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Bond groaned again pitifully It was an inhuazed dully at his torturer

Le Chiffre spoke

'That is all, Bond We will now finish with you You understand? Not kill you, but finish with you And then ill have in the girl and see if soot out of the remains of the two of you'

He reached towards the table

'Say good-bye to it, Bond'

CHAPTER 18 - A CRAG-LIKE FACE

It was extraordinary to hear the third voice The hour's ritual had only deainst the horrible noise of the torture Bond's dimmed senses hardly took it in Then suddenly he was half-way back to consciousness He found he could see and hear again He could hear the dead silence after the one quiet word from the doorway He could see Le Chiffre's head slowly come up and the expression of blank astonishive way to fear

'Shtop,' had said the voice, quietly

Bond heard slow steps approaching behind his chair

'Dhrop it,' said the voice

Bond saw Le Chiffre's hand open obediently and the knife fall with a clatter to the floor

He tried desperately to read into Le Chiffre's face as happening behind him, but all he saas blind incomprehension and terror Le Chiffre's h-pitched 'eek' came froh saliva in his uely in his lap One of theht movement towards his pocket, but instantly fell back His round staring eyes had lowered for a split second and Bond guessed there was a gun trained on him

There was a moment's silence

'SMERSH'

The word cah It ca else had to be said It was the final explanation The last word of all

'No,' said Le Chiffre 'No I' His voice tailed off

Perhaps he was going to explain, to apologize, but what he must have seen in the other's face made it all useless

'Your two men Both dead You are a fool and a thief and a traitor I have been sent from the Soviet Union to eliminate you You are fortunate that I have only time to shoot you If it was possible, I was instructed that you should die most painfully We cannot see the end of the trouble you have caused'

The thick voice stopped There was silence in the roo breath of Le Chiffre

So and there were other s countryside The bands of sunlight were stronger and the sweat on Le Chiffre's face glistened brightly

'Do you plead guilty?'

Bond wrestled with his consciousness He screwed up his eyes and tried to shake his head to clear it, but his whole nervous systee was transreat pale face in front of hi of saliva crept fro down from the chin

'Yes,' said the mouth

There was a sharp 'phut', no louder than a bubble of air escaping from a tube of toothpaste No other noise at all, and suddenly Le Chiffre had grown another eye, a third eye on a level with the other two, right where the thick nose started to jut out below the forehead It was a small black eye, without eyelashes or eyebrows

For a second the three eyes looked out across the rooo down on one knee The two outer eyes turned tre Then the heavy head fell sideways and the right shoulder and finally the whole upper part of the body lurched over the ar to be sick But there was only a short rattle of his heels on the ground and then no other movement

The tall back of the chair looked impassively out across the dead body in its arms