<Tr> <Th> Michael Mason </Th> <Td>--</Td> <Td> Mason ran away from his wealthy family at an early age to go to Canada where he worked as a trapper and professional boxer . At the outbreak of war he worked in then - neutral Bucharest where he killed two German agents who were trying to assassinate him . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Merlin Minshall </Th> <Td> 21 December 1906--3 September 1987 </Td> <Td> Minshall was a fellow member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was known to Fleming through his work in naval intelligence . In 1940 he joined the SOE and waged guerrilla warfare against the Nazis in France and Yugoslavia . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Conrad O'Brien - ffrench </Th> <Td> 19 November 1893--23 October 1986 </Td> <Td> O'Brien - ffrench was a distinguished British secret intelligence officer, decorated army officer, skier, mountaineer, linguist, traveller and artist . He met Fleming in Austria in the 1930s while working for Claude Dansey's "Z" network gathering information on German troop movements . In 1918, Stewart Menzies recruited Conrad into MI6 who then undertook clandestine missions abroad . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Duško Popov </Th> <Td> 10 July 1912--10 August 1981 </Td> <Td> Popov was a Serbian triple agent of VOA (code named "Duško"), MI6 (code named "Tricycle") and the Abwehr (code named "Ivan"). Fleming knew Popov and followed him in Lisbon, Portugal as an escort appointed by the MI6, witnessing an event in the Estoril Casino where Popov placed a bet of $40,000 ($700,000 in 2017 dollars) in order to cause a rival to withdraw from a baccarat table: Fleming used this episode as the basis for Casino Royale . </Td> </Tr>

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