We like secret organizations in fiction and the Scaine Croi is a good one. We think of SPECTRE but I find that I have already made that comparison.
When a bribed pilot delivers a hijacked plane to SPECTRE, he receives a stiletto through his chin, mouth and brain and experiences momentary surprise, pain and light. Then he ceases to be the viewpoint character and the omniscient narrator describes his murder's subsequent actions. We remember this when we read that Falaire's affection for Nicol, prospective space pilot hijacker for the Scaine Croi:
"...meant he could hope to get his pay in money, not a bullet or a knife thrust." (p. 138)
Indeed.
To give Nicol more positive motivation, Falaire immerses him in a "dreambox" simulation of the Lunarian colony planet, Proserpina, so far away that the sun is only the brightest star.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I became dissatisfied with the Bond stories after Fleming replaced SMERSH with SPECTRE. Because it's my belief that clandestine black ops organizations need the protection and resources provided by a powerful State to be really effective. Private sectarian terrorist groups like al Qaeda were able to perpetrate the 9/11 atrocities only because an indifferent US
had not given it enough attention. Once an enraged US focused its attention and resources to crushing it al Qaeda was DONE for.
Another characteristic of official clandestine bodies like SMERSH is that as agencies of a State they have to hew to the lines laid down by their political masters. Meaning they don't generally plan for operations as spectacular as 9/11 because that would be very risky for the States they serve, being acts of war. However hostile their political masters might be to a rival nation they generally don't allow bodies like SMERSH to go too far.
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, you need State power to do anything significant politically.
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