Page 99 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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‘Didn’t they give you my dossier? It’s all in there.’

‘They told me you were a Cantonese speaker . . .’
‘And a few dialects. You see, they should have given you my file.’
‘Okay. So you tell me.’
James Bond OO7 - printing disabledeneration American. Joined the US Navy to see the world and saw James Bond OO7 - printing disabled
‘Fourth g
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nothing but the inside of offices. They gave me a commission. My father was
very proud, but the man I was going to marry was humiliated – it was some
foolish business to do with class – and he would not go through with the
contract.’

‘And you still love him?’
‘Until quite recently, yes. Now I see how foolish I was even to grieve. I
know that it was my vanity crying, not my heart.’
‘They tell me it takes three years to get over a really broken heart and accept
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the facts.’
‘You are a chauvinist pig, James. For men, maybe only three years; for
women it can be much longer – if ever.’
He laid a hand on her arm. ‘You may be right, my dear. A very wise man

once told me that if a woman stopped loving you, there was nothing you could
do about it except put your hands in your pockets and walk away. I believe the
same is also true for women.’
‘It’s a blow to pride, to vanity. But that’s all one now. You still want to hear

my life story?’
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‘You’re only giving me the later parts.’
‘Okay, maybe I don’t want you to know about my terrible teenage days when
I ran riot with friends, smoked pot, stayed out all night in line for a Who

concert, lost my virginity at sixteen . . .’
‘Beat you by almost eighteen months.’ Though Bond said it lightly enough, he
was slightly concerned about Chi-Chi. He had known many good women
operatives, but they only remained good if they did not carry around a great

load of what he liked to think of as ‘emotional baggage’. He hoped that Sue
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Chi-Ho did not have a cabin trunk of emotions chained to her ankle. At last he
said, ‘Well, you got through that. We all go through it.’
‘Some never come out the other side.’ She turned down the corners of what

Bond appreciated as a wicked little mouth. ‘I had ten friends – ten who never
made it. From pot to hard drugs, to theft and death.’
Bond nodded. Looking at her now he realised, as though for the first time,

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