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eyes were fierce slits. It would be any minute now. His finger itched on the
trigger-
guard. What in hell was the girl waiting for?
Von Hammerstein had made up his mind. He flexed his knees slightly. The arms
came back. Through the telescopic sight
Bond could see the thick hair over his shoulder blades tremble in a breeze
that came to give a quick shiver to the surface of the lake. Now his arms were
coming forward and there was a fraction of a second when his feet had left the
board and he was still almost upright. In that fraction of a second there was
a flash of silver against his back and then von Hammerstein's body hit the
water in a neat dive.
Gonzales was on his feet, looking uncertainly at the turbulence caused by the
dive. His mouth was open, waiting. He did not know if he had seen something or
not. The two gunmen were more certain. They had their guns at the ready. They
crouched, looking from Gonzales to the trees behind the dam, waiting for an
order.
Slowly the turbulence subsided and the ripples spread across the lake. The
dive had gone deep.
Bond's mouth was dry. He licked his lips, searching the lake with his glass.
There was a pink shimmer deep down. It wobbled slowly up. Von Hammerstein's
body broke the surface. It lay head down, wallowing softly. A foot or so of
steel shaft stuck up from below the left shoulder blade and the sun winked on
the aluminium feathers.
Major Gonzales yelled an order and the two tommy-guns roared and flamed. Bond
could hear the crash of the bullets among the trees below him. The Savage
shuddered against his shoulder and the right-hand man fell slowly forward on
his face. Now the other man was running for the lake, his gun still firing
from the hip in short bursts. Bond fired and missed and fired again.
The man's legs buckled, but his momentum still carried him forward. He crashed
into the water. The clenched finger went on firing the gun aimlessly up
towards the blue sky until the water throttled the mechanism.
The seconds wasted on the extra shot had given Major Gonzales a chance. He had
got behind the body of the first gunman and now he opened up on Bond with the
tommy-gun. Whether he had seen Bond or was only firing at the flashes from the
Savage he was doing well. Bullets zipped into the maple and slivers of wood
spattered into Bond's face. Bond fired twice. The dead body of the gunman
jerked. Too low! Bond reloaded and took fresh aim. A snapped branch fell
across his rifle. He shook
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it free, but now Gonzales was up and running forward to the group of garden
furniture. He hurled the iron table on its side and got behind it as two snap
shots from Bond kicked chunks out of the lawn at his heels. With this solid
cover his shooting became more accurate, and burst after burst, now from the
right of the table and now from the left, crashed into the maple tree while
Bond's single shots clanged against the white iron or whined off across the
lawn. It was not easy to traverse the telescopic sight quickly from one side
of the table to the other and Gonzales was cunning with his changes. Again and
again his bullets thudded into the trunk beside and above Bond. Bond ducked
and ran swiftly to the right. He would fire, standing, from the open meadow
and catch Gonzales off guard. But even as he ran, he saw Gonzales dart from
behind the iron table. He also had decided to end the stalemate. He was
running for the dam to get across and into the woods and come up after Bond.
Bond stood and threw up his rifle. As he did so, Gonzales also saw him. He
went down on one knee on the dam wall and sprayed a burst at Bond. Bond stood
icily, hearing the bullets. The crossed hairs centred on Gonzales's chest.
Bond squeezed the trigger. Gonzales rocked. He half got to his feet. He raised
his arms and, with his gun still pumping bullets into the sky, dived clumsily
face forward into the water.
Bond watched to see if the face would rise. It did not. Slowly he lowered his
rifle and wiped the back of his arm across his face.
The echoes, the echoes of much death, rolled to and fro across the valley.
Away to the right, in the trees beyond the lake, he caught a glimpse of the
two girls running up towards the house. Soon they, if the maids had not
already done so, would be on to the State troopers. It was time to get moving.
Bond walked back through the meadow to the lone maple. The girl was there. She
stood up against the trunk of the tree with her back to him. Her head was
cradled in her arms against the tree. Blood was running down the right arm and
dripping to the ground, and there was a black stain high up on the sleeve of
the dark green shirt. The bow and quiver of arrows lay at her feet.
Her shoulders were shaking.
Bond came up behind her and put a protective arm across her shoulders. He said
softly: "Take it easy, Judy. It's all over now.
How bad's the arm?"
She said in a muffled voice: "It's nothing. Something hit me. But that was
awful. I didn't I didn't know it would be like that."
Bond pressed her arm reassuringly. "It had to be done. They'd have got you
otherwise. Those were pro killers the worst.
But I told you this sort of thing was man's work. Now then, let's have a look
at your arm. We've got to get going over the border. The troopers'll be here
before long."
She turned. The beautiful wild face was streaked with sweat and tears. Now the
grey eyes were soft and obedient. She said:
"It's nice of you to be like that. After the way I was. I was sort of sort
of wound up."
She held out her arm. Bond reached for the hunting-knife at her belt and cut
off her shirtsleeve at the shoulder. There was the bruised, bleeding gash of a
bullet wound across the muscle. Bond took out his own khaki handkerchief, cut
it into three lengths and joined them together. He washed the wound dean with
the coffee and whisky, and then took a thick slice of bread from his haversack
and bound it over the wound. He cut her shirtsleeve into a sling and reached
behind her neck to tie the knot. Her mouth was inches from his. The scent of
her body had a warm animal tang. Bond kissed her once softly on the lips and
once again, hard. He tied the knot. He looked into the grey eyes close to his.
They looked surprised and happy. He kissed her again at each corner of the
mouth and the mouth slowly smiled. Bond stood away from her and smiled back.
He softly picked up her right hand and slipped the wrist into the sling. She
said docilely: "Where are you taking me?"
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Bond said: "I'm taking you to London. There's this old man who will want to
see you. But first we've got to get over into
Canada, and I'll talk to a friend in Ottawa and get your passport straightened
out. You'll have to get some clothes and things.
It'll take a few days. We'll be staying in a place called the KO-ZEE Motel."
She looked at him. She was a different girl. She said softly: "That'll be
nice. I've never stayed in a motel."
Bond bent down and picked up his rifle and knapsack and slung them over one
shoulder. Then he hung her bow and quiver over the other, and turned and
started up through the meadow.
She fell in behind and followed him, and as she walked she pulled the tired
bits of golden-rod out of her hair and undid a ribbon and let the pale gold
hair fall down to her shoulders.
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
James Bond said: "I've always thought that if I ever married I would marry an
air hostess."
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