Carte Blanche

Branch of the ODG. Its director-general is known as M.
    SAPS: South African Police Service. The main domestic police operation serving South Africa. Its efforts range from street patrol to major crime.
    SAS: Special Air Service. The British Army’s special forces unit. It was formed during the Second World War.
    SBS: Special Boat Service. The Royal Navy’s special forces unit. It was formed during the Second World War.
    Security Service: The domestic security agency in the United Kingdom, responsible for investigating both foreign threats and criminal activities within the borders. It corresponds to the FBI (see above) in the United States, though it is primarily an investigative and surveillance operation—unlike the FBI, it has no authority to make arrests. Known informally as MI5, or Five.
    SIS: Secret Intelligence Service. The foreign-intelligence-gathering and espionage agency of the United Kingdom. It corresponds to the CIA in the United States. Known informally as MI6, or Six.
    SOCA: Serious Organized Crime Agency. The law-enforcement organization within the United Kingdom responsible for investigating major criminal activity inside the borders. Its agents and officers have the power of arrest.
    Spetznaz: Voyska Spetsialnogo Naznacheniya. A general reference to special forces in the Russian intelligence community and the military.
    SVR: Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedk. The Russian foreign-intelligence-gathering and espionage agency. Formerly the KGB (see above) performed this function.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    All novels are to some extent collaborative efforts, and this one more so than most. I wish to express my deep appreciation to the following for so tirelessly assisting to make sure this project got off the ground and that it grew into the best book it could be: Sophie Baker, Francesca Best, Felicity Blunt, Jessica Craig, Sarah Fairbairn, Cathy Gleason, Jonathan Karp, Sarah Knight, Victoria Marini, Carolyn Mays, Zoe Pagnamenta, Betsy Robbins, Deborah Schneider, Simon Trewin, Corinne Turner and my friends in the Fleming family. Special thanks go to the copyeditor of all copyeditors, Hazel Orme, as well as Vivienne Schuster, whose inspired title graces the novel.
    Finally, thanks to the operatives of my own Overseas Development Group: Will and Tina Anderson, Jane Davis, Julie Deaver, Jenna Dolan and, of course, Madelyn Warcholik.
    And for readers thinking that Cape Town’s Table Mountain Hotel I mention in the book sounds familiar, that’s because its inspiration is the Cape Grace, which is just as lovely but is not—to my knowledge—populated by any spies.

ABOUT IAN FLEMING
    Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton and later spent a formative period in Kitzbuhel, Austria, where he learned languages and made his first tentative forays into fiction writing. In the 1930s he worked for Reuters, where he honed his writing skills and, thanks to a Moscow posting, gained valuable insights into what would become his literary bête noire—the Soviet Union.
    He spent the Second World War as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, where his fertile imagination spawned a variety of covert operations, all of them notable for their daring and ingenuity. The experience would provide a rich source of material in the future.
    After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times, a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home Goldeneye, he wrote a book called Casino Royale . It was published a year later—and James Bond was born. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His interest in cars, travel, good food and beautiful women, as well as his love of golf and gambling, was reflected in the books that were to sell in the millions, boosted by the vastly successful film franchise.
    His literary career was not restricted to Bond. Apart from being an accomplished journalist and travel writer he also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a much-loved children’s story about a car that flies, which has inspired both film and stage productions. He was a notable bibliophile, amassing a library of first editions which was considered so important that it was evacuated from London during the Blitz. And from 1952 he managed his own specialist publishing imprint, Queen Anne Press.
    Fleming died of heart failure in 1964 at the age of fifty-six. He lived to