مرگ با طلا

CHAPTER EIGHT

Death by Gold

After he left the SIS agent in Geneva, Bond drove to the Hotel des Bergues and booked a room. He asked the receptionist if Miss Tilly Soames was in her room. But the receptionist said that no one of that name was staying at the hotel.

Bond wasn’t surprised. He’d suspected that the girl hadn’t told him her real name.

Bond had a shower, dressed, and put on a pair of shoes with a small knife hidden in one of the heels. Then he drove to a small restaurant by Lake Geneva for dinner. While he ate, he thought about Goldfinger’s smuggling operation.

Bond decided to go back to Goldfinger’s factory at Coppet and look for some white gold dust. He would send some of the dust to the headquarters of the SIS in London. The dust would prove that Goldfinger was smuggling gold out of Britain. Then the Secret Service would inform the police and Goldfinger would be arrested.

A little after eight o’clock, Bond paid his restaurant bill and got into the Aston Martin. He drove to the narrow lane in the woods above Goldfinger’s factory. Then he got out of the car and walked quietly through the trees. The moon was shining brightly and there was no wind. After walking for a few minutes, Bond saw the outline of the factory buildings below him. He could just hear the thump-thump- thump sound of a powerful engine.

Bond stepped slowly and quietly through the trees, moving small branches carefully out of his way. When he came to the large tree, he stopped in surprise. A body was lying on the ground in front of him.

The body moved a little. By the light of the moon, Bond saw something made of shiny metal. He also saw that the person had black hair, a black sweater and narrow black trousers.

It was the girl, Tilly. She was watching the factory buildings and she was holding a rifle. Bond breathed slowly. He studied the distance between him and the girl. Tilly hadn’t heard him approach. Suddenly he leapt onto her back and pressed his left hand over her mouth. At the same time, he grabbed the rifle with his right hand and threw it onto the ground a few feet away. Then he held her hands behind her back.

The girl tried to fight Bond, but he was stronger and heavier than she was. She couldn’t push Bond off her back, so she tried to bite his hand. Bond put his mouth close to her ear and whispered quickly.

‘Tilly! Lie quietly! This is me, Bond. I’m a friend. Will you lie quietly and listen?’

At last, the girl nodded her head. Bond slid off her and lay beside her. But he still held her hands behind her back.

‘Were you following Goldfinger,’ he asked.

‘Yes, I was going to kill him,’ the girl whispered fiercely. Then her whole body began to shake and she started to cry softly.

Bond let go of Tilly’s hands and touched her hair gently. He looked down through the trees at the factory buildings. Something was different there. It was the radar scanner on top of the tall chimney.

The scanner wasn’t turning round any more. It had stopped moving and it was pointing in their direction.

‘Don’t cry,’ Bond whispered. ‘I’m chasing Goldfinger too. I’ve been sent by my organization in London. They want him. What did he do to you?’

‘He killed my sister,’ replied Tilly. ‘You knew her - Jill Masterton’.

‘What happened,’ asked Bond. He was shocked.

‘Jill called me from a hospital in Miami. She was dying. I went to her at once. She told me what Goldfinger had done to her. She died the same night.’

‘What had he done,’ asked Bond.

‘Goldfinger was angry because Jill went to New York with you. When she returned to Miami he gave an order for Jill to be killed. He ordered his Korean servant to paint all of her body with paint - gold paint. If you cover someone completely in paint, your skin can’t breathe and you die. Jill told me about you. She liked you.’

Bond closed his eyes. He remembered how beautiful Jill had been, and the wonderful time that they had spent together. He felt sad and very angry. He’d asked Goldfinger about Jill two days before. Goldfinger had replied, ‘She left my employment.’ But Jill hadn’t left her job with Goldfinger. She’d been murdered by him.

Suddenly there was a sharp noise by Bond’s head. A metal arrow flew through the air and struck the large tree in front of Bond. Immediately, Bond turned his head. He saw the dark figure of a man standing ten yards away. The person was wearing a bowler hat. It was Oddjob. He was getting ready to fire a second arrow from a long metal bow.

‘Don’t move,’ whispered Bond to the girl. ‘Hello, Oddjob,’ he said more loudly. He stood up in front of Tilly, trying to protect her with his own body.

Oddjob held the bow so that the arrow was pointing at Bond’s stomach. Then Oddjob quickly moved his head sideways and downwards towards the house. He didn’t speak.

‘You want us to go down there/’ said Bond. ‘All right.’ Bond knew that he couldn’t win in a fight against Oddjob. Oddjob was like a fighting machine. They would have to do what Oddjob wanted.

‘Come on,’ Bond said to the girl, and he led her away from the rifle on the ground so that Oddjob wouldn’t see it.

They walked slowly down the hill with Oddjob just behind them. Bond talked softly to the girl.

‘We’ll tell Goldfinger that you’re my girlfriend,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll say that I brought you here. Don’t try to do anything.’ He nodded his head back towards Oddjob. ‘This man is a killer.’

Then Bond noticed something. The radar scanner on the tall chimney had started turning round again. The machine must have detected their movements when they were in the woods.

So Goldfinger had known that there were strangers near his factory and he’d sent Oddjob to get them! Bond, Tilly and Oddjob reached the courtyard of the house. The back door opened and two of Goldfinger’s Korean servants ran out, carrying long sticks.

They searched Bond and Tilly for weapons, but they didn’t find any. Then Oddjob pushed Bond and the girl through the door and along a passage. The Korean servant stopped and knocked on a door leading off the passage.

‘Yes,’ said a voice inside the room.

Oddjob opened the door and pushed Bond and Tilly through the doorway.

Goldfinger sat at a big desk covered with papers. He was wearing a purple velvet jacket over a white silk shirt. He looked at Bond with his cruel, pale eyes. He didn’t look at the girl.

‘Goldfinger,’ said Bond in an angry voice. ‘What’s the problem? This is my girlfriend, Miss Soames. Oddjob almost killed us in the woods. If you don’t answer me and apologize, Goldfinger, I’ll call the police.’

Goldfinger continued to stare at Bond. At last he spoke.

‘Mr. Bond,’ he said. ‘The gangsters in Chicago say this: “If you meet someone for the first time, it’s by chance. The second time you meet them, it’s by coincidence. But if you meet them for a third time, it’s time for enemy action.” We met in Miami, Sandwich, and now here. I’m going to get the truth out of you, Mr. Bond. Oddjob, take them into the factory.’

Bond leapt across the desk and attacked Goldfinger. The top of Bond’s head crashed into Goldfinger’s body and knocked him off his chair. The two men fell to the floor together and Bond’s fingers went around Goldfinger’s throat. Then something heavy hit Bond’s head, and he slid off Goldfinger’s body onto the floor and lay still. He was unconscious.