Bond - 27 - Never send flowers (32 page)

`Maeve was standing there, trying to look insignificant among the photographers,' she told him. `So I took no notice, pretended I hadn't see her. I walked around and chatted to some of the Press people, then worked my way behind her, did a kind of mental frisk and knew she was up to no good." `So?" He liked the part about doing a mental frisk.

`So I jammed my gun in her ear and told her I'd blow her head off if she moved. The cops came down, searched her and carted her away.

She had this damned great grenade in her handbag, and there's no doubt she was going to use it.

Fredericka had been allowed to sit in on the first interrogation and it was immediately obvious that Maeve's love for brother David was of the unbalanced and unhealthy variety. `She said she'd have died for him, that he had more talent in his little finger than Oh, you know how these obsessive people go on. The whole damned family was crazy if you ask me." It also became clear that sister Maeve was the true answer to one of the great Dragonpol conundrums. `She did the flowers,' Fredericka told him. `Admitted it almost as soon as I asked. If anyone had bothered to check her passport, they'd have found she followed on David's heels, taking those bloody roses with her and making sure that they were delivered to the gravesides. Oh, by the way, M wants us both in the office by nine tomorrow morning.

`To congratulate us, no doubt." Bond cocked his head and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

`Or to ask for a full explanation of two dead bodies at Schloss Drache." When it came to it, M asked no awkward questions. He spoke for a long time about the Dragonpol incident, and getting quite serious about it at one point. `Friend Dragonpol,' he said, `is, I believe, a symptom of the sick and dangerous society in which we live." From there he launched into the real reason he had summoned them to his office.

`There are changes in the air." He seemed tense and serious.

`Changes that will affect this service drastically. The job's changing with the world, though I personally believe the world's a more dangerous place than it was when we had a cut-and-dried cold war. A thousand times more dangerous, which is probably why the powers-that-be are demanding a complete reorganization. It's going to affect me, and it's particularly going to affect you two. You'll get the full details of promotion and the new job within the week. I simply wanted to warn you before it happens.

`I hope it's not playing detective again,' Bond muttered. `That's too dangerous.

`Ah." M gave them an enigmatic look.

`Am I going to like the changes?" Bond asked.

`Probably. Almost certainly. You'll be doing some very different things in the future, James; and so will you, Fraulein von Grusse." He picked up his old pipe and began to load it with the evil-smelling tobacco he had smoked since Bond first knew him.

`They'll be bringing you in here for a briefing in a few days.

Until then, I suggest you take a short leave. If I'm right, it'll be the last one you'll get for a long time." He dismissed them with an almost perfunctory gesture, but as they reached the door, he called Bond back.

`James, do I sense the possibility of wedding bells between you and Fraulein von Grusse?" `I don't know, sir. Maybe. Maybe not.

Why do you ask?" M made his familiar harrumphing noise. `I suppose that, contrary to your experience, I'm really just a sentimental old matchmaker." `Really, sir?" He didn't believe a word of it.

`I'm just saying that you could do worse, James.

You could do much worse." `Well, sir, if it does happen, I'd ask only one thing of you." `Oh yes, and what would that be?" `Please, sir, don't send any flowers.