Quiller: Difference between revisions

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* [[All a Part of ~~The~~ Job]]: Quiller makes clear that he (and by extension the other shadow executives) do their job because they need the excitement. He presents it as a not very sane defect. He's all for helping humanity and his country and doing the right thing, but if Quiller goes too long between assignments he starts to hang around the office waiting (begging) for something and finds himself agreeing to take assignments that he would have otherwise turned down.

* [[All a Part of the Job]]: Quiller makes clear that he (and by extension the other shadow executives) do their job because they need the excitement. He presents it as a not very sane defect. He's all for helping humanity and his country and doing the right thing, but if Quiller goes too long between assignments he starts to hang around the office waiting (begging) for something and finds himself agreeing to take assignments that he would have otherwise turned down.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: London Control gets Quiller to volunteer for missions he'd normally refuse by making them appear to be something different.

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: Quiller is on the receiving end on several occasions.

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* [[Enemy Mine]]: "Quiller KGB"

* [[First-Person Smartass]]

* [[Fun ~~With~~ Foreign Languages]]: Played straight in ''The Peking Target''. Quiller has been captured by the Soviets, who force him to make a radio transmission giving a false report to his base. Unknown to the Soviet [[Big Bad]], his translator is on Quiller's side. So the [[Big Bad]] tells what he wants Quiller to say in Russian, the translator tells Quiller what the actual Soviet plan is in English, and Quiller must then transmit that information to his base in a manner that still sounds plausible (if the false information contains the words Seoul or Peking, for instance, the [[Big Bad]] would be suspicious if he didn't hear those words). Unsurprisingly this chapter is entitled “Minefield”.

* [[Fun with Foreign Languages]]: Played straight in ''The Peking Target''. Quiller has been captured by the Soviets, who force him to make a radio transmission giving a false report to his base. Unknown to the Soviet [[Big Bad]], his translator is on Quiller's side. So the [[Big Bad]] tells what he wants Quiller to say in Russian, the translator tells Quiller what the actual Soviet plan is in English, and Quiller must then transmit that information to his base in a manner that still sounds plausible (if the false information contains the words Seoul or Peking, for instance, the [[Big Bad]] would be suspicious if he didn't hear those words). Unsurprisingly this chapter is entitled “Minefield”.

* [[Get Into Jail Free]]: In his final novel, Quiller discovers a witness who has evidence that can bring down a high-ranking boss of [[The Mafiya]] has been thrown into [[The Gulag]]. He gets himself sent there too (though only by faking the conviction papers) even through [[The Alcatraz|no-one has ever escaped before]].

* [[The Ghost]]: Moira, an unseen actress lover of Quiller. Various [[Girl of the Week]] types ''are'' shown, but she is the only one Quiller leaves a bequest to in his will (“roses for Moira”).