CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Earlier that morning, after a breakfast of heavily
boiled eggs, Bond had studied the photographs he’d taken in
Goldnojaws’ office the previous day. The large photograph of Stockport on
the wall of Goldnojaws’ office was now a similar-sized image on the wall
of Bond’s hotel room. As he examined it the secret agent paid particular attention to the location
of the flags stuck in the map at various points. There were thirteen flags in all,
eight green, four red, one gold. Of the thirteen locations, Bond had already
visited the Air Raid Shelters, the Casino Royale and Torkington Park. Each of
those locations was flagged green. He had seen, although not visited, another
of the locations, the Pyramid building, which was also flagged green. The Air
Raid Shelters, the Casino Royale and the Pyramid building were all fairly
central, as was the football ground, which was flagged red. The Façade
shoe factory was flagged gold - so Bond had been right in his assumption that
it stood for Goldnojaws. The other eight locations, which were all parks, were
spread around the perimeter of Stockport, forming a rough circle, with the
Pyramid building at the centre. An epicentre? One of the eight was Torkington
Park, where Bond had played the game of bowls with Goldnojaws and the dwarf had
cheated him. Five of them, including Torkington, were flagged green, the
remaining three were flagged red.
Bond’s brow
furrowed in thought. What did Goldnojaws want with eight parks? Or did he in
fact want eight parks? Maybe, like Torkington Park, it was just the bowling
green he required? Why were five of the parks flagged green while the others
were red? And was it of any significance that the parks formed a rough circle
round the perimeter of the town? If the idea wasn’t so far fetched it
would be easy to imagine a wall connecting them, separating Stockport from the
rest of the world. What was it Goldnojaws had said? ‘… to stop me
dominating Stockport, and with it the world.’ How could dominating
Stockport, a humble, make that very humble, Cheshire town, also mean world
domination? It was all very puzzling.
