Page 16 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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rubbish. It was, though, he reflected, walking back to the Empress, the first

time in nearly a year that he had become engrossed in something outside
himself.
This hybrid man, Lee, had everything – presence, power, shrewdness,
strength, charisma, charm and obvious success. He would be an ideal exercise,
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Bond thought. While he was here in British Columbia, he would spend some
time trying to discover where Lee had found his success, and what was the true
secret of his power. It should not be difficult, with somebody as accomplished
as this.

But when he returned to his hotel room, Bond found things had changed
rapidly. The message light was blinking on the telephone. A cable had arrived
from the United States, he was told, and five minutes later he read the message
— TROUBLE OVER YOUR SHARES IN THE FAMILY BUSINESS STOP IMPERATIVE YOU
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COME TO SAN FRANCISCO IMMEDIATELY STOP ROOM RESERVED FOR YOU AT
FAIRMONT HOTEL STOP PLEASE WAIT THERE FOR MESSAGE STOP REGARDS
MANDARIN

So, Bond thought, as he crumpled the flimsy paper, the old man had him
marked down for some job in California from the start. He recalled M’s words

to him, less than two weeks before – ‘You need to get away for a rest, James.
Go off to California. They’re all mad there, so you’ll be in good company.’
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The old fraud, he thought. Then he smiled and picked up the telephone to
book himself on to the first available flight to San Francisco. In fewer than
fourteen days his world had changed, but at least his mind had been sharpened
back to some kind of normality. Strange how that could happen by seeing and
hearing a man whose path he would probably never cross again. A couple of
weeks before, his mind had been as blunt as a rusty old axe and his whole

being had seemed to be deserted by any shape or form.
An old saying came back to him without bidding – ‘The mind of every man
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is the man:
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precious to them than life itself.’
How true, he thought. His mind, the mind of an adventurer, had been lost to
him and now was refound. More precious to him than life itself.

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