Blackout - By Tom Barber Page 0,15

time on a Tag Heuer watch on his wrist, the man arrived in Grosvenor Square, the home of most of the foreign embassies located in London. The weather was good, the sun shining down, and the air was fresh, clean and mild. He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and enjoying the view, then continued on his journey, heading along the western side of the Square and straight towards the United States Embassy.

The building stood out in the district, primarily because it was at least twice the size of every other embassy in the area. But it was also unique in that it was the only United States Embassy in the world not built on official US soil. A contentious dispute in the 1950's between the Grosvenors, an upper class English family and owners of the Square, and the United States Government had seen the Americans settle for a 999 year lease on the plot of land instead of outright ownership, a different deal from those usually signed in Embassy agreements. The Americans had requested that the section of the Square where the Embassy would be built become United States soil, but the Grosvenors refused. The Duke of Westminster at the time, a Grosvenor, had apparently attempted to resolve the on-going spat with a proposed deal. He told the Americans that if they returned all the lands ‘stolen’ by the United States after the War of Independence to the UK, then they could buy the site on the west side of Grosvenor Square and do whatever they wanted with it.

However, the Americans found a slight hitch in the proposition.

The lands the Duke wanted returned included most of Maine and New York State.

Unsurprisingly, the American Government refused the offer. Consequently, they were forced to rent the plot of land instead. So although not officially US soil, there were United States marines armed with sub-machine guns standing guard at various positions outside the long building that morning, as there were every day. In any country around the world the US Embassy was a priority terrorist target, a chance to hurt the US without having to try and breach their borders, and the London office was at the top of that list given the Americans’ and the UK’s close relations and military coalition in conflicts around the world. It was especially well-defended, not only with manpower but with some of the most advanced and up to date security technology placed in and around the building. Such measures were for two reasons. The building was officially the United States Embassy in London.

But it was also the unofficial British substation for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Outside the building was a glass hut with an x-ray machine and body scanner. Seeing as an application for a US visa could only be approved after an appointment here, every day there was a long queue of hopeful people waiting to pass their bags and contents of their pockets through the machine and be patted down before they entered the building. Once inside, they were then shepherded to a long waiting hall to the left and told to wait for their final interview and hopefully, an approval. As a matter of course, they would be looking at a several hour wait at least before they got called, the entire process from joining the queue to leaving the building taking close to four hours, sometimes more, and it wasn’t uncommon for someone to spend most of the working day in there, waiting to be processed.

Walking past the queue of people waiting to move through the security point, the American moved in through a side door to the hut as people stuck in the line looked on enviously. Two guards were working the x-ray machine and metal detector and they nodded at the man as he placed his briefcase on the conveyor, grabbing a grey bin and dropping a wallet and mobile phone into the tray. His dark suit was cut to fit, 42 regular with a 32 waist, so he had no belt, nor any spare change in his pockets.

‘Morning sir,’ one of the guards said.

‘Good morning,’ the man said.

He walked through the metal detector which didn’t make a sound. Although he knew it wouldn’t, the American still felt that moment of relief that everyone did when they passed through one of the machines and it didn’t go off.

He retrieved his things from the tray, returning them to his pockets, then scooped up his briefcase and headed off towards