Chapter 3

Mike arrived at the Britannia at about half past eight on Friday. Jill had been a bit put out, but had accepted it as he’d said he’d be there; and she didn’t want to go with him, however much he protested that it’d be quite okay. June was still helping her Aunt Alice, and didn’t know what time she’d be home.

There were only a few people in the café, and Cathie was reading when Mike came in. ‘Cup of tea, Cathie love, please.’

‘Oh! Hello Mike. I was just thinking about Pete. Tony Ramsden came in a couple of minutes ago asking if I’d seen him.’

‘Does Tony come in here too? Jill and I saw him in the market yesterday. It’s odd we didn’t mention about Pete going away. Did he say what he wanted?’

‘No. He didn’t seem too bothered that he couldn’t get hold of Pete, but he was more animated than usual.’

Two cups of tea and a table near the counter.

‘I wonder what on earth Tony wanted with Pete, anyway? They normally take hardly any notice of each other at all.’

‘He must really have been looking for him to come in here. I think it’s the first time he’s been in here since he split up with Jenny. But I can’t begin to guess what it’s all about.’

They talked about Pete’s state of mind, and unemployment, and money. Holidays in Finland, and labouring contracts abroad.

Customers came and went.

Neither of them noticed the passage of time and they were surprised when Mr Jordan arrived.

‘I’ll see you soon then.’

‘Yes. See you Cathie. See you, Mr Jordan.’

‘Cheerio – Mike isn’t it?’

‘Yes, that’s me. So long.’

Mike went straight round to Jill’s; he’d not intended to stay so late at the Britannia and he suspected that Jill would be in a pretty sour mood. But June was home already, and they were sitting over mugs of tea with Tony.

‘What do you make of this, Mike? Go on, tell him, Tony.’

While Mike got himself a tea, Tony explained how he’d been down near the police station at ten o’clock that morning, and had noticed a good dozen police cars – marked and unmarked – parked outside in Shipton Street.

‘Odd, I thought; considering they’ve got an enormous car park at the back – I’ve never seen them parked in front at all before. So I slipped round the back to see if they’d got the car park all dug up or something. But no, it was just jam packed full. A lot of police cars, but all sorts of other vehicles too. I suppose a lot of them would be their private ones, but the police recovery vehicle and two Black Marias were out there too. They normally stay inside in the garage.’

‘You seem to know a lot about the ways of the police! I’ve never noticed details like that at all.’

‘You should watch the police, you know. Propaganda isn’t the only weapon the State’s got. Anyway, of itself, that didn’t amount to much. But it whetted my interest, so I went up on the embankment to watch. You know, the garage doors at the back never opened once in the hour and a half I was there, and all the pigs went round and in the front way, none of them went in through the door at the back at all. Now that is something unusual.’

I imagine this is what he wanted to tell Pete. There’s probably some very ordinary sort of explanation, and he’s just dramatizing. If it was Steve or Angie telling me, I’d be sure that was the case. But it’s not like Tony to dramatize; he must think there’s something behind it, and he’s more likely than anyone else to know enough to have reason.

They all tried to think what it might mean, and Mike discovered how little he knew about police activities compared with any of the others.

Jill suggested that they should all put in a couple of days of intensive ‘copper watching,’ and maybe a bit of theoretical study. ‘This itself might well be nothing at all, but it’d be good practice. Tony’s right, we should be more aware of the strong arm of the State, anyway.’

June observed that intensive copper watching might be a dodgy thing to do, they might spot you and wonder what you were up to. ‘I’d feel a lot happier just walking up to the reception desk and asking them why they aren’t using the garage.’

‘But then they’d be sure to notice you after that, and you’d never be any good for watching. If you’re careful, they’ll never touch you. Just don’t get seen too often with binoculars, or the wrong side of security fences. They’ve probably got us all down on the files as rebels anyway, but marked down as unorganized and ineffectual.’

‘What do Angie and Steve think about it?’ Mike asked.

‘I’ve not said anything to them. You know them. It’d all be some big conspiracy, and we’d be the little secret band of heroes who’d uncover it all.’

‘And then go around behaving furtively and get themselves caught.’

‘Caught doing what? I’ve not heard anyone suggest doing anything illegal.’

‘Poking your nose where it’s not wanted may not be illegal, but it’s a first class way of getting yourself into trouble if you get caught.’

Walking home in the small hours, Mike had an uneasy thought that the four of them were behaving just the way they’d imagined Angie and Steve behaving. He wondered why Tony and June – it had been them particularly, hadn’t it? – had their knives in Angie and Steve so much. Then he realized that he could understand Tony, at any rate: they’d drive him barmy in half the time Tony had been living with them. Mind, Tony’d drive me barmy pretty quick, too.

Mike’s day of intensive copper watching told him very little; maybe they were behaving strangely, or maybe policemen always behaved like that. Certainly, in the hour he sat watching the back of the police station from the other side of the canal, the garage doors never opened; but he couldn’t see if any policemen used the back door, because he’d placed himself where he could see only the top of the big concertina door. He was pleased with that touch, because it meant that his poor view of the station would allay any suspicions. Later it occurred to him that he was in full view of the offices on top of the station, and that from there it wouldn’t be particularly obvious that he couldn’t see much. But sitting on a wall by an almost disused canal for an hour, reading, didn’t seem to be especially suspicious; not even near the back of the police station. And no-one can have known that what he was reading was Moriarty’s Police Law – except the people at the library.

It would be sheer paranoia to suppose that they would tell the police every time someone borrowed that. But it would be so easy – and the librarians needn’t even know – with that computerized checkout. In fact, thinking about it, it would be such a wonderful way of checking for possible dissidents, just to program the machine to give the police lists of books borrowed by anyone who borrowed certain volumes, or more than some threshold number of certain categories of books. Or the reading list of individuals they were interested in for other reasons. Ouch. And all so completely out of the public eye.

But do they really do things like that? I doubt it.

They gathered that evening at about seven at Jill and June’s. They’d each done a stint outside the police station, and the story was the same in each case. Mike gave them his thoughts about the library computer.

Tony thought it was likely that it was being done: ‘You can be sure that if you’ve thought of it, they’ve thought of it too. It only takes one policeman somewhere to think of it, and make the suggestion. They’ve probably got people employed full-time just to think up things like that.’

June wasn’t so sure. ‘But surely there are safeguards against infringements of civil liberties like that?’

‘It might be interesting to know what they are.’

‘I doubt if they’re much use, even if they exist in theory. Who would enforce them? The police?’

‘The problem surely isn’t enforcing the safeguards – it’s exposing the abuses. How does one go about finding out about them – much less proving anything?’

‘That’s why I think more people should make it their business to keep an eye on the Law. But finding out what links exist between computers sounds like a job for experts, and it probably would involve some spy-thriller type work. Not our cup of tea.’

‘I must admit I can’t see how we could begin to get into a system like that – except sort of by observing how it works from the outside – borrow a lot of books that seem likely to be sensitive, and see what happens. And if anything happens, we know we’d have been better not doing it... and we still can’t prove a thing.’

‘And with them being so keen on identification before you can even get a ticket, we couldn’t even do it with a false ticket.’

June thought it unlikely a system like that could be set up without someone involved blowing the whistle; but Tony said that nobody was likely to blow any whistles and risk losing their job. He might well be right there.

Tony had found that copies of detailed planning permissions, with architect’s plans, were kept in Public Health offices; and that, for public buildings, they were available for public inspection. He’d had a look at the plans of the town hall, but had decided not to draw attention to himself by asking for the plans of the police station.

‘I suspect that they might be just the one set of plans that aren’t available, anyway.’

‘Very possibly. I’d hoped that I might have been able to root through the plans myself, but you have to ask for the particular ones you want.’

They decided to give the main police station a miss the following day partly because they suspected that they’d learn nothing new, and partly because, especially on a Sunday, they might be noticed if they suddenly became regulars on the towpath or the embankment. ‘Perhaps we should each walk past Shipton and Quarryside police stations, once in each direction, about an hour apart, as if we were going somewhere and coming back. Just to see if anything’s going on that might give us a clue.’

‘And Raikeley while we’re at it. I can’t see what kind of clue you’re expecting – I can’t imagine why they’ve closed off the garage at all, less still why it should involve any other stations. But it sounds like good copper-watching practice.’

‘Trust you to know that there’s a police station in Raikeley! I bet all that’s happening is that they’re doing some alterations to the building.’

‘No – if there was any building work going on, the doors would be in use for the builders’ vehicles. They did something like that in there a few months ago, but it’s been back to normal again since then.’

They worked out a timetable for the following day, covering each police station at about hourly intervals, between them, throughout the day. They included the central police station as well, in the end. ‘Just walking past it two or three times in a day isn’t like sitting around near it for an hour.’

Mike’s Sunday was mostly a dreary round of police stations and long walks. What do you look for? If nothing out of the ordinary is obvious, the important thing must be to take careful note of just what is ordinary. Really, you need pen and paper – then you can compare notes with the others as well – but that would draw attention to you. Difficult, but not impossible I suppose, to take down notes a few hundred yards after you pass the place. Shouldn’t really stand still to scan the place, either.

About three in the afternoon Mike walked down Bridge Street. Cathie caught sight of him and beckoned him into the café. She didn’t have a single customer.

‘Join me in a cup of tea?’

‘I shouldn’t.’

‘On the house, silly. Or are you in a hurry?’

‘Not really; thank you very much.’

It’s not so important to keep to the timetable. Not important at all, in fact.

A customer came in and she served him first, but then brought two teas and came and sat with Mike.

‘Have you seen Tony? Do you know what it was all about?

Should I tell her about the Secret Four? My God, this is ridiculous! The conspiratorial psychology of it is getting to me.

He began to tell her all about it, his misgivings about the attitude and all. After a while, she changed the subject abruptly.

‘I wonder how Pete’s doing in Helsinki? Do you know anything about the place?’

‘Not really. Probably a bit chilly at this time of year. I think it’s pretty civilized. A few years ago it wasn’t such a healthy place to be with the Americans and the Russians playing cat and mouse with each other’s subs all around the eastern end of the Baltic, but that seems to have calmed down recently. I bet language is his biggest problem.’

‘I doubt that. He’s too shy to talk to anyone anyway!’ Laughter.

‘Perhaps. But he won’t be able to read the notices, or ask his way, or find the right bus.’

‘I expect plenty of people there speak at least a little English.’

The customer finished his coffee, got up, and left.

‘Sorry I changed the subject like that. I didn’t like the way that chap seemed to be listening to you.’

‘You know, I hadn’t noticed he was. Not that I was saying anything momentous anyway.’

‘I’m not certain myself that he was. He wasn’t giving us his undivided attention openly exactly. I just had the feeling he was listening with interest.’

‘Not that it matters. I’m just as interested in Pete’s holiday anyway.’

‘Me too. But until he comes back, or we get a card, it’s just idle speculation. But the other thing sounds quite interesting. I’ll think about it myself, and try to be more conscious of that particular side of the way of the world. But I think I share your doubts about the value of systematic watching, unless you know what you’re watching out for. I’d better start cleaning up soon, before the tea-time crowd. But you’ll be in again soon, won’t you?’

‘Of course. But you mustn’t keep giving me free teas. Come round and see us out of work hours sometime.’

‘One of the few perks of this job is to give away teas to my friends. Grub too if there’s a bit left over that won’t keep, as long as no-one starts expecting it and spongeing off us. But I’ll come round anyway.’

‘See you.’

‘So long.’

They had a meeting again at the Js’ at eight o’clock. Jill had got home early and had a meal ready for them all.

‘If we’re going to make a habit of this, we’d better all chip in for the grub.’

‘Better still, the work as well. But these two will never let us loose in their kitchen, Tony. We’ll do a meal round at my place tomorrow if we’re meeting again then.’

‘I vote we leave this a day or two after tonight. We don’t want this to take over our lives. It’s not as though we’re on to anything at the moment.’

‘I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.’

‘Let’s make it Wednesday round at Mike’s then, okay Mike? Social, but we’ll talk about this a bit anyway without a doubt. I take it no-one has noticed anything funny?’

‘Not really. I don’t even feel as though I’ve increased my awareness of the police, but that’s very hard to tell.’

‘It is hard, isn’t it. You never notice filling in unsurprising details into your world view; but when details change, you do notice. Even if the new details would have been just as unsurprising if it had been them in the first place.’

‘I bet you can’t say that again, Tony! Quite a little philosopher tonight, aren’t you?’

That was uncalled for, June. But he’s smiling.

Then the discussion turned to shelters. Mike expounded his theory about foreign labour being used in order to keep the public as much in the dark as possible.

‘They do that with bank vaults and the like, certainly. I’m sure you’re right. My brother applied for a job ‘on a construction site’ in France a few months ago. He was turned down. They’d asked him about his qualifications. He’d told them about his ‘A’ in French, but not his others because he reckoned they’d not want clever buggers. I bet they don’t want you to be able to converse with the natives, either.’

‘None of the lads working on the sewage project at Wood Lane have a word of English. I don’t even know where they come from. Your theory doesn’t explain why they should use foreign labour for a project like that at all.’

‘Unless it’s really a shelter, not a sewage works at all!’ Laughter.

‘Hey, but seriously: you hear them talk about shelters, but does anyone know where they are?’

‘There’s one under the town hall in Oxford, and one under the telephone exchange in Bradford.’

‘Wonderful. We know where two are in all Britain – maybe one or two others. But where is the nearest one? Is there one in Burnfield? Where?’

‘If they were shelters for the general public, the general public would have to be told how to find them. Anyway, there can’t be shelters for the general public, or why all the pressure to build private ones?’

‘Even if there was shelter space for everyone, not everyone would be within reach of one in the time available...

‘What time available?’

... if you were at home, you’d go into your private shelter, if you were in town, you’d go into the public shelter.’

‘I’m glad you said ‘Even if,’ – I don’t know how anyone is supposed to know when to go into a shelter at all. Do we all sit in our shelters whenever the situation gets tense? Or do we wait, ears glued to our portable radios, for the four-minute warning, and then rush to the nearest shelter, wherever it might be?’

‘In one way, perhaps it’s not quite as silly as that. It depends what weapons get used. If you’re in a zap zone or right under a nuke, the shelter’s not going to do you a lot of good unless it’s a hundred feet down and you’re in it already. And you don’t even get four minutes warning for a zap. But if you’re a fair way from a nuke or it’s biols, then it’s the aftereffects you’re worried about, and you’ve got a little time to get down. But in another way, it’s even sillier. You shelter for four weeks while radiation levels drop or the antis are developed, and then come out to die slowly instead of quickly, or to find the biols have mutated and the antis don’t work any longer, or there’s nothing to eat, or no air.’

‘I don’t think there’s going to be a war at all. The shelter thing is just for the shelter companies to make a profit out of. In which case, presumably, it is a sewage works at Wood Lane. Which brings us back to the question of why they use foreign labour?’

‘It could be to do with union-busting. Or maybe they use foreign labour here because it’s cheap, and Brit labour abroad because it really is shelters.’

It was late again when Mike and Tony left for their respective homes; Tony had a long walk ahead of him.

‘See you Wednesday. So long!’

‘Good night.’

Back to the top

On to Chapter 4