Blue with Black Dots (The Caprice Trilogy Book 2) (11 page)

“How can you tell that?” said Shane, “It’s a head shot.  He could be standing on something.”

“It’s called practice,” said Liza, “The young lady has a good few years of studying men under her belt and I’ve got much more than that.  We do what we do.”

“Then I’m working with the right people,” said Shane. 

“Tell me what the work is before you decide that,” said Georgia.

“Sorry about that,” said Shane, “You’re sitting here wondering what we’re after and where Mr. Spice fits in.  It’s simple.  Spice has what we’re after.”

“What’s is it?” asked Georgia.

“That meeting in Putrajaya,” said Shane, “There was a British consular assistant based in Malaysia that did the minutes.  Everyone who was there got a copy.  We know almost beyond doubt that the Secretary destroyed his copy for obvious reasons.  It’s thought that most of the copies are already destroyed.  But we’re quite sure Owen Spice kept his.”

“What does that mean when you say
quite sure
?” asked Georgia, “Are you sure?”

“Well,” said Shane, “We can’t confirm…”

“No,” said Liza, “We’re not sure.”

“You want me to get in this man’s life,” said Georgia, “And you don’t know if he has what I’m going there for?”

“That’s the nuts and bolts of it,” said Liza, “But be mature, we’ve sent people to worse with less.  At least we know the minutes existed at some point.  We’ve run our analysis of Owen Spice and we are almost positive he didn’t destroy his copy of the minutes from that meeting.  If we were anymore sure, we’d have the document already and we needn’t be speaking about it at all, depriving you of a trip to Scotland and the chance to meet Mr. Owen Spice, the likes of which you don’t meet everyday—a true gentleman.  Find a bright spot to this, Georgia, that’s the nature of field work.” 

“Tell me why you’re so positive he still has it,” said Georgia.

“How’s this,” said Liza, “We have archived footage from Heathrow Airport on a closed-circuit camera that shows the Secretary shaking hands with then MP Owen Spice, as they say goodbye after deplaning from a flight that came back from Malaysia on April 2
nd
, 1968.  The Secretary leaned close and mouthed something into Mr. Spice’s ear.  Now five out of seven of our lip-experts are positive that the Secretary said to Mr. Spice,
Have a look at it if you like and get rid of it, don’t wait
.  The other two lip-experts are sure beyond sure that’s what the Secretary said but they stopped short of saying they were absolutely positive.  See here, these pinks sheets, seven of ‘em.  These are the signed reports from those experts.  Going off of what they have reported here, it is our belief that Mr. Spice did, in fact, bring his minutes from that meeting back to the United Kingdom based on what the Secretary is seen to have said to him at Heathrow.  And the fact that Mr. Spice, the Secretary and the others traveling with him were in Malaysia for two days and one night.”

“Liza spent a while behind a desk compiling these reports and advancing that archived footage,” said Shane, “It takes time to get access to that kind of footage.  The Agency keeps all known footage of government officials in storage in canisters, so you have to request it.  Well, you request a copy and that takes time and then you have to requisition lip-experts to view it and Liza’s been on top of it from the get go.”

“You are a wonder Liza,” said Georgia.

“That’s all I wanted, Dear,” said Liza, “A bit of appreciation for my efforts.”

“You are appreciated,” said Shane, “And as Liza said, we’re quite sure Mr. Spice brought the minutes back in his luggage.  We take that and we couple it with the fact that Mr. Spice lived in a flat in Basildon, for the years he was in Parliament with no fireplace or chimney and we go through the garbage bin of each sitting MP, as much as we can.”

“You’re serious?” said Georgia.

“Heart attack,” said Shane, “They have no legal privacy interest in their trash.  More often than not, they throw away something we can use.”

“Why do you think I’m over here,” said Liza, “Do you think I’m using this accent as a cover?”

“Liza is former British Military Intelligence,” said Shane, “Makes her ideal for our franchise.  This building is entirely UK Operations.  We do some other parts of Europe as well but mostly as it relates to the programs we already have.”

“If you can’t beat ‘em,” said Liza, “You join ‘em.  So I did.  Plus Virginia Beach is just that way.  Beats a fifth floor office with a window and nothing but overcast London to look at.”

“I take your point,” said Georgia, “London’s more of a night city, different energy at night.  Fabulous.”

“Glasgow’s not bad,” said Liza, “Where you’re going.”

“Which may or may not be where the document is,” said Shane.

              “Where is it?” asked Georgia.

              “He has it,” said Shane, “But we’re not sure where.  That’s why you have to get close to him and find it.  Get to know him and find the most likely place he’d hide it.”

“Where else might it be?” asked Georgia.

              “His flat in Leeds,” said Shane, “He studied in Leeds and apparently developed an affinity for the city because the only property he owns that we know about is his flat in Leeds.  He bought it a few years after he left Parliament.  It’s right on the River Aire.  It’s nice.  Like we said, when he was an MP he used the house he grew up in, his parents house in Kent, to claim he’s from the Tunbridge Wells constituency.  And while he was in London as an MP he had the aforementioned place in Basildon.  It was a rental.  Completely unrelated people live there now.”

“You checked,” said Georgia.

“We checked,” said Shane.

“Where does he live now?” asked Georgia.

“In a University rented flat, in Glasgow,” said Shane, “He’s been there four years but we don’t think he’s comfortable enough to keep the document there.  So you have to have him take you to Leeds, get him to leave the flat then you have to search it.”

“How do I get him to leave me there alone and leave long enough for me to search it?” asked Georgia, “It’s
his
space.  You said the only place he owns.  He’ll be protective of it.”

“Liza,” said Shane.

“I’ve been through your records,” said Liza, “You were fifteen when the bloating and abdominal pain started and it didn’t stop.  You went to see a doctor. You were diagnosed with advancing ovarian cancer.  You went for a second opinion.  You were told the cancer would begin to spread so you had to have a bilateral ovariectomy that same month.  When you came to, you were told they had taken your uterus out as well, for safety’s sake.  You were back in school after two weeks.  You went back after four months to see the doctor and you were diagnosed as cancer-free.  You lived but you would never have children.  You’re barren.  I know you keep that a secret.”  Georgia looked down at the floor.

“Don’t hang your head, Georgia,” said Liza, “You’re tough as nails to go through that at fifteen.  Look at me.  Look at me.  You’ve probably spent years wondering what that meant.  Well, listen to me.  You get handsome man, Mr. Spice, all to yourself.  It’s a classic Honey Trap.  You get him to take you to his place in Leeds.  Let him know you’re feeling nauseous.  Later you develop stomach pains and start vomiting a lot.  We have stuff we can give you to make you vomit.  Then you ask for this.”  Liza opened her desk drawer and held up a rectangular box with the words
Early Reply
written on it.

“What is that?” asked Georgia.

“It’s a home pregnancy test,” said Liza, “You’ll need to get him to finish without any sort of condom or prophylactics at least once, to make him panic enough to go out and buy one of these things.  And we know it’s a ruse and you can’t get pregnant but Mr. Spice doesn’t know that.  These little boxes only came out a few years ago so the nearest place where he can find one is actually 3.2 miles from his flat.  He doesn’t know that, so he’ll have to do a lot of stopping along the way.  We give you between an hour and a half to two hours.”

“Wait ten minutes after he walks out the door to start searching,” said Shane.

“I think it goes without saying,” said Liza, “But I’m forced to say it anyway.  You’ll have to take the place apart and put it back together exactly as before in the time between exit and re-entry.  You’ll have to move quick.  Of course you’ve had training on how to do that.”  Georgia nodded.

“As far as mission statements go,” said Shane, “If the document is in his possession, you’re responsible for finding it.”

“That’s why the Agency hired him,” said Liza, “He’s the go-to guy when it comes to coining a phrase.  He types out all our memos around here.”

“I do,” said Shane.

              “What does this document mean now?” asked Georgia, “Our commitments in Vietnam are mostly extinguished.”

“That’s actually a better question than you might realize,” said Shane, “It’s all backdrop, like so often is the case.  But it’s more about mapping what’s behind the Iron Curtain.  We don’t really care about Vietnam so much, at least not in this building.  We do care about how the Soviets make their in-roads.  We want to be able to locate and interview as many of these North Vietnamese personnels as we can.  We want to better understand how the Soviets lend support to governments like North Vietnam, like North Korea.  We want better knowledge of their pipelines and filters.  We want to know how these regimes work in theory.  But this is the CIA.  We want reality.  The only fictions we’re interested in are the ones we create.”

“You just want to find these resettled Vietnamese agents,” said Georgia.

“That’s it.  Defectors are usually willing to talk,” said Shane, “Should help you operate with a clean conscious.  There’s nothing ulterior.  We just wanna find these guys and see if they’ll tell us what they know about the Soviet backers of the Vietnamese People’s Army.  They would have intel on how the Soviets trained the Vietnamese.  It’s just about a clearer profile.”

“What can you tell me about Owen Spice personally?” asked Georgia, “Family background.  Was he married?  Is he married?”

“Was married,” said Shane, “Divorced.  Married from ’63 to ’66 apparently his wife couldn’t adjust to being the wife of a public officer.  From what we can tell, they were friends but Spice was putting his career forward with their marriage.  It gave him a look of stability with his constituency, that of a family man.  But like we’ve said about him already he was smart.  He built his reputation as an effective politician and by the time he divorced, he didn’t really need that stable family man attire to help him carry his career.”

“What about his post-marriage love life?” asked Georgia.

“From what we know,” said Shane, “He didn’t date much as an MP.  Of course we didn’t interview the man but we mainly consider it as a way to maintain himself in front of the cameras and for his constituency.  Keep in mind that he’s a member of the Conservative Party representing the constituency of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, which is typically considered quite conservative.  Well, you’ve got your hypocrites of course.  The local official caught cheating on his wife and what not but it’s not the same for an MP.  You’re a member of parliament.  The whole country scrutinizes you.  If he had any relationships at all they were much ado about nothing.  He maintained a close friendship with a journalist from
The Daily Telegraph
named Ruby Hall.  She was always getting an exclusive with MP Owen Spice.”

“How exclusive?” asked Georgia.

              “It seemed to be a simple working relationship,” said Liza, “All MPs have their favorite go-to journalist.  You’d be a bad politician not to.  You have to realize the go-to journalist is a symbiotic relationship.  The go-to journalist is always gonna portray the politician in a positive light because if she doesn’t, she loses her exclusive relationship.  Exclusive access to an MP isn’t something you take likely.  And for the politician, if he slips up, he goes to his go-to journalist for an open apology to the public and of course she writes that he was sincere in his apology.  Other reporters would treat it like a field day and pick him apart.”