Page 131 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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certainly exists. Silver Service, Inc. makes compact disks – for the young

market, for those who have to have loud, discordant music with unbelievable
lyrics. The company manages to get through about forty new bands in a year.
The run-of-the-mill bands do not last long. However, it also owns, lock, stock,
barrel, elec
James Bond OO7 - printing disabledwho manage to
James Bond OO7 - printing disabledtronic keyboards and drum machines, four bands James Bond OO7 - printing disabled James Bond OO7 - printing disabled
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keep turning out albums which please their public so much that they make
millions of dollars a year – millions for themselves and millions for Silver
Service. The house you saw last night belongs to that company, who rents or
sells it to members of one or another of the bands in vogue. If it has been sold,

then the company simply buys it back when the band ceases to be financially
viable. At the moment, it belongs to a young man called Halman, an odd name
and I think not his own, Marty Halman, drummer for a band called Ice Age. He
lives in that house, often with several concubines, and a very expensive and
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serious nasal habit. I believe he’s in residence at the moment, and I fear that
Ice Age, who have been chart-toppers for nearly eighteen months, will soon be
no more. But, while they last, they make a great deal of money. When they are
gone, the house will be bought – I use the word loosely – by another member

of one of Silver Service’s top groups, or bands.
‘The house has appeared during TV interviews; it’s even been raided by the
police – that was before Mr Halman moved in. It is secluded, though within
easy reach of San Francisco. Why, we even moved out the unrepentant Wanda

to Sausalito in the early hours of this morning.’
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‘But we came in through a great iron-bound door into that magnificent hall,’
Bond protested. Already he had some inkling of what Brokenclaw was telling
them, but he would play the naive, amazed member of the audience if only to

humour the magician.
‘And if you went to find that door, you would merely see part of Mr
Halman’s end wall, with no windows, just the gable end. Of course, the door is
there, and I can make it appear at the press of a button, but it is covered by

steel and brick. A great slab of steel with a brick façade. A press of the button
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and the slab moves outwards and upwards. Rarely do we open that entrance
during the daytime. We have other exits at the end of each of the long corridors
underground.’

‘But the hallway, and . . .’ Bond continued to play being baffled.
‘The hallway exists, but the stairs lead to nowhere. The hallway and my
study both exist, but they are as Chinese boxes within the strongly built house

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