The telephone rang. He assumed it was the car, early at the rendezvous, but it was the hall porter saying that there was a representative of ‘Universal Export’ with a letter to be delivered personally to Bond.
“Send him up,” said Bond, wondering.
A few minutes later he opened the door to a man in plain clothes whom he recognized as one of the messengers from the pool at Headquarters.
“Good evening, Sir,” said the man. He took a large plain envelope out of his breast pocket and handed it to Bond. “I am to wait and take this back when you have read it, Sir.”
Bond opened the white envelope and broke’ the seal of the blue envelope which it contained.
There was a page of blue typewritten foolscap paper with no address and no signature. Bond recognized the extra-large type used in M’s personal communications.
Bond waved the messenger to a chair and sat down at the writing desk opposite the window.
Washington [said the memorandum] reports that Rufus B. Saye is an alias for Jack Spang, a suspected gangster who was mentioned in the Kefauver Report but who has no criminal record. He is, however, twin brother to Seraffimo Spang and joint controller of the ‘Spangled Mob’ which operates widely in the United States. The brothers Spang bought control of the House of Diamonds five years ago ‘as an investment’, and nothing unfavourable is known about this business, which appears to be perfectly legitimate.
The brothers also own a ‘wire service’ which serves off-the-course bookmakers in Nevada and California, and is, therefore, illegal. The name of this is the Sure Fire Wire Service. They also own the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas, and this is the headquarters of Seraffimo Spang and also, to benefit from the Nevada tax laws, the company offices of the House of Diamonds.
Washington adds that the Spangled Mob is interested in other illegal activities such as narcotics and organized prostitution, and these lines are handled from New York by Michael (Shady) Tree who has five previous convictions for various offences. The gang has branch headquarters in Miami, Detroit and Chicago.
Washington describes the Spangled Mob as one of the most powerful gangs in the United States with excellent protection in State and Federal governments and with the police. With the
Cleveland Outfit and the Detroit ‘Purple’ gang, the Spangled Mob has top classification.
Our interest in these matters has not been divulged to Washington, but in the event that your inquiries lead you into dangerous contact with this gang, you will report at once and be withdrawn from the case which will then be handed over to the FBI.
This is an order.
The return of this document in a sealed envelope will acknowledge your receipt of this order.
There was no signature. Bond ran his eyes down the page again, folded it, and placed it in one of the Ritz envelopes.
He got up and handed the envelope to the messenger.
“Thanks very much,” he said. “Can you find your own way downstairs?”
“Yes, thank you, Sir,” said the messenger. He went to the door and opened it. “Good night, Sir.”
“Good night.”
The door closed quietly. Bond walked across the room to the window and looked out over Green Park.
For a moment he had a clear vision of the spare, elderly figure sitting back in his chair in the quiet office.
Give the case to the FBI? Bond knew M meant it, but he also knew how bitter it would be for M to have to ask Edgar Hoover to take a case over from the Secret Service and pick Britain’s chestnuts out of the fire.
The operative words in the memorandum were ‘dangerous contact’. What constituted ‘dangerous contact’ would be a matter for Bond to decide. Compared with some of the opposition he had been up against, these hoodlums surely wouldn’t count for much. Or would they? -Bond suddenly remembered the chunky, quartz-like face of Rufus B. Saye. Well, at any rate it could do no harm to try and get a look at this brother with the exotic name. Seraffimo. The name of a night-club waiter or an ice-cream vendor. But these people were like that. Cheap and theatrical.