Bond smiled non-committally and drank.
So she contented herself with staying within sight of Team Tarahumara’s bobbing flashlights asthey entered the woods around Turquoise Lake, confident she’d reel them in soon enough. Thetrail ahead was dark and knotted with rocks and roots, and that played to one of Ann’s peculiarstrengths: she absolutely loved night runs. Even back in college, midnight was her favorite time tograb a flashlight and a friend and trot through the silent campus, the world reduced to glitters andsparkles in a tiny orb of light. If anyone could make up time running blindly on a treacherous trail,it was Ann.
He loitered, listening for any sound. There was none, but half-way down the corridor one of the doors was ajar. A crack of blood-red light showed. Bond thought, I've probably had it anyway. In for a penny, in for a pound! He pushed the door open and stuck his head into the room. It was a long, low laboratory with a plastic-covered work-bench extending its whole length beneath the windows, which were shuttered. Dark red light, as in a film-developing chamber, came from neon strips above the cornice. The bench was littered with retorts and test-tubes, and there were line upon line of test-tubes and phials containing a cloudy liquid in racks against the far wall. Three men in white, with gauze pads over the bottoms of their faces and white surgical caps over their hair, were at work, absorbed. Bond took in the scene, a scene from a theatrical hell, withdrew his head, and walked on down the corridor and out into what was now a driving snowstorm. He pulled the top of his sweater over his head and forced his way along the path to the blessed warmth of the club-house. Then he walked quickly to his room, closed the door, and went into the bathroom and sat down on his usual throne of reflection and wondered what in God's name to do.
'You are very young to know so great a loss,' she returned. 'I am grieved to hear it. I am grieved to hear it. I hope Time will be good to you.'
Not bad, thought Bond, as the crowd howled around him. Not bad at all.
The door closed quietly. Bond walked across the room to the window and looked out over Green Park.