Moonraker (James Bond, #3)

by Ian Fleming

Gala looked at him. She smiled. ‘If you hold me it won’t be too bad,’ she said. ‘. . . and now Sir Hugo has his hand on the switch and he’s watching the chronometer.’ ‘TEN,’ broke in another voice, heavy and sonorous as the toll of a bell. Bond turned on the shower and the water hissed down on their clinging bodies. ‘NINE,’ tolled the voice of the time-keeper. ‘. . . the radar operators are watching the screens. Nothing but a mass of wavy lines . . .’ ‘EIGHT.’ ‘. . . all wearing ear-plugs. Blockhouse should be indestructible. Concrete walls are twelve feet thick. Pyramid roof, twenty-seven feet thick at the point . . .’ ‘SEVEN.’ ‘. . . first the radio beam will stop the time mechanism alongside the turbines. Set the pinwheel going. Flaming thing like a Catherine wheel . . .’ ‘SIX.’ ‘. . . valves will open. Liquid fuel. Secret formula. Terrific stuff. Dynamite. Pours down from the fuel tanks . . .’ ‘FIVE.’ ‘. . . ignited by the pinwheel when the fuel gets to the rocket motor . . .’ ‘FOUR.’ ‘. . . meanwhile the peroxide and permanganate have mixed, made steam and the turbine pumps begin to turn . . .’ ‘THREE.’ ‘. . . pumping the flaming fuel through the motor out of the stern of the rocket into the exhaust pit. Gigantic heat . . . 3,500 degrees . . .’ ‘TWO.’ ‘. . . Sir Hugo is about to press the switch. He’s staring out through the slit. Perspiration on his forehead. Absolute silence in here. Terrific tension.’ ‘ONE.’ Nothing but the noise of the water, steadily pouring down...