'Codename' : Adam

Major David Stevens, Officer of the Secret Intelligence Service, was riding in a cab to the Railway terminus in a Cold winter in 1970s.

He then recalled the previous day’s conversation with Col. Arthur O’Connor, Incharge of the National Intelligence.

“In the wake of this Cold War, much of our classified information has already got leaked. It means there is an intelligencer between us! We need to find that spy immediately…!” David said as he spoke on telephone.

“Operation Red Star Rising has already initiated without our approval. Personally, I don’t like that. That means all the agents are put on high alert for the search.” Col. Arthur O’Connor answered from the other side. “Our agent in the neighboring country has already sent us a code informing about the leaked information. But till now Adam has not confirmed it.”

“Let’s not wait for Adam. Let’s start our own enquiry at the earliest. I’m taking the train to the neighboring city. I’m meeting some of my other contacts there. I’ll see if it can be of some help.” Saying this, David disconnected the call.

“Take the Cab inside the porch please.” Coming out of his thoughts, David instructed the driver.

“Of course, sir.” The driver confirmed.

As the Cab halted at the entry, he got out & paid the driver. He took his trolley duffle bag from the trunk & hastily walked inside the station, thinking the train may leave.

Travelling for the first time through this Terminal, coming inside, as he checked the indicator; he was annoyed.

The train that he was supposed to board was late by 3 hours.

Frustrated & cursing the train departments, David went inside the Waiting Room. 3 hours to spend, he thought as he sat next to an old man.

The old man tried to tune in a song on his hand transistor, but heard only loud static sound.

With shaky hands, he tried to adjust the tuner, but the irritating sound kept coming.

Agitated by the loud noise, David was about to help when the old man switched it off.

“Nowadays the radios are quite complicated.” The old man said, placing the transistor in his lap.

“I suppose you are waiting for the train going to the neighboring city”, the old man said, looking at David’s bag.

“Yes…& it’s running late.” David said, trying to avoid the conversation.

“You can read this magazine. I guess the driver must’ve taken a nap…” he joked & laughed as he handed a magazine to David.

As David further tried to focus on the magazine, the television set in the Waiting Room flashed a news about the possible involvement of a spy in the country’s intelligence service for leaking valuable information to the rival country.

“We cannot rule out the involvement of an agent,” Col. Arthur O’Connor was speaking to the reporter, formally avoiding to speak what information was revealed.

“These spies are dangerous people to interact with.” The old man said as he removed a paper from his softshell suitcase, “During my days as a news reporter, I came across a spy who was jailed for killing his superiors. They are very notorious, they go anywhere, disguise as anyone, can speak many languages…!” the old man said opening the newspaper.

David just smiled & focused on his magazine.

He then glanced at the old man. The old man was wearing a fur jacket, with formals inside it. With black goggles, he was wearing shoes that were a bit large for his feet.

Have I seen him somewhere? he thought.

And then he remembered.

“I think I have seen your photo. Where were you working as a reporter?” David asked him casually.

“Ahh... yes. You guessed it right. Back in the 1945, I was working in a newspaper agency as a full-time crime reporter. The Soviets invaded Germany, Hitler committed suicide, Germany surrendered & WW2 just ended. But then, another war started, The Cold War. This guy, I donno what type of spy he was, had murdered his superiors. The reason? His bosses didn’t support him when he was caught. He was sent on a secret mission, to capture some hidden information. He did it, but was eventually caught for spying. As usual, he was sentenced to jail. But that clever guy escaped out & came back to his country. There no one tried to save him. He was totally boycotted. In anger, he murdered two of his superiors.”

“Is he right now in jail?” David asked, trying to establish a link to his current search.

“Well, nobody knows where he is. We were told not to publish this news in any of the newspapers or in any of the news channels. The reason being the Government didn’t want to spoil its own reputation for the treatment they give to their spies. Basically, the Intelligence wanted to save their asses.” The old man said, smiling.

“How did the intelligence of that country catch this spy?” David asked out of curiosity.

“Well, it was that easy. The higher officials at one point understood about a mole in their department. They then started tracking the movements of all the people, including the lowest soldier or a recruit, till the highest officials. No one was spared.”

Shit, David thought, we never got an idea of this.

He then recalled another conversation that he had some days ago with Arthur & Dr. Jonathan, General of the Army.

“The neighbouring nation have strengthened their military advances. Did you not hear their President speak about that?” Arthur was arguing with the General, “Adam has confirmed that their President has asked for an extra loan from the allies for purchasing some weapons…! This news came just days after we secretly had a meeting with the Intelligence Service for increasing our army strength in case a war breaks out. It clearly means there is a mole in between us…!”

“Our Counterintelligence is already surveying all the suspicious people, including all the soldiers.” Dr. Jonathan had answered.

Arthur was clearly exasperated.

“What about the higher officials? The spy can be anyone amongst us. We need to speak to our Defence Minister & initiate Operation Red Star Rising on an urgent basis,” Arthur had said.

“But the minister won’t approve it.” Dr. Jonathan had said, “That means asking for more funds..!”

“We have to do it,” David had said, “We are left with no choice.”

“But that came on a dead-end….” The Old man’s voice brought David back to the present.

“So the spy escaped?” David asked.

“Hell…no. The officials kept digging. They checked the financial income & status of all their soldiers & higher officials. Everybody was checked. Generally, a spy will receive some extra amount for his search from his country so that he can bribe people for some info. This amount generally comes through International Banks. The officials monitored all the foreign wired transactions. And finally, one name came up.”

“That was the spy?” David asked curiously, keeping the magazine aside.

“Nope. Some other name.”

The old man paused for some time to look at the indicator for his train’s arrival.

“Ah. My train’s also running late.” He said smiling as he adjusted his coat.

“What about that spy? Did he get caught finally?” David again asked, looking straight at the old man.

“No. It was in some other name. A major transaction had happened which was left unnoticed. The officials tracked the name, but no one by that tag was found. And later on, no transaction happened in that account either.” The old man replied, looking through his goggles.

“So again, a dead end.” David replied.

“Sort of.” The old man said. “But one odd thing was noticed by the officials. A change of behaviour. Some of the soldiers had complained about one of their comrade’s change of behaviour. Was getting too rational & was not listening to anyone. At first the officials neglected, thinking it was something related to war. But then, behaviour changes happen when something doesn’t go according to what you had planned. So the officials tracked this guy & he was captured.”

We should look at this too, David wondered.

David then again recollected a conversation with Arthur, some days back.

“Just heard from Dr. Jonathan that to maintain secrecy, some very important decisions won’t be disclosed to anyone, even us. They want to keep it as secret as possible to avoid any leak. No public announcements, no discussions, nothing.” David told him.

“We scorch our asses to find a spy, & in the end, we ourselves are suspected.” Arthur answered.

“This Dr. Jonathan, something’s wrong with him.” David had told him, “Doesn’t answer correctly to anything we ask him. Acting weird nowadays.”

“He has a bad past,” Arthur said, “Our Intelligence is investigating. Details will be out soon. Adam hasn’t given any details as of now.”

“Who’s this Adam? Why is everyone mentioning his name?” David asked.

“No one knows who Adam is. No one has met him. Even the Intelligence doesn’t know. We only know that he’s helping out in major of our services & also provides us classified information regarding anything.”

A loud static sound brought David back to his senses.

“Ahh….I think I should sue the company who prepared this Hand Transistor,” The Old Man said, “Never gets a good network.”

“So finally, the spy was caught. What was his name?” David switched the Old Man’s attention to the main topic.

“His name….” the Old man stressed his memory, “I…I can’t remember…”

David kept looking at him, waiting for his answer.

“Ahh… now I remember. His name is…”

Suddenly there was an announcement of a train approaching on the next platform.

“My train’s here.” The old man said getting up hastily. Folding the newspaper, he grabbed his bag & double checked the Transistor in his pocket.

“His name was Anthony…. Anthony Orton or something like that,” the Old man said as he picked up his belongings.

“It was nice talking to you.” Saying this, the old man was about to leave when suddenly he remembered something.

“Here’s my visiting card,” He said as he gave his card to David & walked away.

Anthony Orton.

No one by that name was in his department.

Moving the card in his hands, David kept thinking.

As he kept the card in his pocket, he saw the newspaper the old man was reading.

He then opened the newspaper.

On the third page, there was something that caught his eye.

Thinking again, he opened the magazine. It was a monthly magazine which included one interview which he was reading.

Now slowly he started getting a clearer picture.

Quickly, he opened his bag & removed out his file. He then went through all the documents & earlier reports of some of the Secret Investigations the Counterintelligence had carried out.

Shit. How come I never went through all of them?

He also remembered the conversation he had with the Old man.

Change in financial status & behavioural pattern.

Travelling to secret unknown places.

Unnecessary bragging about achievements.

Most importantly, the reports & enquiries of the Counterintelligence.

Now he understood who the real spy was.

Hastily, he picked up his bag & also the magazine & the newspaper & ran outside. He boarded the nearest cab & urgently came back to the Intelligence office.

He then scanned all the documents & all the files the Intelligence team had surveyed upon.

For the next whole week, without waiting for the Director’s approval, he himself scanned all the records & all the confidential database in their office, without letting anyone know.

Almost a week later, David was having a conversation with Dr. Jonathan.

“So finally, you found him.” The Army General asked.

“Yes. Richard Orton. He is the twin brother of Anthony Orton.” David answered. “He was using a coded name, Arthur O’Connor. Rearrange Anthony Orton & you will get Arthur O’Connor with the addition of some letters.”

“Anthony Orton was the same guy who was caught by the secret Intelligence of the rival countries some years back. But unfortunately, our intelligence didn’t support him.” Dr. Jonathan said, “How could we? We can’t go & accept internationally that a spy from our country was sending Confidential information to us. That would cause a lot of steer in the International Market. Of course, that’s how a spy works. Before deploying him, he was given a clear warning that if caught, no help from our side would be given.”

“But he was caught there,” David explained, “Anthony accepted that he was a spy. Unfortunately, he asked for support from our country, which we didn’t provide.”

“And that didn’t go well with him,” Dr. Jonathan said, “He escaped from their custody & coming here, shot dead two of our senior officials. Following that, to avoid further abuse from other nations, we decided to hand him over back to the rival nation, where he was caught. Feeling depressed, he then committed suicide. I had his autopsy report which confirmed he had hanged himself. Unfortunately, I was forced by the Government to keep this information a secret.”

“Well, his twin Richard then decided to take revenge on his brother. Creating a somewhat similar anagram of his brother’s name, he changed his facial appearances & entered our military, & joined hands with the rival nations. And most of our information got leaked.” David answered as he showed the photos of Anthony & Richard. Richard had changed his hairstyle & other features of his face which always went unnoticeable.

“But how did you manage to nab him?” Dr. Jonathan asked.

“The Counterintelligence of the Rival nation had scrutinized Anthony & had mentioned in their reports that he had a twin brother. Unfortunately, our reports had no mention about this fact. I presume they were deliberately removed from our database. I scanned all the previous files & found out in further reports that Richard had a childhood photo of himself & Anthony. That’s where I started suspecting him. Our Intelligence had done a survey on the financial status of all the officials. They found something fishy in Richard’s total income. I also heard he had opposed Operation Red Star Rising. He had secretly sent a telegram to the Defence Minister to halt this Operation, as there were chances it may alert the neighbouring nations. Also, he had visited a lot of secret places which was also shown in the survey. He had maps & many other confidential information stored in his personal lockers. Moreover, his behaviour had changed. He had become a lot of short tempered nowadays. He didn’t like the decision that our officials had taken to keep all the information secret. I then investigated further & found out the confidential set of documents in his office drawers. That was when I came to know about him.”

Dr. Jonathan then agreed to take the necessary action on Richard aka Arthur O’Connor.

The following day, in a major press conference, Dr. Jonathan gave out the entire details of the case & announced who the spy in their department was.

On the same day, David saw the name written on the card that was given to him by the old man almost a week ago.

Edmond CA.

He had some qualification written below his name: A.A.M.E.

He clearly knew who that guy was. Rearranging the letters gave him that required name.

Codename Adam.

‘Adam’ had purposely kept the newspaper back so that David could see the article which Arthur/Richard had published, stating how nicely he was handling the job given to him. Also, the magazine had a whole set of interviews of Arthur/Richard, in which he kept bragging about his achievements. That was when David suspected about his tactics & went on to carry further investigations.

“Thank you, Adam. Or whatever your name is. It was worth the wait...!” David said as he kept the card back.

THE END

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