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7 - Un-real Estate

When he arrives at a place on a dark night, particularly in an alien land which he has never seen before--a strange house, perhaps, or an hotel--even the most alert man is assailed by the confused sensations of the meanest tourist James Bond more or less knew the map of Jamaica He knew that the sea had always been close to hilares of the leading car through an iht iron and up an avenue of young royal pal into a beach very close to his car The fields of sugar cane would, he guessed froh wall that surrounded the Thunderbird property, and there was a slight sh hills whose silhouette he had occasionally gliht But otherwise he had no clue to exactly where he was or what sort of a place he was now approaching and, particularly for him, the sensation was an uncoent is to get his geography right, his means of access and exit, and assure his communications with the outside world James Bond was unco into liirl in a brothel thirty

Half a hts of the leading car and pressed switches, for there was a sudden blaze of brilliant yellow illuh the trees and a final sweep of the drive revealed the hotel With the theatrical lighting and the surrounding blackness to conceal any evidence of halted construction work, the place made a brave show A vast pale-pink-and-white pillared portico gave the hotel an aristocratic frontage, and when Bond drew up behind the other car at the entrance, he could see through the tall Regency s a vista of black-and-whitechandeliers A bell captain and his Jamaican staff in red jackets and black trousers hurried down the steps, and after showing great deference to Scaraa, took his suitcase and Bond's Then the small cavalcade moved into the entrance hall, where Bond wrote Mark Hazard and the Kensington address of Transworld Consortiu to aAmerican with a neat face and a neat suit He turned to Bond "You're in Nu I'm close by in Number twenty Order what you want frouys'll be coston around aunt face didn't mind whether it was or not Bond said it was He followed one of the bellboys with his suitcase across the slipperywhite corridor with a close-fitted carpet in royal-blue WiltonThere was a smell of new paint and Jas were in good taste Bond's room was almost at the end on the left Number 20 was opposite The bellhop unlocked Nuushed out It was a pleasant rey and white When he was alone, Bond went to the air-conditioning control and turned it to zero Then he drew back the curtains and wound down the two broad s to let in real air Outside, the sea whispered softly on an invisible beach and the ht splashed the black shadows of palht of the entrance showed a corner of the gravel sweep, Bond heard his car being started up and driven away, presuuessed, be at the rear so as not to spoil the impact of the facade He turned back into his room and inspected it e picture on the wall above the two beds and the telephone The picture was a Jamaican market scene painted locally Bond lifted it off its nail, but the wall behind was innocent He then took out a pocketknife, laid the telephone carefully, so as not to shift the receiver, upside down on a bed, and very quietly and carefully unscrewed the bottom plate He smiled his satisfaction Behind the plate was a small microphone joined by leads to the main cable inside the cradle He screwed back the plate with the saht table He knew the gadget It would be transistorized and of sufficient power to pick up a conversation in normal tones anywhere in the room It crossed his mind to say very devout prayers out loud before he went to bed That would be a fitting prologue for the central recording device!

Jas and called room service A Jamaican voice answered Bond ordered a bottle of Walker's deluxe bourbon, three glasses, ice, and, for nine o'clock, eggs Benedict The voice said, "Sure, sir" Bond then took off his clothes, put his gun and holster under a pillow, rang for the valet, and had his suit taken away to be pressed By the time he had taken a hot shower followed by an ice-cold one and pulled on a fresh pair of sea island cotton underpants, the bourbon had arrived

The best drink in the day is just before the first one (the Red Stripe didn't count) Jaers of the bourbon and swilled it round the glass to cool it and break it doith the ice He pulled a chair up to the , put a low table beside it, took Profiles in Courage by Jack Kennedy out of his suitcase, happened to open it at Edrave"), then went and sat down, letting the scented air, a compound of sea and trees, breathe over his body, naked save for the underpants He drank the bourbon down in two long draughts and felt its friendly bite at the back of his throat and in his stoain, this time with ht about Scara distance with Havana or the States? Organizing things for tohtened stockholders! If Bond knew anything, they would be a choice bunch of hoods, the type that had owned the Havana hotels and casinos in the old Batista days, the as, that looked after the action in Mia? There was so ht be any of the syndicates, any of the banana dictators from the islands or the mainland And thethat had killed the two birds swerving through theof 3-1/2 How in hell was Bond going to take him? On an impulse, Bond went over to his bed and took the Walther froazine and pule round onto the counterpane He tested the spring of the azine and of the breech and drew a quick bead on various objects round the rooh But that would be be-cause the gun was lighter without its loaded ain Yes, that was better He pumped a round into the breech, put up the safety, and replaced the gun under the pillow Then he went back to his drink and picked up the book and forgot his worries in the high endeavours of great ood The ht have been mixed at Maxim's Bond had the tray removed, poured hia would certainly have a e to jaht, he upended his suitcase, just inside the door and balanced the three glasses on top of it It was a si he needed Then he took off his shorts and got into bed and slept

A night He had been defending a fort There were other defenders with hi around aimlessly, ineffectively, and when Bond shouted to rally thea sat ass-backwards on the cafe chair beside a huge golden cannon Every now and then, he put his long cigar to the touchhole, and there came a tre as a football, lobbed up high in the air and crashed down into the fort with a shattering noise of breaking tibow, but even this he could not fire because every tiut the arrow slipped out of his fingers to the ground He cursed his clue cannonball would land on the s! Out on the plain, Scaraar to the touchole The black ball soared up It was coht for Bond! It landed just in front of hier and bigger, s fuse Bond threw up an arm to protect hiht table, and Bond woke up

Bond got out of bed, gave hilass of water By the tihtmare and he went quickly to sleep and slept drea trunks, removed the barricade froe To his left, a door into the garden was open and sun strearass towards the beach when he heard a curious thuht He walked over It was Scararo holding a fla exercises on a traleah in the air from the stretched canvas and bounded back, sometimes from his knees or his buttocks and soymnastics The proet! Bond walked thoughtfully down to the beautiful crescent of white sand fringed with gently clashing palm trees He dived in, and because of the other man's example, sice as far as he had intended

James Bond had a quick and small breakfast in his room, dressed, reluctantly because of the heat, in his dark blue suit, armed hiot the picture The night, and the lighted facade, had covered up a half-project The east wing on the other side of the lobby was still lath and plaster The body of the hotel--the restaurant, nightclub, and living rooms that were the tail of the T-shaped structure-- were es for a dress rehearsal, hastily asseht fixtures, and a scattering of furniture, but stinking of fresh paint and wood shavings Perhaps fiftycarpets, fixing the electricity, but no one was e cement mixers, the drills, the ironwork that lay about behind the hotel like the abandoned toys of a giant At a guess, the place would need another year and another few million pounds to becoa's proble to coain, others would want to buy in, but cheaply, and use it as a tax loss to set against more profitable enterprises elsewhere Better to have a capital asset, with the big tax concessions that Jaave, than pay the money to Uncle Saa's job would be to blind his guests with pleasure, send them back half drunk to their syndicates Would it work? Bond knew such people and he doubted it They irl but they would awake sober Or else they wouldn't have their jobs, they wouldn't be co here with their discreet briefcases