Bond Movies 07 - Die Another Day Read online

  In the same instant, Zao drew a handgun and pointed it at Bond’s head. Bond had no choice but to raise his hands.

  Through the black smoke, one of the South Koreans came running out, his body aflame. Colonel Moon flipped the Tank Buster and aimed the machine gun portion at the poor man and, with a single shot, took him out.

  ‘Amazing accuracy,’ Moon commented, impressed with the weapon. He turned to Bond and said, ‘So you are James Bond, a British assassin. And how do you propose to kill me now, Mr Bond?’

  Bond froze. How did they know his name? And how was he going to get out of this fix?

  02 - Shooting Gallery

  There was still a chance.

  As Moon stepped towards the briefcase on the table, Bond reached for the trigger button on his watch.

  ‘Don’t move!’ Zao commanded, as he forced Bond’s arms apart and began to pat him down. He found the Walther and removed it.,

  Moon came back to Bond and spoke into his face. ‘It is pathetic that you British still believe you have the right - no, the duty - to police the world. You’re as redundant as those mines out there will soon become.’ He paused to regain his composure and then said, ‘But you won’t live to see the day all Korea is ruled by the North.’

  Bond replied, ‘Then you and I have something in common.’

  Moon smirked and moved near the diamonds again. Bond decided then and there to sacrifice himself for the mission. He would blow up the case and take everyone with him. The explosion wouldn’t be huge; he might even survive. Bond moved his hands closer together, ready to detonate the bomb, but then Zao’s walkie-talkie buzzed. The henchman answered it and his normally unemotional face grew concerned. He handed the receiver to Moon and said in Korean, ‘It’s the general.’

  Bond’s command of the Korean language was weak, at best. But he knew enough to catch the gist of what was being said.

  Moon spoke into the walkie-talkie, obviously shocked ‘Father?’ He listened for a moment, stiffened, then shut it off. He looked at Zao and said, ‘He’s five minutes away. He heard the explosion and wants to know what’s going on.’ He shook his head and began to stride away. Over his shoulder, he shouted an order to everyone standing nearby, ‘Get the weapons out of here!’

  He stopped, as if he had forgotten something and turned to Zao and said, ‘Kill the spy.’ Bond had no trouble understanding that.

  Zao nodded and stood beside the diamonds as | Moon climbed aboard the mothership. Moon shouted to the driver and in seconds the hovercraft lifted and moved off, followed by two of the smaller craft.

  Zao drew his pistol and pointed it at Bond, but at the same instant Bond hit the button on his watch.

  The briefcase exploded just feet away from Zao and covered the henchman with diamond shrapnel. Bond dropped and rolled as Zao’s bullet shot over his head. Zao fell to the ground as Bond leapt up and ran after Moon’s convoy,

  Zao lifted his head. His face was lacerated and pitted with glittering matter. Despite the pain, he scanned the courtyard and saw Bond running towards one of the two remaining small hovercraft. He pulled himself off the ground and staggered to the Jaguar XKR, the nearest of Moon’s valuable cars. He leaned in through the open window and punched a button on the dashboard. A machine gun appeared and rose from a compartment in the rear. Zao took hold of it, trained it on Bond and began strafing the courtyard with bullets, trailing destruction just inches behind the enemy spy. As he was half-blinded by the wounds on his face, Zao’s hail of bullets was wildly dangerous but inaccurate. Some of the bullets had punctured the petrol tanks in several of Moon’s fancy cars, causing a domino effect of explosions down the line. The British agent avoided the gunfire and jumped onto the fighter escort hovercraft as it was taking off.

  The gunner on the back of the hovercraft couldn’t believe his eyes as Bond rolled onto the deck of the moving vehicle. He turned his gun to blast him but Bond deftly grabbed the barrel and swung it around into the gunner’s face, knocking him out.

  Back in the courtyard, Zao yelled to the crew of the remaining hovercraft, ordering them to give pursuit.

  Bond looked back and saw that the fourth hovercraft was taking off. His own craft was just passing through the arch at the compound gate. Thinking quickly, Bond angled the rear gun at the control mechanism mounted on the gate and fired. Bond’s craft zipped through the opening just as the huge keystone fell with an earth-shaking thud. The driver of the pursuing hovercraft had no time to stop and slammed straight into it. The explosion rocked the compound.

  As Bond’s craft sailed into the Demilitarized Zone, he moved forward and grabbed the pilot by the neck He pulled the man away from the controls and threw him over the side. The man fell directly onto a mine in the dirt and disappeared in a fireball. Bond was now in command of the hovercraft.

  Up ahead, Colonel Moon had witnessed what the British spy had done and was intrigued and excited by the man’s fortitude. At last, here was an adversary worth fighting! He was obviously not like other West¬erners. It would be a pleasure to defeat him.

  Moon picked up the Tank Buster and shot at the ground behind him, setting off mines in front of Bond’s hovercraft. Bond was gaining on the two escort craft just as the explosions jolted his vehicle with showers of rock and soil. Bond lunged with the steering lever and managed to dodge the blasts by weaving the craft back and forth. The controls were easy enough to master. The hovercraft was steered by a handle bar that controlled the air rudders behind the fan. In smaller ships this was combined with leaning the body-weight right or left. Bond was aware that good pilots' used a lot of fancy footwork but he was not familiar with it. The tricky part was keeping level. Sharp turns were almost impossible; if the ship tilted too much to one side it would fly right into the ground. In many ways it was like flying a helicopter.

  Bond took a chance and increased the speed. The two fighters pulled back between him and the mothership and then the gunners let loose with a volley of machine-gun fire from the rear. Bullets riddled the front of Bond’s vehicle and smashed the windscreen to pieces. He ducked below the dashboard, inadvertently knocking the steering bar as he did so. His hovercraft slammed into the nearer of the two fighters, throwing the gunner off his feet. Bond regained his footing, realised what he had done, then rammed the fighter once again.

  Suddenly, a large concrete pyramid structure loomed ahead of his vehicle. Bond swerved just in time, coming within inches of hitting it. Looking out on the minefield, he saw that they had entered an area of the Demilitarized Zone that was otherworldly, surreal and frightening. The pyramid was one of many contraptions known as ‘tank traps’; obstructions built to prevent the progress of tanks. All around the structures were the wrecks of blown-up and burned out tanks and other vehicles. The place looked like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

  Bond forgot about his prey for the moment and concentrated on the steering as the obstacles zipped past him on either side. It was a good thing that he had logged many hours in a racing simulator at MI6. This was the kind of course one might find in a high-tech video game, where the only way around deadly obstructions was having well-honed reflexes and the ability to see the obstructions coming at a second’s notice.

  Bond heard more machine-gun fire coming from the hovercraft he had rammed. The gunner was back on his feet and was shooting at him again.

  Why won’t he stay down? Bond thought angrily, as he swerved hard to slam into the fighter again. This time he forced the enemy hovercraft into one of the tank traps. The craft’s skirt rode up the block, causing the fighter to tilt and slide along on its side before setting off a mine. The explosion threw the hovercraft into a fiery cartwheel. It rotated twice before rupturing into a hundred pieces.

  Colonel Moon was furious. He had lost two hover¬craft and the British assassin was gaining. He yelled to the pilot of the remaining fighter escort and ordered him to intercept Bond. The pilot swallowed, acknowl¬edged the order and turned the. hovercraft around to head towards Bond, face to fa
ce.

  Bond saw the fighter turn. He gripped the wheel and thought, If it’s a game of chicken they want...

  Then he felt movement behind him. The gunner he had knocked out earlier had come to and was rushing at him. Bond let go of the steering bar momentarily, turned and slugged the gunner hard in the face. The man flew backwards, hit his head on the side of a bench and was out cold once again.

  Bond spun back to face the oncoming hovercraft Bullets sprayed across the front of his vehicle, forcing him to duck for cover. Nevertheless, he was careful to keep the bar steady, daring the other pilot to stay on course. At the last moment, the other pilot lost his nerve and swung the fighter out of the way. Bond rose from cover and guided the craft forward towards the mothership.

  One advantage that the smaller fighter had over the mothership was speed. Bond was flying alongside the carrier in a matter of moments. The problem was that it was much larger. How was he going to stop it?

  Before he had an answer, the mothership’s pilot swerved and rammed Bond’s hovercraft hard, pushing it towards a line of trees. Bond pulled his craft up and over, barely avoiding a collision with them and found himself running parallel with the mothership on the other side of the trees. As the craft skated over a water splash, he noticed that the other fighter had turned around and was now hot on his tail.

  Moon used the Tank Buster to shoot at Bond through the trees, but he only managed to shred them. He needed something more effective. He looked around at the pile of weapons at his feet, grabbed a flame-thrower and aimed it at Bond. A huge jet of fire shot out and across the trees, igniting them.

  Bond was forced to drop back and steer his craft through a narrow gap in the trees, skirting around the flames. Now he was behind Moon again.

  Moon shouted to his pilot to go faster, but the man didn’t respond quickly enough. In frustration, Moon delivered a karate chop to the pilot’s neck, pulled him out of the seat and took over. He accelerated, then had another idea. Moon flipped a couple of switches and looked back to see if his ploy had worked.

  A thick billow of black smoke poured from the back of the mothership and covered the area. Moon laughed and sped ahead.

  The smokescreen effectively prevented Bond from seeing where the mothership had gone. Flying blind, he pushed straight ahead. Eventually, his craft burst out of the cloud and crashed down a fifteen-foot drop followed by the fighter.

  There were two men in the pursuing craft, which gave them an advantage in firepower. Bond used Moon’s tactics by turning and shooting at the mines on the ground. These bounding fragmentation landmines were different - they were designed to leap thirty feet into the air before exploding. Bond hit one and managed to take out the gunner. Somehow the pilot kept going and pursued Bond up a narrow track, embanked on both sides.

  The mothership appeared from nowhere and was behind both vehicles, herding them forward towards a massive pair of gates. They appeared to belong to the ruins of an ancient temple that stood at the end of the track.

  Moon smiled as his monstrous machine bore down on Bond and the other craft.

  Bond could see what was going to happen and tried to get off the track by pulling the craft sideways. But it was no good - the bank was too steep. He had only a few seconds before he was rammed into the gates.

  Cursing to himself, he abandoned the controls and ran back to the rear of the hovercraft. The pursuing fighter was just a few feet behind him. Bond could see the pilot’s face register confusion. Was the British spy crazy?

  Either crazy or suicidal, Bond thought as he leapt from his own craft to the front of the fighter He slammed down hard and got a grip on the windscreen. Before the pilot could react, Bond climbed over, kicked the pilot in the face and continued to run to the rear. Now he made a death-defying leap to the nose of the larger hovercraft.

  Bond’s original craft crashed into the giant gates, quickly followed by the other fighter. The ensuing explosions knocked out the gates and disintegrated the two hovercraft, allowing the mothership to sail through the inferno unharmed.

  The huge carrier had hurtled into the ancient temple and had nowhere to go but into the far wall. Bond threw himself over the windscreen and onto the deck as the craft smashed through, spun around on the rocks and came to a stop.

  The pilot was still unconscious. Moon had been knocked back and was stunned. Bond was surprised to find himself in one piece. He looked over at the colonel and their eyes met. Then the hovercraft tilted sickeningly.

  They had broken through the temple wall and were on the edge of a raging waterfall at least two hundred feet tall. The hovercraft had somehow lodged against some rocks.

  Moon jumped up and attacked Bond. Bond rolled and threw the colonel into the side of the deck. By the time Bond was on his feet, Moon had rebounded. The two men faced each other and engaged in hand- to-hand combat Moon was obviously experienced in martial arts, but Bond was unsure how proficient the man was. A stunning blow to Bond’s chest told him everything he needed to know.

  Bond fell backwards and used his feet to block Moon’s kicks. Bond used a large case for leverage and jack-knifed up and over. His right foot swung into Moon’s jaw with a sickening smack just as the hovercraft broke free, slid further towards the edge of the cliff and wedged between two large boulders. The jolt caused Moon to fall back against the massive fan at the back of the craft. He instinctively reached for an AK-47 at his feet.

  Bond pulled a bulletproof vest from a pile on the deck and held it in front of him as he moved to the control cockpit. Moon’s bullets strafed the area, j hammering the vest until Bond could no longer hold it. But by then he was where he wanted to be. Bond pulled the throttles to full, causing the fan to spin. Coloner Moon was sucked off his feet and pulled against the caged propeller like a magnet. He tried to raise his gun arm away from the fan but the suction was too strong.

  The thrust was successful in dislodging the hover¬craft from between the boulders. It slipped a few inches with a terrible scraping sound. In a matter of seconds, it would wrench free completely and plum¬met down the waterfall.

  Bond looked at Moon and said, ‘You’ve met your biggest fan, Colonel.’ Then he ran up the craft’s nose and jumped for the bank just as the suction pulled the mothership. The huge carrier toppled over and down into the whitewater, with Moon still attached to the fan. Bond watched as the hovercraft disappeared into the roaring void.

  Gasping for breath, he closed his eyes. Bond allowed himself a brief moment to reflect on his good luck. Then he pulled himself up the bank to level ground. Out of breath and thoroughly exhausted, he stumbled back into the temple and collapsed. He lay on his back, shut his eyes again and let himself drift.

  The sounds of footsteps and guns cocking jarred him from his reverie. Bond opened his eyes to see many booted feet. He sat up and saw that dozens of soldiers had surrounded him, their guns pointed at his head. A man in a general’s uniform pushed through the crowd and stood before him. He was probably in his fifties and looked very familiar. He looked grimly down at his captive.

  The general addressed the soldiers but kept his eyes on Bond. ‘My son is dead and yet the spy lives.’

  Bond realised who he was. General Moon. The colonel’s father.

  ‘Take him away!’ the general ordered.

  03 - Ordeal

  Pain is the great equaliser, the measure by which men and women come to grips with their inner strength. It can be both good and bad. Pain is designed as a warning that the body is being abused in some way. Pain from disease or injury can be sobering; something that one either becomes used to or not It can be long-lasting, often a harbinger of the inevitable ending of life. Occasionally, something good comes out of pain - a newborn child - but protection from the agony that can be inflicted on the human body must be counted as one of the greatest advances in medical knowledge.

  Torture is man’s cruellest invention. Having pain inflicted upon the body by other human beings in a methodical, deliberate fashion can do just
as much damage to the mind as it can to the flesh. Why else would the grand interrogators of the Spanish Inquisition torture their subjects to gain confessions? It didn’t matter if those admissions were false. Even brainwashing is a form of torture. It can cause dedicated men to switch allegiances, give up their country’s secrets and even betray their own people. The tortured will do or say anything to relieve the onslaught of hell that is systematically delivered by the tormentors. The torturing of prisoners is banned in all civilised countries because it is inhumane and barbaric. How. ever, it is still implemented in many places around the world because it works.

  James Bond was trained to withstand torture. He had undergone many instances of fiendish punishments throughout his career. It was even noted in his service record that he had the highest tolerance for pain of any Double-0 agent in MI6. Nevertheless, everyone has a breaking point His interrogators believed this. As long as they kept at it and as long as the subject didn’t die, then anything was possible. They could immerse the prisoner in freezing water several times a day for weeks. They could subject his body to the stings of black scorpions as long as there were enough to place on his skin. They could beat him as long as the men with clubs never tired. They could starve him. They could annihilate any semblance of hope for salvation.

  Yet James Bond was a man who had the uncanny ability to escape within himself. By concentrating solely on the beating of his heart, Bond was capable of withdrawing from his environment into a Zen-like serenity. He could harden himself on the outside) clench his fists and struggle against the pain, while on the inside he could remain calm. If the end was near, then so be it He had known the risks. Let them unleash their worst

  But these were not the men who would break him

  Time passed. He wasn’t sure how long. Weeks turned into months, but life within the North Korean military prison seemed to be one continuous day. Or night, depending on how one looked at it ‘We have all the time in the world.’ Well, those words certainly applied now. Bond knew that he was thinner and that his beard had grown. He felt weakened and very much alone. The cold, dingy cell where he slept was his only refuge from the suffering that existed outside the steel door.