smallhobbit

It seemed strange, Lucas North thought, someone would choose to wear a loud check shirt when they clearly didn’t want to be followed.  Lucas had followed them onto the underground, and was now standing at the other end of the crowded tube carriage, keeping an eye on his quarry.  And then, as the man prepared to leave at the next station he realised his mistake.  He was following the shirt, and not the man.  Hurriedly he checked the rest of the occupants of the carriage, and spotted the man he was intending to follow.

The man wearing the check shirt exited the train, and Lucas followed, but then slipped back on again.  Hopefully his quarry would have relaxed, having seen Lucas leave and would not notice his return.  This seemed to be the case, for five stops later the man left the train and exited the tube station without apparently noticing Lucas shadowing him.

Lucas followed him as he turned into the park and took a seat on one of the benches.  Lucas stood in front of one of the information boards, apparently engrossed in the details contained on it.  Taking out his phone, he sent a quick text to Jo, letting her know where their target was, and requesting she take over the surveillance.

A few minutes later, Jo walked down the path, past the man.  She took out her own phone, as if checking something, and continued walking.  Lucas saw their agreed signal and headed off in the opposite direction.

Half an hour later, the message came through that Jo had seen the papers being exchanged.  The recipient of the papers did not have diplomatic immunity and had been quietly taken into custody as soon as he was at a distance from the first man.

Later that day Section D heard Lucas’ original quarry was returning to his own country rather sooner than he had expected.  It appeared that country’s head of intelligence had not been impressed with the distraction plan involving a loud check shirt.