Bond avoided Anya’s eyes. ‘Back to the drawing-board,’ he said ruefully. He eased his foot off the accelerator as the road began to snake down towards the sea. He looked down towards the welcoming blue ocean and thought of the human mincemeat frying as its edge. How much luck did he have left?
‘Somebody must have called the Polizia." Anya was looking along the coast to where a helicopter was approaching at speed. Bond frowned. It was too early to be certain but it looked like a Bell YUH-IB. The model under the glass dome at Stromberg’s laboratory. He began to gun the motor.
‘It is coming so fast!’
Bond's eyes were worried slits. ‘It’s probably been fitted with auxiliary turbojets. Should be capable of over three hundred miles an hour.’ Twice as fast as the Lotus. And it was following the line of the road. The next seconds were crucial If it was the police it would stop at the burnt-out van. Bond swung into a hairpin and the helicopter was blotted from view. Right hand, left hand, foot down. He looked back. Nothing. A feeling of relief swept over him. He must guard against getting jumpy.
Then it was on them, like an angry dragonfly swooping over die lee of the hill. The sudden roar of the props made his nerves scream and there was the deadly hammer of cannon fire. A swathe of shells blasted the road in front of him and stitched a seam of dust explosions up the banking. Bond started to drive like a madman. He had to get down to sea level! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! The chopper was coming in again. Opening up at the road behind them and letting its superior speed do the rest. Anya could see the line of shells racing towards them like a shark’s fin towards its victim. Then suddenly there was darkness and a receding circle of light. They were in another tunnel. She turned to Bond. ‘Why don’t we stay here?’
The callous eyes stared unflinchingly ahead. ‘Because we'd be trapped. They'd drop somebody at either end and shoot us to pieces.’
Now they were out of the tunnel and sweeping down towards the sea, protected by high banking. Anya could see the water twinkling twenty feet below her. The sky above was empty. Had the helicopter called off the chase? It was probably still climbing over the rock they had just sped through.
Then it was on them again like an avenging blade. The manoeuvrability of the Bell was extraordinary. It might have been pinned to their tail. The road opened up and Anya's heart fell. It ran beside the sea, straight and level as a landing strip. There was no escape route. They would have to stop and fight at any cover that presented itself. But Bond did not stop.
His foot pressed down and his ruthless jaw set firmer. What was he trying to do? He could not outspeed the helicopter. The road stretched straight as far as the eye could see. Anya looked back. The helicopter was five feet above the ground and coming up on them as if intending to land on the roof of the car. She could see the pilot and the huge bulk of the man beside him.
Stromberg’s killer. His mouth was split into a smile of triumph and his hands were wrapped exultantly about the cannon as if it was a toy that had at last come into its own. He was going to open up at them from point-blank range; the heavy shells would tear the GFRP bodywork to reinforced plastic shreds and spew their guts over three hundred metres of tarmac.
‘Stop!’
Bond stamped the brake-pedal through the floor and left two ribbons of burning rubber spilling out like insulating tape. The Lotus began to spin and the chopper overshot the car and soared like a swingboat in its upwards arc. As it banked steeply and returned, Bond conquered the spin and flung the wheel towards the sea. The Esprit shuddered into its new alignment and burst forward on to a small apron of hard-core. Anya glimpsed sea all around her and heard the cannon begin to hammer her death knell. For a moment they were still and then the sinews of Bond’s wrist locked and the Lotus flew towards a narrow jetty with two yachts moored against it. She heard the thump of the planks beneath the tyres and then they were in mid-air. The golden sun fused with a million malachite motes and then the nose went down and the sea rushed up to claim them. Anya closed her eyes and braced herself against the impact.
From the helicopter, Jaws watched the Lotus plunge into the sea and felt angry. The man had cheated him even in death. He ordered the pilot to fly over the spot and strafed the sea with cannon shells. But there was no comforting patch of red. Only dark, swirling weed to show where the car was lying. The Bell made another pass and then side-slipped away towards Stromberg’s laboratory.
Esprit de Mort
The Lotus sank like a titbit dropped into a fish-tank. Anya looked at the dark green death closing in about her and tried not to panic. It was fortunate that the car was shaped like a dart, but the safety strap had still bruised her breasts when they hit the water. The car wavered from side to side like a falling leaf and settled in a bank of weed. The tentacles waved menacingly against the windows as if eager to gain entrance and envelop them. Anya fought a desire to scream.
‘All right?’ Bond’s brisk inquiry might have followed the car lurching over a pot-hole.
‘I am still alive.' Anya leaned forward and saw the opaque glass surface of the water twenty feet above her head. A spiral of spent cannon shells dropped to land on the bonnet. She looked to her right and saw that the bottom of the door was hard against a rock. At least no water seemed to be coming in. What were the rules for escaping from submerged cars? Open windows sufficiently to flood car slowly. When pressures are equal, inside and out, there will be no resistance to doors opening. But on her side there would be resistance. The rock. Bond was looking up towards the surface. ‘I think he's gone. He must reckon we’ve had it.’ He sounded almost cheerful.
‘Haven’t we?’
‘I hope not.’ Bond stabbed the dashboard and there was a slow whirring sound like a diesel engine starting up. Another switch and the headlights popped out of the bonnet and reached into the gloom. Bond gritted his teeth and pushed hard down on the gear lever until it almost disappeared into its rubber cowling. Anya watched in amazement. 'You cannot drive under the sea!' Bond slid the knob of the gear lever forward and the Lotus quivered like a hovercraft preparing for flight and then smoothly drew away from the bank of weed. ‘Not on wheels. Welcome to Wet Nellie. Incidentally, don’t let anyone in Q Branch hear you call it that. To them she will always be the QST/A117 Submersible.’
Anya looked at Bond and her eyes narrowed angrily. ‘All the time you intended to do this but you would not tell me! ’
‘I didn’t have a lot of chance once our friends came calling. Anyhow, it’s all for the best. Once the helicopter reports in, Stromberg won’t be expecting visitors.’ Bond twisted the gear lever knob and the Lotus veered to port.
‘How long can we stay down?’ Anya was impressed but she judged it impolite to show it too readily.
‘As long as the fuel holds out and we’ve got enough for our purpose. Air is no problem as there’s a small regenerative plant.’ Bond grinned. ‘All other information is classified.’ Anya was irritated by what she took as Bond’s smug smile. T do not think you will find the Soviet Union behind in such developments.’
‘I’d better keep my eyes open then.’ Bond pressed his face against the windscreen. ‘It would be embarrassing if we bumped into one of yours, wouldn’t it?’
Anya made a face and settled back in her seat. She was getting used to Bond now. Perhaps he was not so bad as she had once thought. It would be difficult to survive what they had just gone through together without feeling something, even if it was only a sense of shared experience. She looked at the ruthless face out of the corner of her eye and detected a slight complacent smile indenting one corner of his mouth. It was almost as if he was aware of what she was thinking. The thought made her pull her eyes severely to the front. Her attitude to the Engliski spion must remain inflexible. That was the only way she could perform her duty to the State. Whatever she did, she must not fall in love with him.