Page 38 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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make a team. ‘Ed, we have to clear Captain Bond here for Lords and Lords

Day.’
Rushia took in a deep breath. ‘Gee whizz,’ he said. ‘Gee, that’s going to be
tough. I don’t understand the darned thing myself – only that she’s a honey,
Lords and Lords Day both. Two sweet and deadly honeys.’ He
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to Bond and back again, pursed his lips, blew a couple of short breaths as
though testing some imaginary instrument and lowered his long frame into one
of the remaining chairs. He then turned to Bond.
‘Well, James, it goes something like this. These coupla doo-hickies, Lords

and Lords Day, are two sides of a mighty impressive coin. Lords, if you want
the truth, stands for Long Range Deep Sea, and that’s a real humdinger, I can
tell you. This thing is state-of-the-art, but don’t tell Art, or he’ll want one.’ His
voice dropped into a confiding, almost secretive tone. ‘This thing can detect
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submarine signatures – even well-shuffled ones – at a phenomenal range, in all
weathers and to depths you just wouldn’t believe. I tell you, James, I hardly
believe the thing, it does such fantastic tricks. Don’t ask me how it works, ’cos
I guess only around half-a-dozen bald-pated superbrains know that. I can tell

you it’s a cocktail of micro-tech, lasers and some good things we got out of
studying stealth technology.’ He swept his hand in a gesture which made you
feel he was signifying an entire ocean. ‘To boil it down, take the mystery out of
it as you might say, it’s a box. A box with wires. But if there’s some miracle

metal dolphin out there, couple of hundred miles off the port beam and full
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fathom five down, the box with wires’ll leap up and dance like Bojangles
himself. Follow my meaning?’
Bond nodded, smiling. Ed Rushia was a live one, a natural, he thought. That

down-home, simple, almost country-boy language must have led many unwary
people to their doom. Bond, who knew good cover when he saw it, had
already begun to respect Commander Rushia. ‘And Lords Day?’ he asked.
‘Oh, that one’s more perverse. It’s the antidote. Long Range Deep Sea

Detector And Yaffler. Yea, I had to ask about the Yaffler thing and it appears
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that in some parts of the world, the common green woodpecker is known as a
Yaffler. Simple, isn’t it? The antidote confuses the Lords box with wires by
using a particular pattern of sonic beams. They’re not your run-of-the-mill

sonic beams. These are special, they form a pattern that sounds just like a
common green woodpecker.’ He clapped his big hands together in an act of
finality. ‘Okay, James, consider yourself Lords and Lords Day cleared.’

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