Chapter 3 – Retaliation
1.40pm
‘Rene can you help me get past that security, how much power does you badge have here?’
‘Not enough for that James, the best I could do is distract them by keeping them talking with their commanding officers for 5 minutes at the most’
‘That will have to do’
‘What are you planning James?’
‘Don’t ask, I don’t want to think about it myself, I know that Berkut is inside that compound already, he mentioned about his organisation having access if that’s true, this is his way out of Geneva.’
As the car passes by the white stoned buildings of Geneva, scooters zipping around the city with children riding without helmets, the tram holding up the traffic, angry horns of the locals and from Mathis as well, seem to bounce of the beautifully designed walls, young women stand on the balconies of expensive apartments watching the flow of traffic and smoking alluringly Bond gives just a seconds thought to the possibility before returning to the task at hand.
The little powerful frame of the Fiat pulls up to the entrance to the marina, here millions of pounds of boats are safely and quietly moored to their tethers, almost still on the serine perfection of Lake Geneva, this was chosen a perfect location for the speed limit attempt to be held due to the size of the lake and the stillness of water. The conditions could not be more perfect for the record to be broken today as either of these two machines are more than capable of doing, there is a huge amount of competition of interest in this event, two competing machines are here today, one from the Americans and one from an Anglo-French consortium. The press build up to the event has been strongly in favour of the American machine, which is believed to have better engine Efficiency and more aero dynamic.
A crowd of eager onlookers have already formed a barrier close to the harbour to get a good view part at the time when the first machine is due to start the attempt. So far the police have not moved this people on or warned them about the event in the restaurant just across the water from the internationally important boats, but Bond is certain that the staff here will be on higher alert and that will make his task so much harder and the last thing he wants to do is get into a gun fight here, these people are innocent but he has no time and no authority to request official access. So to get past the security detail with bloodshed he will have to call again on his past experiences.
The pier houses a guard house which has direct radio contact with the enclosed garage where the boats are contained inside there; Bond can only guess how many more armed personal are watching carefully over the actions of the mechanics, the crowd and the water of Lake Geneva. It is a white covered temporary building with no external windows, one guarded door and presumable the fourth side of the structure will be open to the lake and that is where the boats will depart the safety of the building. In Bond’s opinion there are two options right now, the first being to enter the water on this side of the building swim underwater and emerge inside the structure and face unknown people. The other is to gain entry into that structure by deception through the much more conventional door method, once inside that way he can be afforded a certain amount of control, since after people are past the check no one inside the building should question his presence. So that leaves the last question of how?
Quickly looking at his Omega watch, Bond knows that in 20 minutes the first boat is scheduled to begin its first of three potential tries at breaking the record and the second boat will start 5 minutes later. The lake is clear of traffic for the whole afternoon and the helicopters and police patrols have been enforcing this throughout the day. So what is likely to happen in the next 20 minutes, the pilots of the boats will have to enter the structure if they are not there already, safety engineers will have to check the equipment and officials from the records committee also have to give the final official green light that both machines meet the regulations.
So where can any of these potential targets be coming from, they must be somewhere close to the building, Bond remembers reading about the intense physical demands that these boats will have on the pilot, and a training regime has to be followed right up to the minutes counting down the start of the event. No food can be taken and the body has to be prepared, so there has to be somewhere around here for this to happen.
Then Bond sees what he wanted to, quickly turning to his old friend, ‘Rene I have a way into that enclosure, follow me we must be quick’
Bond and Mathis confidently stride into the Hotel Le Blanc, and without exchanging words with the concierge head directly to the guest relaxation and gymnasium. Here Mathis begins to talk to a guard about directions and Bond walks towards the changing rooms, here he sees just one locker is being used so at least one of the pilots is already in the structure and he is guessing it’s Berkut. Bond removes a lock pick from his wallet and as he carefully works the tumblers on position and opens the locker, he removes the clothing inside and prepares to dress himself in the fire prove suit, picks up the helmet and places his own suit inside.
He waits for the pilot to enter the changing room by hiding in the showers James remains unseen by the unlucky man about to be struck over the head. Once the body goes limp Bond holds him and drags the still breathing man into the shower room, once there he uses his own tie to secure him against the pipes. This will not hold any body for long but that’s not the idea and Bond doesn’t need much time. He made a quick exit from the hotel, noting that the guard is also missing, that means hopefully that Mathis has been highly effective in dealing with him.
It is only a short walk to the guard house at the start of the pier and the expertly doctored ID card gives Bond instant passage onto the walkway. So another quick check of his watch and it is time for the first boat to emerge carried not the original pilot but the killer Stanislav Berkut and begin the slow progress out to the open water of the lake. Cameras flash, people cheer and the reporters are busy commenting on the first attempt of the day. Bond knows that boat will not be returning to Geneva today, and he fully intends to follow very quickly in the next boat and doing that will be messy. First he would have to persuade the engineers to start the engine; James has been around enough state of the art equipment to know that it’s never as simple as using a key, the Moonraker for instance, the number of checks and re check even before fuelling the rocket bored bond at the time. He would have to get into the machine; from there he knows none of the guards would be willing to open fire so close to it. These thoughts and concerns are not shown on his face and his stride is not broken during the long lonely walk to the next guard, he holds up his ID card and looks at the face of the uniformed man there and is momentarily surprised to see the silver haired Mathis staring back. A slow smile crosses both men mouths, as Bond is granted access inside.
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