James Bond Series / Licence Renewed / John Gardner

When Licence Renewed begins, M reminds Bond that the 00 section has in fact been abolished; however, M retains Bond as a troubleshooter, telling him “You’ll always be 007 to me.” Bond is assigned to investigate one Dr. Anton Murik, a brilliant nuclear physicist who is thought to have been having meetings with a terrorist named Franco. Franco is identified and tracked by MI5 to a villiage in Scotland called Murcaldy. Since Murcaldy is outside of MI5’s jurisdiction, the Director-General of MI5, Richard Duggan requests that M send Bond to survey Murik. Relying on information that MI5 didn’t have, M changes Bond’s assignment to instead infiltrate Murik’s Scottish castle, and gain Murik’s confidence.