Page 44 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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‘Second, there is proof on the streets that nobody has ever managed to

inform on Mr Brokenclaw Lee and survive,’ Rushia continued. ‘There’s the
tale of one particular snitch, name of Tiger Balm Chan. Lee is supposed to
have torn him apart with his bare hands. Don’t know if it’s true, but ole Tiger
Balm was
James Bond OO7 - printing disabled a mess when they found James Bond OO7 - printing disabled James Bond OO7 - printing disabled James Bond OO7 - printing disabled
James Bond OO7 - printing disabledhim – over an area of one square mile.
Found him piecemeal, so to speak.’
‘If there’s so much information on him, why hasn’t anybody tried to
prosecute?’ To Bond, the essential way of Brokenclaw Lee’s life sounded like
something from a strip cartoon. He said just that, his eyes fixed on M.

M laughed. ‘Strip cartoon? Maybe. I told you, the man’s a will-o’-the-wisp.
All his financial power is held by companies which are themselves dummy
companies answerable to other dummy companies. In ten years the IRS has
never been able to move against him because they cannot prove a thing – even
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the FBI, and I have a great deal of time for the FBI, cannot keep him in their
sights. Over a dozen times they’ve mounted very complex, round-the-clock
surveillance on him. Result? Those surveillance teams had him for twenty-four
hours. Never longer. The man and his closest lieutenants just vanish for long

periods. The agencies know of five large estates which might well belong to
friend Brokenclaw, but he’s never been physically discovered on any of those
properties, and nobody, I mean nobody, has ever come up with conclusive
proof of his one-man criminal activities.’

‘Sounds like a job you’d put me on to, sir.’ Bond smiled as he said it, and
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the smile was met by a freezing look.
‘Oh, you are on it, 007. You and Ed Rushia here, both. You see, as well as
being a mobster of immense skill and cunning, we are now one hundred per

cent certain that he’s taken on another line of work. We’re certain that he’s an
agent of CELD, and probably the CCI as well.’
Bond looked at his chief with renewed interest. Up until now, the man Lee
had seemed to be simply into organised crime. But CELD was the Central

External Liaison Department, while CCI stood for Central Control of
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Intelligence. They were Red China’s answer to the CIA, the SIS, NSA and any
other Intelligence outfit you could think of.
‘How much do you know about those happy intriguers in CELD and the CCI,

Bond? Precious little I should imagine.’
‘As much as anyone else in the trade, sir. They’re both as ruthless as KGB
was at the height of the cold war, to targets both at home and abroad. I’ve seen

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