THIRTEEN

January-March 1971

My series of interviews outside London had been only partially successful. Several of the people I wanted to talk with about UNIT and its activities were happy to speak with me but only as 'deep background', meaning they would never be identified in print and would only confirm or deny facts I had already gleaned from other sources. Others were dubious about talking with me at all, while several threatened to get the authorities on to me. But nobody was willing to go on the record and speak publicly about UNIT, C19 or the Doctor.

One of my primary targets was Professor Elizabeth Shaw, who was leading a highly secretive new research project at Cambridge. My old contact Martha at the Ministry of Science had tipped me off that Professor Shaw had been seconded from Cambridge in 1969 to work with a certain top secret intelligence taskforce, but had left after a year to go back to Cambridge. If I could get her to talk, it would be a major breakthrough for my investigation. After several of my messages for Professor Shaw met with a stony silence, I gave up for a while and got on with other work.

The new Heath Government had a very short honeymoon, with blame for the collapse of the World Peace Conference in November 1970 being laid squarely at its door. There were rumours circulating about lapses in security for the conference, which had been provided by an unnamed but highly regarded 'international intelligence taskforce' under the Government's authority. That got my attention, but as usual, getting anyone to talk openly about this incident proved impossible.

The Government responded to this loss of confidence by creating a new department, the Ministry of Security. Its purpose was to gather all of Britain's intelligence divisions and agencies under one umbrella, bringing about a greater coordination and cooperation between them. A source of mine likened the task of this new ministry to putting a cobra, a hammerhead shark and a man-eating tiger into a small wicker basket together, giving them a good shake and expecting them all to come out as the best of friends.

'Not very realistic,' my source said wearily. I had known him off and on for two and a half years and trusted him impeccably. He disappeared for long periods at a time and always contacted me when he wanted to talk. Highly placed within the intelligence community, it seemed to amuse him to have an investigative journalist like myself as a confidant. He never lied to me, he never exaggerated and he always gave a direct answer to any direct question - if he could. The only time he hesitated from revealing a fact was when it could in turn reveal him as the source of such a leak. During all my dealings with him, we never used each other's real names. Instead we adopted codenames. He was Cassandra, I was Whiti. It was a contrivance, but one that amused us both.

Cassandra absolutely refused to talk about UNIT except on one occasion. In all our other meetings, he would not be drawn on the subject. 'If I told you what they really do, you wouldn't believe me,' was all he would say about the matter. Talking about C19 was just as much off limits. Indeed, it was Cassandra who had warned me off investigating C19.

'Keep away. You think you know all about C19 - it's just the spy ministry, and that's partially true. But there is a much darker side to it. There's a secret within the secret service - a team of operatives that has got near total autonomy and dirty tricks that defy belief. Even I can't bring it under control,' my source confided, genuine fear in his voice.

In January 1971, I had a rare face-to-face meeting with Cassandra to talk about the new Government department and its role and functions. We met in a busy road services café halfway to Bath at noon one Friday, the location being Cassandra's suggestion. 'This way, if anybody sees us together, I can claim to be sitting opposite you by chance because all the other seats were taken,' he explained.

He was scathing about the Ministry of Security. 'Amateurs and idiots' was his considered opinion. Cassandra said the civil service had used the establishment of this new ministry to transfer every half-wit, malcontent and piece of deadwood from other departments into one place. 'The whole set-up is a farce and the Ministry of Security will be lucky to see the end of the year. It's been sabotaged from within by mutual agreement of all the intelligence services. First thing they've agreed on in years,' he said wryly over a large fried lunch.

Cassandra cited as an example of this sabotage the case of one Horatio Chinn. 'The man's a buffoon! He'd been knocking around various Government departments since the war, thinking he's some sort of trouble-shooting Napoleon, cutting through red tape and bureaucracy.'

'I don't hear a hint of self interest here, do I?' I said cheekily. Cassandra just glared at me before continuing.

'In reality Chinn's only talent is stroking the egos of insecure Ministers and parliamentary private secretaries of Her Majesty's Government. That's how he had managed to get so far in the civil service while maintaining his reputation as a congenital idiot with everyone not motivated by politics and a hunger for winning votes.

'Anyway, it was decided that this tin-pot, power-crazed fool would be the perfect candidate for inclusion at the new Ministry of Security,' my source explained. 'Subtle hints were dropped in Chinn's presence about a high-flying new posting at the MoS and he was round at the Minister's house currying favour before you could say Charles Manson.