Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller
Character information
Age	54
Born	1903, Germany
Died	1957, 1261 Rainbow Lane, Salisbury, Maryland, United States
Hair	Unknown color, thinning
Relatives	Gloria Keller (wife)
Nationality	German, American (post-1945)
Occupation	General supervisor
Affiliation	Naval Research Laboratory
Status	Deceased, stabbed with kitchen knife
Behind the scenes
Role	Henchman
First seen	Trigger Mortis
Last seen	Trigger Mortis

Thomas Keller was a German physicist and rocket engineer, who served as a General Supervisor employed by the American Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at its rocket launch site on Wallops Island, Virginia. Keller had previously been involved with German rocket development from the 1930s until 1945. The character appeared in Anthony Horowitz's 2015 James Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis.

Biography

Thomas Keller was born and raised in Germany circa 1903. He graduated with a degree in physics and engineering, and developed a passion for rocket science while watching Fritz Lang's film, Frau im Mond, The Lady in the Moon. The engineer subsequently attended the University of Berlin, before joining Verein für Raumschiffahrt (the Society for Space Travel), and ultimately engaging in rocket research at Peenemünde. Keller was 36 when he met the head of the German space programme, rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Interested solely in what he believed to be amoral research, Keller enthusiastically worked on the construction of the V-2 rocket until the conclusion of the Second World War; at which time he, von Braun and his V-2 rocket team, were recruited by the Americans and taken to the U.S. for government employment.

Circa 1948, three years after he arrived, and continuing his rocket research at Fort Bliss, an American army base near El Paso, Texas, Keller met and married a cocktail waitress named Gloria. The pair jointly decided to move north, choosing Salisbury, Maryland due to its proximity to his new employers; the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) rocket launch site on Wallops Island. Despite being described as an unattractive man, who by the time of the novel's events is noted to have pallid skin, thinning hair, nicotine-stained fingers, and glasses; Gloria was initially attracted to his seemingly-exciting life working on top-secret rockets. Since that time, their relationship had deteriorated. They had been unable to have children and, despite the appearance of marital stability, Gloria secretly had little but intense revulsion for her husband.

In 1957, Keller was approached by an operative of Jason Sin, identifying himself as Harry Johnson. He offered to pay the General Supervisor a quarter of a million dollars to sabotage the Vanguard space rocket under construction at Wallops Island. Encouraged by his unusually enthusiastic wife, Keller agreed, entered the rocket assembly hall during a fire drill and made a minor, but fatal, alteration to the rocket's propulsion system. He then cautiously met with Johnson at a diner and brought a cash-filled attaché case back to his home in Salisbury, where Gloria was waiting. The pair counted the money and, while ostensibly looking for a corkscrew to open a celebratory bottle of champagne, Mrs Keller drew a kitchen knife from the drawer and stabbed her husband to death. She subsequently doused the house with gasoline, took the dead man's car, and escaped across the State line with the money.