Chapter 6
Recruitment
Thames House Westminster London.
8:30 am. Wednesday 15th September 2010.
Dave had opened what looked like an ordinary letter, with a London frank on the envelope. He was inquisitive and keen to know whom it was from.
It turned out to be from a Mr Jones, who was asking if Dave would be able to help trace one of his relatives that the Jones family was trying to locate and make contact.
Anxious to get the job, Dave wasted no time in arranging to meet him in a London cafe on Millbank, Westminster, at 11:00 am the following day. Placing the phone down he felt a little relieved, having realised that his diary was showing no previous work booked for the following day. While feeling pleased with himself, as it could lead to more work in the Smoke, as London had earlier been nick named.
Once again looking down at the letter he suddenly noticed that there were no other contact details, not even an address. Even the phone number was a landline, and there was no mobile number. Dave was left hoping he did not want to make further contact if he could not find the cafe, or was running late.
As was normal for Dave he arrived ten minutes early. His way of thinking that if you are killing time before an appointment, better to arrive early and kill the time at the destination. This allowed for any problem that might arise, and hold him up along the way. Something that had been drummed into him during his time in the Royal Navy and Police force.
Having ordered a flat white coffee, he left the serving counter to sit out front in the fresh air. The waitress brought his coffee to the table and placed it in front of him, and hoped he enjoyed it. She then placed another cup opposite him at a space that had been pre-set and walked away.
Dave tried to attract her attention,
“Excuse me.” He asked.
Before she had chance to answer, a gentleman was standing by the extra cup of coffee, introducing himself as,
“Mr Jones.”
Dave stood up and they both shook hands, and then sat down. Dave had been caught off guard wondering what was happening.
As Mr Jones announced,
“This is my regular haunt, for my daily hit of caffeine.” He continued,
“Good to see you made it must have been a bit of a drive.”
“Good job I left early, otherwise I might have been late.
“Didn't realise how bad the London traffic was.”
“I think it’s getting worse Dave. Sorry you don’t mind if I call you Dave do you.”
“No that’s fine.” He replied.
“Most ex-service men are always early.” Mr Jones nodded his head.
Wondering what to say next Dave asked,
“I suppose you would like to know all about me and how I work?”
‘Not really, as I already know all that, been doing my homework, and you have an impressive history and CV.” Mr Jones continued,
“Something I and a few others would like to tap into. If you were to agree and let us.”
Dave was left a little dumb founded, and for once was lost for words. Finally, nervously asking,
“What about your missing family relation, have you brought any of his details for me to have look at.”
“Dave, I’ll get straight to the point. I work for the government, and I and my senior executives would like you to come on board and work for us.”
“Which one” Dave asked.
Mr Jones leaned a little closer to Dave and in a low voice whispered,
“MI5.”
“Wooo, you’re getting ahead of me.” said Dave.
“That came out of the blue, and was completely unexpected.”
Mr Jones started to go into a little more detail, explaining that they had been watching him for a few years, and liked what he had been up to. He felt that all the training he had been through, placed him ahead of many others who would like to work for them. If he was to agree, it would be easy for them to retrain him for what they had in mind.
“They also tell me that you are pretty good on computers.”
“Yeah, I get bye.”
“I’m told that you are very good at cracking passwords and codes.”
“Where did you hear all that.” Dave asked.
“Word gets around, and anyway it’s our job to know who’s doing what, and with whom.”
“Tell me about the software you use.” Mr Jones asked,
“It’s my own design, up to a year ago software only allowed around 15 characters to be cracked, in what’s known as list cracking. Been able to extend it out to around 30.”
“I call it ‘Elephant-ears’ because of its long memory, might even be able to better it sometime in future.”
“Also, able to encrypt messages that I can hide within a photo file.”
“Although it can leave a trail. As long as you are not on anybody’s radar you can usually get away with it.”
“Ah, Steganography, at least your credentials seem to be in order.” Mr Jones responded.
Dave was quick to add,
“What you might be interested in, is a completely new code I’m working on. Using batches of ten numbers and letters, although some are decoys and not being used, but changed daily.”
“Just to confuse people, although today it’s not individuals who crack codes, its computers and its software.”
“But I’ll let you know more about that later.”
With that Mr Jones invited him back to his office that was only a brief walk away from the cafe.
A deal and plan was devised, allowing Dave to operate in the East Anglian and London areas of the United Kingdom. Not wanting MI5 operatives to cross territories and tread on each other’s toes. The agreement also allowed Dave to still operate as a Private Investigator while in Suffolk. It being a good cover for what he would be asked to do for MI5. Mr Jones also liked the idea of ‘Slate’ as a code name for him.
Later, Dave was introduced to a Mr Smith, who was to be his contact within the MI5 organisation, although Mr Jones would always be there if major problems were to arise. Dave was then informed and shown how they could contact each other.
A message would be placed by either of them in the Guardian newspaper and its online version, in the miscellaneous column. Certain words would be used in the hope that all involved would understand. Although to help, Dave was given a piece of paper explaining different words, and their code meaning. Dave did not need telling that the paper had to be hidden, and if possible destroyed. However, as a safe guard to the untrained eye it read like a small article from a book, with only them understanding what it all meant. Land line phones could be used, but once again care had to be taken. A type of code was to be used, on the understanding that it could be listened to. Mobiles were only to be used as a very last resort, knowing that most were being tapped.
It was also mentioned that an American citizen working for the military had released certain information before he disappeared and, is now believed to be in Russia. He had claimed that the American government was listening and recording almost every single mobile phone around the world. An update of an earlier program known as 'Thin thread' that allowed the Americans to listen in on all their citizens landline phones in the USA. Although it was not legal and kept from the American people. The whole world was now up for grabs.
Mr Jones informed Dave that,
“The whole world is covered with fences.”
“To keep half the people in the world from breaking in.”
“While others are to keep the other half behind them.”
For this reason, all phones were to be treated as if you are being recorded. Be careful what you say. Briefs and debriefs were to take place at the MI5 headquarters. While comings and goings were to be kept to a bare minimum, expecting public CCTV, their enemies, and possibly foreign embassies to be watching who was entering and leaving the building. Finally, Mr Jones wrapped up their discussion by saying,
“The old fashion snail mail is still th
e safest way to send messages of great importance.” adding,
“Although after being read they should be destroyed, and certainly not copied on to a computer.”
“At both ends.” He insisted.
Mr Jones dropped his guard a little, and would allow any dire emergency to be called in from a public phone box, if the number was stored in his head, and not on a piece of paper stuffed in his wallet. It was also noted that many of the public call boxes, were not being replaced after constant vandalism. Therefore, in certain crime ridden area's they would be hard to find.
Finally, it was arranged that once Dave was set up back home and ready. Mr Smith would spend some time with him, teaching and explaining what was going to be expected of him. Of what he could expect of MI5, and of how to go about certain requests.
Coincidence. Right Place Wrong Time Page 6