title: The Anti-death League
author:  Kingsley Amis 
description: Brian Leonard, a Monty Python of secret agents, meets James Churchill, a young officer, at an English army base where preparations are under way for Operation Apollo. To complicate matters, Churchill has gone round-the-bend for a parole from the mental ward. <P>Thrown amongst these loose cannons is a widowed beauty who practices "conspicuous polyandry," an unfocused psychiatrist, an unbelieving chaplain, and a charming alcoholic. <P>"Amis delights in combining espionage, violence, love and religious skepticism. Such disparate elements, like dishpans and fire rings, challenge his juggler's dexterity. Who wins? The reader!" (Publisher's Source)
zlib_text: Kingsley Amis The Anti-Death League
  
  First published in 1966
  
  Part One
  
  The Edge of a Node
  
  A GIRL and an older woman were walking along a metaled pathway. To their left,
  beyond a strip of grass, was the front of a large high building in grey stone.
  Reaching its corner, at which there was a pointed turret, brought them a view
  of a square of grass on which stood a tower-like structure supported by stone
  pillars. The afternoon sun was shining brightly and the space under the main
  part of the tower was in deep shadow. The girl halted. "What's happening?" she
  asked. "That's just the old cat," said the other. "He's spotted something
  under the tower there, I expect." A small black cat, crouching quite still,
  faced the shadow. After a moment, a bird with tapering wings flew out, dipped
  towards the cat, gave two brief twitters and wheeled back to where it had come
  from. The girl went on watching. "Oh, you know what that is," said the older
  woman. "She'll have got a nest under there, the bird, 