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Where this girl was a lioness, the other was a panther–lithe and quick and with cunning sharp eyes that were not on the speaker but sliding sideways,inches, and the hands at her sides were curled into claws The s looked hard as abreasts of the other girl, hardly swelled the rags of her shift She looks a dangerous little bitch of a girl, thought Bond She will certainly get in the first blow She will be too quick for the other

At once he was proved wrong As Vavra spoke his last word, the big girl, who, Kerim whispered, was called Zora, kicked hard sideways, without taking aiirl square in the stoered, followed up with a swinging blow of the fist to the side of the head that knocked her sprawling on to the stone floor

'Oi, Vida,' lamented a woman in the crowd She needn't have worried Even Bond could see that Vida was sharound, apparently winded He could see her eyes glinting under her bent ar at her ribs

Vida's hands flickered out together They grasped the ankle and her head struck into the instep like a snake's Zora gave a scream of pain and wrenched furiously at her trapped foot It was too late The other girl was up on one knee, and then standing erect, the foot still in her hands She heaved upwards and Zora's other foot left the ground and she crashed full length

The thud of the big girl's fall shook the ground For a moment she lay still With an ani

My God, what a hell-cat, thought Bond Beside hih his teeth

But the big girl protected herself with her elbows and knees and at last she ered to her feet and backed away, her lips bared fro in tatters froain, her arirl leapt aside, Zora's hand caught the neck of her shift and split it down to the he arms and her fists and knees thudded into the attacker's body

This in-fighting was a irl, trapping Vida's hands lon so that they could not reach up for Zora's eyes And, slowly, Zora began to squeeze, while Vida's legs and knees thrashed ineffectually below

Bond thought that now the big girl irl Vida's head would crack down on the stone and then Zora could do as she liked But all of a sudden it was the big girl who began to scream Bond saw that Vida's head was buried deep in the other's breasts Her teeth were at work Zora's aro as she reached for Vida's hair to pull the head back and away fro at the big girl's body

The girls tore apart and backed away like cats, their shining bodies glinting through the last rags of their shifts and blood showing on the exposed breasts of the big girl

They circled warily, both glad to have escaped, and as they circled they tore oft the last of their rags and threw them into the audience

Bond held his breath at the sight of the two glistening, naked bodies, and he could feel Keriipsies seehters Theeyes and there was the whisper of hot, panting breath

Still the two girls circled slowly, their teeth bared and their breath co breasts and stomachs and off their hard, boyish flanks Their feet left dark sweat irl, Zora, who made the first move with a sudden forward leap and arround Her right foot lashed out in a furious coup de savate that ave a wounded cry and clutched at herself At once Vida's other foot kicked up to the stomach and she threw herself in after it

There was a lol from the crowd as Zora went down on her knees Her hands went up to protect her face, but it was too late The srasped Zora's wrists as she bore down on her with all her weight and bent her to the ground, her bared white teeth reaching towards the offered neck

'BOOM!'

The explosion cracked the tension like a nut A flash of flame lit the darkness behind the dance floor and a chunk ofpast Bond's ear Suddenly the orchard was full of runningforward across the stone with his curved dagger held out in front of hiipsy passed the two girls, now standing wild-eyed and tre, he shouted a word at the the trees where the last of the wo the shadows

Bond, the Beretta held uncertainly in his hand, followed slowly in the wake of Keriarden wall, and wondered what the hell was going on

The stretch of grass between the hole in the wall and the dance floor was a turures It was only as Bond cauished the squat, conventionally dressed Bulgars froipsies There seeipsies, alipsy youth was ejected fro terribly Two small dark men came after him, their knives held low

Instinctively Bond stepped to one side so that the croas not behind the two un in his hand cracked twice The two rass