‘BOX 88 is unknown to both the Metropolitan Police, MI5 and all but a select few government officials and civil servants on both sides of what Billy here likes to refer to as The Pond. We straddle the Atlantic.’
Kite looked at Rita, remembering that she had described BOX 88 as a ‘special alliance’ between British and American intelligence. He glugged a mouthful of wine.
‘The intelligence community in the United States hit a brick wall some time ago,’ Strawson continued. ‘I don’t know how much you know about the CIA, but let’s just say that the Agency hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory since the Second World War. Something had to change. We were operating ideologically, obsessed with the spread of Communism, obsessed with the Soviet threat, neglecting to take a long-term view. As a consequence, we failed to anticipate significant global shifts and political earthquakes. You could cite the 1979 Iranian Revolution as a prime example.’
Peele coughed and picked up his fork, as if he sensed that a lot of what Strawson was saying would be going over Kite’s head. Rita also made a start on her smoked salmon. Kite put a look on his face which he hoped would convey the appearance of someone absorbing and understanding every word that Strawson uttered.
‘At the same time, British secret intelligence – that is to say its foreign manifestation, MI6, not MI5 – saw their future being curtailed, their wings clipped, by creeping bureaucracy. You won’t be aware of this, but both MI5 and MI6 have been undergoing a process in recent years of emerging into the sunlight after decades in darkness. Government oversight is the new order of the day, just as CIA is answerable to Congress in Washington.’ Strawson took a sip of water. ‘In short, the Brits couldn’t do what they used to do. They couldn’t do what they wanted to do. Intelligence was being left in the hands of the politicians – and let me tell you, if you let those guys enjoy too much operational control, to push you this way and that because of their own narrow electoral outlook, it’s bound to lead to setbacks.’
It was a natural point at which Kite might have been expected to say something, but he did not want to seem foolish by asking the wrong question. Peele saw that he was hesitating and came to his rescue.
‘What Mike is trying to tell you, Lockie, is that five years ago a small group of officers inside MI6 created a new unit within the Service which would not be bound by the same rules and regulations that applied to colleagues. They called this unit BOX 88. Allow me to explain how normal, run-of-the-mill intelligence-gathering works. It’s commonplace for the prime minister of the day to issue what are called “requirements”. Mrs Thatcher, for example, can come to MI6 and say: “Get me everything you have on Mikhail Gorbachev.” So off they go and get her everything they have on Mikhail Gorbachev. But what if she wants too much of the same thing? What if she can’t be persuaded to look at Syria, at France, at Iran with the same kind of vigour, despite our belief that individuals in those nations present either an existential threat to the security of the British people or, more often, an opportunity to – for want of a better term – make the world a better place?’
‘You mean you go behind the prime minister’s back?’
Strawson coughed behind his napkin.
‘To all intents and purposes, yes,’ Peele replied. ‘That’s exactly what we do. We go behind the backs of presidents and prime ministers, of secretaries of state, heads of the Foreign Office and so forth. BOX 88 does the things they don’t want us to do, that they don’t ask us to do, which they don’t realise need to be done.’
‘But, Mr Strawson—’ Kite checked himself. He was still at Killantringan, bringing cheese and biscuits to the guest staying in Churchill. ‘Mr Strawson is an American. You said you were in the CIA? How does that work? Have the two agencies always been tied like this?’
Strawson scratched a point behind his ear. In the time it had taken Peele to explain the origins of BOX 88, he had consumed his smoked salmon, leaving the bread triangles untouched in a neat pile at the edge of his plate.
‘I never said I was CIA, but – yes – I was CIA for a long time.’ He reached out and touched Kite’s forearm in a way Kite hadn’t expected and which he didn’t particularly appreciate. ‘Let’s say I saw the rot set in. The British came to me in ’83 and I learned about BOX 88. We discussed creating a partnership. I spoke to select colleagues who arranged for a certain percentage of the overall intelligence budget to be diverted to BOX as a complement to the minimal UK spending available. We now have a network of contacts within NSA and GCHQ Cheltenham, referred to as “Turings”, who provide us with what’s known as “signals intelligence” – satellite imagery, computer attacks and so forth – under the guise of supporting frontline services at Five, Six and CIA.’
‘If we discover things,’ Peele continued, ‘and we think the prime minister or the president of the day should know, we send that intel up the food chain, via the normal channels, so that the frontline services get a pat on the back. At any one time there have never been more than six individuals in MI6 and a dozen more at Langley who know about BOX 88. We’re a rumour, probably not even that, and we intend to keep it that way. We tend to recruit young – usually graduates in their early twenties – but there are personnel of all ages, from all walks of life, working for us here and in New York. The current head of M16 is what
