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The last few days were spent in a flurry of , at Headquarters Thewith Blofeld absolutely 'clean' He would carry no weapons, no secret gear of any kind, and he would not be watched or followed by the Service in any way He would co across such infor heraldic double talk (Sable Basilisk had been cleared by MI5 i with hiht that Bond was eiven a cut-out at the Ministry ould be his go-betith the Service This was all assued to stay close to Blofeld for at least a em It was essential to find out as much as possible about Blofeld, his activities and his associates, in order to proceed with planning the next step, his abduction froht not be necessary Bond ht be able to trick the man into a visit to Germany, as a result of a report which Sable Basilisk had prepared of certain Blofeld fa Zentral Archiv, which would need Blofeld's personal identification Security precautions would include keeping Station Z completely in the dark about Bond's mission to Switzerland and a closure of the 'Bedlam' file at Headquarters which would be announced in the routine 'Orders of the Day' Instead, a new code-word for the operation, known only to an essential handful of senior officers, would be issued It would be 'CORONA'

Finally, the personal dangers to Bond himself were discussed There was total respect for Blofeld at Headquarters Nobody questioned his abilities or his ruthlessness If Bond's true identity somehow became known to Blofeld, Bond would of course instantly be liquidated A erous and likely event would be that, once Blofeld had probed Bond's heraldic gen to its rather shallow bottom and it had been proved that he was or was not the Comte de Bleuville, Sir Hilary Bray, his usefulness expended, ht 'meet with an accident' Bond would just have to face up to these hazards and watch out particularly for the latter He, and Sable Basilisk behind him, would have to keep some tricks up their sleeves, tricks that would somehow make Sir Hilary Bray's continued existence important to Blofeld In conclusion, the Chief of Staff said he considered the whole operation 'a lot of bezants' and that 'Bezants' would have been a better code-word than 'Corona' However, he wished Bond the best of luck and said, cold-heartedly, that he would instruct the Technical Section to proceed forthith the devising of a consignment of explosive snowballs for Bond's protection

It was on this cheery note that Bond, on the evening of Deceh of his docuht

He sat sideways to his desk, looking out over the triste winter twilight of Regent's Park under snohile she sat opposite hih the itee, property of the College of Heralds Stamped “Not to be ree of Arist's Guide, by G W Marshall, with Hatchard's receipted bill to Sable Basilisk inserted Bur he's General Armory, stamped “Property of the London Library”, wrapped and franked Dece various recently-dated frontier stamps in and out of France, Ger-eared One large file of correspondence with Augsburg and Zurich on College of Ar-paper of the addressees And that's the lot You've fixed your laundry tags and so on?'

'Yes,' said Bond dully 'I've fixed all that And I've got t suits with cuffs and double vents at the back and four buttons down the front Also a gold watch and chain with the Bray seal Quite the little baronet' Bond turned and looked across the desk at Mary Goodnight 'What do you think of this caper, Mary? Think it'll come off?'

'Well, it should do,' she said staunchly 'With all the trouble that's been taken But' - she hesitated - 'I don't like you taking this un' She waved a hand at the pile on the floor 'And all these stupid books about heraldry! It's just not you You will take care, won't you?'

'Oh, I'll do that all right,' said Bond reassuringly 'Now, be a good girl and get a radio taxi to the Universal Export entrance And put all that junk inside it, would you? I'll be down in a ' - he s , Mary Or rather goodnight, Goodnight And keep out of trouble till I get back'

She said, 'You do that yourself' She bent and picked up the books and papers fro her face hidden from Bond, went to the door and kicked it shut behind her with her heel A ain Her eyes were bright I'm sorry, James Good luck! And Happy Christmas!' She closed the door softly behind her

Bond looked at the blank face of the Office of Works creairl Mary was! But now there was Tracy He would be near her in Switzerland It was ti about her There had been three non-committal but cheerful postcards from the Clinique de 1'Aube at Davos Bond had made inquiries and had ascertained that this was run by a Professor Auguste Koique Suisse Over the telephone, Sir James Molony, the nerve specialist by appointment to the Service, had told Bond that Kommer was one of the top men in the world at his job Bond had written affectionately and encouragingly to Tracy and had had the letters posted from America He had said he would be home soon and would be in touch with her Would he? And ould he do then? Bond had a luxurioussorry for hi alone He then crushed out his cigarette and, banging doors behind hiot the hell out of his office and down in the lift to the discreet side-entrance that said 'Universal Export'

The taxi aiting It was seven o'clock As the taxi got under way, BondHe would first do an extrele suitcase, the one that had no tricks to it, have two double vodkas and tonics with a dash of Angostura, eat a large dish of May's speciality - scras fines herbes - have two o to bed with half a grain of second

Encouraged by the prospect of this cosy self-anaesthesia, Bond brusquely kicked his problems under the carpet of his consciousness

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Irma La Not So Douce