004, Joseph Dryden

Double O agent, a warrior who never stays down

Meet the new generation of spies… Together, they represent the very best and brightest of MI6. Skilled, determined and with a licence to kill, they will do anything to protect their country.

Transferring from the Special Forces after an IED in Afghanistan damages his hearing, Dryden’s physical prowess is a major bonus to the Double O unit. A boxing champion with a direct neural link to Q’s quantum network, he’s the man we all want in our corner when hope is at its dimmest.

004 had come up through Special Forces with a heavyweight’s build, six feet four and fourteen stone of muscle, shoulders straining against the pink shirt he wore unbut­toned at the throat with a loose purple tie, and midnight blue trousers. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows.

Dryden always had the air of a man relaxing at the end of a long day, despite ticking nearly every box of what experts called Operator’s Syndrome, one symptom of which was hypervigilance – the legacy of being a killer since he was sixteen years old. But, as 004 said, it was peace he couldn’t figure, peace that had spun him out. Here, ready to jump into danger once more, his loose­ness came with the reassuring solidity of authority – a soldier who knew he could command any situation and didn’t need to prove it. When Moneypenny first sat beside him, she’d been struck by the rumble of laughter from so deep in his chest, the languid survey of the room, and his ramrod back. She believed that if she simply took a seat beside him on the Tube, she’d wonder: Who is this man?