“This time SPECTRE will wipe Mr. James Bond from the face of this planet.”
John Gardner’s second foray into the post-Fleming James Bond continuation litverse, For Special Services is another explosive, at times ridiculous, installment that I quite enjoyed reading. As with Licence Renewed, it takes place in the 1980s where there have been a string of terrorist airplane hijackings. James Bond finds himself overseeing several long-haul transportation flights as an anti-hijacking guard. The current job is on British Airways Flight 12, a flight from Singapore that made a stop in Bahrain where it was secretly loaded with two billion dollars-worth of gold bullion, currency, and diamonds. Alongside Bond on BA Flight 12 are four undercover Special Air Service men overseeing its safe transportation. But, of course, when the flight is en route to England a group of hijackers tries to commandeer plane until Bond steps in and disables each of them using his throwing knives and .38 revolver. However, while dying one of the henchmen struggles to say something to a service man:
“Inspector. In… spector”
From this gurgled noise alone, Bond comes to believe the man was referring to SPECTRE (SPECTRE being an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence Terrorism Revenge and Extortion, an international criminal agency established in the Fleming Bond novels). It is a rollicking start to an action-heavy novel that hints at the return of SPECTRE and also possible Bond’s arch-nemesis Blofeld.
This is all confirmed in the next scene of a massive remote bayou mansion where an executive committee of SPECTRE is being held. They discuss something called Operation HOUND (taken from the Christian poem “The Hound of Heaven”) while all delighting in the death of the back-up man on the ground who was the point-person for the recent failed aerial hijacking. The poor man is killed and his corpse is then consumed by a huge python. It is an amusing albeit ominous glimpse into the rebirth of this criminal syndicate.
We then encounter Bond carrying on his romantic dalliance with the assistant to the Armourer, Ann Reilly affectionately known as “Q’ute” (a beautiful woman with sleek straw-coloured hair who is curiously referred to as a 1980s “champion of feminism” and whom Bond compares to the looming ghost of his one-time wife Tracy who was killed by Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) before Bond is quickly summoned into M’s office (cue the quick cameos from his secretary Miss Moneypenny and chief of staff Bill Tanner). Inside M’s office, Bond encounters an old familiar name: his close friend in the CIA, Felix Leiter. Only now, Bond is introduced to Felix Leiter’s daughter, Cedar Leiter, who is also a CIA asset. What is going on here? There are rumors about the rebirth of SPECTRE in connection to an uber-wealthy ice cream magnate named Markus Bismaquer. He was born in 1919 in New York City to mixed German and English ancestry. He made his first million before the age of twenty, then became a multi-millionare three years later. He avoided World War II service and was a member of the American nazi party, then he sold out all of his business interests and has lived like a renaissance prince since the 1950s. Presently, he owns 150 square miles of desert in Amarillo, Texas, which he has dubbed his own “principality,” known as Rancho Bismaquer. There are no roads in, just a private airstrip and a private monorail system. He is known to desire political power, his money was all over the Watergate slush fund, and he secretly wants to take over the United States government. He is known to have a temper and apparently unusual sexual predilections. His one weakness is a deep passion for collecting rare prints. Lately, he has been upping his security at his ranch there have been all sorts of suspicious criminals traveling in and out of the heavily fortified ranch while at the same time the IRS and FBI have been sending agents to investigate under various pretenses, but they have all either disappeared or turned up dead under mysterious circumstances.
What about Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the leader of SPECTRE? Has he returned? Or is Bismaquer the new Blofeld? Could there be a progeny of Blofeld who is using his name? Or is there a long-lost sibling? Or someone simply posing as Blofeld? Bond distinctly remembers the death of Blofeld inside his Japanese castle of death so a true return of Blofeld seems impossible. Still, the connections with Bismaquer are befuddling and concerning.
Therefore, the mission is this: Bond and Cedar Leiter are instructed to pose as a married couple who are rare print dealers to draw Bismaquer’s attention, infiltrate his ranch, and figure out what is going on with SPECTRE. Why Bond? Well, the U.S. government wants someone with a history of defeating SPECTRE and there is no better man qualified for the job than James Bond. Thus, outfitted with a VP70 (instead of his classic Walther PPK which was apparently withdrawn from the service in 1974) and given the gift of a .38 revolver whose barrel of the gun is given the mark “for special services” from the President of the United States (much like a gift Fleming once received from William Donovan, head of Americas Office of Strategic Services [OSS], the precursor to the CIA), Bond and Cedar head for New York City where Bond takes on a disguise as Professor Joseph Penbrunner and Cedar as his wife while they bring forgeries of supposedly rare prints by Hogarth. Bond is also allowed to bring along his somewhat controversial Saab 900 turbo (which he has dubbed “The Silver Beast”).
As predicted, Bond and Cedar quickly draw the attention of Bismaquer whose henchmen try to nab them, but Bond makes short work of them and, together, he and Cedar flee off to a motel where they are attacked again, this time being trapped inside a dropping elevator, only saved by some quick thinking from Bond, before they decide to simply drive across the country straight to Amarillo, Texas to confront Bismaquer directly. Along the way, Bond loses his disguise and simply phones up Rancho Bismaquer revealing his true name as James Bond, a representative for Professor Penbrunner (isn’t this a foolish idea?).
Nevertheless, the plan works as Bond and Cedar are invited to ride the monorail into Rancho Bismaquer. They spot huge prison-walled electric fences around the whole massive facility, in addition to cabins, a conference center, and a large plantation house modeled on Tara from Gone with the Wind — who knew the ice cream business could be so lucrative! They meet a skeletor-esque henchman named Walter Luxor (Bismaquer’s partner in crime who is also apparently something akin to his sometimes-gay lover). Luxor once had a burn injury from an accident and now his head looks like thin skin stretched over his skull. Then they meet the man himself: Markus Bismaquer, a bulky American in a white suit, with wispy soft silvery hair, and a face like a cherub.
Bond and Cedar are permitted to stay at the ranch for a few days while Bismaquer negotiates with Bond over the Hogarth prints. Along the way, Bond and Cedar stay in separate cabins, though she develops romantic feelings for Bond, partly due to his strength and integrity in refusing to sleep with her (she says that her father likened James to a “swashbuckling lothario” and said Bond reminded him of Hoagy Carmichael in his younger days). And, of course, Bond is easily seduced by Bismaquer’s beautiful young wife, actually his third marriage, a Frenchwoman named Nena (when Bond eventually sleeps with Nena, he discovers that she only has one breast).
While staying at Rancho Bisamquer, Bond and Cedar have a run-in with a pick-up truck driver who is keeping an eye on them, they spy on Bismaquer’s secret ice cream operation, face a deadly attack of harvester ants in Cedar’s cabin (Bond blows up the cabin up with a rudimentary bomb), and Bismaquer forces Bond to race in a makeshift Grand Prix at his racetrack against the skeletor Walter Luxor (naturally, Bond and his Saab 900 win the race). As part of the deal for winning the race, Bond is awarded $1 million for the Hogarth prints and $1 million personally.
At any rate, Bond is asked to leave the next day for a secret gathering of SPECTRE in the conference building, but Bond sneaks away and spies on the presentation which reveals the true plot. With the world on the brink of chaos, the 1970s-1980s international arms race is revealed to have really been about “the perfection of an ultimate weapon which will render all existing nuclear weapons utterly impotent.” The real goal is the control of space and satellite systems. SPECTRE is after American killer satellites (“killersats” or “Space Wolves”) which are currently operated through NORAD headquarters deep within Cheyenne mountain in Colorado. The goal is to gain control of the U.S. network of satellites before the U.S. develops the Particle Beam Weapon. Why? Because apparently the Soviets will pay huge money for this information and access. The scheme is codenamed Project HOUND, it is also apparently called “Operation Heavenly Wolf.” And how exactly will SPECTRE gain control of NORAD and its satellites? Well, it just so happens that over 90% of NORAD staff eat ice cream regularly. Thus, in the next shipment, Bismaquer is spiking the ice cream with narcotics to create a euphoric workforce that will be easy to obey commands. Next, they will concoct a surprise inspection where none other than James Bond will be left inside to die.
Bond and Cedar try to escape but Cedar is captured and Bond is gassed and injected with a hypnotic that convinces him he has a new identity, that of a decorated American General named James A. Banker. He and several Bismaquer henchmen stage the faux inspection of NORAD, all-too-easily gaining access to the facility. The plot nearly goes off without a hitch until some pills given to Bond by Nena Bismaquer start to kick-in and he remembers his true identity. He stops the classified tapes from being handed over to Bismaquer’s men (imagine that –back in the days of tapes!)
A final fight sequence ensues: Nena shoots dead her husband Markus Bismaquer and then accidentally shoots Walter Luxor (the bullet was intended for Bond). But still Bond remains in the dark as to the identity of Blofeld. Who could it be? That is until Nena coyly remarks: “In spite of everything –and I have to admit you have prowess in some areas—I don’t think we’ve really met. My name is Nena Blofeld” (288-289). As it turns out, Nena reveals she is Blofeld. She is the illegitimate daughter of the late Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whom Bond killed in You Only Live Twice. Her mother was a “French whore” who lived with Blofeld for a spell, but Nena became an orphan in Paris and lived with an uncle during her formative years. And now she has grown up and wants revenge… but she is quickly killed anyway when Bond flings a chair her way, knocking her out a window and down into her python pit (from the beginning of the novel) where her pythons crush and start to consumer her body. Bond’s old friend Felix Leiter (and Cedar’s father) suddenly appears out of nowhere and he shoots Nena in the head, a mercy-kill of sorts. The novel then concludes with Felix Leiter apparently giving Bond permission to sleep with his daughter: “As her father, I hope you’re going to make an honest woman out of her –or a dishonest one” (292) though apparently Bond will try to refrain.
Final Thoughts:
And so ends this very strange, farcical, over-the-top James Bond continuation novel in which we see Bond posing as an art dealer, fighting off killer ants, and battling an ice cream magnate who has megalomaniacal dreams of controlling American satellites. It goes without saying that For Special Services is an utterly ridiculous book to the core. But I still quite enjoyed this one. It’s a breezy, fun, action-packed read, and it’s definitely written in a comic book style, more for fans of an outrageous Roger Moore era Eon film like Moonraker, and less in line with Ian Fleming’s slightly more sophisticated pulpy adventure novels. But at least it’s less of a drag than many of Fleming’s “Bond in America” adventures. There are many amusing henchmen featured in this novel like Mike Mazzard and Walter Luxor, as well as all a whole panoply of leading criminals involved in SPECTRE, like a German named Treiben, a Los Angeles ranking criminal named Michael Mascro, New York gangsters, Kranko Stewart and Dover Richardson, a Swedish-born freelance intelligence expert named, Bjorn Junten and the Banquette brothers from Marseilles, and so on. But the great mystery throughout the novel concerns the identity of Blofeld. Thankfully, the truth is a bit of a surprise (Gardner mercifully did not simply try to suggest that Blofeld had inexplicably survived his death in the poison castle in You Only Live Twice). All in all, this is a fun adventure for Mr. Bond despite receiving universally harsh reviews at the time of its release (former Bond author of Colonel Sun, Kingsley Amis, lambasted For Special Services as “an unrelieved disaster” and “absurd” and “blundering”).
Gardner, John. For Special Services. Pegasus Books, New York, New York, 1982. Dedication: “In memory of Desmond Elliot.”