The Darkness Below

Chapter Eighteen - 1970

Mr Harris was an ambitious Intelligence Officer and had worked for MI5, aka the Security Service, for over five years. At 27 years of age he had been recruited at university and spent the year after graduating travelling the world, as a tourist but at the Services expense to various countries of potential interest in the future to the service. They had him run a few small errands to assess his suitability in some of the countries and had him make several land border crossings. He performed these duties under the cover of being a Secret Shopper, someone paid by airlines to assess their performance.

After the twelve months globetrotting he had been accepted into the service. He was told unofficially that he passed the tests set him throughout that year, some of which he was aware of others had been covert and he had been under covert surveillance.

Mr Harris had thought it strange that he then be assigned to MI5 which is the domestic intelligence gathering service. He had visions of a career crossing the globe and meeting interesting and beautiful people from all around the world but alas no he was in a grey and wintery London.

He liked London but the twelve months seeing the world had made him want to see more. The rivalry between 5 and 6, MI5 and MI6, meant that asking for a transfer was very dicey terrain politically.

He felt the same way about all the weapons training, he was highly proficient with many types of firearm but was not permitted to carry one whilst working in London, only on special assignment was he issued with a handgun. Why make him do all that training then not give him an opportunity to use it.

He didn't complain though, to anyone, and thought he must be doing something right as he had been placed in charge of investigating a possible Soviet spy ring. The spy ring was suspected of gathering information on British infrastructure like power lines, gas and petrol lines and the railway network.

***

'Come in Harris, sit down. Quickly!' ordered Mr Harris's boss Commander Manningham Whitehead. Harris sat down briskly and watched and waited whilst Mr Whitehead finished with some paperwork.

'You've been briefed on your latest mission?' Whitehead said in a mix of accusation and question.

'Yes sir, I'm very excited to get underway...' Mr Harris responded earnestly and stopped mid-sentence as Whitehead looked up with an unhappy expression.

'Very excited' Whitehead responded with sarcasm 'spare me the sales pitch Harris just bring me results.'

'Yes sir. Is there anything else you can tell me? The briefing I received was very...sparse. The report stated that it is suspected the someone is passing secrets about our infrastructure to the Soviets but when I asked for specific information that was being leaked I was told it was need to know. I asked how this case came to our attention, was it a tip off or cable intercept or from an agent in Russia and again I was told it was need to know.'

Whitehead looked up a minute after Mr Harris had stopped speaking. 'As I said Harris just bring me results and answers not questions. You should be well aware of the principal of need to know!' Whitehead said harshly and unsympathetically.

***

Harris was dismissed and stood up then headed off to his office cubicle to plan a strategy based on the complete lack of specific information. British infrastructure he thought and started to make a mental list. Number one must be electricity generation, then petrol and diesel depots followed by the rail network and even the sewage system was possible. If the Soviets sabotaged the sewage network it could cause a major panic and distraction under which they could launch a sneak attack.

Mr Harris started to form a plan, he would visit the headquarters for these various infrastructure providers and speak with their internal security divisions and ask about any recent unusual occurrences. Hopefully this would provide some leads to be followed up on.