CHOGM Pt. 02

"But why if they have just bought one?"

"I suppose it is so that they can cover more ground."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if I was looking for something or someone in a strange city and I had limited time in which to find him or it, I would have as many people as possible looking at the same time."

"I suppose so."

"Wait here I'll check up on them." Jenny was out of the car before he could object.

Five minutes later she was back just in time to see the two men drive away in a beige Commodore.

"The bloke who rented the car is John Burroughs and he used his International License. He has booked the car for three months and has given the Wentworth Hotel as his temporary address. He paid the deposit and one week's rental in cash."

"That's amazing. How did you find all that out?"

"Easy. I just smiled brightly at the clerk when I told him that I wanted to rent a four wheel drive for a magazine shoot at some remote location in the Centre and that I was sure he could arrange discount for me if the company was credited with supplying the vehicle when the article was published. Of course he hot footed it to the manager's office leaving me to look at the hire documents on the desk in front of me."

"I think it must be about time that the others had something to do, can you drop me at the office in Liverpool Street so that I can fill them in on what I've found out and work out what they want me to do next."

"What's this 'what you've found out? I've done most of the thinking and all of the hard work so far so I'm coming with you."

"All right, you can come with me." Russell gave a little chuckle to himself that was only just loud enough to catch her attention.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just picturing the look on their faces when I waltz into the office with the most gorgeous looking girl that I have ever seen. Especially Brian Thompson, he's always going on about his conquests and all the beautiful women he lures into his bed. Especially after I told them that the future Mrs Russell French drove me out to the car yard."

"You told him what?"

"The future Mrs Russell French. I'm allowed my dreams aren't?"

"Dream on Buster."

"Anyhow, after seeing you, he'll have to stock his pantry with Pal for his future dates."

"That's cruel, and demeaning to women. I don't want to hear any more of this sort of talk from my future husband."

"What?"

"You heard me. At least for the next however long we are in the office I'll play the part of your fiancé. Okay?"

"Okay! This is wonderful"

"Don't get your hopes up now. This is a temporary arrangement."

They parked the car in a space reserved for the journalistic staff and strode into the building as if they were majority shareholders on their way to a board meeting. At that time Russell wouldn't have felt any more important if that had been the purpose of their visit.

Their passing was observed with a mixture of curiosity, appraisal, jealousy and open hostility, depending on the sexual proclivity of the observer.

"When young Russell gets here we should know what they...." The door opened to admit Russell and Jenny. Brian sat in his chair, his mouth open but for once no word emerged.

"Hi people. What are you doing?" Russell asked.

Brian at last regained a portion of his normal composure. He leapt to his feet and walked around the desk, his eyes not wavering from Jenny, "What have we here?"

"Eyes off, she's not interested in thirty five year old sexual geriatrics, anyway, what we have is three men who have for the time being split up. They have bought a dark blue Triumph Mark 2 2500S, I presume for getting around quickly and have rented a beige Budget rent-a-heap Commode. I don't know what you people think but I think they are mounting a fishing expedition and by going their separate ways they are casting their net as wide as possible."

"Well done Young Russell, we'll make an investigative journalist of you yet. But let us get our priorities right, aren't you going to introduce us to Miss Peters here who, I imagine is the person you referred to earlier as the 'future Mrs French."

"Yes I am the future wife of this wonderful man." Jenny linked her arm with Russell's and looked admiringly into his eyes. Russell collapsed internally.

"It looks as if your future husband isn't capable of the formalities. I'm Brian Thompson, his boss, this here is Anton with the unpronounceable surname, he's a journalist like Russell and over here is Bob Rushton, the publisher of this paper, gentlemen in case you have been in a monastery for the last year, we are in the presence of Jenny Peters, one of Sydney's top models. Now, to the news you've brought, I think you're right about the need for more than one car which means that they don't know much more than we do. Russell, what you can do is go back to the hotel and cover the garage entrance. Take a 2-way with you so that you can keep in touch with the other people I'll assign to the other entrances, just in case they leave separately. Oh, and by the way, it's important that you keep a record of their comings and goings, so copious notes young Russell, copious notes."

As Russell and Jenny rose to leave Brian cut in, "Now pay attention to your work Young Russell, I want you to be ever vigilant."

"Brian, (a), I wish you would stop calling me 'Young Russell', and (b), for once in your life get your mind above your navel, not all of us look on women as a sexual challenge, and (c) Keep your hands off Jenny, she's mine."

As they walked down the corridor Jenny was deep in thought. "Did you mean what you said back there about not looking on women as a sexual challenge?"

"Good gracious me yes," Russell lisped, "Brian isn't aware of my sexual preferences. I was just about to ask you if you had a brother as pretty as you. What do you reckon? I was speaking in generalities, as far as you're concerned you're very much a sexual challenge that is if you are interested in a struggling journalist."

"I'm more interested in a certain struggling reporter than his over-sexed boss. I find his type particularly repulsive. You don't know what it's like for a model trying to break into the business. It's a sort of media casting couch, if you're prepared to jump into bed with a photographer or a journalist, he might, if the mood suits him, push your career for you. If you knock them back it can be very hard for you. You should see how hard it is to get assignments when every other model in the parade gets her picture in the glossies or on the television coverage of the show. Before you ask, there are a few of us who have made it to the top without having to resort to the system."

"You're maligning me now. You don't strike me as the type who would do that, and even if you were, it's none of my business apart from the fact that you'd be wasting your time cultivating me if that's what you were hoping, I'm in no position to further your career, not that it needs furthering."

Jenny pulled up at the entrance of the Wentworth and before Russell could get out of the car, she leant across and gave him a kiss that left little to his imagination and his pulses racing. "What time will you be through for the day?"

"Hopefully about six, why?"

"Well I'm off to buy some goodies and I'll be back for you about then to take you home for some good old fashioned home cooking that will prove to you that I'm not just a pretty face." With that the MG again took off out of the forecourt and disappeared into the heavy traffic.

Just as Russell was settling himself for a long wait the Triumph eased its way out of the traffic and entered the garage. Something told Russell as it burbled its way past him, that it wasn't your common garden variety Triumph. It had a V8 motor and Russell's knowledge of cars was enough for him to know that this particular model only came with 6 cylinder motors. He decided that this information was interesting enough for him to call it in to see if someone could find out more about the particular car.

"Brian, could you run a check on that car these guys have bought?" He gave them the registration number and the name of the car yard from which they bought it.

Several minutes later Brian's voice came over the two - way. "Russell, this is getting curiouser and curiouser. These chaps have got themselves a very fast car indeed. I passed myself off as a prospective buyer and rang the car yard to enquire about that car. When they informed me that it had been sold I asked them if it was the one I had seen around with the Stag motor. They told me that it didn't have a Stag V8 but an even better motor. This car has a 4.4 litre Leyland P76 motor that has been worked over."

"Phew! It looks as if whatever business these guys are in they are serious about it."

"Well Jerry, how's the motor?" Jerry had just walked into the hotel room.

"Adequate, yes I suppose you'd call it adequate."

"I hope you're joking."

"Of course I am. We have got ourselves a very potent car. I took it for a test drive and wound it out to around a hundred and forty miles an hour and it still had plenty in reserve."

"I hope you didn't attract any attention to yourself."

"No, although the young boy racer who tried to stay with me for a while is probably still licking his wounds after losing it in a big way on a corner with the police chasing him. I was far enough ahead of him for him not to have been able to read my number plate and the police never got anywhere near me."

"Good. Just be sure that it stays that way. What about the Commodore?"

"I've had a quick look at it and the most flattering thing I can say about it is that it's a car, just. Do you what me to tweak it?"

"Good grief no! How would it look if one of Budget's finest suddenly started performing like something you'd expect to see at Brands Hatch? Now let's get down to business. Frank where do you thing would be the best place to find Hooley and Flynn?"

"From what I have picked up around the traps I think the best place to start will be at the offices of either the Builders Labourers Federation or the Waterside Workers Federation. I think either of them could be sponsoring this little escapade. I can use the one about having relatives in Northern Ireland and not feeling all that benevolent towards the English."

"Alright you check them out. You can use the cover of being a Union Organiser from one of England's biggest Unions. I'll wander down to the Universities and mingle amongst the more radical of the students to see if there is something going down around there. Jerry can you check around to see if any of the local villains are looking to acquire a motor for any reason at all."

"Okay. I'll start with the list we got form the Feds and check them out. What we might do is try and flush them out."

"How would you do that?"

"I thought we might arrange a couple of spectacular 'adventures' so that I can get a reputation as a wheel man."

"We don't have a lot of time you know."

"No problems. Just be ready for some fun tonight. Oh, by the way, I noticed a chap hanging around the entrance when I came in. Now I might be wrong but I'm sure that it was the same guy who was stationed in the foyer all of yesterday. That means that at least one crew might be on to us."

"Funny you should mention that. That subject was next on the agenda. We seem, not surprisingly, to have attracted the attention of several watchers. I don't know whether they're just staking out the hotels as a security precaution or if they really are on to us, but I think we should try to find out."

"Should we use the divide and conquer plan or do you have something else in mind?"

"That will probably work in the first instance. Jerry you go out through the garage, Frank, the service entrance and I'll use the front door."

They left simultaneously through different exits, walked around for several minutes before returning, separately through different entrances than those from which they left.

They met briefly in the lift on the way to their room, compared notes which confirmed that all of them had been followed and that they had managed to lose them. They took the lift back down to the foyer and again left by different exits.

Russell, having lost his man immediately doubled back to his station. He called the other two on the two-way only to find that they had been given the slip as well. "Hey! Hold on, one of them has just come out again, Alex whip around to the front and see if you can spot one of them coming out." The radio traffic got a little confused as all three watchers spotted different men coming out of the hotel. Before long the others reported that they had lost their men.

It was enough to convince Russell that they were being played with so he called the others back to the hotel to await further instructions.

What they didn't know was that they hadn't been the only ones who had lost the three men soon after leaving the hotel. Just up the street from the hotel was a coffee shop from which two men had been watching the hotel. Three other men walked in to the coffee shop with dejected looks on their faces. "How could you be so incompetent! It's bad enough that you can't follow someone without losing them within a hundred yards of where you started, but to also lose someone who was following that person, bloody hell, what are we recruiting these days, idiots!"

The other person who had been in the coffee shop was watching the hotel through a camera with a telephoto lens poking through a hole in the newspaper he held in front of him. "At least we're not the only ones to have failed. The other watchers have just come back empty handed." The motor drive on his camera whirred into life as he fed a 36 exposure film through it, capturing Russell and his companions for identification.

The leader of the group was thinking how he could explain to his superiors how it was that his team of so-called experts could manage to bungle yet another assignment. He thought of saying that it was difficult enough for someone with tertiary qualifications in Humanities to become a spy, but he had second thoughts about that, after all that would be criticising his superiors, and Government policy, and it was just not allowed for a Public Servant entrusted with the Nation's security to suggest that the policy could be wrong.

His thoughts wandered back to the good old days of the 'cloak and dagger circus' when there was a gentlemen's' agreement between them that wouldn't let them do anything without first clearing it with each other. There existed a certain camaraderie between agencies and agents, they would score a few points off each other, exchange information to help each other out and warn each other if there was any danger ahead.

If one Secret Service got word that another was in danger, and it would not cause them any embarrassment to release that information, then it would be quietly leaked. The recipient would then leak news to the media of a major Intelligence Coup to demonstrate that the country truly was being well protected.

Because of its lack of expertise and the fact that all information gathered by them had to be forwarded to a Central Dissemination Unit in Canberra which was nothing more than a one way funnel to the CIA, the Australian Intelligence Service, ASIO, was decidedly lacking in major Intelligence Coups. This lack of demonstrable results was put down as due to a need for secrecy in the interests of the Nation's security.

Meanwhile back at the Newspaper office another conference was taking place. Thompson had the floor. "I don't like the smell of this. I've tried to get information through a tame contact with the local police and I have been told, in very strong terms, to give it a big miss. It sounds to me as if they themselves have been told to keep clear. Whatever their position is, I am sure that we are not just dealing with a trio of Pommies who have decided to celebrate, a little too well, their release from the freezing weather of their homeland. Now, my curiosity having been aroused, we have two choices, the first, we can take notice of what I've been told by the police and keep clear, or we can continue to follow this lead.

"Can one of you contact Russell and have him pay us a visit. I think that if anyone has any ideas on this it will be him and I'd like to hear his ideas before I make a decision."

Thirty minutes later Russell was voicing his opinion. "I think these guys are professionals. They had no trouble in giving us the slip and the other lot by the way, and they doubled back to check to see if they had been successful. I don't think they saw me the second time around but I wouldn't guarantee it, they may have just been testing the water to see if anyone was interested and if that was their intention they now know that they are being watched."

"You mentioned other watchers?"

"Oh them. Probably ASIO. Nothing to worry about. They followed our friends the first time and when they lost them they tried to keep us in sight but we managed to give them the slip as well so they retired to lick their wounds in a coffee shop up the road. They make lousy coffee by the way."

"Now then Young Russell," He caught the glance from Russell, "Leave us not get cynical about the efforts of those who go around peeking under beds trying to save us from the dreaded communist threat to our democratic society."

The floor was open to general discussion about the skills, or lack of skills, displayed by that worthy organisation. The consensus of opinion was that they were the laughing stock of the International Intelligence community. There were many examples bandied about to back up that opinion and the conversation would have lasted for several hours if Brian had not called the meeting to order.

"I know we all have our favourite ASIO stories, but could we get back to the matter at hand. What do we do now? I'm all for keeping on with this. Now, if they know that they are being followed they will probably send out a decoy to lure the watchers away. What we'll do is set up a tandem tailing system at each entrance with someone just up the road in radio contact with the watchers and prepared to take over from them if they happen get shaken off. Once the second tail takes over the first person nips back to the hotel in case another of them uses the same exit."

"But what if the use one or both of the cars?"

"We'll have our own cars parked up the road. It will be up to the person at the entrance to alert the others as to the direction that they take and the nearest car will immediately swing in behind them. Now Russell, I want you to get back to the hotel and set the plan into action. I don't want them getting away again."

"Fair go mate! I've been there all day. I need a break. Apart from that, I have a prior engagement with a certain very attractive person of the female model persuasion that I'm looking forward too. I tell you what, I'll set up the operation, instil in them the fear of the awesome wrath of the Managing Editor if they so much as fail before I keep my date."

"I'd offer to fill in for you but I have my own prior engagement, mine being with a certain Hostess whose plane is leaving at seven in the morning and who I intend to personally deliver to the airport after a wonderful night's entertainment."

"Lucky for you that you're not in the position to offer your services because I wouldn't like to be around in the morning after you had struck out with Jenny. She doesn't like you, or hadn't you noticed?"

"Now you've hurt my feelings, but to show you that I don't bear a grudge, I'll let you keep your date, but only after you've set up the operation. Now gentlemen, to the fray!"

The room cleared with alacrity, and alacrity was still with them as they reached the hotel. Unfortunately, it was all for nought. The objects of their interest had slipped quietly once more through the cordon, a fact that they at first didn't realise as the other watchers were still in place.