History, Politics And Current Affairs

17 – Death of a Senator Not since 1968 had a sitting United States Senator been murdered. There had been ‘incidents’ since then, some of which hadn’t made it anywhere near the news media, but Bobby Kennedy had been the last member of Congress’ upper chamber to be killed while serving. That was unti...

A different American by the name of Goldberg has been making the news recently. But I already used the name in Chapter 7.
Mine is, of course, fictional.

16 – Thames House “Fi-Fi, come sign this card for Abigail, will you?” Phoebe stood up from her desk and went over towards where Hannah was standing with the rest of her team, minus Abigail of course. As she crossed the section of the fourth floor within Thames House, the home to MI-5 which sat besi...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Thu Mar 06, 2025 12:14 am That's called a clue, heed it.

Oh, Phoebe got the clue indeed. But her actions won't be as they should rightly be!

15 – With pity Nathan was sitting in a car with Daniel, one parked in Shoreditch over in East London. They were waiting for someone. A woman was coming, such was all that Daniel would reveal, to tell him something and when she did, Nathan wouldn’t be here to listen. Instead, his job was to watch hi...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 8:46 pm She needs to get out sooner, not later.

They both need to TBF.

The first best holiday was when I was eleven to the newly-opened Eurodisney in Paris. The fun factor at that age is fondly remembered. I took a short holiday recently. Less than a week from England to Ireland to see family. I started on the Wednesday evening by taking a 7pm train from where I am in ...

$460 a month.
That's a lot. £396 in UK money. I might spent half that.
The DOD would buy food in bulk, getting the best deal for the lowest quality as well.
So where's the money gone? Down the back of someone's sofa?

14 – Flight Fund Katerina came out of the coffee shop and stood in the closed doorway for a moment. She reached up to her left ear and tapped the lobe with a finger, twice in quick succession. It wasn’t the most dramatic of movements but not so subtle either. Confident that Josephine would have see...

13 – Ambush Coffee was what Hannah wanted. Now. She went to her favourite place, in Hammersmith and not far at all from her flat. There were Saturday afternoon shoppers to avoid and a bloody long queue of people inside. Everyone in front of her was, without fail, taking their time with things. Brea...

12 – TANGERINE Richard had asked for a full report. Hannah gave it as instructed. “Officers with the Met. found the body of Steven Robinson last night. There is a patch of waste ground on the edge of Watford and he was inside the boot of it when it was set alight: it does appear that he was dead wh...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:03 pm I can't wonder if the visit was meant to panic the spy into doing something stupid. Even if they ran to the SIS, they'd be out of the embassy.

Alas, that wasn't what it was. 'Changes' in Moscow and the dispatch to London to sort them the f*** out.

11 – Hurricane Yelena Colonel Komova clandestinely slipped into the London rezidentura . For Katerina, the arrival of the Second Deputy head of counterintelligence at the SVR meant serious trouble. Hurricane Yelena was here and it wasn’t an enjoyable experience at all. From Moscow she had come, to ...

10 – Scrap Daniel sent Nathan a text message from an unknown number. It told him that he’d be picked up in ten minutes from outside his flat and that he was to bring nothing with him. Arriving a couple of minutes late, Daniel wouldn’t let him in the car, one which Nathan hadn’t seen beforehand, unt...

jemhouston wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2024 10:05 pm Serve it cold

What i wanted to do with Katerina was have her different from depictions of others in books/films. They are usually working for the 'good guys' against their fellow native 'bad guys' due to a higher moral belief etc.
She's different. She just wants revenge for personal reasons.

gtg947h wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2025 1:21 am We watched it on Halloween on our honeymoon in Honolulu, with a live orchestra making the music. Assuming of course you're talking about the old silent film...

No, it's a remake.

It's a Dracula film. I watched it this evening and it's pretty good.

9 – Naivety Lyudmila got the file from the safe. She was in charge of admin, records included, down in the rezidentura , and retrieved what Katerina asked for from the room which was one big safe itself. Katerina wasn’t allowed inside there: just Lyudmila and Ilya could go inside. The file concerne...

It's Taylor Sheridan quality.

8 – Barium meals ‘ M.I.Five – not Nine to Five’ The tag-line came from a TV show in the early Noughties by the name of Spooks . Hannah had not long been with the Security Service when that show came out and had wholeheartedly agreed with such a description of her working hours. Spooks was something...