Solo

Novel — Locations — Equipment — Characters

"Titles are very important to me and as soon as I wrote down Solo on a sheet of paper I saw its potential. Not only did it fit the theme of the novel perfectly, it's also a great punchy word, instantly and internationally comprehensible, graphically alluring and, as an extra bonus, it's strangely Bondian in the sense that we might be subliminally aware of the '00' of '007' lurking just behind those juxtaposed O's of SOLO …"

― William Boyd^[1]

Solo is a James Bond novel written by William Boyd. Commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications, it was published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 26 September 26 2013 and released by HarperCollins in the United States on 8 October 2013. Solo is the thirty-eighth official James Bond novel.

Background

Ian Fleming Publications announced that William Boyd was penning the next Bond novel on April 11, 2012. Twelve days prior Boyd announced his next book would be set in Africa. A year later on April 15, 2013 Boyd announced the title of the book to be Solo during a press conference. During the conference Boyd also revealed the book would be set in 1969 with a 45 year-old James Bond and action would primarily take place on the continents of Europe, Africa, and North America.

Solo does not maintain the changes to characters introduced in the previous continuation novel, Devil May Care, which date of events happen earlier than Solo's.

Plot

Dorchester and Fitzjohn

The story begins at the Dorchester Hotel in London in 1969, where James Bond is celebrating his 45th birthday alone. He has just awoke from dream about his youth during the Second World War, when he was in a section of the 30 Assault Unit at age of 19. It took place in the aftermath of the Normandy landings, with his unit being tasked to secure a coding machine located in a Norman castle. It was during this mission that Bond saw death up close for the first time, facing a German soldier.

At the Hotel, he ends up meeting Bryce Fitzjohn, first on the elevator and then at the breakfast. Fitzjohn invites Bond to a cocktail party, which Bond first politely refuses, before reconsidering at lunch and accepting it.

Before heading out, Bond headed to a car dealership to look at the Jensen Interceptor I, to replace his Bentley, which is getting old and too costly to repair. He is lent a Jensen FF for the night, and heads out to Fitzjohn's.

Unfortunately he found that she was not there and, desiring to investigate, he slipped the lock on her back door and wandered about her house before she returned with her car being towed before calling her friends to cancel the party. He sneaked out, but left a note thanking her for the drink he had taken having confirmed that their meetings and her invitation had all been coincidence, and throwing professional caution to the wind on his day off.

While driving back to Chelsea, the scent of a campfire returned Bond to his memories of June 1944 while observing BRODFORCE as they tried to infiltrate Chateau Malflacon. Bond and his partner had gone around the back where Bond found three boys around his age burning documents. Two ran, but his borrowed gun malfunctioned, and he was nearly killed with a pitchfork before the boy was shot in the throat and killed.

MI6 briefing, Q Lab and Gabriel Adeka

Two weeks later, Bond reports to M for assignment, and he was given a briefing on the African country of Zanzarim, which was torn by a two-year long civil war. The war began over oil, which lead a region of the country to declare itself the "Democratic Republic of Dahum". The horrible war, which left thousands of Zanzaris starving was being prolonged by the tactical genius of Solomon Adeka - alias "The Scorpion" - who was keeping the smaller army from folding.

Her Majesty's government supports Zanzarim and Bond is assigned to the mission. Under the cover as a journalist, Bond's assignment is to "immobilize" Solomon, so that the Dahum would be unable to continue the war against Zanzarim and allowing the latter to end the war and reclaim its former territory.

Bond's new secretary, Araminta Beauchamp then informed him that he had been summoned by Q Branch. There he meets with Quentin Dale, who equipped him with some powerful stun-inducing agents, as they deemed that he could not enter the country armed.

Before leaving for Zanzarim, he stops in Bayswater to visit Gabriel Adeka, the older brother of Solomon, who runs a relief effort for Dahum called AfricaKIN. Unfortunately, Gabriel cannot help him get close to Solomon.

Zanzarim

Bond's plane lands in Sinsikrou, the capital of Zanzarim. After checking into his hotel, he uses his cover as a journalist to attend the official, and blatantly fabricated, press release by the Zanzari military. Afterwards, Bond goes to see the local Station Head, E.B. Ogilvy-Grant, who turns out to be a young woman named Blessing.

After dinner, they go to a bar, where they discuss their plan to get Bond into Dahum. The plan is to reach the border with the Democratic Republic of Dahum first by road and then by boat, accompanied by Ogilvy-Grant. Afterwards, Bond punches a drunk reporter in a back alley for mistaking Blessing for a prostitute.

On the road

In the morning, they get on the road in a beige Austin 1100 van and start their two-day journey south, meandering from village to village to avoid military checkpoints on the main highway.

During the journey, Bond gains a newfound respect for Africa and its people's simple resilience among its untamed and beautiful wildlands. At their last rest house before Bond would take the boat into Dahum, Blessing calls Bond into her room to get rid of a gecko on the ceiling. Bond safely removes the creature, and despite his avid attempts not to sexualize Blessing, the two share a tender period of love-making.

Before they wake up the next morning, they are kidnapped by soldiers from Dahum who had mistaken Bond for one of the English mercenaries fighting for Zanzarim. The lead soldier, a Rhodesian white man with visible damage to his face named Jakobus Breed interrogates them in the jungles, but is attacked by Zanzari forces while trying to cross a road. Bond and Blessing use the chaos to escape into the jungle, but fearing for her life, Blessing runs away leaving Bond alone to wait for morning.

Long walk

He walks for two days with only a wild pawpaw fruit to eat and he continues into a village full of dead children with sowing marks. He finds two alive and gets two milk cans which he fills with water from a nearby stream but is yelled at by an old man before moving on.

He is picked up by a traveler and is taken to a nearby town where he is reported to Dahumian forces and picked up by Kobus Breed. On returning to Dahum, Kobus shows his superiors Bond's ID card, and they now believed he is a member of the agence presse libre. They bring him into Port Dunbar - Dahum's capital - where he spends the next few days trying to get close to Adeka.

Bond is offered an assistant, Dimanche, who shows him around the city and takes him to interview the Home Secretary. He learns that Solomon Adeka does not want to take part in any interviews with the foreign press. Bond goes to the Janjaville airfield, a place apparently of strategic importance for the war. There, he meets Hulbert Linck, a millionaire who has invested in the survival of Dahum. 007 witnesses the country being supplied with food and munitions by a Super Constellation aircraft.

The next day, Bond finds Breed in a village and witnesses the hanging of Zanzari soldiers by the jaw with a fish hook. He also witnesses the blessing of the troops by a "sorcerer" (Tony Msour) who is supposed to make them invincible.

The airfield is about to be attacked by the Zanzarians, and Bond offers to help Breed. The Dahumian forces are in dire straits and 007 proposes a plan to Kobus to deal with the desperate situation in exchange for an interview with Adeka. Breed accepts, Bond's plan works and the Dahumian army emerges victorious from this battle. Because of Bond's success, he is allowed audience with Adeka.

Dahum

Bond is introduced to Adeka, who is He is in a hospital bed and is clearly very ill. Solomon presents him with the "Gold Star of Dahum", the country's highest military award. 007 leaves Adeka shortly after.

Three days later, Bond attends the general's funeral; Colonel Denga takes his place. Despite his death, nothing seems to change in Dahum. M suggests that 007 needs to stay in Port Dunbar until the end of hostilities.

Bond later learns from Linck that a cargo ship is due to arrive soon with supplies. 007 decides to pay a visit to Tony Msour, the "sorcerer". This ends with the latter being kidnapped before Bond abandons him in the trunk of a car with a powerful product that is supposed to render him unconscious for two days.

The Zanzari army intensifies its offensives and wins many battles; the morale and resistance of the Dahumian troops seem to be disappearing and members of the government flee the country. As Bond is also about to leave Dahum via the Super Constellation, he notices the logo of AfricaKIN (a charity founded by Gabriel Adeka) on it and is brought by gunmen to Kobus. The latter has discovered Bond's intentions and is preparing to kill him, when Blessing also appears alongside Breed. Bond is shot in the right thigh by Kobus and another by Blessing in the chest before being left for dead.

Recovery

Wounded Bond is found by the Zanzari army and is taken to the south of Edinburgh where he is hospitalized for several weeks. In the meantime, the war has ended and the Dahum has been disbanded.

At the hospital, Bond is visited by M; the latter informs him that the person who introduced herself to him as "E.G. Ogilvy-Grant" was none other than the latter's secretary and that her real name is Aleesha Belem. She has vanished, alongside Breed and Linck.

M tells Bond to take a month of leave for his recovery. But Bond is planning to get revenge on the villain trio, even if the ethics of the Service forbid such personal initiatives. He decides to "go solo" and find them without the Service or any official help.

Return to London

Bond leaves the hospital to go to London. Returning to his Chelsea flat, he finds his housekeeper, Donalda, injured and decides to call May to take care of her.

Bond goes to the AfricaKIN offices; it is empty but a young man tells him that the association has moved to Washington D.C. under the name AfricaKIN Inc. Bond goes to the film studio where Bryce Fitzjohn (alias Astrid Ostergard) is shooting a film. After finding her at her home, he steals Bryce Fitzjohn's passport after a lovely evening together, and goes to a forger to have it altered to fit him before departing to United States.

USA

007 arrives in Washington by plane. After meeting a former comrade from Fettes - Turnbull "Bouffi" McHarg - by chance at the airport, he rents a room opposite the offices of AfricaKIN Inc. before acquiring items from the gun shop. During his surveillance, Bond sees Colonel Denga and decides to go to the luxurious offices of AfricaKIN Inc., to ask unsuccessfully for a meeting with Gabriel Adeka. He leaves when he sees Breed approaching.

Bond spots Aleesha Belem (Blessing) at AfricaKIN Inc. and decides to follow her. He deliberately makes himself visible in order to sow panic among the enemy before tailing her again. Later, two CIA agents, including Felix Leiter's nephew Brig Leiter, surprise Bond at his observation post and inform him that Aleesha is one of them. Bond is put through to Felix; Felix informs him that the CIA is investigating AfricaKIN Inc. and advises 007 to return to London, which he pretends to accept.

Bond goes to the motel where Aleesha Belem is staying for a small confrontation during which he learns that she was on a mission in Dahum to offer Solomon Adeka asylum in the United States. With him dead, she offered it to Kobus and Denga. The CIA helped move AfricaKIN's headquarters to Washington, and her true goal seems to be to find Hulbert Linck. Aleesha shot Bond to save his life and to gain Breed's trust. She also informs 007 that Gabriel is staying with Kobus in a nursing home in Orange County, Virginia, where he is taking in the children of AfricaKIN Inc.

Bond makes a brief observation of the Orange County house and, when he returns to Aleesha's room, he finds her dead, hanging by her jaw -- like the executions in Dahum.

AfricaKIN Hospital

After reporting this to the CIA, Bond decides to storm the Orange County house alone to exact his revenge. He then stakes out the hospital in and waits in the darkness to take out the three guards.

While climbing to the second floor, Bond devises a plan to take out Breed using a loose bit of masonry: an incredibly heavy stone ball. He lures Breed out with deceptive radio transmissions and drops the ball, reveling in the sickening crunch it makes. Although the strike missed Breed's head, it had crushed his shoulder. This prompts Bond, embellishing his revenge, sprays Kobus in his faulty eye with pepper spray before severing his spinal cord with a switchblade.

A little aghast at his brutality, Bond enters the house to find that the bags the African children that were transported from Africa to be hospitalized, have had had bricks of raw heroin sewn into them. He then goes to basement and discovers that Solomon Adeka is there, alive. He is being drugged and held prisoner by Breed and had been "disguised" as Gabriel.

Linck appears and approaches Bond with a gun in his hand, only to then surrender to Bond. But Linck is then shot - deliberately - by a CIA agent accompanying Felix Leiter. Breed's body has also disappeared.

Return to Port Dunbar

Bond and Felix go to Port Dunbar to check Solomon's coffin and find only bags of cement inside. Felix decides to reveal to Bond that Hulbert Linck had made an pact with Solomon to finance the Dahum civil war against Zanzarim, in exchange for a 25 year contract for a 50% split of oil revenue and distribution. Adeka had accepted, however, he did not have the authorization to issue such contracts, which was not the case for his brother.

Thus, Solomon's fake death was organized so that he would take Gabriel's place (once he was killed). Breed and Linck, to be on the safe side, turned Solomon into a drug addict and Gabriel killed. So Solomon's death was staged to allow him to take over AfricaKIN in the States, where Kobus smuggled heroin while they kept Adeka sedated with it to prevent him changing his mind. The CIA voluntarily eliminated Linck so that he would not hinder the exploitation of Zanzari oil by Western countries.

Felix and James sit for a moment realizing the sour note of their line of work, but the countries were desperate for the easy to refine light-crude oil from outside the Persian Gulf area.

Epilogue

Bond returns to London, where 007 receives congratulations from M who informs him that no punishment will be enacted for his solitary act. Bond then tells what Felix told him in Port Dunbar to M, who reminds him that they are both servants to the country, whatever its needs may be.

James then pays Bryce a visit and reflects on the true depth of the emotion that they felt for one another before becoming worried that Kobus was outside. In the end, James writes a note to Bryce explaining that he can never make her happy, while knowing that his line of work did not allow for love.