Unaccountably Bond suddenly felt hot and flushed.
He started to reach a hand out to Percy's shoulder, but changed to loosen his tie as she drew a heavy black joystick from one of her cases and plugged it into the keyboard, pressing the S key. Immediately a bright rectangle appeared on the map, which Bond saw was as clear as a piece of printed cartography.
"Okay, this may look like some weird game to you, but I promise you, it's a very advanced training aid." Percy operated the joystick and the rectangle slid across the screen, moving the map as it reached the outer perimeter, so that it scrolled up and down. The entire area covered was about eighty square mil 5 of border and below it on the screen was a blank oblong blue space.
"I type in coordinates and we go immediately to that section on the map." Percy suited action to word, and the map jumped on the screen, the rectangle staying in place. "Now we can look at what's going on in a smaller area." She positioned the rectangle over a village about a mile from the border and pressed the trigger on the joystick. Bond had suddenly become aware of the perfume Percy was wearing but couldn't decide what it was.
He jerked his mind back to the matter in hand.
It was as if a zoom lens had been applied to the screen, for now he could see detail - roads, trees, houses, rocks and fields. Among this detail Bond could pick out at least six tanks and four troop carriers, while a pair of helicopters sat hidden behind buildings, and three Harrier aircraft could be defined on pads shielded by trees.
"We have to assume that some form of non-nuclear hostility exists." Percy was typing commands into the micro, asking for information, first on NATO forces. The tanks, troop carriers, helicopters and Harriers blinked in turn, as their designated call-signs and strength ribboned out on the lower part of the screen.
Percy noted the call-signs on a pad at her elbow and then typed a command for information about Warsaw Pact forces in this tiny area.
They appeared to be facing at least two companies of infantry, with armoured support.
"It'll only give you available information, the kind of thing intelligence and reconnaissance would actually have." Percy watched as the screen flashed up known positions, with data concerning the enemy running out on the blue space below.
Bond could not take his eyes from the soft curl of her hair on an almost exposed shoulder as she began to input orders. Two of the Harriers moved of! as though flying in to attack the enemy armour. At the same time, she activated the NATO tanks and troop carriers.
Individual responses from the tank and infantry commanders came up on the screen, while the tiny vehicles moved to her bidding, the tanks suddenly coming under attack, indicated by shell bursts on the screen and audible crumps and whines. Bond stooped slightly for a closer look, and found himself glancing sideways at Percy's face, profiled and absorbed alongside his. He looked quickly back at the screen.
The action, controlled throughout by Percy, lasted for almost twenty minutes, during which time she was able to gain a small superiority over the enemy forces with the loss of three tanks, one helicopter, a Harrier and just under one hundred men.
Bond stood back a pace behind Percy. He had found the whole operation fascinating. He asked if this kind of thing were used by the military.
"This is only a simple computer TEwT.- Percy was talking about a Tactical Exercise Without Troops, a technique used in training officers and N.C.O.s. "In the old days, as you know, they did TEWTS with boards, tables, sand trays and models. Now all you need is a micro. This is very simple, but you should see the advanced games they use at staff colleges."
"And Dr Holy was programming this kind of thing for the Pentagon?" For the first time Bond noticed a little mole on Percy's neck.
"This, and more. When he disappeared, Jay Autem was into some exceptionally advanced stuff. Not only training but specialist programs, where the computer is given all the possible options and works out the one most likely to be taken by an opposing power under a particular set of circumstances.
"And now? Given that he really is still alive .
"Oh, he's alive, James." She flushed suddenly. "I've seen him.
Don't doubt it. He's the one I've already told you about - Jason St. John-Finnes, of Nun's Cross, Oxfordshire. I should know. After all, I was his watchdog for three and a half lousy years "Watchdog?" Her eyes really were the most incredible colour, a subtle shade of grey-blue that changed according to the light.
Percy looked away, biting her lip in mock shame. "Oh, didn't they tell you? I married the bastard under orders.
I'm a Company lady - from Langley. Marriage to Dr Holy was an assignment. How else would I know the inside of this op?"
"He wasn't trusted then?" Bond tried not to show surprise, even though the idea of a C.I.A. employee being instructed to marry in order to keep surveillance on her husband appalled him.
"At that time, with his contacts - he had many friends among the scientific community in Russia and the Eastern Bloc - they couldn't afford to trust him. And they were right."
"You think he's working for the K.G.B. now?"
"No." She went to the small chiller to get another bottle of champagne. "No, Jay Autem worked for Jay Autem and nobody else. At least I discovered that about him." Passing another glass to Bond, she added, "There are almost certainly Soviet connections in what he's doing now, but it'll be on a freelance basis. Jay Autem knows his business, but he's really dedicated only to money.
Politics is another matter.
"So what sort of thing do you reckon he's doing?" Bond caught another strong whiff of that strange perfume which he would always now associate with Percy.
"As they say, James, that's for him to know and you to find out.
And it's my job to teach you how. Tomorrow morning we start in earnest. Eight-thirty suit you?"
"Hardly worth my going back to my own room." He glanced casually at his watch.
"I know, but you're going all the same. I'm to teach you all I can about how to prepare the kind of programs Jay Autem writes, and give you a course on how to break into his programs, should you be lucky enough to get your hands on one.
Percy took hold of his wrist and reached up to kiss him gently on the cheek. Bond moved closer, but Percy stepped away, wagging a finger.
"That's a no-no, James. But I'm a good teacher, and if you prove to be a diligent pupil, I have ways of rewarding you that you never dreamed of when you were at school. Eight-thirty sharp. Okay?"
"You guarantee results, Proud Percy?"
"I guarantee to teach you, Bond James,' she said with a wicked grin, "and about computer programming as well." Promptly at eight-thirty the next morning, Bond knocked on her door, one arm hidden behind his back.
When she opened up, he thrust out his hand to give her a large rosy apple.
"For the teacher,' he said with a broad smile.
It was the only joke of the day, for Percy Proud proved to be a hard and dedicated taskmaster.
THE Training TOOK a little less than a month and was a tribute to Persephone Proud's teaching skill. Her pupil's capabilities were taxed to the limit. The task had been equivalent to learning a new language and several complicated dialects as well. Indeed, Bond could not remember a time when he had been forced to call so heavily on his mental reserves, to focus his mind, like a burning glass, on the subject at hand.
They quickly established a routine, which seldom varied. For the first few days they started at eight-thirty each morning, but, as the late nights began to take their toll, this was modified to ten o'clock.