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Bond s his private school trick 'You're a card, Darko What about the other two?'

Darko Keri will occur to me,' he said confidently 'The way to catch Russians is to h at them They can't stand it We will somehow make these men sweat Then ill leave it to the MGB to punish the in their duty Doubtless they will be shot by their own people'

While they were talking, the conductor had come out of No 7 Kerim turned to Bond and put a hand on his shoulder 'Have no fear, James,' he said cheerfully 'We will defeat these people Go to your girl We will ht, but that cannot be helped Every day is different Perhaps we shall sleep tocorridor He noticed that, despite the movement of the train, Kerim's shoulders never touched the walls of the corridor Bond felt a wave of affection for the tough, cheerful professional spy

Kerim disappeared into the conductor's cabin Bond turned and knocked softly on the door of No 7

Chapter Twenty-Two

Out of Turkey

The train howled on through the night Bond sat and watched the hurryingawake

Everything conspired to allop of the wheels, the hypnotic swoop of the silver telegraph wires, the occasionaltheir way, the drowsy s at each end of the corridor, the lullaby creak of the ork in the little rooht above the door see can happen while I a Close your eyes and sleep, sleep'

The girl's head arm and heavy on his lap There was obviously just rooainst her, the front of his thighs against the backs of hers, his head in the spread curtain of her hair on the pillow

Bond screwed up his eyes and opened theain He cautiously lifted his wrist Four o'clock Only one more hour to the Turkish frontier Perhaps he would be able to sleep during the day He would give her the gun and wedge the doors again and she could watch

He looked down at the beautiful sleeping profile How innocent she looked, this girl fro the soft swell of the cheek, the lips parted and unaware, the long strand of hair that had strayed untidily across her forehead and that he wanted to brush back neatly to join the rest, the steady slow throb of the pulse in the offered neck He felt a surge of tenderness and the iainst him He wanted her to wake, from a dream perhaps, so that he could kiss her and tell her that everything was all right, and see her settle happily back to sleep

The girl had insisted on sleeping like this 'I won't go to sleep unless you hold me,' she had said 'I must know you're there all the ti you Please James Please duschka Bond had taken off his coat and tie and had arranged himself in the corner with his feet up on his suitcase and the Beretta under the pilloithin reach of his hand She had un She had taken off all her clothes, except the black ribbon round her throat, and had pretended not to be provocative as she scraled herself into a comfortable position She had held up her arms to him Bond had pulled her head back by her hair and had kissed her once, long and cruelly Then he had told her to go to sleep and had leant back and waited icily for his body to leave hi sleepily, she had settled herself, with one arhtly, but her arradually relaxed and then she was asleep

Brusquely Bond closed his ht of her and focused on the journey ahead

Soon they would be out of Turkey But would Greece be any easier? No love lost between Greece and England And Yugoslavia? Whose side was Tito on? Probably both Whatever the orders of the three MGB men, either they already knew Bond and Tatiana were on the train or they would soon find out He and the girl couldn't sit for four days in the coupe with the blinds drawn Their presence would be reported back to Istanbul, telephoned fro the loss of the Spektor would be discovered Then what? A hasty derade? Have the girl taken off the train as a thief? Or was that all too simple? And if it was more complicated–if all this was part of some mysterious plot, soe it? Should he and the girl leave the train at a wayside station, on the wrong side of the track, and hire a car and soet a plane to London?

Outside, the lu trees and rocks with blue Bond looked at his watch Five o'clock They would soon be at Uzunkopru What was going on down the train behind him? What had Kerim achieved?

Bond sat back, relaxed After all there was a simple, common-sense answer to his probleet rid of the three MGB agents, they would stick to the train and to their original plan If not, Bond would get the girl and the machine off the train, somewhere in Greece, and take another route ho on He and Kerirade as going to meet the train There was always the E up the pros, dis, Bond calmly adame out and see what it was all about He wanted to take these people on and solve the mystery and, if it was soe He had the girl and the machine under his hand Why panic? What was there to panic about? It would be mad to run away and perhaps only escape one trap in order to fall into another one

The train gave a long whistle and began to slacken speed