The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comthe border. I claimed that my New Zealand passport had been stolen andI was going to Santiago, the only New Zealand embassy in the southerncone, to get a replacement. The elder of the two guards believed mystory, but the younger got suspicious and ordered me off the bus tosearch me. He soon found my unstamped British passport in my rucksackand arrested me on suspicion of having entered the country illegally.They took me back to Mendoza police station, strip-searched me anddumped me in a dirty cell furnished with a damp mattress and a bucket.After a couple of boring hours they escorted me to an office where twoscowling officers sat behind a steel desk. To my bafflement, they weresuspicious that I was a spy and interrogated me. Details of myactivities, my address, my friends were earnestly noted in little blackbooks. After an hour, their questions seemed absurd. `What is the nameof your dog?' one asked.`Jesse,' I replied, barely containing my exasperation.They held me overnight in the dirty cell and in the morning a colonelfrom the Argentine air force came out from Buenos Aires to interrogateme again. `What is the name of your dog?' he asked menacingly.`I told the other bloke that last night,' I replied innocently,wondering why our lakeland terrier puppy was such a threat to ArgentineSkyhawks. It later dawned on me that he was testing my cover. If Ireally was an innocent exchange student, it would be easy to rememberinconsequential details like my dog's name. But if I was a spy undercover, spontaneously and correctly answering trivial questions from oneday to the next would be harder. The lesson was useful when I didbecome a spy.They released me later that day, though not without first making meplay an impromptu game of rugby. They reasoned that any genuine NewZealander would be an excellent wing-forward, and my protests to thecontrary fell on deaf ears. Mendoza is one of the main rugby-playingprovinces of Argentina and some of their players were very good. Theymade me suffer and on returning to Buenos Aires the following day, myright eye was badly blackened. `So you met some of my Gestapo friends,'Rodolfo laughed. I wasn't sure whether he was joking.A few weeks later, a Swiss diplomat friend invited me to a barbecue atthe Swiss embassy. Britain and Argentina still had not reestablisheddiplomatic links after the Falklands war, so British interests werelooked after by a few British diplomats working inside the Swissembassy. My Swiss friend introduced me to one of them, a tall, ganglyfellow a few years older than myself, who was a second secretary. Hewas fascinated to hear about my flying and asked eagerly about therange and load-carrying ability of the Luscombe. He seemed a bitdisappointed when he learned that it struggled to carry more than atelevision and a video recorder.After joining MI6 I discovered that the gangly fellow, Mark Freeman,was from the service. In Buenos Aires he was running what became quitea coup for MI6 against the Argentine navy.Having failed to predict the invasion of the Falklands Islands in April1982, the reputation of MI6 in Whitehall nosedived. MI6 set out topage- 12 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com