Stephen Leather - False Friends

A male shopping assistant in a dark suit was heading their way so Shepherd took them towards the escalators.

‘And then what?’ asked Chaudhry. ‘Then we lose them, right? We shake them off?’

Shepherd chuckled. ‘No, Raj. Then you call me.’

‘Look around and tell me what you see,’ said Shepherd. They were in the Oracle Centre, next door to the John Lewis store. There were ninety shops on three floors under a vaulted glass ceiling. Shepherd had taken them to the upper floor, from where they could look down on the crowds below.

‘A lot of people,’ said Chaudhry.

‘Exactly,’ said Shepherd. ‘People of all shapes and sizes, every ethnicity imaginable, men, women, young, old, rich, poor. In an environment like this there’s no way of spotting a watcher by appearance alone. Plus, it’s all open, so from here we can see pretty much everyone on the ground floor, and everyone up here. And they can see us. If you go into a shop all they have to do is wait for you to come out. The situation is similar in the high street. But there is a big advantage to a place like this.’ He turned around to face the shop that they were standing in front of. It was an Apple store, one of the busiest in the mall. Inside were dozens of customers playing with iPads, iPhones and Mac computers while black-shirted sales staff looked on.

‘Reflections,’ said Shepherd. ‘If you look into a shop window your watchers will relax and tend to look at you directly. If you get the angles right you can see behind you and to the sides.’

Chaudhry and Malik moved their heads from side to side. ‘So you stop, is that it?’ said Chaudhry. ‘Then check in the reflection to see if anyone’s looking. That works?’

‘Like a charm,’ said Shepherd. ‘Chances are they’ll look to see why you’ve stopped. But it’s also a good way of checking if anyone across the road is watching you. The distance means that if you’ve got your back to them they’ll feel they can look at you without any risk. Shop windows are also a good way of backtracking.’

‘Backtracking?’ repeated Malik.

‘I’ll show you,’ said Shepherd. ‘I’ll walk off down the mall and you two follow. Try to be casual, and if I look your way avoid eye contact. Okay?’

The two men nodded.

Shepherd grinned. ‘Don’t look so serious,’ he said. He turned and walked towards Debenhams, then headed left towards Boots. He walked slowly, glancing in shop windows, his hands in his pockets.

Chaudhry and Malik followed about twenty paces behind. ‘Shall we walk together or split up?’ asked Malik.

‘I don’t think it matters,’ said Chaudhry. They moved aside to let two young women with scraped-back ponytails push their buggies by.

Shepherd gazed at the computers in the window as he walked by PC World, then he paused at the entrance to allow a group of teenagers to walk out. He looked at his watch before carrying on towards Boots.

Chaudhry and Malik continued after him. But then Shepherd stopped, turned, and began walking back towards them. Malik made eye contact with Shepherd and froze; Chaudhry took a single step and then he stopped too.

Malik turned, bumping into Chaudhry and knocking him off balance. Chaudhry reached out to grab Malik’s arm as Shepherd stopped and looked again at the computers in PC World’s windows. He stood there for several seconds, rubbing his chin.

‘What do we do?’ asked Malik. ‘Do we walk by him?’

‘It’s too late,’ said Chaudhry. ‘He got us. Look at his reflection.’

They looked at Shepherd’s reflection in the shop window. He was grinning at them.

Shepherd carried the three coffees over to the corner table where Chaudhry and Malik were already sitting. He put the mugs on the table and sat down. They were in Caffe Nero on the ground floor of the Oracle Centre.

‘What I’ve been showing you is how to spot if you have a tail,’ said Shepherd, keeping his voice low. ‘But here’s the important thing: if you realise that you are being followed you mustn’t let on that you know. You guys are just regular citizens. You’re not spies and you’re not criminals. You shouldn’t be able to spot a tail, and you certainly shouldn’t have the skills to shake one off.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘Villains are different. To them surveillance is one of the hazards of the job. If you’re a career criminal then from time to time the cops will follow you. They know you’re a villain and you know you’re a villain, and giving the cops the slip is part of the game. But say we’re looking at a guy who might be a spy. We put him under surveillance. If we become aware that he’s spotted us then that’s a red flag right there. The very fact that he knows he’s being tailed almost certainly means he’s a spy.’

‘I don’t get it,’ said Malik.

‘If you’ve got nothing to hide you’ll never know that you’re being followed. I could follow a civilian around all day and he’d never see me because most people are too wrapped up in their own lives. But someone with something to hide will be looking around. If someone does start following you, and they see you using anti-surveillance techniques, they’ll know that something is wrong.’ He sipped his coffee again. ‘That technique I used, the backtrack? You can do that and make it look natural. Walk past a newsagent and then go back and buy a pack of gum. Walk past a newspaper seller and then go back and pick up a paper. Look at your watch and then change direction as if you’d forgotten you had to be somewhere. And you can use reflections. It doesn’t have to be a shop window; you can use car mirrors, mirrors in shops. Anything, so long as it looks normal. But if you do spot someone following you the worst possible thing you can do is acknowledge it. You have to carry on as if nothing has happened.’

‘So what’s the point?’ asked Chaudhry.

‘The point is that if you ever do think that someone’s watching you, you let me know as soon as you can. I can then check it out, see if there is any surveillance and decide what to do about it.’

‘Just phone you, is that it?’

‘Sure. Or text. Tell me your location and who you think is following you.’

‘And what will you do?’

‘I’ll get a team out and put them in counter-surveillance mode. There’s always at least one team of watchers on standby at Thames House. They’ll check you over and identify anyone who’s following you, and they’ll do it without the tail ever knowing. People carrying out surveillance are often the easiest to follow because they’re usually so involved in what they’re doing.’

‘And you think Khalid or one of his people might follow us?’ asked Malik.

‘It’s possible,’ said Shepherd. ‘But that doesn’t mean it’ll be somebody you’ll recognise. They’re much more likely to bring in someone you don’t know.’

‘This backtracking thing, do we do that every day? Every hour? Or what?’

‘If you get the feeling you’re being followed, at any time, give it a go. You don’t want to be doing it all the time, that’s for sure. But if I’m on my way to a meeting I’ll usually do it at least once. And always when I’m on my way home.’

‘Why would anyone be following you?’ asked Chaudhry.

‘Any one of a dozen reasons. It would depend on whatever case I’m working on,’ said Shepherd. He leaned closer to them. ‘There’s something else we need to set up. We need to agree an alarm code, a way of you letting me know that there’s a problem without anyone else being aware of what’s going on.’

‘Like a safe word?’ said Malik.

‘What’s a safe word?’ asked Chaudhry.

‘If you’re with a dominatrix you agree a safe word, so that if she’s hurting you too much you say the word and she knows to stop.’