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Doctor No turned away and the door closed softly behind the long thin gunmetal back

XVII

THE LONG SCREAM

There was aJames Bond, his ar-rooo back, start clearing away the dinner, notice the s? The doors hissed shut The liftman stood in front of the buttons so that Bond could not see which he had pressed They were going up Bond tried to estihed to a stop The tiirl The doors opened on to an uncarpeted corridor with rough grey paint on the stone walls It ran about twenty yards straight ahead

"Hold it, Joe," said Bond's guard to the liftht with you"

Bond was marched down the corridor past doors numbered with letters of the alphabet There was a faint huht he could catch the crackle of radio static It sounded as if they ine-room of the mountain They came to the end door It was uard pushed Bond into the door so that it swung open Through the door was a grey painted stone cell about fifteen feet square There was nothingin it except a wooden chair on which lay, laundered and neatly folded, Bond's black canvas jeans and his blue shirt

The guard let go of Bond's arms Bond turned and looked into the broad yellow face below the crinkly hair There was a hint of curiosity and pleasure in the liquid brown eyes Thethe door handle He said, "Well, this is it, bud You're at the starting gate You can either sit here and rot or find your way out on to the course Happy landings"

Bond thought it was just worth trying He glanced past the guard to where the lift them He said softly, "Hoould you like to earn ten thousand dollars, guaranteed, and a ticket to anywhere in the world?" He watched the rin to shonish teeth worn to uneven points by years of chewing sugar-cane

"Thanks, Mister I'd rather stay alive" The ently, "We could get out of here together"

The thick lips sneered The man said, "Shove it!" The door shut with a solid click

Bond shrugged his shoulders He gave the door a cursory glance It was made of metal and there was no handle on the inside Bond didn't waste his shoulder on it He went to the chair and sat down on the neat pile of his clothes and looked round the cell The walls were entirely naked except for a ventilation grille of thick wire in one corner just below the ceiling It ider than his shoulders It was obviously the way out into the assault course The only other break in the walls was a thick glass porthole, no bigger than Bond's head, just above the door Light froh it into the cell There was nothing else It was no good wasting any more time It would now be about ten-thirty Outside, soirl would already be lying, waiting for the rattle of claws on the grey coral Bond clenched his teeth at the thought of the pale body spread-eagled out there under the stars Abruptly he stood up What the hell was he doing sitting still Whatever lay on the other side of the wire grille, it was tihter and threw off the kihter in his hip pocket He tried the edge of the knife with his thuet a point on it He knelt on the floor and began whittling the rounded end on the stone After a precious quarter of an hour he was satisfied It was no stiletto, but it would serve to stab as well as cut Bond put the knife between his teeth and set the chair below the grille, and cli he could tear it off its hinges, the frahten into a spear That would ers

The next thing he kneas a searing pain up his ar the stone floor He lay, stunned, with only the memory of a blue flash and the hiss and crackle of electricity to tell hiot to his knees and stayed there He bent his head down and shook it slowly from side to side like a wounded aniht hand up to his eyes There was the red s it brought the pain Bond spat out a four-letter word Slowly he got to his feet He squinted up at the wire grille as if it ain, like a snake Griainst the wall He picked up his knife and cut a strip off the discarded kiers Then he clirille He was h it The shock had been to soften him up-a taste of pain to co Surely they would have switched off the current He looked at it only for an instant, then the fingers of his left hand crooked and went straight up to the ih the wire ri at all-just wire Bond grunted He felt his nerves slacken He tugged at the wire It gave an inch He tugged again and it caled down from two strands of copper flex that disappeared into the wall Bond pulled the grille loose froot-down from the chair Yes, there was a join in the fra the chair as a hahtened the heavy wire

After tenOne end, where it had originally been cut by the pliers, was jagged It would not pierce a h for the face and neck By using all his strength and the crack at the bottom of the metal door, Bond turned the blunt end into a clu It was too long He bent it double, and slipped the spear down a trouser leg Now it hung from his waistband to just above the knee He went back to the chair and clie of the ventilator shaft There was no shock Bond heaved up and through the opening and lay on his sto the shaft

The shaft was about four inches wider than Bond's shoulders It was circular and of polishedthe inspiration that hadthat looked new The shaft stretched straight ahead, featureless except for the ridges where the sections of pipe joined Bond put the lighter back in his pocket and snaked forward

It was easy going Cool air froly in Bond's face The air held no smell of the sea-it was the canned stuff that co plant Doctor No must have adapted one of the shafts to his purpose What hazards had he built into it to test out his victined to reduce the resistance of the victi post, so to speak, there would be the coup de grâce-if the victi conclusive, so from which there would be no escape, for there would be no prizes in this race except oblivion-an oblivion, thought Bond, he lad to win Unless of course Doctor No had been just a bit too clever Unless he had underestiht Bond, was his only hope-to try to survive the intervening hazards, to get through at least to the last ditch

There was a faint luminosity ahead Bond approached it carefully, his senses questing in front of hiht against the end of the lateral shaft He went on until his head touched the ht above him, at the top of fifty yards or so of vertical shaft, was a steady gliun barrel Bond inched round the square bend and stood upright So he was supposed to cli tube of metal without a foothold! Was it possible? Bond expanded his shoulders Yes, they gripped the sides His feet could also get a tees at the joints gave hied his shoulders and kicked off his shoes It was no good arguing He would just have to try

Six inches at a tian to worrip the sides, lift feet, lock knees, force the feet outwards against the ht, contract shoulders and raise theain Stop at each tiny bulge where the sections joined and use the et some breath and measure the next lap Otherwise don't look up, think only of the inches of metal that have to be conquered one by one Don't worry about the glihter or nearer Don't worry about losing your grip and falling to smash your ankles at the bottom of the shaft Don't worry about cra bruises on your shoulders and the sides of your feet Just take the silver inches as they come, one by one, and conquer thean to sweat and slip Twice Bond lost a yard before his shoulders, scalding with the friction, could put on the brake Finally he had to stop altogether to let his sweat dry in the doard draught of air He waited for a full tenat his faint reflection in the polished metal, the face split in half by the knife between the teeth Still he refused to look up to see how ht be too ainst a trouser-leg and began again

Now half Bond's ht the battle He wasn't even conscious of the strengthening breeze or the slowly brightening light He saw hi up a waste pipe towards the plug-hole of a bath What would he see when he got through the plug-hole? A naked girl drying herself? A h an openinto an eainst so-hole! The shock of disappointrip Then he realized He was at the top! Now he noticed the bright light and the strong wind Feverishly, but with a ain until his head touched The as co into his left ear Cautiously he turned his head It was another lateral shaft Above hih a thick porthole All he had to do was inch hiather enough strength to heave himself in Then he would be able to lie down ' With an extra delicacy, born of panic that soht make a mistake and plummet back down the shaft to land in a crackle of bone, Bond, his breath steaainst the metal, carried out the th, jackknifed into the opening and cruth on his face

Later-how much later?-Bond's eyes opened and his body stirred The cold had woken hie of total unconsciousness into which his body had plunged Painfully he rolled over on his back, his feet and shoulders screa th He had no idea what time it was or whereabouts he was inside the mountain He lifted his head and looked back at the porthole above the yawning tube out of which he had colass looked thick He re breakable about that one, nor, he guessed, would there be here