Page 15 (1/2)

Nohat? wondered Bond Daet on well And there was soet married But then she met some chap in the American Embassy On the Military Attaché's staff Marine Corps one back to the States, as a es aren't often a success I gather he's a nice enough fellow Probably suit her better than living in London She couldn't really settle down here Fine girl, but she's a bit neurotic We had too many rows Probably ave one of the brief smiles that lit up his eyes , James,' he said There was no sy', as he called it to hi that his prejudice was the relic of a Victorian upbringing But, as Bond's chief, the last thing he wanted was for Bond to be permanently tied to one woeton your gun-ar about it Had to know the answer before I told you what's coet you involved if you were on the edge ofof that sort'

Bond shook his head, waiting for the story

'All right then,' said M There was a note of relief in his voice He leant back in his chair and gave several quick pulls on his pipe to get it going 'This is what's happened Yesterday there was a long signal in froot an anonye which told him to take a round ticket on the 8 pe to theelse Head of T's an adventurous sort of chap, and of course he took the steamer He stood up for'ard by the rail and waited After about a quarter of an hour a girl ca, he says, and after they'd talked a bit about the view and so on, she suddenly switched and in the same sort of conversational voice she told him an extraordinary story'

M paused to put another match to his pipe Bond interjected, 'Who is Head of T, sir? I've never worked in Turkey'

'Man called Kerilish mother Remarkable fellow Been Head of T since before the war One of the best ot anywhere Does a wonderful job Loves it Very intelligent and he knows all that part of the world like the back of his hand' M disirl's story was that she was a Corporal in the MGB Had been in the show since she left school and had just got transferred to the Istanbul centre as a cipher officer She'd engineered the transfer because she wanted to get out of Russia and coht be useful to have one of their cipher girls But why does she want to come over?'

M looked across the table at Bond 'Because she's in love' He paused and added mildly, 'She says she's in love with you'

'In love with me?'

'Yes, with you That's what she says Her name's Tatiana Romanova Ever heard of her?'

'Good God, no! I mean, no, sir' M smiled at the mixture of expressions on Bond's face 'But what the hell does she mean? Has she ever met me? How does she know I exist?'

'Well,' said M 'The whole thing sounds absolutely ridiculous But it's so crazy that it just irl is twenty-four Ever since she joined the MGB she's been working in their Central Index, the sa in the English section of it She's been there six years One of the files she had to deal as yours'

'I'd like to see that one,' commented Bond

'Her story is that she first took a fancy to the photographs they've got of you Admired your looks and so on' M's mouth turned doards at the corners as if he had just sucked at a lemon 'She read up all your cases Decided that you were the hell of a fellow'

Bond looked down his nose M's face was non-committal

'She said you particularly appealed to her because you reminded her of the hero of a book by some Russian fellow called Lermontov Apparently it was her favourite book This hero chap liked ga in and out of scraps Anyway, you re else, and one day the idea came to her that if only she could transfer to one of their foreign centres she could get in touch with you and you would come and rescue her'

'I've never heard such a crazy story, sir Surely Head of T didn't s it'

'Noait a moment,' M's voice was testy 'Just don't be in too 's turned up you've never come across before Suppose you happened to be a filet daft letters froirls all over the world stuffed with Heaven knohat sort of rot about not being able to live without you and so on Here's a silly girl doing a secretary's job in Moscow Probably the whole department is staffed by women, like our Records Not a man in the roo features on a file that's constantly coets what I believe they call a 'crush' on these pictures just as secretaries all over the world get crushes on these dreadful faces in the norance of these grisly female habits 'The Lord knows I don't know s, but you must admit that they happen'