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from you is a simple fact-finding exercise. Find Gorner. Talk to him. See what makes him tick.’
    ‘Sounds rather psychological,’ said Bond.
    ‘Indeed.’ M looked uneasy.
    ‘Is that what you have me down for now? I thought it was going to be my choice as to whether I returned to active operations.’
    ‘Well, yes, James, it is.’
    Bond didn’t like it when M called him ‘James’
    rather than ‘Bond’ or ‘007’. The personal note always preceded some disappointing news.
    ‘I want you to have some more tests with the medics and then a talk with R.’
    ‘ The head-shrinker?’ said Bond.
    ‘ The psychological-fitness assessor,’ M corrected him. ‘I’ve recently appointed an assistant therapist in
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    his department. You will have a course of breathing and relaxation techniques.’
    ‘For heaven’s sake, sir, I – ’
    ‘All the double-Os are doing it,’ said M stiffly. ‘009 reported immense benefits.’
    ‘He would,’ said Bond.
    ‘Which reminds me. I’ve appointed a new
    double-O. To take the place of 004, who, as you know, unfortunately – ’
    ‘Yes. Under an East German train, I gather. And when does the new man start?’
    ‘Any day.’ M coughed again. ‘Anyway, they’re all doing it and I’m not going to make an exception for you.’
    Bond lit a cigarette. It was pointless to argue with M when he had one of these bees in his bonnet. ‘Is there anything else I need to know about this Dr Gorner?’
    ‘Yes,’ said M. ‘I believe he could turn out to be a major threat to national security. That’s why the Service has been called in. The Government is panicking about the amount of illegal drugs coming into this country. There are already three-quarters of a million heroin addicts in the United States. We’re heading the same way. And the trouble is that it’s no longer just tramps and so on. It’s our best young people
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    who are at risk. Drugs are becoming respectable. There was a leader in The Times – The Times of all places – asking for lenience in the case of these wretched pop singers. If drugs become embedded in a nation’s culture, it quickly becomes a third-world country. They sap the will to live. Look at Laos, Thailand, Cambodia. Not exactly superpowers, are they?’
    ‘It reminds me of Kristatos and that Italian operation,’ said Bond.
    ‘By comparison,’ said M, ‘that was chickenfeed. Weekend smuggling. So was that little job in Mexico just before you met Goldfinger.’
    ‘And where do I find Gorner?’
    ‘ The man crops up everywhere. One of his hobbies is aviation. He has two private planes. He spends a good deal of time in Paris, but I don’t think you’ll have much difficulty in recognizing him.’
    ‘Why’s that?’ said Bond.
    ‘His left hand,’ said M, sitting down again, and staring Bond squarely in the eye. ‘It’s a monkey’s paw.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘An extremely rare congenital deformity. There’s a condition known as main de singe , or monkey’s hand, which is when the thumb makes a straight line with the fingers and is termed ‘‘unopposable’’. Being in
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    the same plane as the other digits, it can’t grip. It’s like picking up a pencil between two fingers.’ M
    demonstrated what he meant. ‘It can be done, but not very well. The development of the opposable thumb was an important mutation for Homo sapiens from his ancestors. But what Gorner has is something more. The whole hand is completely that of an ape. With hair up to the wrist and beyond.’
    Something was stirring in Bond’s memory. ‘So it would be larger than the right hand,’ he said.
    ‘Presumably. It’s very rare, though not unique, I believe.’
    ‘Does he travel with a sidekick in a Foreign Legion hat?’
    ‘I’ve no idea,’ said M.
    ‘I think I may have come across him. In Marseille.’
    ‘At the docks?’
    ‘Yes.’
    M sighed. ‘ That sounds all too feasible.’
    ‘Is he about my age, strongly built, straight oily