6. The Property of a Lady
Another short story, The Property of A Lady is an intriguing story that shows another side to Bond, and while the tale of a KGB double-agent being paid through a fixed Sotheby's auction could well be used as a sequence in another Bond movie, there isn't really enough for it to justify a stand-alone film. The story focuses Secret Service employee, Maria Freudenstein- the double agent in question - who is set to be paid by her Russian keepers by auctioning a Fabergé clock at Sotheby's in her name. The Resident Director of the KGB in London is present in the auction to underbid and drive up the price to pay Freudenstein the correct value, and Bond attends the auction on his trail. It isn't a particularly action-packed story by any means, but the story affords an insight to Bond as a detective like Spy, not necessarily leading with his Walther, or his sexual appetite, and it could well work as a passage in another film, as an homage to Ian Fleming, and the great man's original vision of the character.