Chapter 8, 'Big Fleas Have Little Fleas...' Summary

No one knows who SPECTRE is, but M knows of some indications of an independent organization at work in Europe. The letter's details about the aircraft are accurate, and the government believes SPECTRE does have the nuclear weapons. The plane was manned by a small crew and a NATO observer, an Italian pilot with a good war record. It disappeared off the radar and was not picked up by DEW, the U.S. Distant Early Warning system. Perhaps it flew lower, in the flight streams of commercial aircraft. There is some indication of a plane turning south off the commercial aircraft track toward Idlewild, but it is a thin lead. The plane could be anywhere.

M explains the bombs would not go off if the plane crash landed. To convert the...