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The Chief Security Officer picked up the direct telephone to Captain Walker Captain Walker said to Jaain Shan't be a reen telephone “Yes, sir?”

“I don't like that bit about the steak-and-kidney pudding Pass him on to the Hard Man No Cancel that Make it the Soft There was always so odd about 007's death No body No solid evidence And the people on that Japanese island always see it pretty close to the chest The stone-face act It's just possible Keep me informed, would you?”

Captain Walker got back to Ja a busy day Now then, this inquiry of yours Afraid I can't help you myself Not my part of the Ministry The man you want is Major Townsend He should be able to locate this man you want to see Got a pencil? It's nuton double five double five Give me ten minutes and I'll have a ith hiht?”

James Bond said dully, “That's very kind of you” He put down the telephone He waited exactly ten minutes and picked up the receiver and asked for the number

Ja at the Ritz Hotel Colonel Boris had told him to do so Bond's file in the KGB Archive described hih-liver, so, on arrival in London , he h life Bond went down in the lift to the Arlington Street entrance A ood profile of him with a buttonhole Minox When Bond went down the shallow steps to the street and asked the commissionaire for a taxi, a Canonflex with a telescopic lens clicked away busily frooods entrance, and in due course the same van followed Bond's taxi while a man inside the van reported briefly to the Action Room of the Special Branch

Nuton Cloisters was a dull Victorian rimy red brick It had been chosen for its purpose because it had once been the headquarters of the Eue for Noise Abate-defunct organization, the empty shell of which had been purchased by the Secret Service through the Commonwealth Relations Office It also had a spacious old-fashioned basement, re-equipped as detention cells, and a rear exit into a quiet mews

The Red Roses laundry van watched the front door shut behind Jae not far fro the Canonflex film went on in its interior

“Appointment with Major Townsend,” said Bond

“Yes He's expecting you, sir Shall I take your raincoat?” The powerful-looking door it up on one of a row of hooks beside the door As soon as Bond was safely closeted with Major Townsend, the coat would go swiftly to the laboratory on the first floor where its provenance would be established from an examination of the fabric Pocket dust would be removed for more leisurely research “Would you follow me, sir?”

It was a narrow corridor of freshly painted clapboard with a tall, single hich concealed the fluoroscope triggered autos of its X-ray eye would be fed into the laboratory above the passage The passage ended intwo facing doors marked “A” and “B” The doorman knocked on Room B and stood aside for Bond to enter

It was a pleasant, very light roorey Wilton The military prints on the creaht fire burned under an Adam mantelpiece, which bore a nuraphs in leather fra wo children There was a central table with a bowl of flowers and two comfortable club chairs on either side of the fire No desk or filing cabinets, nothing official-looking A tall ot up from the far chair, dropped The Ti smile He held out a firm, dry hand

This was the Soft Man

“Coarette? Not the ones I seeood old Senior Service”

Major Townsend had carefully prepared the loaded re for the Morland Specials with the three gold rings He noted Bond's apparent lack of coht They sat down facing one another Major Townsend crossed his legs coht Major Townsend said, “Well no can I help you?”

Across the corridor, in Roo gas fire, an ugly desk under a nakd neon light, and tooden chairs-- Bond's reception by the Hard Man, an ex-police superintendent (“ex” because of a brutality case in Glasgow for which he had taken the rap) would have been very different There, the iven hiation, threats of imprisonment for false representation, and God knohat else, and, perhaps, if he had shown signs of hostility or developing a nuisance value, a little judicious roughing-up in the basement

Such was the ultimate sieve which sorted out the wheat fro those members of the public who desired access to the Secret Service There were other people in the building who dealt with the letters Those written in pencil or in raph, reious were referred to the Special Branch The solid, serious ones were passed, with a coist in the business, to the Liaison Section at Headquarters for “further action” Parcels went autohtsbridge Barracks The eye of the needle was narrow On the whole, it discriminated appropriately It was an expensive setup, but it is the first duty of a secret service to remain not only secret but secure

There was no reason why James Bond, who had always been on the operative side of the business, should know anything about the entrails of the service, any more than he should have understood theor electricity supply of his flat in Chelsea or the working of his own kidneys Colonel Boris, however, had known the whole routine The secret services of all the great powers know the public face of their opponents, and Colonel Boris had very accurately described the treatment that James Bond must expect before he was cleared and was allowed access to the office of his former chief