iam fleming.for your eyes only-第5部分
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is free hand。 He now spat and moistened the mud and carefully filled up the scratch again。 There were three camouflaged scratches on one tree and four on the other。 Bond walked quickly out of the trees on to the road。 His car had stopped on a slight slope leading down under the autoroute bridge。 Although there was some protection from the boom of the traffic on the autoroute; Bond pushed the car; jumped in and only engaged the gears when he was well under the bridge。
And now Bond was back in the clearing; above it; and he still did not know if his hunch had been right。 It had been M's dictum that had put him on the scent … if it was a scent … and the mention of the gipsies。 〃It was the gipsies the dogs smelled 。 。 。 Most of the winter 。 。 。 they went last month。 No plaints 。 。 。 One morning they just weren't there any more。〃 The invisible factor。 The invisible man。 The people who are so much part of the background that you don't know if they're there or not。 Six men and two girls and they hardly spoke a word of French。 Good cover; gipsies。 You could be a foreigner and yet not a foreigner; because you were only a gipsy。 Some of them had gone off in the caravan。 Had some of them stayed; built themselves a hide…out during the winter; a secret place from which the hijacking of the top secret dispatches had been the first sortie? Bond had thought he was building fantasies until he found the scratches; the carefully camouflaged scratches; on the two trees。 They were just at the height where; if one was carrying any kind of a cycle; the pedals might catch against the bark。 It could all be a pipedream; but it was good enough for Bond。 The only question in his mind was whether these people had made a one…time…only coup or whether they were so confident of their security that they would try again。 He confided only in Station F。 Mary Ann Russell told him to be careful。 Head of F; more constructively; ordered his unit at St Germain to co…operate。 Bond said goodbye to Colonel Schreiber and moved to a camp bed in the unit's HQ … an anonymous house in an anonymous village back street。 The unit had provided the camouflage outfit and the four Secret Service men who ran the unit had happily put themselves under Bond's orders。 They realised as well as Bond did that if Bond managed to wipe the eye of the whole security machine of SHAPE; the Secret Service would have won a priceless feather in its cap vis…à…vis the SHAPE High mand; and M's worries over the independence of his unit would be gone for ever。
Bond; lying along the oak branch; smiled to himself。 Private armies; private wars。 How much energy they siphoned off from the mon cause; how much fire they directed away from the mon enemy!
Six…thirty。 Time for breakfast。 Cautiously Bond's right hand fumbled in his clothing and came up to the slit of his mouth。 Bond made the glucose tablet last as long as possible and then sucked another。 His eyes never left the glade。 The red squirrel that had appeared at first light and had been steadily eating away at young beech shoots ever since; ran a few feet nearer to the rose…bushes on the mound; picked up something and began turning it in his paws and nibbling at it。 Two wood pigeons that had been noisily courting among the thick grass started to make clumsy; fluttering love。 A pair of hedge sparrows went busily on collecting bits and pieces for a nest they were tardily building in a thorn…bush。 The fat thrush finally located its worm and began pulling at it; its legs braced。 Bees clustered thick among the roses on the mound; and from where he was; perhaps twenty yards away from and above the mound; Bond could just hear their summery sound。 It was a scene from a fairytale … the roses the lilies of the valley; the birds and the great shafts of sunlight lancing down through the tall trees into the pool of glistening green。 Bond had climbed to his hide…out at four in the morning and he had never examined so closely or for so long the transition from night to a glorious day。 He suddenly felt rather foolish。 Any moment now and some damned bird would e and sit on his head!
It was the pigeons that gave the first alarm。 With a loud clatter they took off and dashed into the trees。 All the birds followed; and the squirrel。 Now the glade was quiet except for the soft hum of the bees。 What had sounded the alarm? Bond's heart began to thump。 His eyes hunted; quartering the glade for a clue。 Something was moving among the roses。 It was a tiny movement; but an extraordinary one。 Slowly; inch by inch; a single thorny stem; an unnaturally straight and rather thick one; was rising through the upper branches。 It went on rising until it was a clear foot above the bush。 Then it stopped。 There was a solitary pink rose at the tip of the stem。 Separated from the bush; it looked unnatural; but only if one happened to have watched the whole process。 At a casual glance it was a stray stem and nothing else。 Now; silently; the petals of the rose seemed to swivel and expand; the yellow pistils drew aside and sun glinted on a glass lens the size of a shilling。 The lens seemed to be looking straight at Bond; but then very; very slowly; the rose…eye began to turn on its stem and continued to turn until the lens was again looking at Bond and the whole glade had been minutely surveyed。 As if satisfied; the petals softly swivelled to cover the eye and very slowly the single rose descended to join the others。
Bond's breath came out with a rush。 He momentarily closed his eyes to rest them。 Gipsies! If that piece of machinery was any evidence; inside the mound; deep down in the earth; was certainly the most professional left…behind spy unit that had ever been devised … far more brilliant than anything England had prepared to operate in the wake of a successful German invasion; far better than what the Germans themselves had left behind in the Ardennes。 A shiver of excitement and anticipation … almost of fear … ran down Bond's spine。 So he had been right! But what was to be the next act?
Now; from the direction of the mound; came a thin high…pitched whine … the sound of an electric motor at very high revs。 The rose bush trembled slightly。 The bees took off; hovered; and settled again。 Slowly; a jagged fissure formed down the centre of the big bush and smoothly widened。 Now the two halves of the bush were opening like double doors。 The dark aperture broadened until Bond could see the roots of the bush running into the earth on both sides of the opening doorway。 The whine of machinery was louder and there was a glint of metal from the edges of the curved doors。 It was like the opening of a hinged Easter egg。 In a moment the two segments stood apart and the two halves of the rose bush; still alive with bees; were splayed widely open。 Now the inside of the metal caisson that supported the earth and the roots of the bush were naked to the sun。 There was a glint of pale electric light from the dark aperture between the curved doors。 The whine of the motor had stopped。 A head and shoulders appeared; and then the rest of the man。 He climbed softly out and crouched; looking sharply round the glade。 There was a gun … a Luger … in his hand。 Satisfied; he turned and gestured into the shaft。 The head and shoulders of a second man appeared。 He handed up three pairs of what looked like snowshoes and ducked out of sight。 The first man selected a pair and knelt and strapped them over his boots。 Now he moved about more freely; leaving no footprints; for the glass flattened only momentarily under the wide mesh and then rose slowly again。 Bond smiled to himself。 Clever bastards!
The second man emerged。 He was followed by a third。 Between them they manhandled a motor…cycle out of the shaft and stood holding it slung between them by harness webbing while the first man; who was clearly the leader; knelt and strapped the snowshoes under their boots。 Then; in single file; they moved off through the trees towards the road。 There was something extraordinarily sinister about the way they softly high…stepped along through the shadows; lifting and carefully placing each big webbed foot in turn。
Bond let out a long sigh of released tension and laid his head softly down on the branch to relax the strain in his neck muscles。 So that was the score! Even the last small detail could now be added to the file。 While the two underlings were dressed in grey overalls; the leader was wearing the uniform of the Royal Corps of Signals and his motor…cycle was an olive green BSA M20 with a British Army registration number on its petrol tank。 No wonder the SHAPE dispatch…rider had let him get within range。 And what did the unit do with its top secret booty? Probably radioed the cream of it out at night。 Instead of the periscope; a rose…stalk aerial would rise up from the bush; the pedal generator would get going deep down under the earth and off would go the high…speed cipher groups。 Ciphers? There would be many good enemy secrets down that shaft if Bond could round up the unit when it was outside the hide…out。 And what a chance to feed back phoney intelligence to GRU; the Soviet Military Intelligence Apparat which was presumably the control! Bond's thoughts raced。
The two underlings were ing back。 They went into the shaft