Page 39 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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‘So, what appears to be the problem?’ Bond asked.

‘Oh, the admiral here hasn’t told you? Well, San Francisco is, as you must
surely know, the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet, and the United
States Pacific Fleet is as leaky as an old kettle. There are things going on
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around here
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He frowned. ‘The Walker Brothers were spies, by the by, not some singing
rock ’n’ roll outfit.’
‘I had heard,’ Bond said, straight-faced.
‘Well, I like to be sure, James. Some people tell me that there are British

officers who don’t even know the difference between Stonewall Jackson and
General Sherman. Think they’re baseball players or some such.’
‘And what’s it all got to do with us Brits anyway?’
M stepped in. ‘Us Brits, as you call your own, 007, helped invent the thing,
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but in the last three months no fewer than three officers and two enlisted men,
one Royal Navy and the rest US Navy, have gone missing. They are all fully
Lords cleared; they are all highly trained technicians with stratospheric
security clearances . . .’

‘Six, not five, if you count Wanda . . .’ Rushia began.
M turned towards the American. ‘We do not count Wanda, because she
didn’t go missing, Commander. She’s our asset and she’s here for the night. But
you couldn’t have known that.’

‘Who is Wanda?’ Bond asked, his mind already centred on the word Lords.
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He had heard it before and the picture came back clearly – the huge, hybrid
Chinese-Indian and the words that had seemed to pass between him and the
nervous man outside the Empress Hotel only yesterday afternoon. The lip-read

conversation concerning someone’s death by shooting, and the big man with the
twisted hand saying, ‘Tell them incalculable damage may have been done
regarding Lords.’
He opened his mouth, but Rushia was already speaking. ‘I might add that if

those guys have gone over to any foreign power, even in this time of glasnost
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and perestroika, then heaven help us, because those guys know things we
wouldn’t even share with the Army, Navy and Pentagon combined, leave alone
the old folks in East Jaboo.’

‘What is more,’ M continued as though he had never been interrupted, ‘as of
yesterday, the founding father of Lords, one Professor Robert Allardyce, went
missing. Guess where, James?’

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