Laboratory Equipment

140

CHAPTER TWENTY

     Bond’s first port of call on arriving at Stockport was the Façade factory. If Goldnojaws was still in residence there Bond would assassinate him and the matter would be over and done with. As a Double-O agent he had a license to kill so there would be no repercussions. However when Bond drew up the Aston outside Façade he saw right away that the windows which had previously been blacked out were now transparent and feared that Goldnojaws had flown the coop. He got out of the car and pressed his nose to the window. His suspicions were confirmed; the room had been cleared of all Professor Gonzalez’s laboratory equipment and glass tanks and was now completely empty.
     Bond made for the entrance of Façade and a minute later was stepping into the reception area. Goldnojaws secretary was typing at her desk. Bond marched up to her and wasted no time on formalities. “Is your boss here?”
     The secretary looked up, startled. She recognised Bond immediately. “You! The chauvinistic bastard who drugged my Turkish Delight.”
     Bond contained his temper with the lesbian - only a lesbian would call James Bond chauvinistic - and said to this pathetic woman: “I asked you if Goldnojaws was here?”
     “You almost cost me my job,” she accused him.
     “Are you sure the reason you almost lost your job isn’t because you’re going deaf? Because I’ve already asked you twice if Goldnojaws is here.”
     The secretary sneered at him. “Take a hike.”
     She made to return to her typing but before you could say QWERTY Bond had taken a step forward, balled his hand into a fist and hit her once, very hard, on the point of the jaw. It would be some time before she typed again.
     Bond looked down at her. “Sorry, hadn’t got time for a drugged Turkish Delight this time, had to make do with a British Sleeper.”
     He stepped over her, made for Goldnojaws office and flung the door open. The occupant of the office, a fat man with ginger hair, half rose from his desk, startled. “What the….”