Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 29 (e)

Miguel had no reason to believe he was being followed. And if he had, it would have been difficult to tell. On board a ship, it was possible to see the same people at the same place every day walking the same direction as you. Central Plaza was a hub so the same corridors were used by crew and passengers over the course of the day. Insofar as security measures went, he went different routes when he could, used different entrances and exits, watched that he was not shadowed too close and used the lifts to make sure he was alone.

Much of the counter espionage manoeuvres he learned from Richard Tilston-Horn when he asked how to avoid being tracked via common methods or psi. It was how he learned to double back on his route, take an elevator lift by themselves and then walk a flight of stairs all while humming an earworm of a song in his head. Horn speculated it might be difficult even for a psi person to read someone without direct line of sight; harder still if their brain was focused on a repeating song that blocked true thought from rising to the surface. It was something that the spy had learned in interrogation that made it difficult to detect the truth and separated his mind from body.

Roberto Diaz did indeed have difficulty following Miguel. He did not possess psi skills that Adjani or Adisa had in tracking nor remote viewing or apportation skills that others in his group had. What he did possess was excellent tradecraft in how to follow by anticipating where a person was going and be in position before they arrived. The clever Miguel had lost his tail a few times but was picked up again at chokepoints where lifts, bulkheads and pressure doors demarked various sections of the ship. There was simply no way to pass without going through these points.

Since Miguel had been going to the closed pressure door off Central Plazaa number of times Diaz simply set up shop with a view of that area. While it was late, he could still hear sounds from the casino nearby. He watched as Miguel came around a corner and entered a crew only door immediately beside main doors. A digital sign above doors read that the doors would open at midnight while the doors at other side of the plaza would be closed. 

Diaz smiled knowing that the likely location and time of the trap was revealed.He had a line of sight of it and would wait his opportunity.