His eyes became intent and purposeful. He hitched his chair nearer so that his face was only a foot away from hers and she was enveloped in the miasma of his breath. “Now, English bitch. Who are you working for?” He waited. “You must answer me, you know,” he said softly. “We are all alone here. There is no one to hear you scream.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Gala desperately. “How could I be working for anyone except Sir Hugo?” (Krebs smiled at the name.) “I was just curious about the flight plan…” she went into a rambling explanation about her figures and Drax’s figures and how she had wanted to share in the success of the Moonraker.
“Try again,” whispered Krebs when she had finished. “You must do better than that,” and suddenly his eyes had turned hot with cruelty and his hands had reached towards her from behind the back of his chair…
In the rear of the hurtling Mercedes Gala ground her teeth together and whimpered at the memory of the soft crawling fingers on her body, probing, pinching, pulling, while all the time the hot vacant eyes gazed curiously into hers until finally she gathered the saliva in her mouth and spat full in his face.
He hadn’t even paused to wipe his face, but suddenly he had really hurt her and she had screamed once and then mercifully fainted.
And then she had found herself being pushed into the back of the car, a rug was thrown over her, and they were hurtling through the streets of London and she could hear other cars near them, the frantic ringing of a bicycle bell, an occasional shout, the animal growl of an old klaxon, the whirring putter of a motor-scooter, a scream of brakes, and she had realized that she was back in the real world, that English people, friends, were all around her. She had struggled to get to her knees and scream, but Krebs must have felt her movement because his hands were suddenly at her ankles, strapping them to the foot-rail along the floor, and she knew that she was lost and suddenly the tears were pouring down her cheeks and she was praying that somehow, somebody would be in time.
That had been less than an hour ago and now she could tell from the slow pace of the car and the noise of other traffic that they had reached a large town-Maidstone if she was being taken back to the site.
In the comparative silence of their progress through the town she suddenly heard Krebs’s voice. There was a note of urgency in it.
“Mein Kapitän” he said. “I have been watching a car for some time. It is certainly following us. It has seldom been using its lights. It is only a hundred metres behind us now. I think it is the car of Commander Bond.”
Drax grunted with surprise and she could hear his big body shift round to get a quick look.
He swore sharply and then there was silence and she could feel the big car weaving and straining in the thin traffic. “Ja, sowas!” said Drax finally. His voice was thoughtful. “So that old museum-piece of his can still move. So much the better, my dear Krebs. He seems to be alone.” He laughed harshly. “So we will give him a run for his money and if he survives it we will get him in the bag with the woman. Turn on the radio. Home Service. We will soon find out if there is a hitch.”
There was a short crackle of static and then Gala could hear the voice of the Prime Minister, the voice of all the great occasions in her life, coming through in broken fragments as Drax put the car into third and accelerated out of the town, ‘… weapon devised by the ingenuity of man… a thousand miles into the firmament… area patrolled by Her Majesty’s ships… designed exclusively for the defence of our beloved island… a long era of peace… development for Man’s great journey away from the confines of this planet… Sir Hugo Drax, that great patriot and benefactor of our country…’