The Doomsday Conspiracy

“I’m Colonel Frank Johnson. I want to welcome you here. During your stay, you will use only your first names. From this moment on, your lives will be a closed book. You’ve all been sworn to secrecy. I would advise you to take that oath very, very seriously. You are never to discuss your work with anyone – your wives, your family, your friends. You’ve been selected to come here because you have special qualifications. There’s a lot of hard work ahead of you to develop those qualifications, and not all of you are going to make it. You’re going to be involved in things you have never even heard of before. I cannot stress enough the importance of the work you will be doing when you finish here. It has become fashionable in certain liberal circles to attack our intelligence services, whether it’s the CIA, Army, Navy or the Air Force, but I can assure you, gentlemen, that without dedicated people like yourselves, this country would be in one hell of a lot of trouble. It’s going to be your job to help prevent that. Those of you who do pass will become Case Officers. To put it bluntly, a Case Officer is a spy. He works under cover.~”

“While you’re here, you’re going to get the best training in the world. You’ll be trained in surveillance and counter-surveillance. You’ll have courses in radio communications, encoding, and weaponry and map reading.~”

“You’ll attend a class in interpersonal relations. You’ll be taught how to build a rapport, how to draw out an individual’s motivations, how to make your target feel at ease.”

The class was hanging on every word.

“You’ll learn how to meet and recruit an agent. You’ll be trained in how to make sure meeting places are secure.~”

“You’ll learn about dead drops, how to covertly communicate with your contacts. If you’re successful at what you do, you will carry out your assignments unnoticed and undetected.”

Robert could feel the excitement that charged the air.

“Some of you will work under official cover. It could be diplomatic or military. Others will work under non-official cover as private individuals – as a businessman, or archaeologist, or novelist – any profession that will give you access to the areas and types of people likely to have the information you’re looking for. And now, I’m going to turn you over to your instructors. Good luck.”

Robert found the training fascinating. The instructors were men who had worked in the field and were experienced professionals. Robert absorbed the technical information easily. In addition to the courses Colonel Johnson had mentioned, there was a brush-up course on languages, and one on cryptic codes.

Colonel Johnson was an enigma to Robert. The rumour circulating about him was that he had strong connections at the White House, and was involved in high-level covert activities. He would disappear from the Farm for days at a time, and suddenly reappear.

An agent named Ron was conducting a class.

“There are six phases to the clandestine operational process. The first is spotting. When you know what information you need, your first challenge is to identify and target individuals who have access to that information. The second phase is assessment. Once you have spotted your target, you have to decide if he really has the information you need, and if he might be susceptible to recruitment. What motivates him? Is he happy in his job? Does he have a grudge against his boss? Is he over his head financially? If the prospect has accessibility and there’s a motivation that can be exploited, you move along to phase three.~”

“Phase three is development. You build up a relationship with a prospect. You manage to run into him as often as possible, and built a rapport. The next phase is recruitment. When you think he is ready, you go to work on him psychologically. You use whatever psychological weapons you’ve got – revenge against his boss, money, the thrill of it. If a Case Officer has done his job well, the prospect usually says yes.~”

“So far so good. You have a spy working for you. The next step is handling him. You must protect not only yourself, but him. You will arrange surreptitious meetings, and train him in the use of microfilm and, where appropriate, clandestine radio. You will teach him how to detect surveillance, what to say if questioned, and so on.~”

“The last phase is disconnecting. After some period of time, perhaps your recruit will be transferred to a different job and no longer have access to the information, or maybe we will no longer need the information to which he does have access. In any case, the relationship is ended but it’s important to end it in such a way that the recruit doesn’t feel he has been used, and is looking for vengeance …”

Colonel Johnson had been right. Not everyone made it through the course. Familiar faces kept disappearing. Washed out. No one knew why. No one asked.

One day, as a group was preparing to go into Richmond for a surveillance exercise, Robert’s instructor said, “We’re going to see how good you are, Robert. I’m going to send someone to tail you. I want you to lose him. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good luck.”

Robert took the bus into Richmond and began strolling the streets. Within five minutes he identified his trackers. There were two of them. One was on foot and one was in an automobile. Robert tried ducking into restaurants and shops and hurrying out back doors, but he was unable to shake them. They were too well trained. Finally, it was almost time to return to the Farm and Robert still had not been able to get away from them. They were watching him too closely. Robert walked into a department store and the two men took up positions where they could cover the entrances and exits. Robert went up the escalator to the men’s department. Thirty minutes later, when he came down, he was wearing a different suit, a coat and hat, talking to a woman and carrying a baby in his arms. He walked past his pursuers without being recognized.