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The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comSkopje. Small's close liaison with the Macedonian secret police meantthat he had no access to one of the main local intelligencerequirements, the ethnic Albanian PRI party. The PRI, and the Albanianpopulation in general, were deeply mistrusted by the Macedonian secretpolice. The intelligence on the PRI which they fed to Small was biased,so MI6 needed independent penetration. String Vest asked me to gettogether a cover to visit Skopje and cultivate the targets in the PRIleadership.Now that Ben Presley had retired, CF issued a new alias name, ThomasPaine, and I got myself documented again as a freelance journalist.After my nerve-jangling Belgrade visit, SBO1 insisted I acquire bettercredentials: `Get yourself down to I/OPS section and see if they havegot any contacts who can help.' I/OPS provided me with a letter ofintroduction from SMALLBROW, commissioning me to write an article forThe Spectator on the effects of UN sanctions on Macedonia. Ìf anybodyfrom the PRI rings to check you out, he'll vouch for you,' I/OPS/1assured me. I was ready for my first trip to Skopje within a couple ofdays.It was dusk as a tattered taxi with a single working headlight drove methe ten kilometres from Skopje airport to the capital, but I couldstill see the scars of the 1963 earthquake that destroyed most of thecity. The clock on the central railway station was still stuck at tento five, the time when the first tremors started, and even 30 yearslater there were swathes of open ground in the town centre wherebuildings had once stood. Though the war to the north had not directlytouched Skopje, the signs of economic hardship were clear. Refuse layuncollected in the streets, men hung around idle on corners and raggedKosovo refugees kicked footballs outside the abandoned buildings theynow occupied in the run-down Albanian quarter.The relatively wealthy Macedonian-Bulgar quarter where Small lived wasbetter, but I did not envy his lot. His flat was owned by theMacedonian secret police and lay in a grim concrete block a shortdistance from the Grand Hotel where I had a reservation. After checkingin, I made my way over - Small had invited me for a drink to discussthe operational plan. Strictly I ought not to have been associatingwith him for security reasons. Skopje was not large and being seentogether by officers of other intelligence services could conceivablycompromise either or both of us. But String Vest and SBO1 had relentedon this occasion. They decided that the risk was small and Small'sposting was lonely and boring so an occasional visitor would be goodfor his morale. Besides, he had been en poste for nearly three monthsand his knowledge would be useful for me.`Hi, come on up to the third floor,' Small greeted me enthusiasticallyon the intercom, which was still working. Stepping over the piles ofhuman excrement which littered the floor, I made my way up the stairs.Small greeted me like a long-lost friend on his doorstep. `Welcome tosunny Skopje.' It didn't take him long to show me around the small,sparsely furnished flat and soon he cracked open a bottle of Scotch andwe sat down and got to work. Small had a quick mind and was anexcellent operational officer. His ability was wasted in the GS branch,but personnel department would not let him transfer to the IB. Therewas no point: keeping him in the GS meant that he could be posted topage- 101 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com
The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comslots like Skopje which most of the IB did not want, and they couldstill pay him a GS salary. Small briefed me expertly on the variousAlbanian factions and personalities. Occasionally, when theconversation turned to more sensitive areas, he would sweep his handthrough the air, reminding me that his hosts might have bugged hisflat. As the evening drew to a satisfying close, he scribbled a note ona scrap of paper and slipped it over to me. It was an invitation toaccompany him the next day on a trip to the countryside to check outthe station exfiltration plan.`Sure, I'd love to come,' I answered, careful not to reveal more thanwas necessary to possible listeners.The Skopje exfiltration plan differed from usual station plans in thatits purpose was to not to smuggle out compromised agents, but to getSmall out in case the Macedonian liaison turned against him. They werea brutish lot and the political situation was not stable enough towholly trust them. If it suited their purpose to kidnap or imprisonSmall, he could not claim diplomatic immunity as officially he was notthere. He would hope to get enough warning of the deterioration in therelationship to be able to get out of the country legally but, just incase, he had an escape route. Two members of the increment visited himearlier in the year to design and rehearse the plan. But then thewinter snow lay thick on the ground, and Small wanted to check that hecould still find the route now that spring had changed the landscape.We left early the next morning in Small's Land Rover Discovery anddrove out into the countryside. It was early May and the hedgerows wereablaze with the fierce yellow of wild forsythia. The exfiltration plancalled for Small to hide out in the countryside until rescue arrived.In a small copse on a hillside a few miles south of Skopje, thelocation of which Small had carefully memorised, the increment hadburied a cache which contained enough materials for Small to survivefor a few days out in the open - food, water, clothing, a couple oftorches with infra-red filters, materials to make a lightweight bivouacand sleeping bag, a set of false identification papers and passport, amoderate sum of Deutschmarks, a few gold sovereigns and a militaryEPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). We trudged a fewhundred yards into the woods and, using a compass to get a bearing froma prominent tree stump, paced out a few yards and found the cachewithout too much problem. After carefully digging it up to check thatit had not been tampered with, we reburied it making sure there was nosign of disturbance.From the top of the hill behind the copse, Small pointed out a smalldisused airstrip. `That's where the plane will come in to pick me up,'he explained. Ìt used to be used by crop-spraying aircraft but they'veall been grounded through lack of spares now.' We took the Discoveryover to the runway to check that it was still serviceable. Ìt's justlong enough for UKN to get their Piper Aztec on the ground,' Smallexplained. `They would come at night, wearing IR goggles, so I'd haveto mark out the landing strip with the IR torches.' Flying below radarheight, the plane would then make its way under cover of darknessacross Albania and the southern Adriatic to the safety of Italy.Small dropped me off outside the Grand Hotel after the enjoyablemorning. It would be an unnecessary risk to spend much more time withpage- 102 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com
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