"pattern of chance"
Towards the end of Moonraker , James Bond considers all the myriad little events which contributed to his saving London from atomic destruction by Drax's rocket: All that would have come about [..] but for a whole pattern of tiny circumstances, a whole pattern of chance. Coincidences, chance happenings, unexpected twists and turns... the crafting and weaving of all of these into a narrative is the whole of the novelist's art, as Fleming knows. As the remote deity above the Bondian universe which he brings into being on his gold-plated typewriter he could no doubt savour the paradox - what seems like mere chance to Bond is the result of Fleming's design. The London of Moonraker was always perfectly safe, just as Bond's aim at winning the love (or at least the body) of Gala Brand was doomed right from the start. What we have, or rather what the characters have, is the illusion of chance. But Bond as a character is himself familiar with such illusions. Work though he does ...