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sounded solid enough. The reasons for it stood up. Hopeless? Impossible? Perhaps. Why hadn't M. chosen a Jap speaker? Bond
had never been east of Hongkong. But then Orientalists had their own particular drawbacks - too much tied up with tea
ceremonies and flower arrangements and Zen and so forth. No. It sounded a true bill. He said, 'Yes, sir. I'd like to have a try.'
M. gave an abrupt nod. 'Good.' He leant forward and pressed a button on the intercom. 'Chief of Staff? What number have
you allotted to 007? Right. He's coming to see you straight away.'
M. leant back. He gave one of his rare smiles. 'You're stuck with your old digit. All right, four sevens. Go along and get
briefed.'
Bond said, 'Right, sir. And, er, thank you.' He got up and walked over to the door and let himself out. He walked straight
over to Miss Moneypenny and bent down and kissed her on the cheek. She turned pink and put a hand up to where he had
kissed her. Bond said, 'Be an angel, Penny, and ring down to Mary and tell her she's got to get out of whatever she's doing
tonight. I'm taking her out to dinner. Scotts. Tell her we'll have our first roast grouse of the year and pink champagne.
Celebration.'
'What of?' Miss Moneypenny's eyes were suddenly wide and excited.
8
'Oh I don't know. The Queen's birthday or something. Right?' James Bond crossed the room and went into the Chief - of
Staff's office.
Miss Moneypenny picked up the inter-office telephone and passed on the message in a thrilled voice. She said, 'I do think
he's all right again, Mary. It's all there again like it used to be. Heaven knows what M.'s been saying to him. He had lunch with
Sir James Molony today. Don't tell James that. But it may have something to do with it. He's with the Chief of Staff now. And
Bill said he wasn't to be disturbed. Sounds like some kind of a job. Bill was very mysterious.'
Bill Tanner, late Colonel Tanner of the Sappers and Bond's best friend in the Service, looked up from his heavily laden desk.
He grinned with pleasure at what he saw. He said, '
Take a pew, James. So you've bought it? Thought you might. But it's a
stinker all right. Think you can bring it off?'
'Not an earthly, I'd guess,' said Bond cheerfully. 'This man Tanaka sounds a tough nut, and I'm no great hand at diplomacy.
But why did M. pick on me, Bill? I thought I was in the dog house because of messing up those last two jobs. I was all set to
go into chicken farming. Now, be a good chap and tell me what's the real score.'
Bill Tanner had been ready for that one. He said easily, 'Balls , James. You've been running through a bad patch. We all hit
'em sometimes. M. just thought you'd be the best man for the job. You know he's got an entirely misplaced opinion of your
abilities. Anyway, it'll be a change from your usual rough-housing. Time you moved up out of that damned Double-O Section
of yours. Don't you ever think about promotion?'
'Absolutely not,' said Bond with fervour. 'As soon as I get back from this caper, I'll ask for my old number back again. But
tell me, how am I supposed to set about this business? What's this Australian cover consist of? Have I got anything to offer this
wily Oriental in exchange for his jewels? How's the stuff to be transmitted back here if I do get my hands on it? Must be the
hell of a lot of traffic.'
'He can have the entire product of Station H. He can send one of his own staffers down to Hongkong to sit in with us if he
likes. He'll probably be pretty well off on China already, but he won't have anything as high grade as our Macao link, the "Blue
Route". Hamilton will tell you all about that. In Tokyo, the man you'll be working with is an Aussie called Henderson -
Richard Lovelace Henderson. Fancy name, but Section J and all the old Jap hands say he's a good man. You'll have an
Australian passport and we'll fix for you to go out as his number two. That'll give you diplomatic status and a certain amount of
face, which counts for damn near everything out there according to Hamilton. If you get the stuff, Henderson will push it back
to us through Melbourne. We'll give him a communications staff to handle it. Next question.'
'What are the CIA going to say about all this? After all, it's bare-faced poaching.'
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