Bond lived on..................

stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
Hey all. After reading the entire series of Flemings books I was at a loss as I wanted more. I did try a couple of John Gardners works but, frankly, they weren't for me. My solution? Write my own.

I part produced a novelette, strictly for private consumption which picked up from where TMWTGG ended. I attempted to write it in cod Fleming & even if I say so myself I managed a half decent job.

It was entitled 'TERMINUS' (& no it wasn't about a bus stop)
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Comments

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Hi stag, I'm moving this to the Literature forum.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I wondering stag, have you tried any of the newer continuing Novels like, SOLO, Carte Blanche or Devil May care.
    I also think Col Sun, is very close to Fleming's style and was written in the same time period, Unlike the Other Books.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    What was it about the Gardners that put you off exactly?
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    If you still have your " Terminus " story why not post it {[]
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    Barbel wrote:
    Hi stag, I'm moving this to the Literature forum.

    Thanks. I was unsure where to post.
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    edited September 2014
    Gardners books were too much in the 'Bond whipped out his laser guided biro' mould for me. I haven't tried the books mentioned. I wanted to continue where TMWTGG left off just as Fleming would have done. Although written in the late eighties I believe I still have 'TERMINUS' somewhere & will attempt to track it down. If successful I will post the first chapter or two to see what you folks make of it.

    I haven't read it since the time of writing but from memory the main plot line was that Bond was all washed up, considered a spent force by the powers that be & clinging onto his 00 designation by the skin of his teeth. In order to get him out 'from under everyones feet'. Bond was dispatched on what was expected to be little more than a routine assignment to Jamaica to investigate the activities of the mysterious international businessman, Solo Santaga. Little did SIS or Bond know but this very same routine assignment was to turn out to be perhaps the deadliest mission of his entire career...................................
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Sounds good -{

    If you can find it, post it :)
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    The hunt for TERMINUS will begin in earnest this weekend. Many plastic storage boxes to sift through.
  • Charmed & DangerousCharmed & Dangerous Posts: 7,358MI6 Agent
    I hope you don't mind if I picture Brosnan as Bond when I read TERMINUS, Stag... :)) :))
    "How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    :)) :)) :)) You're so naughty ! :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    Be my guest! However in my minds eye shall be George Lazenby!
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    I did start on another short story but cannot remember how far along I got with it. I would imagine it will be bundled up with TERMINUS. It followed on from that novelette & was entitled 'NEVER SAY DIE'
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Did you ever finish it?
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    No, time & tides overtook me on that project. Apart from some some preliminary passages to give me a feel for the thing I don't think it got beyond the first couple of chapters.
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    I find myself rather fired up at the prospect of excavating TERMINUS & NEVER SAY DIE. As previously stated they were for private consumption only & done in the manner I would have expected Fleming to carry on with. NEVER SAY DIE was set in Scandinavia in the mid sixties & saw Bond driving an E Type Jaguar coupe. I remember one of the sub chapter writes to get me into the swing of things focused on Bond being involved in an extended car chase through the wilds of Sweden, as I remember he was being pursued by then unknown enemies. Eventually the road & visibility conditions conspired to cause the E Type to leave the road, forcing Bond into a close quarters shootout with his opponents.
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    1965 E Type Jaguar.........................


    birdseyeview.jpg
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    The hunt for the manuscripts has proved fruitless. The problem being I have some many storage boxes, this & a combination of moving quite frequently have thus far conspired to thwart me. Phase one, two & three of the operation is at an end but there is still one more place left to search. I will not have thrown them away so, unless they have become detached during my various moves, they must still be lurking somewhere.
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    edited September 2014
    I have found some preliminary notes I made from both TERMINUS & NEVER SAY DIE. Because I have these It stands to reason that I still have the finished TERMINUS & part completed NEVER SAY DIE somewhere among my belongings.

    Mindful of copyright & repeating the fact that this was for private consumption only I present what I have found so that you may get a feel for the things. Unfortunately The first page of the TERMINUS notes are missing but as I remember it started with Bond regarding himself critically in the mirror whilst shaving before getting dressed;

    Short extract from the beginning of TERMINUS (which in terms of timescale followed directly on from TMWTGG).



    ...............the two tunnels of serge. Bond fastened the slim black Italian leather belt, noting with dissatisfaction that once again he had to draw the buckle two holes beyond its normal position. The tie, of the finest black woven silk, was looped Windsor fashion tightly round his neck. Almost subconsciously Bond ran his index finger along the inside of the once flush fitting collar before bending to push his feet into the pair of plain neatly polished black shoes. He slipped into the jacket & moved to the bedside table to gather up his watch, Ronson lighter & cigarette case. After clipping the bracelet of his Rolex oyster perpetual onto his left wrist & depositing the remainder of his haul into the inside pocket of his jacket, Bond turned & walked slowly to the door.

    Bond belched softly & briefly revived the memory of what had been a splendid breakfast before lighting his first cigarette of the day. The Moreland with the triple gold bands tasted particularly good this morning. May, his faithful housekeeper, had entered the dining room. From the way she absent mindedly dithered in the collection of the breakfast things, Bond knew she was aching to release all the feelings which had been festering unsaid over the past weeks. Normally May, as forthright as her tough Scottish upbringing had conditioned her to be, would usually just have said whatever she felt was justified & to hell with the fact that she was speaking to her employer, indeed Bond had come to expect this & would parry any & all her matronly observations with a a counter barrage of well worn & well meaning witticisms. But not now, not since he had been released from hospital, a new & unfamiliar atmosphere had settled over their relationship during those past two months. Gone was the easy familiarity to be replaced by an almost oppressive air of non communication & clipped politeness which May, even though she detested it, had finally come to accept. "Excellent meal May. Thank you." Said Bond vaguely. He caught the hint of a shake of the head & a muffled 'tut tut' as the stiff backed May ferried the tray of spent crockery towards the door. Bond watched her retreat towards the kitchen & when she was gone brought the cigarette up to his tightly drawn lips & sucked gratefully on it as he once again immersed himself in his recent past.

    The wound which had resulted in his premature return to London had healed well. Fortunately the bullet had passed cleanly through his leg, just above the kneecap, neither tumbling or striking bone, yet tearing horribly at the muscle & piercing the Femoral artery during its passage. Now all that served to remind him of the gunfight was yet another scar & the all too occasional twinge of discomfort as the freshly knitted muscle grumbled at any untoward movement. Though the physical injury had healed, the same could not quite be said of the emotional trauma & right on cue, as if forcing him to watch, the incident played out again in glorious technicolor in his minds eye, serving only to cement the conclusion Bond himself had long since reached. He had made the most serious mistake of all (though he had denied the fact during his debriefing) by allowing Gusenko to take the advantage. What should have been for Bond a quick, technically easy, kill had turned into a shambling running firefight with his intended target eventually fleeing the scene unscathed while leaving him, Bond, to almost die through loss of blood. The tiny stiletto dagger which kept pricking his subconscious repeated on a loop what he already knew, by all the laws of heaven & earth he should have died that day. Had it not been for the intervention of the bemused farm workers, drawn to the scene by the sound of gunfire, who found Bond semi conscious in the undergrowth just in time to render crude but life saving first aid, he would not have survived. He had considered every possible permutation for his appalling performance yet, whichever avenue he explored, he was always brought back to the same conclusion. Bonds shooting that day, in the hinterland betwixt the coast & the main Rome to Naples auto route, had mirrored his overall performance & was inexcusably, almost fatally, poor. He had fired no less than thirteen rounds at ranges never in excess of forty yards, which was within the parameters of his PPKs performance envelope & Bonds own shooting abilitiy. The ground between him & Gusenko had been rough but nonetheless mostly devoid of cover from both fire & view, affording the KGB agent little shelter, yet Bond had still failed to hit him. Gousenko had managed to capitalise on Bonds lack of marksmanship & quickly turned the tables, one of his own opening shots catching Bond in the leg thus leaving the hunter to become the hunted. Upon realising he had sustained a wound which had ruptured the artery, Bond had then been forced onto the defensive, expending his remaining ammunition in a desperate attempt to stave off Gousenkos counter attack. Luckily for Bond the Russian had failed to capitalise on his sudden advantage by evidently deciding that, after the ensuing but brief exchange of fire which came after bond was hit, that enough was enough. Perhaps Gousenko had his hand forced at the sight of the farm workers or perhaps he considered that he had used up his own daily ration of luck but, had he pressed home, Bond was confident that it would have been he to die, not fitfully though blood loss but by way of a better aimed bullet fired on that occasion by a better & cooler marksman than he had shown himself to be. All the internal inquiries which Bond had subjected himself to since the incident gave him one answer, an explanation which was as simple as it was blunt. He, Bond, had finally been pushed too far. He had at long last lost the only thing which had kept him alive for so long - his nerve.

    For a man, any man, but especially one in Bonds line of work, the sudden realisation of ones own inability to to continue to perform the duties which had been so long part of his life, always comes as a heavy blow yet Bond had taken the diagnosis far worse than he could ever reveal. He had tried in vain to reason what he secretly knew to be the truth but his errors of judgement were too grave, too frequent, to be ignored. The Gousenko fiasco had simply been the straw which had broken the camels back. His private life & subsequently his work had nosedived in a steady downward spiral long before his last mission from which & despite punitive efforts he could not recover. He had lain the blame for his decline at many doors but after mush soul searching he conceded that he showed all the classic symptoms of what the SIS psychiatrist termed 'accumulative stress disorder' colloquially known otherwise as 'Double 0 fever'.

    All officers - there were three of them - who held the 00 prefix, the licence to kill for the British Secret Service, were well aware of the nature of the duties which they & they alone were expected to undertake. In essence they were employed to provide the application of extreme violence against any individual or organisation who presented themselves as a threat to the security of the United Kingdom, her dependents &, on occasion, her allies. With such a brief all Double 0 officers could expect to find themselves exposed to varying degrees of stress, physical hardship & serious injury which no amount of preconditioning could ever prepare them for. Indeed it was an established fact that however hard an agent tried to shrug off the unsavoury memories which were sure to accrue during his service, those same memories would fester & nag until they eventually resurfaced, manifesting themselves in the form of physical ailments which were as acute as they were noticeable. Sporadic shaking, weight loss, insomnia, even stammering Bond had fallen prey to them all.

    It was perhaps predictable, if not inevitable, that he should find himself more susceptible to this most crippling of conditions for Bonds career within the service had been one epitomised by very hard knock, he had...........................................


    That's all I have.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Very good stag, {[] One snall point Bond disliked the windsor knot .....

    “It was tied with a Windsor knot. Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad.”
    -Ian Fleming (From Russia With Love, Chapter 25)

    It's how I wear a tie, Because Obviously ....................................... I'm a Cad ! :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Very good Stag -{
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    Chaps I know it's only a scrap & as such difficult to judge but I was actually more interested to learn what you thought of the manner of the writing &, in the few lines available, your opinions as to what I'd done with Bond? TERMINUS was written circa 1990 & as you can see I had Bond as a spent force, battling his own demons as much as any enemies of the state. The powers that be had picked up on his condition & wanted him gone. M, although frustrated with Bond, had seen fit to ignore advice from various sources & was determined to allow him a little more time to pull himself together. It was Ms need to get Bond away from his detractors which swayed his decision to send him on a routine mission to Jamaica to investigate the dealings of one Solo Santaga, indeed the job was expected to take the form of little more than an extended period of leave. It was in this fragile state that Bond was dispatched to spend 'a few weeks in the sun'. However neither M nor Bond could ever have imagined that this little job would turn out to prove perhaps the deadliest of Bonds entire career....................
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    I don't suppose anyone's bothered but I recovered the manuscripts at the weekend. ATM I am reading TERMINUS. Because it's been so long since I saw it it is just like reading a new book. At 266 typed A4 pages long it is rather bigger than I remember.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    It's always interesting to get another fans take on the Bond story. {[]
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    I look forward to it -{
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    I'm about halfway through TERMINUS &, at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I've found it to be quite readable though helped no doubt by the fact that it is over twenty years since I last saw it. It's 1966, Bond is in Jamaica & has met the beautiful 'Cassina', the main villain 'Solo Santaga' & his thuggish ex wrestler henchman who goes by the nickname 'Chokehold' (for his propensity to strangle his victims). Anytime soon the 'burnt out' Bond is going to have his mettle tested!

    BTW the TERMINUS of the title refers to a certain device which is central to the story.

    I'm not sure about 'Chokehold' as a name, if I ever rewrote the thing I may just change it.
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Will you post the whole Story here?
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    I'm not sure. Remember it was always only intended for my eyes only, that said I made a concerted attempt to write the thing to the best of my ability whilst remaining faithful to the originals.

    You have seen the sample of text from TERMINUS on the previous page you you have some idea of the manner in which it is written so, from that & that alone, what do you think?
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    Whilst hunting for TERMINUS & NEVER SAY DIE I unearthed a couple of short stories which I had completely forgotten about, they are entitled 'DIAL M FOR MAYHEM' & 'THE VERY LAST BREATH'
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    I thought it was well put together -{ Did you set it after Colonel Sun?
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • stagstag Posts: 2,083MI6 Agent
    Thanks. No it followed on from TMWTGG. With all that had happened to him in YOLT & TMWTGG I thought it correct to pick the series up with Bond in a fragile state. Through force of character & training he does however redeem himself in TERMINUS. For NEVER SAY DIE he is back to being himself, if albeit a little colder.

    I haven't read Colonel Sun but with what I have learned here I have put it on my 'to do' list.
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