Page 14 (2/2)

A Piece of Cake

As it turned out, Bond never had to make a decision on the Committee's final report

He had complimented his secretary on a new sunals that had coht, when the red telephone that could only ave its soft, peremptory burr

Bond picked up the receiver '007'

'Can you come up?' It was the Chief-of-Staff

'M?'

'Yes And it looks like a long session I've told Troop you won't be able to make the Committee'

'Any idea what it's about?'

The Chief-of-Staff chuckled 'Well, I have as a matter of fact But you'd better hear about it from him It'll make you sit up There's quite a swerve on this one'

As Bond put on his coat and went out into the corridor, banging the door behind hiun had fired and that the dog days had come to an end Even the ride up to the top floor in the lift and the walk down the long quiet corridor to the door of M's snificance of all those other occasions when the bell of the red telephone had been the signal that had fired him, like a loaded projectile, across the world towards so And the eyes of Miss Moneypenny, M's private secretary, had that old look of excitee as she smiled up at him and pressed the switch on the intercom

'007's here, sir'

'Send hiht of privacy went on above the door

Bond went through the door and closed it softly behind him The rooave an iht and shadow across the dark green carpet up to the edge of the big central desk There the sunshine stopped so that the quiet figure behind the desk sat in a pool of suffused greenish shade In the ceiling directly above the desk, a big twin-bladed tropical fan, a recent addition to M's rooust air that, even high up above the Regent's Park, was heavy and stale after a week of heat-wave

M gestured to the chair opposite him across the red leather desk Bond sat down and looked across into the tranquil, lined sailor's face that he loved, honoured and obeyed

'Do you mind if I ask you a personal question, James?' M never asked his staff personal questions and Bond couldn't i

'No, sir'

M picked his pipe out of the big copper ash-tray and began to fill it, thoughtfully watching his fingers at ith the tobacco He said harshly: 'You needn't answer, but it's to do with your, er, friend, Miss Case As you know, I don't generally interest myself in thesea lot of each other since that diaet ain He put the loaded pipe into his mouth and set a match to it Out of the corner of hisfla about it?'