Branch, and they were real detectives, not just people that Phillips Oppenheim had dreamed up with fast cars and special cigarettes with gold bands on them and shoulder-holsters. Oh, she had spotted that all right and had even brushed against him to make sure. Ah well, she supposed she would have to make some sort of show of working along with him, though in what direction heaven only knew. If she had been down there ever since the place had been built without spotting anything, what could this Bond man hope to discover in a couple of days? And what was there to find out? Of course there were one or two things she couldn’t understand. Should she tell him about Krebs, for instance? The first thing was to see that he didn’t blow her cover by doing something stupid. She would have to be cool and firm and extremely careful. But that didn’t mean, she decided, as the buzzer went and she collected her letters and her shorthand book, that she couldn’t be friendly. Entirely on her own terms, of course.
Her second decision made, she opened the communicating door and walked into the office of Sir Hugo Drax.
When she came back into her room half an hour later she found Bond sitting back in her chair with Whitaker’s Almanack open on the desk in front of him. She pursed her lips as Bond got up and wished her a cheerful good morning. She nodded briefly and walked round her desk and sat down. She moved the Whitaker’s carefully aside and put her letters and notebook in its place.
“You might have a spare chair for visitors,” said Bond with a grin which she defined as impertinent, “and something better to read than reference books.”
She ignored him. “Sir Hugo wants you,” said. “I was just going to see if you had got up yet.”
“Liar,” said Bond. “You heard me go by at half-past seven. I saw you peering out between the curtains.”
“I did nothing of the sort,” she said indignantly. “Why should I be interested in a car going by?”
“I told you you heard the car,” said Bond. He pressed home his advantage. “And by the way,” he said, “you shouldn’t scratch your head with the blunt end of the pencil when you’re taking dictation. None of the best private secretaries do.”
Bond glanced significantly at a point against the jamb of the communicating door. He shrugged his shoulders.
Gala’s defences dropped. Damn the man, she thought. She gave him a reluctant smile. “Oh, well,” she said. “Come on. I can’t spend all the morning playing guessing games. He wants both of us and he doesn’t like being kept waiting.” She rose and walked over to the communicating door and opened it. Bond followed her through and shut the door behind him.
Drax was standing looking at the illuminated wall map. He turned as they came in. “Ah, there you are,” he said with a sharp glance at Bond. “Thought you might have left us. Guards reported you out at seven-thirty this morning.”
“I had to make a telephone call,” said Bond. “I hope I didn’t disturb anyone.”
“There’s a telephone in my study,” Drax said curtly. “Tallon found it good enough.”
“Ah, poor Tallon,” said Bond non-committally. There was a hectoring note in Drax’s voice that he particularly disliked and that made him instinctively want to deflate the man. On this occasion he was successful.
Drax shot him a hard glance which he covered up with a short barking laugh and a shrug of the shoulders. “Do as you please,” he said. “You’ve got your job to do. So long as you don’t upset the routines down here. You must remember,” he added more reasonably, “all my men are nervous as kittens just now and I can’t have them upset by mysterious goings-on. I hope you’re not wanting to ask them a lot of questions today. I’d rather they didn’t have anything more to worry about. They haven’t recovered from Monday yet. Miss Brand here can tell you all about them, and I believe all their files are in Tallon’s room. Have you had a look at them yet?”