It's Grεεκ To Me

RichardTheBruce

Die Another Day, Lee Tamahori, 2002.
Icarus.

Graves: What a wonderful day to become a knight.

Reporter: Will you be using your title, Mr. Graves?

Graves: No. You know me, I'm proud of my adopted nation, but I'd never stand on ceremony.

Reporter: After an entrance like that, you can't be surprised you're being called a self-publicizing adrenaline junkie, can you?

Graves: I prefer the term adventurer.

Reporter: We've been hearing rumors about the Icarus space program. What's the big secret?

Graves: It's not a secret. It's a surprise. But don't worry, you'll soon be enlightened.

Graves: Look, I'm putting on a little scientific demonstration in Iceland at the weekend. Icarus? Perhaps you could join us. Miranda, make the arrangements, would you?

Miranda: Once I've smoothed things over with the club.

Graves: As you know, I'm always trying to give the planet something in return for what it has given me. Those little shards of heaven known as diamonds. Now, diamonds aren't just expensive stones. They are the stuff of dreams. And the means to make dreams real.

Graves: Imagine being able to bring light and warmth to the darkest parts of the world. Imagine being able to grow crops the year round, bringing an end to hunger. Imagine a second sun, shining like a diamond in the sky. Let there be light.

Graves: I give you Icarus! Icarus is unique. Its miraculous silver skin will inhale the sun's light and breathe it gently upon the Earth's surface. You have no idea how much Icarus is about to change your world. And now, let us brighten this night with our inner radiance.

Cameraman: That's a wrap.

Graves: Gentlemen, I promised you a demonstration. Now you will see the true power of Icarus. The Western spy runs, but he cannot hide. Icarus will lock on to the heat signature and concentrate the sun's power.

Vlad: Hey, boss, he beat your time.

Falco: Well, well, James Bond. Just in time for the fireworks.

Bond: Let's get down to business.

Falco: We're at DEFCON 2. And if the North goes south, they're gonna go south bigtime. You don't just stroll through the world's biggest minefield.

Bond: You need some kind of an edge. Icarus.

Falco: We're taking care of that with an ASAT launch in one hour.

Bond: Where's Graves?

M: In the middle of a North Korean air base.

Falco: They're right where we can't touch them.

Bond: You can't, but I can.

Robinson: They've entered North Korean airspace.

Falco: Relax, Robinson. If our radar can't see those Switchblades, the North Koreans sure as hell can't.

The fictional Switchblade—modern-day Icarus wings.

Vlad: Hey, boss, they launched against Icarus.

Graves: Leave it on automatic.

Graves: Do you see, Father? Icarus is clearing the minefield, creating a highway for our troops. If the Americans don't run, Icarus will destroy them. Japan is a bug waiting to be squashed, and the West will shake with fear.

General: But the Americans will send nuclear warheads.

Graves: Icarus will swat them from the sky.

CommanderRoss

Ah, Icarus! at least a Greek name connected to aviation, allthough with such a story you can also understand people beeing a bit weary of using the name. After all, who'd ant to fly a plane that goes too high and loses it's wings?

Well, the Yugoslavs did in the 1930's with (amongst others) the Ikarus IK2.



Ikarus is the factory, which had a few designs of it's own next to building Hawker Hurricanes and other designs under license for the Yugoslav armed forces.
Today they're a bus factory:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikarbus

Then there's the German hanglider factory which extens into light aviation, the Ikarus C42:



The name is popular with hangglider manuafcturers, as the Italians have a company called Icaro 2000.

Up until 2011 there was a domestic airline in equador called Icaro:



flying amongst others the Fokker 28 mk 4000

Thunderfinger

RichardTheBruce wrote: »

Andi1996Ruegg wrote: »

Between you and me, I actually planned to start this topic in February. Put together the basic opening in draft some time ago. Then on that fateful day a week ago I was updating it, fat-fingered the save button and hit post.

Good thing it wasn t any of that porn you are hiding as various drafts here.

Andi1996Ruegg

RichardTheBruce wrote: »

For you, I'm wondering if you're partial to study on the East Coast or West?

Berkeley, Standford or California institute of technology are definitely possibilities. So CA.
Probably going for geology, geochemistry, geophysics, paleontology but I'm early in the selection process.
After the army it'll be another year to my Bachelor in Earth Sciences.

RichardTheBruce

Minotaur / Μίνως ταύρος / ‘mɪnəˌtɔr ; minˈətôrˌ/ noun
1. a monster creation of man and bull that prowls the Labyrinth of Milos

Greek (Μίνως or Minos; ταύρος meaning bull).
Birth name Asterion (ἀστέριον" as "starry one", relates to Taurus the Bull and the constellation).

Minotaur (Μίνως ταύρο): a creature resulting from a failure to obey the gods. Poseidon sent the Cretan Bull as a gift to King Minos of Crete. Because Minos did not sacrifice the animal, a furious Poseidon cursed Queen Pasiphae to love the bull—their union produced the man-bull named Asterion. An unnatural creation, it ate only humans. The Oracle of Delphi advised Minos to build a maze—the Labyrinth--under his court where the Minotaur would dwell. It was built by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus.

A further complication came with the death of Minos’ son Androgeus at games in Athens. The angered king attacked Athens and demanded 14 annual sacrifices to the Minotaur. One year on Theseus, son of Athenian King Aegeus, set out to kill the beast. In Crete, Minos’ daughter Ariadne falls in love with and assists Theseus with a sword and ball of string help him defeat the Minotaur plus escape the Labyrinth.

Pasiphae and Esterion.

The Minotaur.

Theseus kills the Minotaur.



The Constellation Taurus.

RichardTheBruce

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, 1953.
Chapter 11- The Moment of Truth

Le Chiffre looked incuriously at him, the whites of his eyes, which showed all round the irises, lending something impassive and doll like to his gaze.

He slowly removed one thick hand from the table and slipped it into the pocket of his dinner jacket. The hand came out holding a small metal cylinder with a cap which Le Chiffre unscrewed. He inserted the nozzle of the cylinder, with an obscene deliberation, twice into each black nostril in turn, and luxuriously inhaled the benzedrine vapour.

Unhurriedly he pocketed the inhaler, then his hand came quickly back above the level of the table and gave the shoe its usual hard, sharp slap.

During this offensive pantomime Bond had coldly held the banker's gaze, taking in the wide expanse of white face surmounted by the short abrupt cliff of reddish brown hair, the unsmiling wet red mouth and the impressive width of the shoulders, loosely draped in a massively cut dinner jacket.

But for the high lights on the satin of the shawl cut lapels, he might have been faced by the thick bust of a black fleeced Minotaur rising out of a green grass field.

Bond slipped a packet of notes on to the table without counting them. If he lost the croupier would extract what was necessary to cover the bet, but the easy gesture conveyed that Bond didn't expect to lose and that, this was only a token display from the deep funds at Bond's disposal.

The other players sensed a tension between the two gamblers and there was silence as Le Chiffre fingered the four cards out of the shoe.

Not a true connection, but I like this flip line.

Octopussy, John Glen, 1983.

Bond: Oh, so you’re a Toro, too.

CommanderRoss

In aviation, well, rather a bit higher, space travel the Minotaur is a rocket- family used by NASA to send small satallites into space


Minotaur software is used which can automatically correlate data from different radar devices on board aircrraft. The P8 Poseidon (just waiting for the Bond-connection there) will be equipped with this software.

Then Taurus:

The Taurus Electro G2:



The Taurus cruise missile


and Bristol Taurus aircraft engine.

All in all, a load of Tupolev Tu-4

NATO codename 'Bull'.

All in all, rather stocked.

Interesting story that I found because of the USAF Air Base El- Toro:

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-tale-of-when-a-marine-mechanic-stole-an-a-4-skyhawk-1745015819

RichardTheBruce

j_w_pepper wrote: »

Odysseus' wife was called Penelope, though not Smallbone.

I think the Greek Penelope informs her namesake(s). Miss Smallbone, and Moneypenny herself.

RichardTheBruce

Penelope / Πηνελόπεια ; Πηνελόπη / pəˈnɛləpi ; pənelˈəpē / noun
1. a female given name, nickname “Penny”
2. in Greek myth, the faithful wife of Odysseus who awaits his return from war

Greek (Pēnelopē / Πηνελόπεια). Pre-Greek (pēnelops / πηνέλοψ, or pēnelōps /πηνέλωψ; thought to be a bird—suggested as the Eurasian wigeon (scientific name in Latin Anas Penelope).

Pēnelopē / Πηνελόπη: combines Greek pēnē / πήνη or weft, and ōps / ὤψ meaning face. Suits a clever weaver of secret motivations.

Penelope: wife of Odysseus. Daughter of Icarius and Periboea. A son, Telemachus.

Helen of Troy was kidnapped (eloped?), and Odysseus departed to war against the Trojans for ten years. His return journey lasted ten more. In his absence, Penelope remained faithful through various tactics while many suitors courted her.

She declared she would not remarry until she finished the weaving of a shroud—and undid the threads each night. Odysseus finally returned dressed as a beggar, to see if Penelope had been faithful to him. She may have recognized him straight off, but did not give him away. Now she declared before the suitors that she would marry the one who could string the bow of Odysseus and pierce 12 axe heads with an arrow. Odysseus got his turn and completed the task, revealed himself.

To be sure, Penelope had another test: their bed must be moved. Only Odysseus knew the proper response: it could not be moved, as one leg was a live olive tree. Proven to be Odysseus, Penelope was reunited at last.

Penelope and Telemachus (plus Argus) say farewell to Odysseus.

Penelope and loom.

Dog Argus recognizes Odysseus.

Odysseus reunited with Penelope.


Odysseus tells his adventures to Penelope.

RichardTheBruce

The Spy Who Loved Me, Ian Fleming, 1962.
Chapter 4 – “Dear Viv”

...
I stayed with the Clarion another two years, until I was just over twenty-one,
and by then I was getting offers from the Nationals, from the Express and the
Mail, and it seemed to me it was time to get out of S.W.3 and into the world. I
was still living with Susan. She had got a job with the Foreign Office in
something called "Communications," about which she was very secretive, and she
had a boy-friend from the same department, and I knew it wouldn't be long before
they got engaged and she would want the whole flat. My own private life was a
vacuum—a business of drifting friendships and semi-flirtations from which I
always recoiled, and I was in danger of becoming a hard, if successful, little
career girl, smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too many vodkas and tonics
and eating alone out of tins. My gods, or rather goddesses (Katharine Whitehorne
and Penelope Gilliatt were outside my orbit), were Drusilla Beyfus, Veronica
Papworth, Jean Campbell, Shirley Lord, Barbara Griggs, and Anne Sharpley—the top
women journalists—and I only wanted to be as good as any of them and nothing
else in the world.

RichardTheBruce

Octopussy, John Glen, 1983.
Miss Penelope Smallbone, and the other Penny.

Moneypenny at her best.

Bond: Well...You become more beautiful every day.

Moneypenny: l'm over here.

Bond: Of course you are.

Moneypenny: This is Miss Penelope Smallbone, my new assistant.

Bond: Miss Smallbone. What can l say, Moneypenny? Except that she is as attractive and as charming...

Moneypenny: As l used to be?

Bond: l didn't say that.

Moneypenny: You're such a flatterer, James.

Bond: Moneypenny, you know there never has been and never will be anybody but you.

Moneypenny: So you've told me.

Bond: Welcome to Universal Exports.

Moneypenny: Take it, dear. That's all you'll ever get from him.

Penelope: Thank you, Commander Bond.

Bond: Do you know me?

Penelope: Miss Moneypenny described you.

Moneypenny: ln nauseating detail.

Bond: Really? l can see you're going to fit in here very nicely.

Penelope: [sigh]

CommanderRoss

Agent_99

I'm sorry but there is only one Lady Penelope.

RichardTheBruce

Before moving on, this is a chance to focus on Penelope's namesake a bit.

What follows are the mentions of Moneypenny in the Fleming novels.

RichardTheBruce

Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, 1953.
Chapter 3 - Number 007

...
Head of S (the section of the Secret Service concerned with the Soviet Union) was so keen on his plan for the destruction of Le Chiffre, and it was basically his own plan, that he took the memorandum himself and went up to the top floor of the gloomy building overlooking Regent's Park and through the green baize door and along the corridor to the end room.

He walked belligerently up to M's Chief of Staff, a young sapper who had earned his spurs as one of the secretariat to the Chiefs of Staff committee after having been wounded during a sabotage operation in 1944, and had kept his sense of humour in spite of both experiences.

'Now look here, Bill. I want to sell something to the Chief. Is this a good moment?'

'What do you think, Penny?' The Chief of Staff turned to M's private secretary who shared the room with him.

Miss Moneypenny would have been desirable but for eyes which were cool and direct and quizzical.

'Should be all right. He won a bit of a victory at the FO this morning and he's not got anyone for the next half an hour.' She smiled encouragingly at Head of S whom she liked for himself and for the importance of his section.

RichardTheBruce

Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 1954.
Chapter II - Interview With M

'007's here now, Sir.'

'Send him in.'

The desirable Miss Moneypenny, M's all-powerful private secretary, gave him an encouraging smile and he walked through the double doors. At once the green light came on, high on the wall in the room he had left. M was not to be disturbed as long as it burned.

Chapter IX - True or False?

'You're connected, caller,' said the Overseas operator. 'Go ahead, please. New York calling London.'

Bond heard the calm English voice. 'Universal Export. Who's speaking, please?'

'Can I speak to the Managing Director,' said Bond. 'This is his nephew James speaking from New York.'

'Just a moment, please.' Bond could follow the call to Miss Moneypenny and see her press the switch on the intercom. 'It's New York, Sir,' she would say. 'I think it's 007.'

'Put him through,' M would say.

'Yes?' said the cold voice that Bond loved and obeyed.

RichardTheBruce

Moonraker, Ian Fleming, 1955.
Chapter II - The Columbite King

…
Without knocking he pushed through the green door and walked into the last room but one along the passage.

Miss Moneypenny, M.'s private secretary, looked up from her typewriter and smiled at him. They liked each other and she knew that Bond admired her looks. She was wearing the same model shirt as his own secretary, but with blue stripes. "New uniform, Penny?" said Bond. She laughed. "Loelia and I share the same little woman," she said. "We tossed and I got blue."

A snort came through the open door of the adjoining room. The Chief of Staff, a man of about Bond's age, came out, a sardonic grin on his pale, overworked face.

"Break it up," he said, "M.'s waiting. Lunch afterwards?"

"Fine," said Bond. He turned to the door beside Miss Moneypenny, walked through and shut it after him. Above it, a green light went on. Miss Moneypenny raised her eyebrows at the Chief of Staff. He shook his head.

"I don't think it's business, Penny," he said. "Just sent for him out of the blue." He went back into his own room and got on with the day's work.

Chapter III - 'Belly Strippers', Etc.

…
M's secretary was still at her desk. There was a plate of sandwiches and a glass of milk beside her typewriter. She looked sharply at Bond, but there was nothing to be read in his expression.

"I suppose he gave up," said Bond.

"Nearly an hour ago," said Miss Moneypenny reproachfully. "It's half-past two. He'll be back any minute now."

"I'll go down to the canteen before it closes," he said. "Tell him I'll pay for his lunch next time." He smiled at her and walked out into the corridor and along to the lift.

There were only a few people left in the officers' canteen. Bond sat by himself and ate a grilled sole, a large mixed salad with his own dressing laced with mustard, some Brie cheese and toast, and half a carafe of white Bordeaux. He had two cups of black coffee and was back in his office by three. With half his mind preoccupied with M.'s problem, he hurried through the rest of the NATO file, said goodbye to his secretary after telling her where he would be that evening, and at four-thirty was collecting his car from the staff garage at the back of the building.

"Supercharger's whining a bit, sir," said the ex-RAF mechanic who regarded Bond's Bentley as his own property. "Take it down tomorrow if you won't be needing her at lunch-time."

"Thanks," said Bond, "that'll be fine." He took the car quietly out into the park and over to Baker Street, the two-inch exhaust bubbling fatly in his wake.

RichardTheBruce

Diamonds Are Forever, Ian Fleming, 1956.
Chapter 3 – Hot Ice

JAMES BOND shut the door of M's office behind him. He smiled into the warm brown eyes of Miss Moneypenny and walked across her office into the Chief of Staff's room.

The Chief of Staff, a lean relaxed man of about Bond's age, put down his pen and sat back in his chair. He watched as Bond automatically reached for the flat gun-metal cigarette case in his hip pocket and walked over to the open window and looked down on to Regent's Park.

RichardTheBruce

Dr. No, Ian Fleming, 1958.
Chapter II - Choice of Weapons

Three weeks later, in London, March came in like a rattlesnake.

From first light on March 1st, hail and icy sleet, with a Force 8 gale behind them, lashed at the city and went on lashing as the people streamed miserably to work, their legs whipped by the wet hems of their macintoshes and their faces blotching with the cold.

It was a filthy day and everybody said so-even M, who rarely admitted the existence of weather even in its extreme forms. When the old black Silver Wraith Rolls with the nondescript number-plate stopped outside the tall building in Regent's Park and he climbed stiffly out on to the pavement, hail hit him in the face like a whiff of small-shot. Instead of hurrying inside the building, he walked deliberately round the car to the window beside the chauffeur.

"Won't be needing the car again today, Smith. Take it away and go home. I'll use the tube this evening. No weather for driving a car. Worse than one of those PQ convoys."

Ex-Leading Stoker Smith grinned gratefully. "Aye-aye, sir. And thanks." He watched the elderly erect figure walk round the bonnet of the Rolls and across the pavement and into the building. Just like the old boy. He'd always see the men right first. Smith clicked the gear lever into first and moved off, peering forward through the streaming windscreen. They didn't come like that any more.

M went up in the lift to the eighth floor and along the thick-carpeted corridor to his office. He shut the door behind him, took off his overcoat and scarf and hung them behind the door. He took out a large blue silk bandanna handkerchief and brusquely wiped it over his face. It was odd, but he wouldn't have done this in front of the porters or the liftman. He went over to his desk and sat down and bent towards the intercom. He pressed a switch. "I'm in, Miss Moneypenny. The signals, please, and anything else you've got. Then get me Sir James Molony. He'll be doing his rounds at St Mary's about now. Tell the Chief of Staff I'll see 007 in half an hour. And let me have the Strangways file." M waited for the metallic "Yes, sir" and released the switch.

RichardTheBruce

Goldfinger, Ian Fleming, 1959.
Chapter Five - Night Duty

Bond went back to the seventh floor. On the other side of the world it was around midnight. Eastern stations were closing down. There was a flurry of signals that had to be dealt with, the night's log to be written up, and then it was eight o'clock. Bond telephoned the canteen for his breakfast. He had just finished it when there came the harsh purr of the red telephone. M! Why the hell had he got in half an hour early?

'Yes, sir.'

'Come up to my office, 007. I want to have a word before you go off duty.'

'Sir.' Bond put the telephone back. He slipped on his coat and ran a hand through his hair, told the switchboard where he would be, took the night log and went up in the lift to the eighth and top floor. Neither the desirable Miss Moneypenny nor the Chief of Staff was on duty. Bond knocked on M's door and went in.

Chapter Twelve - Long Tail on a Ghost

"Bye.' Bond put down the receiver. He got up and set about packing his bag. He could see the scene in the Chief of Staff's office as the conversation was played back off the tape while the Chief of Staff translated the call to Miss Moneypenny. 'Says he agrees that Goldfinger is up to something big but he can't make out what. G. is flying this morning with his Rolls from Ferryfield. 007 wants to follow. (Let's say two hours later to let G. get well away on the other side. Fix the reservation, would you?) He wants us to have a word with Customs so that he can take a good look at the Rolls and plant a Homer in the boot. (Fix that too, please.) He'll keep in touch through stations in case he needs help...'

RichardTheBruce

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Ian Fleming, 1963.
Chapter 8 - Fancy Cover

'Well, I think it's all a pack of nonsense,' said M testily. (Not many years before, M had been awarded the KCMG for his services, and Miss Moneypenny, his desirable secretary, had revealed in a moment of candour to Bond that M had not replied to a single one of the notes and letters of congratulation. After a while he had refused even to read them and had told Miss Moneypenny not to show him any more but to throw them in the wastepaper basket.) 'All right then, what's this ridiculous title to be? And what happens next?'

If Bond had been able to blush, he would have blushed. He said, 'Er - well, sir, it seems there's a chap called Sir Hilary Bray. Friend of Sable Basilisk's. About my age and not unlike me to look at. His family came from some place in Normandy. Family tree as long as your arm. William the Conqueror and all that. And a coat of arms that looks like a mixture between a jigsaw puzzle and Piccadilly Circus at night. Well, Sable Basilisk says he can fix it with him. This man's got a good war record and sounds a reliable sort of chap. He lives in some remote glen in the Highlands, watching birds and climbing the hills with bare feet. Never sees a soul. No reason why anyone in Switzerland should have heard of him.' Bond's voice became defensive, stubborn. 'Well, sir, the idea is that I should be him. Rather fancy cover, but I think it makes sense.'

RichardTheBruce

You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming, 1964.
Chapter 2 – Curtains for Bond?

He put the receiver down slowly. He looked round his office as if saying goodbye to it, walked out and along the corridor and went up in the lift with the resignation of a man under sentence.

Miss Moneypenny looked up at him with ill-concealed hostility. 'You can go in.'

Bond squared his shoulders and looked at the padded door behind which he had so often heard his fate pronounced. Almost as if it were going to give him an electric shock, he tentatively reached out for the door handle and walked through and closed the door behind him.

Chapter 3 – The Impossible Mission

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.

'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?'

RichardTheBruce

The Man With the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming, 1965.
Chapter 1 - "Can I Help You?"

James Bond spoke slowly and clearly. "This is Commander James Bond speaking. Number 007. Would you put me through to M., or his secretary, Miss Moneypenny. I want to make an appointment."

Captain Walker pressed two buttons on the side of his telephone. One of them switched on a tape recorder for the use of his department, the other alerted one of the duty officers in the Action Room of the Special Branch at Scotland Yard that he should listen to the conversation, trace the call, and at once put a tail on the caller. It was now up to Captain Walker, who was in fact an extremely bright ex-prisoner-of-war interrogator from Military Intelligence, to keep the subject talking for as near five minutes as possible. He said, "I'm afraid I don't know either of these two people. Are you sure you've got the right number?"

Chapter 2 - Attentat!

…
James Bond was standing smiling vaguely down at Miss Moneypenny. She looked distraught. When James Bond shifted his gaze and said "Hullo, Bill" he still wore the same distant smile. He didn't hold out his hand. Bill Tanner said, with a heartiness that rang with a terrible falsity in his ears, "Hullo, James. Long time no see." At the same time, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Miss Moneypenny give a quick, emphatic shake of the head. He looked her straight in the eyes. "M. would like to see 007 straight away."

Miss Moneypenny lied desperately: "You know M.'s got a Chiefs of Staff meeting at the Cabinet Office in five minutes?"

"Yes. He says you must somehow get him out of it." The Chief of Staff turned to James Bond. "Okay, James. Go ahead. Sorry you can't manage lunch. Come and have a gossip after M.'s finished with you."

Bond said, "That'll be fine." He squared his shoulders and walked through the door over which the red light was already burning.

Miss Moneypenny buried her face in her hands. "Oh, Bill!" she said desperately. "There's something wrong with him. I'm frightened."

Bill Tanner said, "Take it easy, Penny. I'm going to do what I can." He walked quickly into his office and shut the door. He went over to his desk and pressed a switch. M.'s voice came into the room: "Hullo, James. Wonderful to have you back. Take a seat and tell me all about it."

…

The Chief of Staff had burst into the room, followed by the Head of Security. They threw themselves on James Bond. Even as they seized his arms, his head fell forward on his chest and he would have slid from his chair to the ground if they hadn't supported him. They hauled him to his feet. He was in a dead faint. The Head of Security sniffed.

"Cyanide," he said curtly. "We must all get out of here. And bloody quick!" (The emergency had snuffed out Headquarters manners.) The pistol lay on the carpet where it had fallen. He kicked it away. He said to M., who had walked out from behind his glass shield,

"Would you mind leaving the room, sir? Quickly. I'll have this cleaned up during the lunch hour." It was an order. M. went to the open door. Miss Moneypenny stood with her clenched hand up to her mouth. She watched with horror as James Bond's supine body was hauled out and, the heels of its shoes leaving tracks on the carpet, taken into the Chief of Staff's room.

M. said sharply, "Close that door, Miss Moneypenny.

Get the duty M.O. up right away. Come along, girl! Don't just stand there gawking! And not a word of this to anyone. Understood?"

Miss Moneypenny pulled herself back from the edge of hysterics. She said an automatic "Yes, sir," pulled the door shut, and reached for the interoffice telephone.

Chapter 3 - "Pistols" Scaramanga
…
Instead of using his key to the private entrance at the end of the corridor M. turned right, through Miss Moneypenny's door. She was sitting in her usual place, typing away at the usual routine correspondence. She got to her feet.

"What's this dreadful stink, Miss Moneypenny?" "I don't know what it's called, sir. Head of Security brought along a squad from Chemical Warfare at the War Office. He says your office is all right to use again but to keep the windows open for a while. So I've turned on the heating. Chief of Staff isn't back from lunch yet, but he told me to tell you that everything you wanted done is under way. Sir James is operating until four but will expect your call after that. Here's the file you wanted, sir."

M. took the brown folder with the red Top Secret star in its top right-hand corner. "How's 007? Did he come round all right?"

Miss Moneypenny's face was expressionless. "I gather so, sir. The M.O. gave him a sedative of some kind, and he was taken off on a stretcher during the lunch hours. He was covered up. They took him down in the service lift to the garage. I haven't had any inquiries."

"Good. Well, bring me in the signals, would you. There's been a lot of tune wasted today on all these domestic excitements." Carrying the brown folder, M. went through the door into his office. Miss Moneypenny brought in the signals and stood dutifully beside him while he went through them, occasionally dictating a comment or a query. She looked down at the bowed, iron-grey head with the bald patch polished for years by a succession of naval caps and wondered, as she had wondered so often over the past ten years, whether she loved or hated this man. One thing was certain. She respected him more than any man she had known or had read of.

M. handed her the file. "Thank you. Now just give me a quarter of an hour, and then I'll see whoever wants me. The call to Sir James has priority of course."

Chapter 17 – ENDIT

…
So now James Bond said to Mary Goodnight, avoiding her eyes, "Mary, this is an order. Take down what follows and send it tonight. Right?

"Begins: quote MAILED-FIST EYES ONLY [Bond interjected, I might have said PROMONEYPENNY. When did M. last touch a cypher machine?] STOP YOUR [Put in the number, Mary] ACKNOWLEDGED AND GREATLY APPRECIATED STOP AM INFORMED BY HOSPITAL AUTHORITIES THAT EYE SHALL BE RETURNED LONDONWARDS DUTIABLE IN ONE MONTH STOP REFERRING YOUR REFERENCE TO AYE HIGH HONOUR EYE BEG YOU PRESENT MY HUMBLE DUTY TO HER MAJESTY AND REQUEST THAT EYE MAY BE PERMITTED COMMA IN ALL HUMILITY COMMA TO DECLINE THE SIGNAL FAVOUR HER MAJESTY IS GRACIOUS ENOUGH TO PROPOSE TO CONFER UPON HER HUMBLE AND OBEDIENT SERVANT BRACKET TO MAILED-FIST PLEASE PUT THIS IN THE APPROPRIATE WORDS TO THE PRIME MINISTER STOP MY PRINCIPAL REASON IS THAT EYE DONT WANT TO PAY MORE AT HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS BRACKET."

Mary Goodnight broke in, horrified. "James. The rest is your business, but you really can't say that last bit."

Bond nodded. "I was only trying it on you, Mary. All right, let's start again at the last stop. Write:

"EYE AM A SCOTTISH PEASANT AND EYE WILL ALWAYS FEEL AT HOME BEING A SCOTTISH PEASANT AND EYE KNOW COMMA SIR COMMA THAT YOU WILL UNDERSTAND MY PREFERENCE AND THAT EYE CAN COUNT ON YOUR INDULGENCE BRACKET LETTER CONFIRMING FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY ENDIT OHOH-SEVEN."

RichardTheBruce

Hard to believe no characters from the alphabet are mentioned so far.

Thunderfinger

I noticed Miss Moneypenny s eyes went from cold in the first book to warm a couple books later.

As for the alphabet, Virus Omega springs to mind.

j_w_pepper

Bond is definitely an alpha male, though a new actor is invariably a beta version initially. No gamma rays (Klaus Hergesheimer, checking radiation shields) or delta wings (Avro Vulcan!) can change that. I'm afraid I cannot think of anything containing epsilon, zeta, eta and theta but I wouldn't wish to change an iota about it. I'll pass on the remainder for now, but (fittingly) close with the immortal quote: "Rolex?" - '"Omega."

RichardTheBruce

Yes, @Thunderfinger. Omega. Like some virus. And @j_w_pepper gives more to follow up on.

RichardTheBruce

Omega / Ω / ōˈ·mā·ɡə / noun
1. the Greek alphabet’s 24th and last letter
2. the end, last in a series, or final stage
3. in astronomy, the 24th star of a constellation Centaurus
4. star cluster in the constellation
5. symbol used for a unit to measure resistance

Greek (Ω / ō mega, literally: big O). Cyrillic (Ѡ, ѡ). Latin (ω).

RichardTheBruce

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Peter Hunt, 1969.

Blofeld: Remember that disagreeable outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease...in England last summer? I shall instruct them, in very convincing terms, exactly how I arranged that. And my capacity has improved since.

Bond: Allergy vaccines?

Blofeld: Bacteria.

Bond: Bacteriological warfare.

Blofeld: With a difference. Our great breakthrough since last summer...has been the confection of a certain virus omega.

Bond: Infertility.

Blofeld: Total infertility. In plants and animals. Not just disease in a few herds, Mr Bond, or the loss of a single crop. But the destruction of a whole strain for ever, throughout an entire continent. If my demands are not met, l'II proceed with the extinction...of whole species of cereals and livestock all over the world.

Bond: Including, I suppose, the human race.

Blofeld: I don´t think, do you, Mr Bond, the UN will let it come to that. Not after their scientists analyse a sample of virus omega they have received.

Bond: Epidemics of sterility. Nothing is born. No seed even begins to sprout. They´II find an antidote.

Blofeld: Of course! If I give them enough time.

Bond: They´II have time. Once they're warned, you´II have problems dispensing the stuff.

Blofeld: That problem has already been solved. I have been training my own special "angels of death".

Bond: Those girls?

Blofeld: Those girls. And many others like them.

Bond: But exactly how?

Blofeld: That will remain my secret.

RichardTheBruce

Casino Royale, Martin Campbell, 2006.

Vesper: All right. By the cut of your suit, you went to Oxford or wherever...and actually think human beings dress like that. But you wear it with such disdain...my guess is you didn't come from money...and your school friends never let you forget it. Which means you were at that school by the grace...of someone else's charity, hence the chip on your shoulder. And since your first thought about me ran to orphan...that's what I'd say you are. Oh, you are. I like this poker thing. And that makes perfect sense...since Ml6 looks for maladjusted young men...that give little thought to sacrificing others...in order to protect Queen and country. You know...former SAS types with easy smiles and expensive watches. Rolex?

Bond: Omega.

Vesper: Beautiful. Now, having just met you...I wouldn't go as far as calling you a cold-hearted bastard.

Bond: No, of course not.

Vesper: But it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine. You think of women as disposable pleasures...rather than meaningful pursuits. So as charming as you are, Mr. Bond...I will be keeping my eye on our government's money......and off your perfectly formed arse.

Bond: You noticed.

Vesper: Even accountants have imagination. How was your lamb?

Bond: Skewered. One sympathizes.

Vesper: Good evening, Mr. Bond.

Bond: Good evening, Miss Lynd.

Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean.