'Yes,' replied the girl, quietly. She held up her glass and
looked into his eyes. Then she moved nearer to him.
'I have some news from Mathis,' she said. 'It's about the
bomb. It's a fantastic story.'
Bond stared at her. 'Tell me,' he said.
'They found the third Bulgarian,' Vesper explained. 'He
was on the road to Paris. Two policemen stopped him and
asked for his papers. The three Bulgarians were part of a
group here in France. These three men were going to get
two million francs for killing you.'
She drank some of her vodka.
'An agent gave them the two camera cases,' she went on.
"'The blue case contains a smoke bomb," he told them. "The
red case is the explosive. When one of you throws the red
case, the other must press a switch on the blue case. Then
you can escape in the smoke from the smoke bomb." But he
was lying. Both cases contained explosives. The plan was to
kill you and the bombers at the same time. There was
probably another plan to kill the third man.'
'Very clever,' said Bond. 'Go on.'
'The Bulgarians switched on the smoke bomb first,' she
continued. 'Then they planned to throw the explosive bomb
at you.'
'But they blew themselves up,' said Bond.
'Yes,' said Vesper. 'The third Bulgarian was waiting behind
the Hotel Splendide. The police showed him bits of the red
bomb. Then he knew that the agent had tricked the three of
them. He started talking after that. But he knows nothing
about Le Chiffre.'
The waiter arrived with the food. They ate in silence for
some minutes. Then Bond drank some of his champagne and
looked at her.
'What section are you in?' he asked.
'I'm personal assistant to Head of Section S,' said Vesper.