by Tom Marcus
‘Tom, you’re not in trouble, I’m here to help you.’
Raising my head and adjusting my body positioning, I knew the time had come to man up to my situation. I had a lifelong battle scraping through on the bare minimum. I’ve always wanted to provide for my wife and family. I didn’t want to be rich, just to have enough money to last the month rather than my bank account being heavily overdrawn by the first weekend after payday.
‘Talk me through the companies you’re involved in.’
‘Yeah, I didn’t think it would be an issue as it’s not intelligence-related, they are limited companies registered through Companies House but completely unrelated to my work here. Not actually making any more from them, unsurprisingly. First one I started when I was over the water with the Special Ops unit. I don’t run any of them day to day.’
‘OK, Tom, that’s fine. We knew they were unrelated to your work with A4, what we wanted to check was your future plans if or when they become successful. Usually you’d be required to ask permission to gain employment outside the service.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t realize that. I don’t run the companies day to day, it doesn’t impact my work and IF they make any money I certainly won’t be leaving the office, it would just go to reducing my debts and paying the mortgage off.’
‘That’s absolutely fine, though obviously we will ask if you do need to increase your workload to inform us and we’ll give our consideration.’
I swear people from B Branch don’t talk normally. ‘Give consideration!’ Why didn’t she just say, ‘Tell us and we’ll think about it’? I couldn’t let little things like that show on my face now though, this tiny little woman from B Branch was probably one of the most powerful in Thames House, and she could save me or end me.
‘So, Tom, credit cards … We see that your repayments exceed your income, which is why the debt is growing. We have our own in-house charity as you know, and sometimes we can make a case to pay your debt off and in turn you pay back that over time from your wages. Would that be of interest to you?’
‘Absolutely! How easy is it to get the charity to agree?’
‘In a word, not very. But, we look to protect our employees and I think with a young family you would certainly be considered. Is there anything else apart from the card statements I have in front of me that you owe money on or is an extra expense?’
Looking through the raft of statements, she had absolutely everything. As I looked at each paper in turn I heard my team leaving the briefing room and heading out down the stairs towards the cars. I was an MI5 surveillance officer, recruited from Military Special Operations, and while my team geared up to travel to Birmingham I was sat here staring at my mobile phone missed payment bill. How the fuck had my life come to this? I was blessed with a rare set of skills that allowed me to keep my country safe, but I couldn’t do the basics of providing for my family. It was at that moment that I felt like I was failing.
‘Tom, do you want to join your team?’
She could sense how vulnerable I felt. I’d never felt comfortable talking about money; I’d always deflect if the conversation came up. I felt like the little boy in the army careers office. I wanted to belong, I was determined to make something of myself, but a part of me still felt like I wasn’t quite good enough.
‘Yes, please.’
Putting her hand on mine, she shook it with reassurance.
‘Go, I’ll sort this out. Check your service email when you get a chance this week and I’ll give you an update. I’ll speak to your group leader and get you some extra shifts too, he owes me a favour.’
Running out the door, I jumped down the stairs five at a time to catch my team. Through the tubes I could see the first cars leaving the gates. As I jumped into my car the team leader was parked opposite me, and he leaned his head outside his open door.
‘Back with us today, then?’
‘Yeah, all sorted – apparently I’ve got to stop shagging animals!’
‘Ha. Come on, you prick, let’s go. I’ll brief on the air separately, channel three.’
In reality I knew my team leader would have been told I was struggling financially, or if not now he would be soon when I started picking up extra shifts. The battle I had now was all the extra shifts would take me away from my wife and son for even longer. I hoped the charity would help out, but the only way I could focus on today’s job was to compartmentalize my money problems and slip back into operator mode.
I switched the car radio on to channel 3 and turned the volume up on the loudspeaker. I had a few hours of motorway driving ahead of me towards the doctor’s work address.
‘TC, you on channel three?’
‘Yeah, go ahead.’
‘Roger, the main team channel for the job today is channel four, channel four. Operation COINAGE, as you know, is the investigation into the supply of equipment to terrorist organizations in Libya and surrounding areas. The target, PENNY BLACK, is suspected of being in the attack-planning stages, working towards conducting hostile operations, either on the mainland here in the UK or overseas against coalition forces. Roger so far?’
‘So far.’
‘Today’s task is to keep control of PENNY BLACK, also his wife BROKEN BRANCH and his only son FALLEN LEAF, to allow a team to bug his house. No other keyholders are known. PENNY BLACK is at the doctors’ surgery, address on your PDA, and his wife and son are together shopping in Wolverhampton, according to the string from A2A. We are going to plot up around the surgery; another team has deployed on the wife and son.’
‘Roger that. I’ll give you a shout when I’m in the area, switching to channel four now.’
‘Stations, give Charlie Two Two a radio check on channel four, please?’
‘Loud and clear, bud.’
‘Likewise, cheers.’
Hitting the motorway, I relaxed into the drive, no need to bust a gut getting down there. The technical teams wouldn’t deploy until we had the doctor and his family identified and under control, and they would be travelling towards Birmingham too.
As the overhead gantry signs passed by, my mind started to drift back to my vetting interview; could this really be the end of my financial worries? I hated being away from my family constantly. The pace of operations was relentless but the increased hours meant more money. The service was going through its 100-year anniversary since Vernon Kell started the organization in 1909. As part of the celebrations, the service had commissioned a book to document the official history, and various other things were available for employees to buy as keepsakes. The director general, Jonathan Evans, gave me a personally signed copy of the book. I also got the service-issue watch. It was a privilege because only around a quarter of MI5 employees got the chance to buy a watch and I believe even fewer got a signed copy of the book from the DG.
My wife and I couldn’t afford the watch; we both knew we didn’t have the money but we wanted my son to have something of significance he could pass on to his children, and their children after. It was more money than we had paid for our family car. I’d always liked nice watches, but had never been able to afford one. We took the money from two of our many credit cards to pay for it. I was sure it would increase in value and when my son was old enough to have his own children or get married I would pass it on to him; surely by then I would have paid back all this debt.
I’ve always been a bit of an entrepreneur at heart, looking for opportunities to make money, which is why I got involved in some companies, anything from imports and exports of games consoles, trying to take advantage of the currency exchange rate, through to selling goods on eBay. It’s that side of my personality that applies well to being an operator. Looking for opportunities, how best to take advantage of the situation I was in. I just wasn’t quite sure why I was failing to bring in enough money yet.
As the time rolled by I was getting close to the target area, and I could hear the technical team pop up on the net as they started to move into the area, ready to get int
o the house when we had control of everyone.
‘A4, do you read, team leader?’
‘Loud and clear. We’ll give you a shout when we have PENNY BLACK under control.’
‘Roger, thank you, we won’t need too long.’
Hollywood spy films would have you believe it’s all gloss and shine when ‘bugs’ are planted in houses or cars. The truth is less dramatic. And doesn’t unfold against a tension-building movie soundtrack. It involves careful preparation to make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible. Entry follows rigorous surveillance, so the team knows what to expect. The target didn’t leave the house much. That complicated things.
Picking locks is an art and any seasoned locksmith will tell you that you can pick the same lock in the same conditions with the exact same tools ten times and each time it will unlock in a slightly different way. Sometimes you’ll get a pin that sticks or doesn’t want to lift properly. An examination of the locks is conducted prior to the job to eliminate that problem.
‘Base, do we know if PENNY BLACK is inside the GP surgery?’
‘Confirmed, entered at 0930hrs, hasn’t left. Red team have control of BROKEN BRANCH and FALLEN LEAF.’
‘Roger that, thank you.’
There was absolutely no way the doctor could escape us and make it back to his house. Hopefully, once the technical team left the house having installed the eavesdropping devices, we’d be able to pull out of the area. This was a simple babysitting operation.
‘Entry team leader, do you read, A4?’
‘Go ahead.’
The team leader was talking in hushed tones, meaning he was ready to go.
‘We have control of the whole family, you’re good to go.’
‘Roger, gaining entry now.’
‘Roger. Stations, radio silence while the entry team are on target unless we see PENNY BLACK.’
Normally the technical teams wouldn’t give us running commentary on what they were doing but in this case everyone was talking. I was starting to think that the doctor wasn’t just a horrible short little cunt after all and had some significance beyond being a terrorist facilitator.
‘That’s us inside, on target now.’
The entry teams are always surprisingly quick getting into buildings or cars. It doesn’t matter what lock or alarm system something has, if it has a method of opening then it can be defeated. One of my first introductions to their particular skills was while I was still in the army. Ian, my MI5 handler, was speaking to a guy in his fifties about a parcel they knew was in the Post Office’s sorting office. He wanted to get access to the laptop inside, but the parcel was sealed with security tape that was designed to break if tampered with, to show if it had been previously opened.
This guy, who I came to know only as ‘Paul’, went on to explain that he and his boffins had ways of getting past security tape and resealing the parcel without anyone being any the wiser. Not a problem. Absolutely anything is accessible; if at some point it’s designed to be opened, A1 know a way of getting in, and closing it back up without leaving a sign. They really are the best in the world, proper sneaky bastards.
‘Installing now.’
We would never be told where or what devices would be installed in target addresses or vehicles. A2A, who monitor the eavesdropping audio and video recordings, would know because it would help them distinguish sounds within the property, particularly if they thought the device was compromised and found by the target, which happened quite a lot in Northern Ireland.
No longer than a minute had gone by before we got another transmission.
‘Base, entry team is preparing to leave now. Can you confirm exit is clear?’
‘Confirmed, you’re good to leave.’
It took the entry teams another minute, maybe two, before they sent their last transmission.
‘That’s us complete and away from the area now. Device installed. A2A, do you read?’
Why the fuck were the monitors from A2A on our comms? This never happened; they would never be listening on our radios, in fact I didn’t even know they had access to our communications. Usually if they have anything urgent coming through they would ring the operations officer.
‘A2A reading and audio behaving normally.’
‘Thanks, guys, A4 and Base, all back to you, entry team OUT.’
‘Roger that, thank you. Stations, we are going to sit tight for thirty minutes then pull off back to the Operations Centre. Red team have ceased already.’
I really didn’t understand what was going on here. We’d deployed to keep control of the keyholders while the technical team got into the property and installed another bug, but we had running commentary and A2A were on the net too. This doctor was either being run by the agent handlers or the risk for compromise was much bigger than we were being told.
‘Stations, Base has kindly allowed us to have a debrief over the air and travel straight to your homes rather than coming back to the ops centre. Cease and withdraw and acknowledge down the list, please.’
Once everyone shouted up and started their drive home, the team leader started the debrief.
‘All stations, switch to channel ninety, NINE ZERO now and test call, please.’
Changing the channel on the car radio, I knew I was about to get some answers to today’s job, and the team could sense it too as we all scrambled to reply on channel ninety as quickly as we could.
‘Roger, thank you, stations. Base is on too. This channel is for A4 only. Entry team and A2A do not have access to this channel.’
‘Base, roger, and yes, that’s correct.’
‘Base, all yours for debrief.’
‘Roger, thank you. Stations, obviously you heard A2A on the net and the running commentary from the bugging team. We tried to recruit PENNY BLACK last week. It was felt he wasn’t receptive to the thought of working for us, but he didn’t discuss this with anyone in his family or close associates. Any station roger so far?’
‘So far.’
‘Last night we received intelligence that Pakistan ISI had been told we had tried to recruit PENNY BLACK and he was considering it. We do know that communication came from the doctor but we don’t know how he’s communicating with the intelligence agency in Pakistan. Hence the extra device installed today. One station roger so far?’
‘So far.’
‘This is all need to know, but given how unorthodox today’s job was and the possibility for PENNY BLACK to be more aware than he might have been previously, I thought it best to let your team know.’
‘Roger, thank you, Base. Stations, this is NEED TO KNOW, do NOT discuss this with anyone given the sensitivity of inter-agency relations.’
‘Base, no problem. Safe driving, everyone.’
Just when you think this life couldn’t get any darker or have any more twists and turns, you find out one of your targets is potentially helping terrorists kill coalition forces while pretending to work for us as an agent, all the while passing intelligence on to Pakistan, who could potentially be passing false intelligence through him to feed to us. Fuck. Me.
In reality what this meant was that the agent handlers would run him as one of their covert human intelligence sources, with a view to gaining intelligence that could prevent further attacks on the UK and its interests. However, we knew this doctor was a tricky little shit who’d passed information on to Pakistani intelligence about the service. Throw into the mix the fact that the agent handlers would be rewarding PENNY BLACK for ‘his service’ by way of cash, presents and treats, and you are then back in the realms of funding terrorism.
Driving home back to my family, I was running through over and over what just happened. PENNY BLACK was going to be paid by us, he was going to be paid by the NHS as a GP and more than likely he would have a bank account in Pakistan having regular deposits made too. This twat was raking it in while I was having to make arrangements with charities to help pay my debts off. I’d got myself into this situation, and had only myself to blame
, but I couldn’t help feel bitter when I saw terrorists and career criminals getting away, literally, with murder and having more money than they knew what to do with.
PENNY BLACK would likely go on to become a double agent while continuing to facilitate terrorist groups overseas. Every roadside bomb, every suicide attack in Iraq or Afghanistan, I’d continue to question whether we could have prevented that or did we inadvertently aid it by funding this miserable fuck?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Early in my career with MI5, I considered going through the surveillance biker training. Our bikers are all operators, with the added specialism of being able to ride one of the team’s surveillance motorbikes. I decided against it because I was concerned I’d lose valuable time doing proper foot follows if I was stuck on a bike in full leathers and a helmet.
The bikers in A4 are absolutely the best asset we have. A bike can cover ground much quicker than any of our cars. They are incredibly well trained so like all surveillance operators they are advanced car drivers taught by the police, having the ability to do everything an intercept police car can and would do but without sirens or blue lights, meaning our skill set is much higher.
But bikers go beyond that in MI5. They then attend the police motorbike training and once they have done that they return to the service to learn surveillance riding on bikes, which is intense and extremely difficult to pass, considering the amount of things they learn how to do on a superbike, riding at night with no lights on to follow vehicles in complete darkness being just one of the skill sets.
Today’s job in London was a new target we were having a ‘first look’ at. Very little was known about the target, and the intelligence officers only caught wind of him because he was on the periphery of an extremist cell we had arrested the week previous. I sat in the briefing room with my team as we waited for the operations officer to arrive and give us the key details for that job: address, recent photo, any known vehicles, pattern of life, if we had any at this stage, potential work addresses, endgame objectives. Anything that would give us some help on the ground finding him, figuring out what he was up to and if he had any help.
