Sunday 14 February 2021

All The Agents

Dominic Flandry is an Agent Of The Terran Empire. James Bond is The Spy Who Loved Me and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Alan Moore's Watchmen begins by quoting "At midnight all the agents..."

I infer that "spies" spy, that "Intelligence agents" gather intelligence and that "secret agents" act secretly in less clearly defined ways: disinformation; sabotage; assassination? Flandry wrecks the Scothanian Empire. Bond is "licensed to kill."

Sometimes our heroes do literally spy. When Flandry is a prisoner of the Ardazirho, he must squint in the fluorescence of their caves but:

"Even so, he watched what passed."
-We Claim These Stars, CHAPTER XII, p. 78.

When Largo shows Bond and Leiter around his yacht, they are alert for the clues to clandestine activities and also check with a concealed geiger counter. In a later volume, Bond eavesdrops on the Man with the Golden Gun's Group.

So these guys do spy even if they seem to spend most of their time in spectacular action.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I recall how, at various times in the stories, seeing mention of Flandy focusing on the less spectacular aspects of Intelligence work, such as detailed study of reports about the places and persons he was investigating. Studying what was known about them from both official and unofficial sources.

Many of the practical tactics, means, and methods of Intelligence work that see in the Flandry stories are applicable to our real here and now.

Ad astra! Sean