It is a very sad thing to distrust your colleagues, but after my conversation with Beth I feel hyper-sensitive to the fact that we might be being watched. I trust her instincts more than my own right now, and I think she’s right. Even though I’m not doing anything wrong, the feeling of being studied by Ray, of him not trusting us, irritates and annoys me. For this reason, I remain behind at work, long after Elsa, Beth and Ray have gone for the day. If Ray is monitoring us, then I’d like to know for sure.
I comb my office for surveillance. The cameras and taps would have to be miniscule in order to go unnoticed in an MI5 office.
I open the top drawer in my desk and take out the magnifier that I occasionally use when studying redacted documents. Sometimes when the text is enhanced, I can make out the hidden words and learn something that my other colleagues have missed. I use the magnifier now as I search every surface of my desk, computer, keyboard and the door frame. I study the walls of my office, looking for anything that doesn’t belong there. Even the clock above my desk.
I pick up the receiver on my phone and take it apart. I discover that the wiring is all as it should be: the phone hasn’t been tapped. I’m about to give up and call myself paranoid when I discover a tiny black dot camouflaged on the outside of the receiver. It is easy to miss – black on black – and I only find it because my fingers feel the slightly raised edge of the area.
I scrape the dot away with my thumb nail. Then I turn it over. There is a microscopic circuit board on the other side.
My office has definitely been bugged and this gadget, small as it is, could also listen in to any conversations I have on the phone as well.
I widen the search after that, and discover more of these dots in Beth and Elsa’s office because they are easier to find once I know what I’m looking for.
I gather all of the bugs into one plastic evidence bag. Then I go to Ray’s office. I try his door and find it locked as usual. This isn’t a problem because I have a lock-picking kit in my pocket. I always carry one. I use it now and soon I’m inside Ray’s room. I don’t turn on the lights.
The bugs I’d found in the central office had been hidden on the phones, like mine. I go to Ray’s desk and switch on his desk lamp. Then I examine Ray’s phone.
There’s nothing there and it seems to confirm that he is the one monitoring us.
I place the plastic evidence wallet on Ray’s desk so that he’ll know I found the bugs and I’m aware he’s spying on us. It’s pointless searching his office under the circumstances and so I go to turn the lamp off. That is when my fingers feel the slight ridge of something that shouldn’t be there on the base of the lamp.
I turn the main light on, fully lighting up the room, before examining the lamp. Yes – there is one of the same tiny bugs that I’d found in the other offices.
I comb Ray’s office and find a few more of the devices. If Ray is behind this, why bug his own office? It doesn’t make sense, and so the only conclusion I can draw is that someone else has been watching Archive as Neva had warned us. We’d been so distracted by her betrayal that any information she’d given didn’t feel valid. Even Ray hadn’t mentioned the intel that she’d shared since. But if this was true, then we’d dropped the ball by not investigating Neva’s claims sooner. I find myself wondering who is behind this and what they may have learned. I also can’t help thinking that this proves Neva wasn’t all lies and deceit, but spies play games with truth and lies all the time. They give some provable information and hoodwink you once they have you believing them. But having found that her intel did have credence, it is enough to shed doubt on some of the things she was accused of.
I look around Ray’s office one last time, then I leave the bugs all in the same bag on Ray’s desk and then, locking the door behind me, I return to my office where I’ve left my mobile phone on the desk. I pick it up and call Ray.
Ray answers after a few rings. I tell him what I’ve discovered.
‘I’m coming in,’ Ray says. ‘Stay there.’
When I put the phone down again, I find myself thinking about Neva, and the desperate way any confirmed truth from her can make me want to forgive her for her other transgressions. I bollock myself for being pathetic, but I can’t help it. The feelings I have for her grow more complicated with every new revelation. Do I love or despise Neva? I only know that my life isn’t the same without her in it. And the longer we are apart, the worse I feel. She is an addiction and cold turkey is torture.
It takes Ray an hour to get back to the office and he doesn’t arrive alone. There is a whole security detail that sweeps our entire suite of rooms with specialist equipment. A few more bugs are found dotted around. They widen the search to the whole floor and they even find some in the bathrooms. After that, it’s decided that the whole of the MI5 building will have to be swept.
‘I don’t understand this,’ Ray says. ‘We do regular sweeps.’
‘Someone got in after the last one. Maybe that someone planned to return and remove these before the next?’ I say.
‘That would require prior knowledge of when they are going to happen. And even I don’t know that,’ Ray says.
‘It’s an inside job – but I just can’t imagine who’s behind it,’ I say.
‘How did you know?’ Ray asks.
‘I was working late. I was going to call for a car to take me to the safe house and felt something on my office phone. After that I thought I better check everywhere,’ I lie, not wanting him to know that I suspected him of watching us.
‘We’ll let this lot finish up here,’ Ray says. ‘Maybe you should go home and get some rest now.’
It’s nine o’clock in the evening and I’m feeling a bit tired. I’m glad to leave the professionals to do their job and make sure that nothing has been missed. It will make us all feel much safer tomorrow.
‘Maybe we need to change your safe house,’ Ray says. ‘Just to make sure your location hasn’t been compromised.’
‘You really think it might be?’
‘I don’t know, Mike, but I’m not taking the chance.’ Ray makes a call and a new security crew that I haven’t seen before arrives to escort me out of the building.
As the other crew did, they lead me downstairs to the underground carpark, where three black SUVs are waiting. They put me in one. Then the first car in the convoy drives up to the barrier. I watch as it exits the car park and turns left. Heading back to the previous safe house, the car will follow the same route it’s done, usually with me inside, for the last few weeks. When the outside surveillance announces the car is clear, they allow my car to leave. The third vehicle comes out of the car park and turns away towards a new direction. Then a fourth vehicle tags on and follows mine at a safe distance to the new location.
I don’t know if all of these precautions are necessary, but I’m glad they are in place, especially until we find out who’s been monitoring us.