SCORPIUS

Like a ragged old ghost, 007 returns for his annual haunt in this seventh Gardner/ Bond incarnation; but this time—unlike in last year's tepid No Deals, Mr. Bond—the spook shows some spunk as he tackles Gardner's niftiest villain to date. Bond's nemesis here is Vladimir Scorpius, ex-kingpin of outlaw arms-dealers, now known—after plastic surgery—as Father Valentine, guru to the The Meek Ones, a Moonie-like sect. No ordinary villain, Scorpius "was all that had ever been cruel, uncaring, revolting and unjust through history, from Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun to Himmler and Klaus Barbie." This welcome throwback to the moral gigantism of Ian Fleming's Bond tales first comes to 007's notice when a Meek One turns up drowned in the Thames, and Bond's number is in her phone book. Called back from an SAS fitness course, Bond pursues a crooked trail that leads to: offices of a high-tech credit card that allows Meek Ones to manipulate world bank accounts; the bedside of a drugged, noble-blooded Meek One; partnership with a sexy IRS agent on Scorpius' trail, and with an SAS man whose daughter has embraced Meek-dom; assorted bodies. Stalwarts Qu'te (female successor to Fleming's Q), M, Miss Moneypenny, and housekeeper May make proper appearances; but this busyness is only prelude to the unveiling of Scorpius' master plant—to dispatch (at a hefty price, for unnamed clients) his Meek Ones as human bombs to blow up world leaders—and to Bond's showdown with the fiend at his North Carolina compound. There, echoing old Fleming books, Bond combats insects and snakes (Dr. No), marries the IRS agent only to have her die (On her Majesty's Secret Service), and at last kills Scorpius in a display of 007-sadism unequalled since Scan Connery was lean and young. A swift climax sees Bond racing to nab a traitor in his ranks, and to stop a last Meek One from blowing up the P.M. and the US President. As in Gardner's others, there's little here of the gadgetry, sex, and humor that made Fleming's tales such fun; but this unusually grim Bond morality play offers plenty of fast comic-book action, some vivid characters, and enough references to the 007 canon to please most Bondphiles.