'Have we a deal, Bond?'

Richard Hammond quickly slips his nail file into his pocket. Paul Savident closes his iPad. Norm wanders across to the table. Q and Xiomara appear to be in a lively mood, sitting side-by-side at one end.

‘This is just as I imagined it’, she says to her father, ‘all cloaks and daggers’.

M looks remarkably relaxed, and for once, not at all irritated by the banter.

‘Right, straight to business. Bond, we want you to return to Buenos Aires with Xiomara. Cameron has asked for her to be your number 2 in place of Moneypenny. She speaks Spanish like a Porteno, can count - so she will manage the expenses - and she can handle a 9mm Glock.’

I sit transfixed. Is it now my task to nursemaid this child? Am I to train her up simply to take over my job?

‘I know what you are thinking, Bond’, M continues, ‘yes she is young and relatively inexperienced, but we need someone - how can I put this - a little more ‘dope’, if you get my meaning?’

I look down at my cuff links and drop my glance further to my black leather Jermyn Street Loakes. Perhaps I am near, or even beyond my sell-by date?

‘If it is any consolation, James, you will have the Haedo apartment whilst you are there. Oh, and by the way, Raul hasn’t been rumbled so he will meet you at Ezeiza in your beloved Bentley S2 Continental.

Dear reader, it is best at this stage that I tell you a little about Buenos Aires, just in case you feel left behind.

Palacio Haedo was built in 1860, and restored in 1923 , making it one of the oldest buildings in Buenos Aires. It retained all of its original features as befitting a national historic monument - including its ancient plumbing and heating. For my previous visits to Buenos Aires, this had been the grace-and-favour apartment provided by His Majesty’s government. Raul was its gardening caretaker, supported by Cleo his black cat.

When workmen moved in to restore the building in 2022 it was expected the Malvinas-obsessed government of Alberto Fernandez & Cristina Kirchner would repossess the whole building for the Administration of National Parks; however Lord Cameron managed to persuade their chain-saw wielding successor, Javier Milei, to discretely forget the British presence on the top floor - and it seems, miss the Bentley Continental bearing British plates hidden under a dustsheet in an underground garage.

‘Have we a deal, Bond?’ continued M, almost without stopping either for breath or indeed for an answer.

‘Then what are the rest of you here for?’, I ask.

‘Norm will travel with you to Buenos Aires, but we have other work for him, so he won’t be under your feet. And of course, Paul and Richard will be your handlers.’

The prospect of returning to Argentina’s capital to enjoy asado at the Olivos Military Club, and drink coffee at Palermo’s street cafes, was at the forefront of my mind as M turned to leave. So too was the draw of nights-into-mornings dancing Argentine tango to Golden Age orchestras in the milongas of Buenos Aires.

‘Here’s your tickets, James’, says Richard with a flick of his grey-blond curls, as he drops a manila envelope on the table. ‘We thought you would want them ‘old school’ darling, rather than digital.’

Q hobbles off after M, leaving me alone with Xiomara.

‘It will be like old times, but different, Mr Bond’, she says to break the silence. ‘And it may be your last chance to dance tango?’ she adds as she pushes her smart phone into her little rucksack and gets up to leave.

In the next episode Bond is given a few tips by Q and prepares to depart the UK for Argentina.