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FINAL_ASSASSINATION
August 24, 2005
A story that Pearson presents as September 5, 2005
gospel, about a spy training
class, with a "final" where they Reading John Pearson's
try to convince you that you're "The Life of Ian Fleming" (1966)
being sent on an operation to In the Bantam paperback edition
kill a man. You're to go to the
hotel, fling the door open, and The details of the
take a shot at the man sitting in story: another wartime
the room. This human target is visit from Fleming
expecting all this however -- ('42-45?). In a
he's supposed to *dodge out of farmhouse near
the way*. Toronto, Stephenson
was running a spy
Pearson, quoting Sir William Stephenson: school for Donovan.
Fleming spent a few
" ... It would all be as realistic as days there as a
possible--after all, this was exactly the trainee, at his own
sort of mission an agent might be called suggestion. (p.107...)
on to perform in the field, and we'd try
to pressure him into thinking that it was BONDED_COURIER
a genuine killing. It was a test of
nerve really, a test to decide whether he
was ruthless enough to kill a man when
it came down to it. All right--the
trainee would have his instructions and a
normal police .38 revolver which he's
load himself. From then on we'd watch
him to see exactly what he did--we even
had a peephole through the wall into the
hotel bedroom where the instructor was
waiting. Now one of the tricks this
instructor had picked up was the ability
to dodge a bullet--a sort of circus
trick. If you fired at him from five
yards he knew how to divert you (And what if they
sufficiently for the shot to go wide. fire more shots?)
Extraordinary man. Well, after the
success Ian had been having on the course
we were interested to know what would
happen, and I briefed him myself. I made
sure his gun was loaded. I told him the
games were over now and this was
serious. 'Open that door, draw fast, and
shoot straight,' I told him. 'It'll be
his life or yours.' Several of us were
at the hotel watching when Ian arrived.
He got as far as the landing, and there
he waited a long time. Then he went Stephenson says
away. He apologized about it afterward. Fleming's flaw as an
'You know,' he said, 'I just couldn't agent was "too much
open that door. I couldn't kill a man imagination" (p.109)
that way.'"
Okay, now on the one hand, it helps that this is a
quote from someone besides Fleming. But on the
other hand, it's *totally fucking unbelievable*.
I have no trouble with the idea that someone
could learn to dodge a bullet at five paces --
human beings can do all sorts of extreme things,
given the will and opportunity to learn how to
do them --
The trouble is that this man then has to
be able to convince his boss that this
is a good idea. How many times is he
supposed to do this trick? A dozen?
Two dozen? More? And the boss doesn't
stop and think -- hm, if something goes
wrong here, I'm going to have a hard
time explaining why I ordered my agents
to shoot one of my instructors as a
"training exercise".
The question in my mind: what kind of
guy was Stephenson? On the job, he was
the king of burglary, assasination and
lies... What was he like when talking
to journalists about it later? Little Bill.
The Quiet Canadian.
Pearson mentions that Stephenson
had a biographer: Montgomery Hyde
(Named after a corner
in San Francisco?)
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