Win, Lose or Die

Win, lose or die
By John Gardner

These books are quick reads and I plowed through the first half of the series pretty quickly.

This one opens with 20 mercenaries hang gliding from 25,000' to try to take a supertanker. Operation WIN. they fail. It was test run for taking an aircraft carrier next year at a NATO exercise.

Talk about the plot picked up by ELINT. Bond sent back to active service to be a nursemaid to prevent attack. Or to be selected as inside man by terrorist group BAST???

So Bond has always kept curret as a navy pilot(really? I mean he was a Navy Officer and flies in the movies but I don't actually recall there being mention of his Job in the navy, oh well) and in past 8 months he has been training for the Harrier.

Goes on date with Clover "Penny" a WREN who tells bond about Invincible personal placement. He worries about who knows the classified info she is sharing that was supposed to be a secret. One pilot is missing and Bond was shot at, sidewinder missile, on practice bombing run.

But oh no! The Pilot is not missing. He stole the Harrier. Landed. Loaded on a sidewinder. Took off and fired missile. Then absconded with the jet. Part of BAST plan. Yeah they are so far 0 for 2 in missions. Some bad guys. 007 meets with M. M tells him story of why the WRNS are in plan. We are not told.

A Petty Officer who works on turbines meets two friendly men in a bar. They hook him up with a hooker and film it (he doesn't know). Some kind of blackmail??


Petty Officer agrees to terms. They are not revealed

Fast foward to Bond, on Christmas holiday in island off Naples. To be bait for BAST. He meets with guardian of villa he is staying at. She and Bond sex it up. They are very emotionally intimate, very fast. So of course she is quickly blown up by a car bomb. Turns out she and the other guards were BAST. She was "the cat"?? Clover was in Fioro and takes Bond back to UK. Said they had been alerted the real British villa team had been replaced. They were later found bound, but alive.

After much sex and Christmas dinner, Beatrice runs to car. It explodes killing her. Bond taken to secret intelligence base to be hidden until Landsea '89 exercise. Turns out if was overtaken and run by two heads of BAST. so they could better assess Bond as a threat. Yeah like all villians they should have killed him. But didn't. Real staff was in drug induced sleep. Coma??

Bond makes it to ship on time.

Meets with heads of navies, USA, UK, Russian. Then security team. Russian attaché "Nikki the rat" has eyes for bond. Just after exercise starts Clover and another officer report to Bond that one of the American bodyguards was found with throat slit

Bond tracks down killer. A fake WRNS. American had list of personal to check out. More sectors work of Bond's end. Rather interesting and a bit if a change from the normal.

Bush, Thatcher and Gorbechov are all on board the ship. For the meeting. Replacement for US guy who was killed is brought in. He is intercepted and replaced by BAST.

Bond and Russian agent bang. She is later killed as she takes out fake US agent.

Blackmailed petty officer is to replace filter in turbine engine to cause oil to overheat. Then replace it with one that will smoke. It blows up turbine and petty officer.

The 15 WRNS drug the food to knock out everyone on board the ship. 2,000+. Bond had been sent to shore and is captured when he returns. As food is being brought to him (by only one guard!!) he escapes. Makes it to flight deck. Takes off in Harrier. Dogfights stolen Harrier that was flown in to help pursuade world power to pay $600 billion for return of leaders. Bond bests the other pilot with a sidewinder. Has to eject. Picked up by helicopter.

Bond had worried to Clover that plan would never work. World would use plan as power grab to allow others to take over power in the countries.

On shore marines, brittish and Bond plan raid on carrier. 11 men make first assault. Retake carrier. Rescue leaders.

Clover was the "cat" Beatrice was really alive and on Bond's side. They go after BAST leader who was being watched. Bond and Beatrice chase him to tunnels in rock of Gibraltar. He almost gets Bond but Beatrice kills him.

End with the two back in villa, cue the lovemaking.

What seems to be a standard for the Gardner books: open with a terrorist action. Cut to Bond being assigned the mission. Throw in lots of plot twists. Make the villain, BAST, seem awfully more competent than the rest of the military intelligence.

Overall there were some interesting bits about the Harrier. Some tidbits about life on aircraft carrier.

When they found the BAST leader why didn't they just raid him in his room after carrier assault? Why risk loosing him or Bond by allowing Bond to get him. Yeah that last comment doesn't realm make sense but that's what I get trying to go back over my notes a year and a half later. The Final assault and end of book pretty gripping.

My big problem with the John Gardner books are that they are just not that memorable. Maybe taking a break and reading other books for a while will help. I also found out there are many more Ian Flemming authorized books. Junior James Bond. Moneypenny books. Even a 21st centuary reboot just released in 2011! Time to start looking on eBay?






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