“Dammit,” M’s eyes glittered impatiently. “That’s just what I mean! You rely on me. You won’t take any damned responsibility yourself.” He thrust the stem of his pipe towards his chest. “I’m the one who has to do that. I’m the one who has to decide if a thing is right or not.” The anger died out of the eyes. The grim mouth bent sourly. He said gloomily: “Oh well, I suppose it’s what I’m paid for. Somebody’s got to drive the bloody train.” M put his pipe back in his mouth and drew on it deeply to relieve his feelings.
Now Bond felt sorry for M. He had never before heard M use as strong a word as ‘bloody’. Nor had M ever given a member of his staff any hint that he felt the weight of the burden he was carrying and had carried ever since he had thrown up the certain prospect of becoming Fifth Sea Lord in order to take over the Secret Service. M. had got himself a problem. Bond wondered what it was. It would not be concerned with danger. If M could get the odds more or less right he would risk anything, anywhere in the world. It would not be political. M did not give a damn for the susceptibilities of any Ministry and thought nothing of going behind their backs to get a personal ruling from the Prime Minister. It might be moral. It might be personal. Bond said: “Is there anything I can help over, sir?”
M looked briefly, thoughtfully at Bond, and then swivelled his chair so that he could look out of the window at the high summery clouds. He said abruptly: “Do you remember the Havelock case?”
“Only what I read in the papers, sir. Elderly couple in Jamaica. The daughter came home one night and found them full of bullets. There was some talk of gangsters from Havana. The housekeeper said three men had called in a car. She thought they might have been Cubans. It turned out the car had been stolen. A yacht had sailed from the local harbour that night. But as far as I remember the police didn’t get anywhere. That’s all, sir. I haven’t seen any signals passing on the case.”
M said gruffly: “You wouldn’t have. They’ve been personal to me. We weren’t asked to handle the case. Just happens,” M cleared his throat: this private use of the Service was on his conscience, “I knew the Havelocks. Matter of fact I was best man at their wedding. Malta. Nineteen-twenty-five.”
“I see, sir. That’s bad.”
M said shortly: “Nice people. Anyway, I told Station C to look into it. They didn’t get anywhere with the Batista people, but we’ve got a good man with the other side – with this chap Castro. And Castro’s Intelligence people seem to have the Government pretty well penetrated. I got the whole story a couple of weeks ago. It boils down to the fact that a man called Hammerstein, or von Hammerstein, had the couple killed. There are a lot of Germans well dug in in these banana republics. They’re Nazis who got out of the net at the end of the War. This one’s ex-Gestapo. He got a job as head of Batista’s Counter Intelligence. Made a packet of money out of extortion and blackmail and protection. He was set up for life until Castro’s lot began to make headway. He was one of the first to start easing himself out. He cut one of his officers in on his loot, a man called Gonzales, and this man travelled around the Caribbean with a couple of gunmen to protect him and began salting away Hammerstein’s money outside Cuba – put it in real estate and suchlike under nominees. Only bought the best, but at top prices. Hammerstein could afford them. When money didn’t work he’d use force – kidnap a child, burn down a few acres, anything to make the owner see reason. Well, this man Hammerstein heard of the Havelocks’ property, one of the best in Jamaica, and he told Gonzales to go and get it. I suppose his orders were to kill the Havelocks if they wouldn’t sell and then put pressure on the daughter. There’s a daughter, by the way. Should be about twenty-five by now. Never seen her myself. Anyway, that’s what happened. They killed the Havelocks. Then two weeks ago Batista sacked Hammerstein. May have got to hear about one of these jobs. I don’t know. But, anyway, Hammerstein cleared out and took his little team of three with him. Timed things pretty well, I should say. It looks as if Castro may get in this winter if he keeps the pressure up.”