Quiz question: Does Dominic Flandry say anywhere that, when a cover runs, it runs like an old sock? I have just read that phrase in Ian Fleming's
Thunderball and it sounds very familiar, like something that I have read recently, so it might be in either the Dominic Flandry series or Stieg Larsson's
Millennium Trilogy but so far I have looked back through the recently read Flandry novel,
The Game Of Empire, and not found it.
The next question in Poul Anderson's We Claim These Stars is whether it is plausible for Flandry to allow himself to be captured by the Ardazhiro in order to spy on them and then to trust in his ability to escape with whatever intelligence he has collected. For a kick-off, has any professional spy ever done such a thing? (I am not going to ponder this conundrum any further tonight. Good night.)
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am about ninety percent sure that Fladnry never used that expression: to run like an old sock.
But that bit about the old sock did remind me, oddly, of the aged Ivan Goremykin, who was several times President of the Council of Ministers (PM) for Nicholas II of Russia. This is how Edward Crankshaw quoted something said by Goremykin from page 458 of THE SHADOW OF THE WINTER PALACE (Penguin Books, 1976): "I am like an old fur coat," he remarked. "For many months I have been packed away in camphor. I am being taken out now merely for the occasion: when it is passed I shall be packed away again till I am wanted next time."
As for real history examples of exploits similar to that of Flandry deliberately letting himself be captured by the Ardazirho, I can think of at least one: Zopyrus, one of the courtiers and friends of Darius the Great of . In the confusion following the death of Cambyses II, there were revolts over the Persian Empire, one of the most dangerous being the rebellion of Babylon. For nearly two years Darius besieged Babylon with no success. Then Zopyrus, without first consulting the King, had his head shaved, scourged himself, and then mutilated himself by cutting off his ears and nose, after which he pretended to defect to the Babylonians, telling them he wanted nothing but vengeance on Darius. The rebels gave Zopyrus command of their army, with which he fought "successfully" against the Persians (actually, a feint prearranged by him with the king). Lastly, when the Persians were assailing the walls on all sides, and the Babylonian forces were concentrated on there, Zopyyus then opened the gates to the Persians, enabling them to recapture the city.
This story was reported by Herodotus in his HISTORIES.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But that guy went to the enemy as a defector, not as their prisoner.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Oops! You're right! Zopyrus was a false defector, not a fake prisoner of the Babylonians. I'll have to look further for a more apt example.
Ad astra! Sean
In terms of clandestine covers, beliefs are harder to conceal than circumstances like pace of birth and so forth and.the little conditioned reflexes you pick up as a child harder still. In my Black Chamber books, my protagonist tries to pick covers as similar to her real background as possible, because it makes slip-ups less likely.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or when slips up do occur, they are less obvious.
Ad astra! Sean
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