Page 42 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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‘Knowing the circumstances as I do,’ M started again, pausing, brow

furrowed, ‘if it was anybody else but you, 007, I’d be very suspicious of your
story.’
‘Mighty suspicious.’ Rushia looked at Bond with an almost vacant stare.
‘Let’s get
James Bond OO7 - printing disabled it straight one more time,’ M continued. ‘You saw the man and his James Bond OO7 - printing disabled
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entourage outside your hotel; you did a little lip-reading and reckoned he was
told something about a death connected with Lords though you didn’t
understand the significance. You were told his name and, because he was such
a striking individual, you followed him and listened to his speech of

presentation at the museum.’
‘Correct.’ Bond looked straight into M’s cold grey eyes.
‘Do you think he would recognise you again?’
‘I’ve no idea. His speech was a bit of a performance. As though he were an
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actor. He used his eyes well, but whether he marked me I couldn’t say. I’d
doubt it. Doubt it very much.’
‘And the bodyguards?’
‘If they’re very good – trained surveillance experts – one of them might

make me if he saw me again. I just don’t know.’
‘And you believed all that stuff about his Chinese great-grandfather and the
marriage to the Blackfoot woman and so on even unto the third and fourth
generation?’ M spoke in a mock-parsonical manner.

‘It was very convincing. I suppose, apart from his very imposing physical
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appearance, it was the thing that made him unique.’
M grunted. ‘Yes. Yes, it is convincing, and you’ve been party to a quite
extraordinary coincidence. Very few people actually get to see Mr Brokenclaw

Lee. Usually only those he wants to see, apart from his regular retinue. I
needn’t remind you, Captain Bond, that in our business, coincidence and luck
don’t play a very big part.’
‘A strange coincidence, to use a phrase, by which some things are settled

nowadays,’ Rushia quoted almost to himself. ‘Who the heck said that?’
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‘I think it was Byron, actually.’ Bond was already irritated by what
appeared to be a hostile interrogation. ‘But I really don’t understand what
you’re getting at – either of you.’

‘Well, listen, Bond.’ M bent slightly forward, as though about to impart some
choice classified information. ‘Brokenclaw Lee is powerful. He’s a gangster, a
hoodlum, a one-man Mafia. He’s also a mystery. He comes and goes as he

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