False Friends ss-9

by Stephen Leather

  ‘Is something wrong, John?’ asked Malik. ‘Has something happened?’

  Shepherd smiled and shook his head. ‘Everything’s fine,’ he said. ‘This is just a training exercise.’

  ‘Do you think someone might be following us?’

  ‘No, this is just a precaution,’ said Shepherd. ‘But the closer we get to the operation, the more likely it is that they’ll run a check on you. I don’t want a panicky phone call from either of you in a week or so saying that you think you’re being followed.’

  ‘Khalid, you mean?’ asked Chaudhry.

  Shepherd nodded. ‘There’s every possibility that he’ll have you checked out, just to see what you’re up to. It might be nothing more than him getting someone to follow you for a day or two, but if it happens I want you to know it’s happening and to act in the right way.’ He could see that both men were tense so he smiled, trying to put them at ease. ‘The good news is that today at least you were clean. We’re sure that no one was following you today, other than our people. And in future, if at any time you are worried that someone is following you, you can call me and I’ll get you checked out.’

  There was a loud knock at the door and both men jumped.

  Shepherd grinned. ‘Relax, guys. It’s our coffee.’

  ‘Okay, there’s one of ours now, within a hundred feet,’ said Shepherd. ‘See if you can spot him.’ He smiled. ‘Or her.’

  They were sitting on a bench in Forbury Gardens, close to Reading Town Hall. It was lunchtime and a lot of office workers were strolling around, many of them either smoking or eating sandwiches.

  Chaudhry and Malik looked around.

  ‘Try to be casual,’ said Shepherd. ‘Don’t stare and try to avoid eye contact, but if you do make eye contact with anyone make it as natural as possible. If it’s a pretty girl it’s okay to say hello. The key is for every interaction to be exactly as it would normally be. So you’d normally want a prop like a newspaper or your mobile, something that you can keep looking at. Especially in a static situation like this. A guy sitting on his own doing nothing looks suspicious. Give him a newspaper and he’s just a guy taking a break. Better still give him a pen so that he can do the Sudoku and no one will give him a second look.’ He held up the copy of the Telegraph that he was holding. ‘Also, just like in the movies, you can open it up and peer over the top of it.’

  ‘The woman with the pram has walked by us three times,’ said Malik.

  ‘Yes, but the baby’s crying. It’s very rare for a watcher to bring family. Especially kids. If something goes wrong and a kid gets hurt there’d be hell to pay.’

  ‘Maybe it’s not a real baby,’ said Malik. ‘Maybe it’s a recording.’

  Shepherd laughed. ‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘But no, it’s not her.’

  A council employee in blue overalls and a fluorescent jacket was emptying a litter bin. He was bobbing his head in time to whatever music he was listening to through large black headphones atop a woollen hat.

  ‘That guy,’ said Chaudhry, nodding at the man.

  ‘Because?’

  ‘Because when we walked by that bin it wasn’t even half full.’

  Shepherd grinned. ‘Well spotted.’

  ‘Am I right?’

  ‘Spot on,’ said Shepherd. ‘We’ll often use people in uniforms because they tend to pass unnoticed; generally you’ll see the uniform and not notice the face. The downside of uniforms is that if they’re not in the right setting they show out. So he looks right in the park, or the street, but you’d notice him straight away in a shop or a bar.’ He took out his BlackBerry and tapped out a number. A few seconds later, the man who was emptying the litter bin straightened up and answered his phone. ‘All right, Tim, on to phase two.’

  ‘Phase two?’ asked Malik.

  Shepherd ended the call and put his phone away. The man in the fluorescent jacket pulled the rubbish-filled black bag out of the bin, fastened it and then walked away towards the town hall.

  ‘Tim’s going to walk behind the town hall. We’re going to carry on with another exercise and I want you to tell me when you see him reappear.’

  ‘Check we can multitask, is that it?’ asked Chaudhry.

  ‘Sort of,’ said Shepherd. He stood up. ‘Let’s just take a walk,’ he said. ‘But keep your eye on the town hall. As we walk around I want you to watch out for someone taking your photograph. There are plenty of buildings overlooking the park so you can easily be snapped with a telephoto lens.’

  They did a slow circuit of the park, with Chaudhry and Malik keeping a close eye on the town hall while also checking out the buildings around them. They walked slowly and Shepherd chatted to them both as they walked, explaining in detail how the surveillance team had followed them from their flat to the hotel in Reading.

  When they got back to the bench a middle-aged man in a raincoat and trilby hat had taken their place. He was reading an iPad and chewing on a baguette.

  ‘So first things first,’ said Shepherd. ‘Did you see Tim come back from behind the town hall?’

  Chaudhry shook his head. ‘Definitely not,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Malik. ‘I saw him go behind the building but he never came back.’

  Shepherd grinned. ‘Well done, Tim,’ he said to the man on the bench. ‘They missed you completely and I only just made you.’

  The man with the iPad stood up and pushed back his trilby. Chaudhry and Malik groaned as they realised it was the man who had been emptying the litter bin.

  ‘He changed his clothes,’ said Malik.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Shepherd.

  Tim nodded and walked away as Shepherd, Chaudhry and Malik went to sit on the bench.

  ‘Here’s the thing,’ said Shepherd. ‘Professional followers will always carry with them things that can change their profile. Hats. Jackets. Bags. Plus props. If you see a guy carrying a copy of the Financial Times you’re more likely to notice the paper than the man’s face. So if he drops the paper and carries a cup of coffee you won’t remember him. If he goes into a shop wearing a baseball hat and comes out wearing a scarf there’s a good chance you won’t recognise him. It can help you lose a tail too. A reversible jacket can change your colour scheme completely, or take off your pullover and tie it round your waist, roll up your sleeves, develop a limp, put your arm in a sling. Glasses on, glasses off. Tim there was wearing a fluorescent jacket and carrying a black bag the first time you saw him. That’s what you were looking for, so when he walked by you in a raincoat and carrying an iPad you didn’t notice him.’

  ‘So what’s the trick, what are you supposed to remember?’ asked Malik.

  ‘Try to get a good look at faces. If you can’t see their faces look for body shape. And despite what I said about developing a limp, most people tend to move the same way. Look at the way people walk, how they move their shoulders, the angle of their neck. And shoes. A watcher might have time to change his jacket but shoes are usually too much trouble.’

  Shepherd’s BlackBerry buzzed and he took it out of his pocket. He looked at the screen and grinned. ‘Here’s the first of the photographs,’ he said. He showed them the screen. There was a picture of Chaudhry and Malik, close up.

  ‘You’re shitting me,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Who took that?’

  ‘One of the watchers. She walked right by us.’

  ‘Why didn’t we see her?’ asked Malik.

  ‘Because you were looking at the buildings,’ said Shepherd. ‘You were concentrating on the distance so you didn’t see what was right under your noses.’

  Shepherd’s BlackBerry buzzed again as it received a second photograph. This one was of Chaudhry, side on. He showed it to Chaudhry, who shook his head in amazement.

  ‘That was taken just feet away. From a phone, right?’ Chaudhry said.

  ‘No, that was taken by Jake, who had a camera in his hat. He can take a picture of anything he’s looking at, and the shutter button is in his pocket. Even close up you’d never see the l
ens; it’s not much bigger than a pin.’

  The phone buzzed once again. The third photograph was of the three of them, taken from some distance away. Shepherd showed it to Chaudhry and Malik. ‘This camera was in a briefcase.’

  ‘Okay, I get it,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Your guys are pros and we’re the amateurs. But you didn’t have to bring us all the way to Reading to tell us that.’

  Shepherd put the BlackBerry away. ‘You’re absolutely right, Raj. So now we’ll move on to the next stage.’

  ‘Sit down and try it out for size,’ said Shepherd. He had taken Chaudhry and Malik to the John Lewis department store, close to Reading station. They were in the sprawling furniture department on the fourth floor.

  ‘Are you serious?’ asked Malik.

  ‘We’re here to look at furniture, right? So sit.’

  Chaudhry and Malik dropped down on to the long leather sofa, a dark-brown Chesterfield. Shepherd sat in a matching armchair.

  ‘The key to spotting a tail is to take them to an environment where they show out,’ said Shepherd. ‘Department stores are perfect. Look around, what do you see?’

  The two men casually looked around. ‘Housewives,’ said Chaudhry. ‘And couples.’

  ‘Exactly. And not just housewives. Well-to-do housewives. Generally middle-aged and middle class. You don’t see many young single men here. Or people in jogging clothes. Or businessmen with briefcases. Or anyone in a uniform. And if they were here they’d be the proverbial sore thumb. Choosing furniture takes time, so you can spend ten minutes or more here and no one will think anything about it.’

  He stood up. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Menswear next.’ He took them downstairs to the menswear department and through to the suits section. ‘Browse,’ he said. ‘And let me know what you see. Or don’t see.’

  There were half a dozen men looking through the racks of men’s clothes.

  ‘No women,’ said Malik. ‘I get it.’

  ‘Yes, you rarely see women buying men’s clothes,’ said Shepherd. ‘So a watcher who blends in in the furniture department won’t fit in as well here.’

  ‘Could be a middle-aged guy,’ said Chaudhry. ‘He’d fit in in both places.’

  ‘So you’d then go to the lingerie department and do a walk-through there. Or the toy department. Or cosmetics. That’s why department stores work so well. They have everything under one roof. And, because there are multiple entrances and exits, they have to stick with you. High street shops don’t work so well. They can just wait outside.’

  ‘So what are you saying? That we have to go shopping every day to see if we’re being followed?’ asked Malik.

  ‘What I’m saying is that if you suspect that you are being followed you head to John Lewis or Debenhams or House of Fraser and you make sure. You can do it without being obvious that you’re looking for a tail.’

  A male shopping assistant in a dark suit was heading their way so Shepherd took them towards the escalators.

  ‘And then what?’ asked Chaudhry. ‘Then we lose them, right? We shake them off?’

  Shepherd chuckled. ‘No, Raj. Then you call me.’

  ‘Look around and tell me what you see,’ said Shepherd. They were in the Oracle Centre, next door to the John Lewis store. There were ninety shops on three floors under a vaulted glass ceiling. Shepherd had taken them to the upper floor, from where they could look down on the crowds below.

  ‘A lot of people,’ said Chaudhry.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Shepherd. ‘People of all shapes and sizes, every ethnicity imaginable, men, women, young, old, rich, poor. In an environment like this there’s no way of spotting a watcher by appearance alone. Plus, it’s all open, so from here we can see pretty much everyone on the ground floor, and everyone up here. And they can see us. If you go into a shop all they have to do is wait for you to come out. The situation is similar in the high street. But there is a big advantage to a place like this.’ He turned around to face the shop that they were standing in front of. It was an Apple store, one of the busiest in the mall. Inside were dozens of customers playing with iPads, iPhones and Mac computers while black-shirted sales staff looked on.

  ‘Reflections,’ said Shepherd. ‘If you look into a shop window your watchers will relax and tend to look at you directly. If you get the angles right you can see behind you and to the sides.’

  Chaudhry and Malik moved their heads from side to side. ‘So you stop, is that it?’ said Chaudhry. ‘Then check in the reflection to see if anyone’s looking. That works?’

  ‘Like a charm,’ said Shepherd. ‘Chances are they’ll look to see why you’ve stopped. But it’s also a good way of checking if anyone across the road is watching you. The distance means that if you’ve got your back to them they’ll feel they can look at you without any risk. Shop windows are also a good way of backtracking.’

  ‘Backtracking?’ repeated Malik.

  ‘I’ll show you,’ said Shepherd. ‘I’ll walk off down the mall and you two follow. Try to be casual, and if I look your way avoid eye contact. Okay?’

  The two men nodded.

  Shepherd grinned. ‘Don’t look so serious,’ he said. He turned and walked towards Debenhams, then headed left towards Boots. He walked slowly, glancing in shop windows, his hands in his pockets.

  Chaudhry and Malik followed about twenty paces behind. ‘Shall we walk together or split up?’ asked Malik.

  ‘I don’t think it matters,’ said Chaudhry. They moved aside to let two young women with scraped-back ponytails push their buggies by.

  Shepherd gazed at the computers in the window as he walked by PC World, then he paused at the entrance to allow a group of teenagers to walk out. He looked at his watch before carrying on towards Boots.

  Chaudhry and Malik continued after him. But then Shepherd stopped, turned, and began walking back towards them. Malik made eye contact with Shepherd and froze; Chaudhry took a single step and then he stopped too.

  Malik turned, bumping into Chaudhry and knocking him off balance. Chaudhry reached out to grab Malik’s arm as Shepherd stopped and looked again at the computers in PC World’s windows. He stood there for several seconds, rubbing his chin.

  ‘What do we do?’ asked Malik. ‘Do we walk by him?’

  ‘It’s too late,’ said Chaudhry. ‘He got us. Look at his reflection.’

  They looked at Shepherd’s reflection in the shop window. He was grinning at them.

  Shepherd carried the three coffees over to the corner table where Chaudhry and Malik were already sitting. He put the mugs on the table and sat down. They were in Caffe Nero on the ground floor of the Oracle Centre.

  ‘What I’ve been showing you is how to spot if you have a tail,’ said Shepherd, keeping his voice low. ‘But here’s the important thing: if you realise that you are being followed you mustn’t let on that you know. You guys are just regular citizens. You’re not spies and you’re not criminals. You shouldn’t be able to spot a tail, and you certainly shouldn’t have the skills to shake one off.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘Villains are different. To them surveillance is one of the hazards of the job. If you’re a career criminal then from time to time the cops will follow you. They know you’re a villain and you know you’re a villain, and giving the cops the slip is part of the game. But say we’re looking at a guy who might be a spy. We put him under surveillance. If we become aware that he’s spotted us then that’s a red flag right there. The very fact that he knows he’s being tailed almost certainly means he’s a spy.’

  ‘I don’t get it,’ said Malik.

  ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide you’ll never know that you’re being followed. I could follow a civilian around all day and he’d never see me because most people are too wrapped up in their own lives. But someone with something to hide will be looking around. If someone does start following you, and they see you using anti-surveillance techniques, they’ll know that something is wrong.’ He sipped his coffee again. ‘That technique I used, the backtrack? You can do that
and make it look natural. Walk past a newsagent and then go back and buy a pack of gum. Walk past a newspaper seller and then go back and pick up a paper. Look at your watch and then change direction as if you’d forgotten you had to be somewhere. And you can use reflections. It doesn’t have to be a shop window; you can use car mirrors, mirrors in shops. Anything, so long as it looks normal. But if you do spot someone following you the worst possible thing you can do is acknowledge it. You have to carry on as if nothing has happened.’

  ‘So what’s the point?’ asked Chaudhry.

  ‘The point is that if you ever do think that someone’s watching you, you let me know as soon as you can. I can then check it out, see if there is any surveillance and decide what to do about it.’

  ‘Just phone you, is that it?’

  ‘Sure. Or text. Tell me your location and who you think is following you.’

  ‘And what will you do?’

  ‘I’ll get a team out and put them in counter-surveillance mode. There’s always at least one team of watchers on standby at Thames House. They’ll check you over and identify anyone who’s following you, and they’ll do it without the tail ever knowing. People carrying out surveillance are often the easiest to follow because they’re usually so involved in what they’re doing.’

  ‘And you think Khalid or one of his people might follow us?’ asked Malik.

  ‘It’s possible,’ said Shepherd. ‘But that doesn’t mean it’ll be somebody you’ll recognise. They’re much more likely to bring in someone you don’t know.’

  ‘This backtracking thing, do we do that every day? Every hour? Or what?’

  ‘If you get the feeling you’re being followed, at any time, give it a go. You don’t want to be doing it all the time, that’s for sure. But if I’m on my way to a meeting I’ll usually do it at least once. And always when I’m on my way home.’