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.
They would work until one o'clock, take lunch in a nearby bar, walking there and back, they work again until five.
Each evening at seven they would go down to Le Bar, the Hotel de Paris's famous meeting place, where, it is said, the wrists and necks of the ladies put the Cartier showcases to shame.
If they intended to stay in Monaco for the evening they would dine at the hotel, but they could be seen at L'Oasis in La Napoule when the Cannes Casino took their fancy, sampling the latest tempting dish invented by the master chef, Louis Outhier. Sometimes they would eat a more austere meal at the Negresco in Nice, or even in La Reserve at Beaulieu, or - on occasion - at the modest Le Gallon in the Menton port of Garavan.
The meal was always a prelude to a night at the tables.
Don't go invisible, M had instructed. You are bait, and it would be a mistake to forget it. If they are trawling there, let them catch you.
So the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo slid its silent way along the coast roads each evening, and the tanned, assured Englishman with his willowy elegant American companion, became familiar figures in the gambling landscape of the Cete d'Azur.
Bond played only the wheel, and then conservatively though he tended to double up on bets, plunging heavily on some evenings, coming away thousands to the good on others. Mainly he worked to a system, using big money on the Pair, Impair, Manque and Passe which paid evens, only occasionally changing to a Carr6 - covering four numbers at odds of just over eight to one. Within the first week, he was the equivalent of a few thousand pounds sterling to the good and knew the various casinos were watching with interest. No casino, even with the reputation of those along that once glittering coast, is happy about a regular who plays systematically and wins.
Most nights, Percy and Bond were back at the hotel between three and three-thirty in the morning. Sometimes it was earlier - even one o'clock - giving them a chance to do another hour's work before getting a good sleep before starting all over again.
From time to time, during those weeks, they would not return until dawn. Driving the coast roads with the windows open to breathe the morning air, they feasted their eyes on the greenery of palm and plane trees, the cacti and climbing flowers around the summer homes of the wealthy, their swimming pools fed by spouting marble dolphins. On those occasions they would get back to the hotel in time to smell the first coffee of the day - one of the most satisfying aromas in the world, Bond thought.
The hotel staff considered it all very romantic, the attractive American lady and the wealthy Englishman, so lucky at the tables, and in love. Nobody would have dreamed of disturbing the love-birds.
The truth concerning their enclosed life in Percy's room was far removed from the fantasies of chambermaids and porters, at least for the first couple of weeks.
Percy began by teaching Bond how to flowchart a program - to draw out, in a kind of graph, exactly what he wanted the program to do.
This he mastered in a matter of forty-eight hours, after which the serious business of learning the computer language, Basic, began.
There were extra lessons on the use of graphics and sound.
Towards the end of the second week, Bond started to learn various dialects of Basic, gradually grasping the essentials of further, more complex languages like Machine Code, the high-level Pascal, and Forth.
Even in their spare time, they spoke of little else but the job in hand, though usually with special reference to
