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fall at three years old. It brought back his hearing, loosened his
vocal cords, but left him ... oh, I don't know left him some kind of
emotional cripple. A very dangerous emotional cripple." `The
retirement,' M prodded.
`In that final year I spent a lot of time with him come to that I've
spent most of my life with him. But in that last year he began to
crack. The strain of performing, even of rehearsing and learning,
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became too much. By then, of course, he was channelling a lot into his
dream of the theatre museum at Schloss Drache. In the end, he did have
a breakdown. Completely. Maeve and I nursed him. Lester his
dresser-came with him, and we brought in the two nurses: Charles and
William. Eventually, I persuaded him to stay at Schloss Drache and just
work on the museum. I don't think he even realized that he had retired
from the theatre.
`But he'd gone into a new line of business as well, hadn't he?
The assassination business.
This time the pause was even longer than before.
`You want to tell us about your brother's penchant for organizing public
executions, Daniel? You want to tell us why you didn't even try to stop
him?" `There are two sides to everything." Daniel seemed to have
gathered strength and was prepared to fight back. `Yes. Sure.
I'll tell you what happened, and I'll tell you how I tried to stop it.
I did everything I could. I.. ` `You did everything short of actually
bringing it to the attention of the police, I think." `Well, you know it
all, I suppose." Now he suddenly changed. It was the third or fourth
time that Bond had sensed a sudden mood swing.
They didn't break for another four hours. M went meticulously through
every suspected killing: from the February 1990 shooting of the
terrorist in Madrid; the bomb blast that had killed the Scandinavian
politician in Helsinki, followed by the musician whose brakes had failed
outside Lisbon, right through to the series of recent deaths, ending in
the murder of Laura March.
`She was your fiancee, after all,' M thundered.
`You must have known that he killed her, and you still didn't do
anything about it." `That was his revenge,' Daniel said quietly; he
looked ready to drop with fatigue. `I was shattered because Laura had
called off the engagement and quite rightly, once I'd told her the truth
about David." `But she thought you were David, right?" from Bond.
`Yes. Yes, I played the part of David for most people.
Especially Laura. He knew. There was no doubt about that. It was his
revenge and, yes, it was the last straw. I knew it couldn't go on after
that. I'd already made up my mind that David would have to disappear.
To tell you the truth, I was going to do away with him.
But your Captain Bond and Fraulein von Grusse suddenly turned up.
We knew he was planning something else, and..." `You knew what he was
planning?" `A December spree. He came here to make his arrangements and
d? a dry run. I was sure of that." `Tell us about it.
`You know already.
`All the same, we'd like to hear it again.
`I'm pretty certain he was planning to kill Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on the
stage of La Scala; then go on and do away with Arafat in Athens.
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He came here to set it up. Another day and he would have gone on to
Athens." `How do you think he chose his victims?" `Publicity. Most were
famous politicians, terrorists. Now he was out for one of the great
sopranos of our time, and the leader of the PLO. I think he chose at
random, or when a good idea for a target presented itself. As simple as
that." `Then what? Then what was he going to do after the dry run in
Athens?" Daniel stalled. You could see it. He was so like his brother,
but this was real life, not acting. You could see almost into his
brain, as if he were asking himself if they really knew, or if they were
guessing.
`After Athens. ` M prompted.
`There wouldn't have been an after Athens. I had him pinned down this
time." `He didn't know that. Tell us about what was to happen this
coming Sunday, outside Paris." Again, a sigh of capitulation, followed
by a deep breath. Then he jibbed again and remained silent.
`His notes,' Bond said. `His notes indicate Paris with the initials PD,
W and H. Does that jog your memory?" Daniel Dragonpol gave a
tight-lipped nod.
`Okay. Right. Yes, I think it was probably his idea of a big coup.
What do the terrorists call it? A spectacular? A royal princess,
together with her two children, who are direct heirs to the British
throne, are to be entertained at the Euro Disney complex outside Paris
on Sunday. I think he planned to kill them as a kind of public
spectacle.
In his mind it would be the ultimate irony, for a princess and two
little princes to die at Disneyland." `And I wonder how you know all
that?" M questioned, almost to himself. `I wonder how you both knew
that she was taking her children to Euro Disney on Sunday? It hasn't
exactly been advertised."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE DRAGONS ARE LOOSE It went on until after five in the morning, with
everybody but M getting more and more exhausted. The Old Man seemed to
thrive on the long and hard question and answer routine. His
interrogation techniques were a copybook lesson to everyone present, and
he dragged every last piece of information, and then more, from the
cowed Daniel Dragonpol.
Brother David, it seemed, had carefully kept up all his old contacts, in
government as well as the Arts. According to Daniel, he had informers
everywhere in financial areas, big business and highly regarded social
groups, as well as among his old colleagues in the theatre. He knew
many friends of friends, and even had the ear of insiders within royal
circles. So information regarding the schedule of the princess and the
two young princes would be no problem.
`David set great store by the telephone,' Daniel told them. `We tried
all kinds of tricks, but in the end there was no way we could keep him
from a phone." He made a gesture of hopelessness. `Nor could we keep
him under lock and key. We knew when he was brewing up for some kind of
expedition, just as we knew when he became deflected from his
preoccupation with the museum.
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`Did he make those silly little errors when his mind moved to other
things?" Bond asked.
`What little errors?" `Well, he's got a Greek actor, four hundred years
BC, putting on a Kabuki mask. Then there's the watch on..
`I haven't noticed anything like that!" A shade sharp.
`Well, the mistakes are there.
`Then they'll have to be put right before the museum is opened to the
public." Daniel seemed to stop, as though realizing his predicament for
the first time. `If it is ever opened,' he added.
`But you found it impossible to keep him confined, or away from
telephones? That what you're telling us?" M sounded alert and relaxed;
his mind razor sharp.
`That's exactly what I'm saying.
Bond recalled the conversation about telephones which Fredericka had
overheard between Maeve and the nurse Charles-who was more than a nurse,
though Daniel never mentioned that side of things.
`Let's go over it again,' M prodded. `You tried to catch up with him
during the terrible killing spree which included the death of your
former fiancee?" `I've told you. Yes. I tracked him down, but on each
occasion I was too late." `How do you think he knew where to find Laura
March?" `He listened at doors a lot: in the castle. I mean it was
creepy. He moved around the place like a ghost, when we didn't have him
locked in the Tower Room. When Laura was there for the last time, she
told me she'd try to get to Interlaken to rest and ... well, put
herself straight. We were both in a very emotional state. David knew
we had spent time in Interlaken. I have photographs, and I talked to
him about it. He knew we liked going up to First and sit looking at the
view." `So, you followed him on that last occasion, and tried to catch
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