the property of a lady

it was, exceptionally, a hot day in early june. james bond put down the dark gray chalk pencil that was the marker for the dockets routed to the double-o section and took off his coat. he didn't bother to hang it over the back of his chair, let alone take the trouble to get up and drape the coat over the hanger mary goodnight had suspended, at her own cost (damn women!), behind the office of works' green door of his connecting office. he dropped the coat on the floor. there was no reason to keep the coat immaculate, the creases tidy. there was no sign of any work to be done. all over the world there was quiet. the in and out signals had, for weeks, been routine. the daily top secret sitrep, even the newspapers, yawned vacuously-in the latter case scratchings at domestic scandals for readership, for bad news, the only news that makes such sheets readable, whether top secret or on sale for pennies.

bond hated these periods of vacuum. his eyes, his mind, were barely in focus as he turned the pages of a jaw-breaking dissertation by the scientific research station on the russian use of cyanide gas, propelled by the cheapest bulb-handled children's water pistol, for assassination. the spray, it seemed, directed at the face, took instantaneous effect. it was recommended for victims from 25 years upwards, on ascending stairways or inclines. the verdict would then probably be heart-failure.

the harsh burr of the red telephone sprayed into the room so suddenly that james bond, his mind elsewhere, reached his hand automatically towards his left armpit in self-defense. the edges of his mouth turned down as he recognized the reflex. on the second burr he picked up the receiver.

"sir?"

"sir."

he got up from his chair and picked up his coat. he put on the coat and at the same time put on his mind. he had been dozing in his bunk. now he had to go up on the bridge. he walked through into the connecting office and resisted the impulse to ruffle up the inviting nape of mary goodnight's golden neck.

he told her "m." and walked out into the close-carpeted corridor and along, between the muted whizz and zing of the communications section, of which his section was a neighbor, to the lift and up to the eighth.

miss moneypenny's expression conveyed nothing. it usually conveyed something if she knew something-private excitement, curiosity, or, if bond was in trouble, encouragement or even anger. now the smile of welcome showed disinterest. bond registered that this was going to be some kind of a routine job, a bore, and he adjusted his entrance through that fateful door accordingly.

there was a visitor-a stranger. he sat on m.'s left. he only briefly glanced up as bond came in and took his usual place across the red-leather-topped desk.

m. said, stiffly, "dr. fanshawe, i don't think you've met commander bond of my research department."

bond was used to these euphemisms.

he got up and held out his hand. dr. fanshawe rose, briefly touched bond's hand and sat quickly down as if he had touched paws with a gila monster.

if he looked at bond, inspected him and took him in as anything more than an anatomical silhouette, bond thought that dr. fanshawe's eyes must be fitted with a thousandth of a second shutter. so this was obviously some kind of an expert-a man whose interests lay in facts, things, theories-not in human beings. bond wished that m. had given him some kind of a brief, hadn't got this puckish, rather childishly malign desire to surprise-to spring the jack-in-a-box on his staff. but bond, remembering his own boredom of ten minutes ago, and putting himself in m.'s place, had the intuition to realize that m. himself might have been subject to the same june heat, the same oppressive vacuum in his duties, and, faced by the unexpected relief of an emergency, a small one perhaps, had decided to extract the maximum effect, the maximum drama, out of it to relieve his own tedium.

the stranger was middle-aged, rosy, well-fed, and clothed rather foppishly in the neo-edwardian fashion-turned-up cuffs to his dark blue, four-buttoned coat, a pearl pin in a heavy silk cravat, spotless wing collar, cufflinks formed of what appeared to be antique coins, pince-nez on a thick black ribbon. bond summed him up as something literary, a critic perhaps, a bachelor-possibly with homosexual tendencies.

m. said, "dr. fanshawe is a noted authority on antique jewelry. he is also, though this is confidential, adviser to h.m. customs and to the c.i.d. on such things. he has la fact been referred to me by our friends at m.i.5. it is in connection with our miss freudenstein."

bond raised his eyebrows. maria freudenstein was a secret agent working for the soviet kgb in the heart of the secret service. she was in the communications department, but in a watertight compartment of it that had been created especially for her, and her duties were confined to operating the purple cipher-a cipher which had also been created especially for her. six times a day she was responsible for encoding and dispatching lengthy sitreps in this cipher to the c.i.a. in washington. these messages were the output of section 100 which was responsible for running double agents. they were an ingenious mixture of true fact, harmless disclosures and an occasional nugget of the grossest misinformation. maria freudenstein, who had been known to be a soviet agent when she was taken into the service, had been allowed to steal the key to the purple cipher with the intention that the russians should have complete access to these sitreps-be able to intercept and decipher them-and thus, when appropriate, be fed false information. it was a highly secret operation which needed to be handled with extreme delicacy, but it had now been running smoothly for three years and, if maria freudenstein also picked up a certain amount of canteen gossip at headquarters, that was a necessary risk, and she was not attractive enough to form liaisons which could be a security risk.

m. turned to dr. fanshawe. "perhaps, doctor, you would care to tell commander bond what it is all about."

"certainly, certainly." dr. fanshawe looked quickly at bond and then away again. he addressed his boots. "you see, it's like this, er, commander. you've heard of a man called fabergn, no doubt. famous russian jeweler."

"made fabulous easter eggs for the czar and czarina before the revolution."

"that was indeed one of his specialties. he made many other exquisite pieces of what we may broadly describe as objects of vertu. today, in the sale rooms, the best examples fetch truly fabulous prices-?50,000 and more. and recently there entered this country the most amazing specimen of all-the so-called emerald sphere, a work of supreme art hitherto known only from a sketch by the great man himself. this treasure arrived by registered post from paris and it was addressed to this woman of whom you know, miss maria freudenstein."

"nice little present. might i ask how you learned of it, doctor?"

"i am, as your chief has told you, an adviser to h.m. customs and excise in matters concerning antique jewelry and similar works of art. the declared value of the package was ?100,000. this was unusual. there are methods of opening such packages clandestinely. the package was opened-under a home office warrant, of course-and i was called in to examine the contents and give a valuation. i immediately recognized the emerald sphere from the account and sketch of it given in mr. kenneth snowman's definitive work on fabergn. i said that the declared price might well be on the low side. but what i found of particular interest was the accompanying document which gave, in russian and french, the provenance of this priceless object." dr. fanshawe gestured towards a photostat of what appeared to be a brief family tree that lay on the desk in front of m. "that is a copy i had made. briefly, it states that the sphere was commissioned by miss freudenstein's grandfather directly from fabergn in 1917-no doubt as a means of turning some of his rubles into something portable and of great value. on his death in 1918 it passed to his brother and thence, in 1950, to miss freudenstein's mother. she, it appears, left russia as a child and lived in white russian nmigrn circles in paris. she never married, but gave birth to this girl, maria, illegitimately. it seems that she died last year and that some friend or executor, the paper is not signed, has now forwarded the sphere to its rightful owner, miss maria freudenstein. i had no reason to question this girl, although as you can imagine my interest was most lively, until last month sotheby's announced that they would auction the piece, described as 'the property of a lady' in a week from today. on behalf of the british museum and, er, other interested parties, i then made discreet inquiries and met the lady, who, with perfect composure, confirmed the rather unlikely story contained in the provenance. it was then that i learned that she worked for the ministry of defense and it crossed my rather suspicious mind that it was, to say the least of it, odd that a junior clerk, engaged presumably on sensitive duties, should suddenly receive a gift to the value of ?100,000 or more from abroad. i spoke to a senior official in m.i.5 with whom i have some contact through my work for h.m. customs and i was in due course referred to this, er, department." dr. fanshawe spread his hands and gave bond a brief glance. "and that, commander, is all i have to tell you."

m. broke in, "thank you, doctor. just one or two final questions and i won't detain you any further. you have examined this emerald ball thing and you pronounce it genuine?"

dr. fanshawe ceased gazing at his boots. he looked up and spoke to a point somewhere above m.'s left shoulder. "certainly. so does mr. snowman of wart-ski's, the greatest fabergn experts and dealers in the world. it is undoubtedly the missing masterpiece of which hitherto carl fabergn's sketch was the only record."

"what about the provenance? what do the experts say about that?"

"it stands up adequately. the greatest fabergn pieces were nearly always privately commissioned. miss freudenstein says that her grandfather was a vastly rich man before the revolution-a porcelain manufacturer. ninety-nine percent of all fabergn's output has found its way abroad. there are only a few pieces left in the kremlin-described simply as 'pre-revolutionary examples of russian jewelry.' the official soviet view has always been that they are merely capitalist baubles. officially they despise them as they officially despise their superb collection of french impressionists."

"so the soviet still retain some examples of the work of this man fabergn. is it possible that this emerald affair could have lain secreted somewhere in the kremlin through all these years?"

"certainly. the kremlin treasure is vast. no one knows what they keep hidden. they have only recently put on display what they have wanted to put on display."

m. drew on his pipe. his eyes through the smoke were bland, scarcely interested. "so that, in theory, there is no reason why this emerald ball should not have been unearthed from the kremlin, furnished with a faked history to establish ownership, and transferred abroad as a reward to some friend of russia for services rendered?"

"none at all. it would be an ingenious method of greatly rewarding the beneficiary without the danger of paying large sums into his, or her, bank account."

"but the final monetary reward would of course depend on the amount realized by the sale of the object-the auction price for instance?"

"exactly."

"and what do you expect this object to fetch at sotheby's?"

"impossible to say. wartski's will certainly bid very high. but of course they wouldn't be prepared to tell anyone just how high-either on their own account for stock, so to speak, or acting on behalf of a customer. much would depend on how high they are forced up by an underbidder. anyway, not less than ?100,000 i'd say."

"hm." m.'s mouth turned down at the corners. "expensive hunk of jewelry."

dr. fanshawe was aghast at this barefaced revelation of m.'s philistinism. he actually looked m. straight in the face. "my dear sir," he expostulated, "do you consider the stolen goya, sold at sotheby's for ?140,000, that went to the national gallery, just an expensive hunk, as you put it, of canvas and paint?"

m. said placatingly, "forgive me, dr. fanshawe. i expressed myself clumsily. i have never had the leisure to interest myself in works of art nor, on a naval officer's pay, the money to acquire any. i was just registering my dismay at the runaway prices being fetched at auction these days."

"you are entitled to your views, sir," said dr. fanshawe stuffily.

bond thought it was time to rescue m. he also wanted to get dr. fanshawe out of the room so that they could get down to the professional aspects of this odd business. he got to his feet. he said to m., "well, sir, i don't think there is anything else i need to know. no doubt this will turn out to be perfectly straightforward (like hell it would!) and just a matter of one of your staff turning out to be a very lucky woman. but it's very kind of dr. fanshawe to have gone to so much trouble." he turned to dr. fanshawe. "would you care to have a staff car to take you wherever you're going?"

"no thank you, thank you very much. it will be pleasant to walk across the park."

hands were shaken, good-byes said and bond showed the doctor out. bond came back into the room. m. had taken a bulky file, stamped with the top secret red star, out of a drawer and was already immersed in it. bond took his seat again and waited. the room was silent save for the riffling of paper. this also stopped as m. extracted a foolscap sheet of blue cardboard used for confidential staff records and carefully read through the forest of close type on both sides.

finally he slipped it back in the file and looked up. "yes," he said and the blue eyes were bright with interest. "it fits all right. the girl was born in paris in 1935. mother very active in the resistance during the war. helped run the tulip escape route and got away with it. after the war, the girl went to the sorbonne and then got a job in the embassy, in the naval attachn's office, as an interpreter. you know the rest. she was compromised-some unattractive sexual business-by some of her mother's old resistance friends who by then were working for the nkvd, and from then on she has been working under control. she applied, no doubt on instruction, for british citizenship. her clearance from the embassy and her mother's resistance record helped her to get that by 1959, and she was then recommended to us by the fo. but it was there that she made her big mistake. she asked for a year's leave before coming to us and was next reported by the hutchinson network in the leningrad espionage school. there she presumably received the usual training and we had to decide what to do about her. section 100 thought up the purple cipher operation and you know the rest. she's been working for three years inside headquarters for the kgb and now she's getting her reward-this emerald ball thing worth ?100,000. and that's interesting on two counts. first it means that the kgb is totally hooked on the purple cipher or they wouldn't be making this fantastic payment. that's good news. it means that we can hot up the material we're passing over-put across some grade 3 deception material and perhaps even move up to grade 2. secondly, it explains something we've never been able to understand-that this girl hasn't hitherto received a single payment for her services. we were worried by that. she had an account at glyn, mills that only registered her monthly paycheck of around ?50. and she's consistently lived within it. now she's getting her payoff in one large lump sum via this bauble we've been learning about. all very satisfactory."

m. reached for the ashtray made out of a twelve-inch shell base and rapped out his pipe with the air of a man who has done a good afternoon's work.

bond shifted in his chair. he badly needed a cigarette, but he wouldn't have dreamed of lighting one. he wanted one to help him focus his thoughts. he felt that there were some ragged edges to this problem-one particularly. he said, mildly, "have we ever caught up with her local control, sir? how does she get her instructions?"

"doesn't need to," said m. impatiently, busying himself with his pipe. "once she'd got hold of the purple cipher all she needed to do was hold down her job. damn it man, she's pouring the stuff into their lap six times a day. what sort of instructions would they need to give her? i doubt if the kgb men in london even know of her existence-perhaps the resident director does, but as you know we don't even know who he is. give my eyes to find out."

bond suddenly had a flash of intuition. it was as if a camera had started grinding in his skull, grinding out a length of clear film. he said quietly, "it might be that this business at sotheby's could show him to us-show us who he is."

"what the devil are you talking about, 007? explain yourself."

"well sir," bond's voice was calm with certainty, "you remember what this dr. fanshawe said about an underbidder-someone to make these wartski merchants go to their very top price. if the russians don't seem to know or care very much about fabergn, as dr. fanshawe says, they may have no very clear idea what this thing's really worth. the kgb wouldn't be likely to know about such things anyway. they may imagine it's only worth its break-up value-say ten or twenty thousand pounds for the emerald. that sort of sum would make more sense than the small fortune the girl's going to get if dr. fanshawe's right. well, if the resident director is the only man who knows about this girl, he will be the only man who knows she's been paid. so he'll be the underbidder. he'll be sent to sotheby's and told to push the sale through the roof. i'm certain of it. so we'll be able to identify him and we'll have enough on him to have him sent home. he just won't know what's hit him. nor will the kgb. if i can go to the sale and bowl him out and we've got the place covered with cameras, and the auction records, we can get the fo to declare him persona non grata inside a week. and resident directors don't grow on trees. it may be months before the kgb can appoint a replacement."

m. said, thoughtfully, "perhaps you've got something there." he swiveled his chair round and gazed out of the big window towards the jagged skyline of london. finally he said, over his shoulder, "all right, 007. go and see the chief of staff and set the machinery up. i'll square things with five. it's their territory, but it's our bird. there won't be any trouble. but don't go and get carried away and bid for this bit of rubbish yourself. i haven't got the money to spare."

bond said, "no sir." he got to his feet and went quickly out of the room. he thought he had been very clever and he wanted to see if he had. he didn't want m. to change his mind.

* * *

wartski has a modest, ultra-modern frontage at 138 regent street. the window, with a restrained show of modern and antique jewelry, gave no hint that these were the greatest fabergn-dealers in the world. the interior-gray carpet, walls paneled in sycamore, a few unpretentious vitrines-held none of the excitement of cartier's, boucheron or van cleef, but the group of famed royal warrants from queen mary, the queen mother, the queen, king paul of greece and the unlikely king frederick ix of denmark, suggested that this was no ordinary jeweler.

james bond asked for mr. kenneth snowman. a good-looking, very well-dressed man of about 40 rose from a group of men sitting with their heads together at the back of the room and came forward.

bond said quietly, "i'm from the c.i.d. can we have a talk? perhaps you'd like to check my credentials first. my name's james bond. but you'll have to go direct to sir ronald vallance or his p.a. i'm not directly on the strength at scotland yard. sort of liaison job."

the intelligent, observant eyes didn't appear even to look him over. the man smiled. "come on downstairs. just having a talk with some american friends-sort of correspondents really. from 'old russia' on fifth avenue."

"i know the place," said bond. "full of rich-looking icons and so on. not far from the pierre."

"that's right." mr. snowman seemed even more reassured. he led the way down a narrow, thickly carpeted stairway into a large and glittering showroom which was obviously the real treasure house of the shop. gold and diamonds and cut stones winked from lit cases round the walls.

"have a seat. cigarette?"

bond took one of his own. "it's about this fabergn that's coming up at sotheby's tomorrow-this emerald sphere."

"ah, yes." mr. snowman's clear brow furrowed anxiously. "no trouble about it i hope?"

"not from your point of view. but we're very interested in the actual sale. we know about the owner, miss freudenstein. we think there may be an attempt to raise the bidding artificially. we're interested in the underbidder-assuming, that is, that your firm will be leading the field, so to speak."

"well, er, yes," said mr. snowman with rather careful candor. "we're certainly going to go after it. but it'll sell for a huge price. between you and me, we believe the v and a are going to bid, and probably the metropolitan. but is it some crook you're after? if so you needn't worry. this is out of their class."

bond said, "no. we're not looking for a crook." he wondered how far to go with this man. because people are very careful with the secrets of their own business doesn't mean that they'll be careful with the secrets of yours. bond picked up a wood and ivory plaque that lay on the table. it said:

it is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer.

but when he is gone his way, he boasteth.

proverbs xx, 14

bond was amused. he said so. "you can read the whole history of the bazaar, of the dealer and the customer, behind that quotation," he said. he looked mr. snowman straight in the eyes. "i need that sort of nose, that sort of intuition in this case. will you give me a hand?"

"certainly. if you'll tell me how i can help." he waved a hand. "if it's secrets you're worried about, please don't worry. jewelers are used to them. scotland yard will probably give my firm a clean bill in that respect. heaven knows we've had enough to do with them over the years."

"and if i told you that i'm from the ministry of defense?"

"same thing," said mr. snowman. "you can naturally rely absolutely on my discretion!"

bond made up his mind. "all right. well, all this comes under the official secrets act, of course. we suspect that the underbidder, presumably to you, will be a soviet agent. my job is to establish his identity. can't tell you any more, i'm afraid. and you don't actually need to know any more. all i want is to go with you to sotheby's tomorrow night and for you to help me spot the man. no medals, i'm afraid, but we'd be extremely grateful."

mr. kenneth snowman's eyes glinted with enthusiasm. "of course. delighted to help in any way. but," he looked doubtful, "you know it's not necessarily going to be all that easy. peter wilson, the head of sotheby's, who'll be taking the sale, would be the only person who could tell us for sure-that is, if the bidder wants to stay secret. there are dozens of ways of bidding without making any movement at all. but if the bidder fixes his method, his code so to speak, with peter wilson before the sale, peter wouldn't think of letting anyone in on the code. it would give the bidder's game away to reveal his limit. and that's a close secret, as you can imagine, in the rooms. and a thousand times not if you come with me. i shall probably be setting the pace. i already know how far i'm going to go-for a client by the way-but it would make my job vastly easier if i could tell how far the underbidder's going to go. as it is, what you've told me has been a great help. i shall warn my man to put his sights even higher. if this chap of yours has got a strong nerve, he may push me very hard indeed. and there will be others in the field of course. it sounds as if this is going to be quite a night. they're putting it on television and asking all the millionaires and dukes and duchesses for the sort of gala performance sotheby's do rather well. wonderful publicity of course. by jove, if they knew there was cloak-and-dagger stuff mixed up with the sale, there'd be a riot! now then, is there anything else to go into? just spot this man and that's all?"

"that's all. how much do you think this thing will go for?"

mr. snowman tapped his teeth with a gold pencil. "well now, you see that's where i have to keep quiet. i know how high i'm going to go, but that's my client's secret." he paused and looked thoughtful. "let's say that if it goes for less than ?100,000 we'll be surprised."

"i see," said bond. "now then, how do i get into the sale?"

mr. snowman produced an elegant alligator-skin notecase and extracted two engraved bits of pasteboard. he handed one over. "that's my wife's. i'll get her one somewhere else in the rooms. b.5-well placed in the center front. i'm b.6."

bond took the ticket. it said:

sotheby & co.

sale of

a casket of magnificent jewels

and

a unique object of vertu by carl fabergn

the property of a lady

admit one to the main sale room

tuesday, 20 june, at 9.30 pm precisely

entrance in st. george street

"it's not the old georgian entrance in bond street," commented mr. snowman. "they have an awning and red carpet out from their back door now that bond street's one way. now," he got up from his chair, "would you care to see some fabergn? we've got some pieces here my father bought from the kremlin around 1927. it'll give you some idea what all the fuss is about, though of course the emerald sphere's incomparably finer than anything i can show you by fabergn apart from the imperial easter eggs."

later, dazzled by the diamonds, the multicolored gold, the silken sheen of translucent enamels, james bond walked up and out of the aladdin's cave under regent street and went off to spend the rest of the day in drab offices around whitehall planning drearily minute arrangements for the identification and photographing of a man in a crowded room who did not yet possess a face or an identity but who was certainly the top soviet spy in london.