James Bond 007 - No More Promises

Part 4 ~ Chapters 10-12

Chapter 10

Bond and Bella

When they got outside, James Bond chanced a quick but casual glance behind him to ensure that Sallow had noticed he and Bella leave and followed them out. Indeed, Sallow was exiting the building, red faced and scowling furiously. Bond smiled to himself, the man obviously had an extremely short temper.

"Perhaps I was wrong about your friend," Bond said to Bella, smiling as he spoke "Mr. Sallow seems to be keeping quite a close eye on you after all."

"Keep walking," she returned nervously "I know what he will do to you if he catches up to us, but now that I've publicly embarrassed him like this, I have no idea what he will do to me."

"Are you frightened of him, Bella? What kind of man is he? Really?"

"He is not the man the world thinks they know. He is cruel and egotistical, and he is involved with dangerous people." She trembled slightly, "I have seen things, terrible things. And yes, I am frightened. I don't want to be a part of this anymore, please just get me away from him."

The two of them turned left onto Avenue de Monte-Carlo and walked quickly past Le Bar American, losing sight of Sallow.

"I will help you," James Bond promised the woman "but you've got to help me. What do you know about Sallow's involvement with terrorism?"

"Terrorism? Not a thing, he doesn't tell me anything, I swear to you. But it wouldn't surprise me, nothing you say about that man could surprise me any longer."

James Bond stopped and put his hands on Bella's shoulders. He looked her in the eyes and spoke emphatically "You must know something Bella. Anything could help. Please, this is very important."

"He's got a hidden safe in his apartment." Bella replied, "I discovered it while we were here last summer but I don't know what's in it or how to open it."

"If you take me to it, I can get into it." Bond assured her.

A black Rolls Royce Phantom pulled up in front of the Casino, a large man stepped out of the back and left the door open for Christophe Sallow. As Sallow slipped into the car, he pointed towards Jean Corbin and the man strode quickly towards him. The car pulled away and was gone.

James and Bella entered an apartment building near Port Hercule and took the lift to the 9th floor, the doors slid open revealing the most opulent flat James Bond had ever set eyes upon. It must have taken up the entire floor and was furnished impeccably.

"Please hurry," Bella implored "he could be here any minute. The safe is in the cinema room, follow me."

Bella hurried down the hall with Bond close behind. In the dimly lit home theatre, Bella swung a large painting open like a door, revealing that it had been set on hinges. Behind the painting was a sizable safe set into the wall, the safe was secured with a digital keypad.

"This is a fairly basic safe, Bella," Bond began, looking doubtful "I am not sure Sallow would leave anything of much importance in here."

James Bond took a silver cigarette case out of his breast pocket and opened it, revealing inside not cigarettes but several controls and a display screen. He pressed the device against the front of the safe, tapped on one of the buttons and what appeared to be random numbers began to flash on the screen, scrolling trough possible pin code combinations. In under a minute, the scrolling stopped, and a code was displayed on the screen of the device. Bond hurriedly punched the code into the safe's keypad and the door opened. At a quick glance of the safe's contents, James Bond was quite surprised to see that this was precisely where Christophe Sallow was keeping documents that seemed to tie him in with all sorts of criminal activities. There were notes, correspondence, records, even photographs, indicating that Sallow was planning to use them as blackmail someday against the people he had been working with.