GCHQ... What's Going on?

A work of fiction....?

He went to work as normal, but his trained eye caught the first suspect. Someone stood supposedly waiting for a lift outside the train station, except he was positioned in a place that wasn't obvious for a lift-getting perspective. He was placed instead to give a good field of view of the station entrance.

The young girl on the platform that passed him a few minutes after he picked his spot appeared too interested in him and too clean. A tail has to have a story, something that fits into a niche. Being too clinical stands out. 

The watchword is subtlety. Eyeing someone like you'd try and look at a celebrity: you know, the looking but not looking type thing is not subtle.

I do like the touch of the two middle-eastern guys, you wouldn't suspect them. 

But then one of them very very obviously breaks from the other guy right beside me. 

Fieldcraft appears to be a dying art. At least before breaking off and tailing a suspect, you need to exchange some pleasantries, or at least go through the motions.

Otherwise breaking off "cold" becomes a deliberate and quite obvious act. To everyone.

The dayglo-clad workman leaning against the wall reading a paper? Really? Not since the Sun had page three girls in it have I ever seen a workman reading a paper he thought. Plus those dayglo overalls are way too clean. 

Let's see if they do better tonight on my way home from work, he mused. 

And that's all I'm doing, going to and from work. You'd think I was marked down as some terrorist or something. Have my words have hit a nerve? 

Maybe I'll have a play tonight. It's a while since I did anything like this and it might be entertaining. 

Might get me in more trouble though as I "clear baffles" and do the odd "Crazy Ivan" in sub-speak.