Page 204 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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Grant had told the chief of the British Service, so M gave in with grace.

Grant’s people came to see him in the Naval hospital at regular intervals,
and he learned a little more about the late Brokenclaw Lee’s empire. For one
thing, everybody was convinced that his melting pot of Indian tribes in the
Chelan Mountains had been for some
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enough,’ Grant told him, ‘but we figure he only took in the most basic types,
those who would return to the old brutal ways. No reservation Indian would
ever think of performing the o-kee-pa torture rite nowadays. We’re pretty sure
he had some reason for building a private Indian army that had nothing to do

with peace.’
Eventually, Bond was able to walk again with hardly any pain. The damage
inflicted on his legs had been worse than that on his back, but the doctors said
that, eventually, he would only have the scars to prove that it happened at all.
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Sue Chi-Ho visited Bond every day, and every day thanked him for what he
had done. ‘I have been reading the lives of those two whose names we took,’
she told him one afternoon. ‘Abelard and Héloise. I came across a quote from
one of her letters to him – after she went into a convent and he lost his

manhood. It seems something good to live by. She wrote—

May it be sudden, whatever you plan for us; may man’s mind
Be blind to the future. Let him hope on in his fears.

I am glad we’re blind to the future. If I’d known what lay in store for us in
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Operation Curve, I’d never have gone ahead. I don’t care what happens now, I

just don’t want to know what tomorrow will bring.’
Finally they told Bond he could leave the hospital. Chi-Chi picked him up
late one afternoon and drove him back to her apartment. He had telephoned M
privately and had been given four weeks’ sick leave, though they both knew

there would be a year of physiotherapy before Bond’s muscles could be
completely restored.
The apartment was back to normal, and even the shattered glass on the
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museum poster had been repaired.
‘This is where we came in,’ Bond said.
‘Yes, but tonight will be different, James. I really have planned a wonderful
meal. Just sit down, relax and I’ll get it started.’ She went into the kitchen, and
a few seconds later Bond heard her explode with anger. She came storming out

– ‘Guess what I’ve done? I’ve forgotten to get the wine. James, would you be a

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