‘Then I can go, sir?’
‘Just one more thing, 007 . . .’
‘Yes?’
‘What did Yuskovich have tucked away at the air base called Minsk Five?’
‘Minsk Five, sir?’
‘Come on, James. Your final signal was detailed enough. Caspian Sea, the cargo, how it was being carried, everything until you got to the bit about Minsk Five. Then you went vague on me. “Inform soonest and most urgent President USSR to search Minsk Five.” ’
‘You know what Minsk Five is, sir?’ An old-time drill sergeant would have called it dumb insolence.
M sighed. ‘James, my dear boy, I’ll read it after the full debriefing, so you might as well tell me now. I know it’s a military air base.’
‘It has been a long day, sir.’
‘You should have thought of that before you asked for extra time in Moscow. I gather you then went on to Paris. How is Mlle Adoré?’
Bond did not meet his eye. ‘She needed a little comforting, sir. Henri Rampart was an old and valued friend.’
‘I bet he was. Minsk Five, 007.’
This time Bond looked genuinely concerned. Since he had first heard it, outside the Red Army Senior Officers’ Centre on the dark and cold night when he had ‘killed’ himself, Bond had tried not to think about the ramifications of Minsk Five. He sucked in air. ‘It was Yuskovich’s final gambit, sir. I could only put it to the Soviet President through you.’
‘Well?’
‘I know he had the place pretty well dry-cleaned, the President, I mean . . .’
‘What was there to find?’ M put on his patient voice.
‘Possibly a Boeing 747, sir.’
‘A special 747?’
‘Pretty special. It was in British Airways livery. According to the late Yevgeny Yuskovich, they had also made modifications. Extra fuel tanks and a bomb bay containing a very high-yield nuclear device.’
‘Go on.’
‘This is what I heard, sir. The Soviet President did not confide in me. According to Yuskovich . . . what he said to Berzin, anyway . . . it sounds ludicrous, sir, but in this day and age nothing is too ludicrous. From what I heard, the intention was that, on the day after a strike was launched against Iraq, and following Iraq’s response with the Scapegoats, they were going to decimate Washington.’
‘How?’
‘A mid-Atlantic intercept by fighters, refuelled en route, of course. Our usual BA flight to Washington. To start with, the BA flight would have all radio and radar jammed and the counterfeit 747 would transmit on their frequency, use their squawk numbers. The BA aircraft would then be blown out of the sky at long range. They would never see the fighters that did it. Their 747 would then become the BA flight. It could be done, sir. The aircraft would be off air for a couple of seconds, then back on again.’
M frowned. ‘Yes, of course it could be done. The general public are getting their first taste of what can be done even as we speak.’
‘When the flight came under Dulles control, it would go way off course. It would be all over before the Dulles ATC realised what was happening.’
‘Right over the centre of Washington?’ M sucked his pipe, and Bill Tanner drew in his breath.
‘Washington, large chunks of Maryland and Virginia and other adjacent areas. I should imagine the bulk of America’s politicians, generals, you name it, would have gone.’
‘And you really believe he was going to have this done?’
‘I have no reason to disbelieve it, sir.’
‘The mad, mad . . .’ M stopped, shaking his head.
‘No, sir, I don’t think Yuskovich was mad.’
M rose and went over to the window. Below, the park was almost empty. There was a long silence before he spoke. ‘No, I suppose not. The man had a faith. He had served a system in which he had absolute belief. He saw it slipping away and he already had great power. You’re right, and I can only presume there’re thousands like him. Believers. It doesn’t simply disappear overnight. There most likely will be others. It has not gone away.’
Bond did not reply. He pulled a slim square jeweller’s box from his pocket and laid it on the desk to which M had now returned.
‘I think you should lock this away, sir. The Soviet President gave it to me. The very fact that it’s still presented to people for services rendered should tell us something.’
M did not seem to have heard him. ‘I’m certain the Soviets want to play by different rules, but it is hard to break the mould.’ The old spy nodded to himself, then looked at the box.
‘With permission, sir, I’d like to leave.’ Bond stood up.
M nodded, smiled absently, and said a simple. ‘Thank you, James. Drop in tomorrow, would you?’
Bond nodded, returning the smile.
When the door closed, M reached for the box and opened it. There lying on a bed of silk was an oval medal attached to a red ribbon bordered by thin white stripes. In the centre, surrounded by a gilt frame of grain, Lenin’s face stared off to the left, moulded in platinum. The red enamel border was punctuated by the hammer and sickle, the red star, and the name ЛЕНИНin Russian script. M had never seen one before, except in photographs, and then usually pinned to the breast of celebrated Soviets, but he recognised it immediately. One of the highest decorations the Soviets could award – the Order of Lenin.
Endnotes
1. GIGN. Groupement D’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale – the low-key, efficient, élite anti-terrorist unit.
2. DST. French security service.
3. DGSE. Direction Général de Securitée Extérieur, the equivalent of the British Secret Intelligence Service and the American CIA.
By John Gardner
Licence Renewed
For Special Services
Icebreaker
Role of Honour
Nobody Lives For Ever
No Deals, Mr Bond
Scorpius
Win, Lose or Die
Licence to Kill
Brokenclaw
The Man from Barbarossa
Death is Forever
Never Send Flowers
SeaFire
GoldenEye
COLD
John Gardner served with the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Marines before embarking on a long career as a thriller writer, including international bestsellers The Nostradamus Traitor, The Garden of Weapons, Confessor and Maestro. In 1981 he was invited by Glidrose Publications Ltd – now known as Ian Fleming Publications – to revive James Bond in a brand new series of novels. To find out more visit John Gardner’s website at www.john-gardner.com, or the Ian Fleming website at www.ianfleming.com
An Orion ebook
First published in Great Britain in 1991 by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd
This ebook published in 2012 by Orion Books
© Glidrose Publications Ltd. 1991
The right of John Gardner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
James Bond and 007 are registered trademarks of Danjaq, LLC, used under licence by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.