jaunt up to Scotland.
May looked at him accusingly. `Mr James, there's a young woman here who says she's a house guest. She's a pleasant lass, and speaks English like a native, though she tells me she's foreign." To be `foreign' as far as May was concerned, was tantamount to being a carrier of what she called `that terrible Black Thing they had in the Middle Ages' Fredericka von Grusse sat in the living-room wearing a very stylish pants suit in red, with a lot of military flair and gold buttons on the jacket.
`You didn't tell me about the Scotch dragon,' she whispered after they got their breath back.
`Flick, the word is Scottish. I thought you spoke English.
Scotch is a drink-though I'm always reading American novels which refer to Scottish people as Scotch. It's like calling citizens of Oporto winos." `I know,' she grinned. `I love you when you get all correctional. I hear there was a bonfire party out at Euro Disney.
`You've heard about Maeve old Hort as well, have you?" `Heard about her? I nabbed her." `You ?` It all came out over a light supper, served by May who had begun to soften towards Fredericka.
Fredericka von Grusse had worked some kind of witchcraft on M and had been sent as the service representative among the Scotland Yard royal detectives.
When it came to leaving the house where the Princess and her children had spent the night, Fredericka had gone to take a look at the journalists before they brought the royal party out.
`Maeve was standing there, trying to look insignificant among the photographers,' she told him. `So I took no notice, pretended I hadn't see her. I walked around and chatted to some of the Press people, then worked my way behind her, did a kind of mental frisk and knew she was up to no good." `So?" He liked the part about doing a mental frisk.
`So I jammed my gun in her ear and told her I'd blow her head off if she moved. The cops came down, searched her and carted her away.
She had this damned great grenade in her handbag, and there's no doubt she was going to use it.
Fredericka had been allowed to sit in on the first interrogation and it was immediately obvious that Maeve's love for brother David was of the unbalanced and unhealthy variety. `She said she'd have died for him, that he had more talent in his little finger than Oh, you know how these obsessive people go on. The whole damned family was crazy if you ask me." It also became clear that sister Maeve was the true answer to one of the great Dragonpol conundrums. `She did the flowers,' Fredericka told him. `Admitted it almost as soon as I asked. If anyone had bothered to check her passport, they'd have found she followed on David's heels, taking those bloody roses with her and making sure that they were delivered to the gravesides. Oh, by the way, M wants us both in the office by nine tomorrow morning.
`To congratulate us, no doubt." Bond cocked his head and raised a quizzical eyebrow.
`Or to ask for a full explanation of two dead bodies at Schloss Drache." When it came to it, M asked no awkward questions. He spoke for a long time about the Dragonpol incident, and getting quite serious about it at one point. `Friend Dragonpol,' he said, `is, I believe, a symptom of the sick and dangerous society in which we live." From there he launched into the real reason he had summoned them to his office.
`There are changes in the air." He seemed tense and serious.
`Changes that will affect this service drastically. The job's changing with the world, though I personally believe the world's a more dangerous place than it was when we had a cut-and-dried cold war. A thousand times more dangerous, which is probably why the powers-that-be are demanding a complete reorganization. It's going to affect me, and it's particularly going to affect you two. You'll get the full details of promotion and the new job within the week. I simply wanted to warn you before it happens.
`I hope it's not playing detective again,' Bond muttered. `That's too dangerous.
`Ah." M gave them an enigmatic look.
`Am I going to like the changes?" Bond asked.
`Probably. Almost certainly. You'll be doing some very different things in the future, James; and so will you, Fraulein von Grusse." He picked up his old pipe and began to load it with the evil-smelling tobacco he had smoked since Bond first knew him.
`They'll be bringing you in here for a briefing in a few days.
Until then, I suggest you take a short leave. If I'm right, it'll be the last one you'll get for a long time." He dismissed them with an almost perfunctory gesture, but as they reached the door, he called Bond back.
`James, do I sense the possibility of wedding bells between you and Fraulein von Grusse?" `I don't know, sir. Maybe. Maybe not.
Why do you ask?" M made his familiar harrumphing noise. `I suppose that, contrary to your experience, I'm really just a sentimental old matchmaker." `Really, sir?" He didn't believe a word of it.
`I'm just saying that you could do worse, James.
You could do much worse." `Well, sir, if it does happen, I'd ask only one thing of you." `Oh yes, and what would that be?" `Please, sir, don't send any flowers.
FB2 document info
Document ID: ad9acbe7-a89d-40af-bcee-e418dece4803
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 23.12.2012
Created using: calibre 0.9.10, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6.6 software
Document authors :
John Gardner
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/
