Bond is targeted by SMERSH to be killed in a compromising situation on the Orient Express. He is lured to Istanbul by an attractive young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, who claims to be defecting and bringing a Spektor, a Russian decoding device much coveted by MI6. Returning to London by train Bond meets SMERSH assassin, Red Grant, pretending to be a fellow British agent. Grant drugs Romanova and attempts to kill Bond, but fails: instead Bond kills Grant. Bond is then nearly killed by Colonel Rosa Klebb, one of the SMERSH planners, before he manages to capture her.

He will admit, however, that he is a big Bond fan. “Yeah. I love the movies. I’ve read all the books.” You’ve read all the books? “Yeah.” From what age? “Early teens, I think.”