07.02.2004 14:02 - Spies Like Us
A recent story in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (That\'s a newspaper to you monolinguists out there) highlighted the British Secret Service.
Apparently, an agent was due to meet someone over something, and they decided to meet in a Spanish Restaurant, which the service frequently used for such rendez-vous.(Especially as their old local, The \"Mole and Whistle-Blower\" was full of dodgy Journalists who kept pestering them, and the service was terrible as the Landlord spoke only Russian anyway.)
The meeting went well, but for one minor mishap. Mr. highly-trained secret service operative went and left his laptop in the restaurant. Said laptop was doubtless stuffed with the sort of information foreign governments would pay an arm and a leg for.
So what did our intrepid secret agent do to recover the lost laptop? Did he pull in favours from his colleagues? Did he skillfully play his underworld contacts to find it? Did certain police officers recieve hints that future career-changes may be favorably looked-upon if that awkward piece of evidence picked up the other day disappeared? Was Fence Harry on Camden Market approached on a dark street by an impeccably-dressed, well-spoken young chap who whispered dire warnings of what might come to pass if that computer that came his way didn\'t find its way back to its owner \"Right Now\" in his ear?
No. He took an ad out in the paper.
A paper that was also read by his Superior.
I fear that such bungling and incompetence could have only lead to one possible consequence.
Promotion.
