The Keepers of the Persian Gate (10 page)

“Ha, ha, yes, I think it’s called something else now.” replied Paddy.

“Very good! So your mother was a farmer?” asked Will.

“No, well she actually qualified as a solicitor herself.” replied Paddy.

“Excellent, so it’s in the blood.” declared Will.

Paddy was led down the corridor to a large office on the second floor.

“It’s quiet today. So it’s good, we have time to talk,” said Will as he welcomed Paddy into his office. Will’s office was as enormous as it was ornate. The walls were wood panelled, painted in brilliant white, and the doors had a dark gothic look to them. Everything was immaculately clean. There was a Persian rug beneath the desk, a grand piano took pride of place in the corner, and in another corner there was a small library. The mantelpiece of the fireplace was almost level with head height.

“Have a seat, Paddy. So. You’re an Irishman,” said Will jokingly.

“No, I’m British. Well… apart from when we’re playing rugby,” replied Paddy.

Will laughed. “I’m very keen to get to know you. Obviously there was no formal interview for this position, so we are all very much relying on the fact that you’re a good egg from the British Army, like most of the staff here.”

Paddy smiled. “Well I’m a fairly open person.”

“But a confusing one. Your mother was a unionist, but from a heavily Republican area. Your father?” asked Will.

“American, worked for the US Consulate in Belfast,” replied Paddy.

“Good God, half Yank, half Irish. If you hadn’t served in the British army for the last however many years…”

“Just over seven,” interrupted Paddy.

“Well…seven years, then I’d be asking serious questions,” said Will. “Any children?”

“No.”

“Wife?”

“No.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Recently single, actually”

“Oh, well, you won’t have much trouble finding female companionship working for this firm, I can assure you. Have you got somewhere to live yet?” asked Will.

“Not yet, I’m staying with a friend until I find something. I was hoping to get into Goodenough but there’s a bit of a waiting list…” replied Paddy.

“Well, before you give there a try, head down to the Cittie of Yorke on High Holborn. There’s a man there that’ll be having his lunch about 1.30, ask for him at the bar. His name is Cecil Faulkner. He’s secretary of an association I have some dealings with, the Foreign Hand Club. Have you heard of it?” asked Will.

“I have heard of it, yes,” said Paddy.

“Well, he’ll be able to help you on your way in finding accommodation. Explain to him that I want you to be as close as possible to the firm,” said Will.

“To cut down the commute?” asked Paddy.

“More from a security point of view at the moment, Paddy, if I am honest with you. We have a history of working on some pretty sensitive stuff, as I’m sure you are aware. However, recently the nature of the work we have been undertaking has been of an extremely secretive nature. That’s why we prefer that our candidate pool comes almost exclusively from the Army. With your past history in Military Intelligence, I don’t think I need to go into any detail about the importance of discretion, do I?” said Will.

“Of course not,” replied Paddy.

“Right, now that all that unfortunate business is out of the way, do you have any questions which you would like to ask me?”

“Well, a few, I guess. What will be the format of my training, how long do you see it being before I am back with ALS, and what type of projects will I be working on?” asked Paddy.

“Yes, all very important questions. I’m not in a position to answer your question about the format of the training, because most of the training will be on the job. You’ll find that it will lack the structure of the type you might receive at some of the bigger firms. But we find that’s the best way to learn. It is my view that this archaic nonsense that the blue chips, the metallic circled and our white shoed distant cousins rattle on about starting from the bottom is an utterly useless and inefficient approach in this business. Our trainees or pupils are not exactly your garden variety university graduates. Like yourself, they are experienced men and women and we aim to treat them as such,” explained Will.

Paddy’s professional training would last eighteen months with various concurrent evening classes at the Inns of Court School of Law. ICSL was conveniently located a mere few hundred yards from Dunlop & McLaine, beside Gray’s Inn at the bottom of Doughty Street. Fortunately for Paddy, the substantial cost of training at ICSL was being met by the Army. William Dunlop wouldn’t have expected anything less. Paddy had served the country and fought for it and he deserved everything coming to him. Although Paddy’s training was only eighteen months, there was a stipulation placed in his training contract that he could not be returned to ALS for full time service until his Master, namely Sir Mark Glover, had signed him off as being suitable.

“That could feasibly be longer than eighteen months. You understand?” asked Will.

“Of course,” replied Paddy.

Will then went on to question Paddy’s knowledge in the field of public procurement. Paddy gave a basic definition of the topic, the purchase of goods or services by a government body. Will moved to expand on that definition, explaining how there were rules about how those government bodies carry out that function. He then went onto explain why it all mattered.

“For many, many years, this firm has provided specialist legal advice whenever required to various intelligence services in the United Kingdom. However, several years ago MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, amongst others, starting putting their legal services out to public tender. We had a bit of a crisis on our hands, and we actually lost a fair bit of business by losing the tenders.”

There were several reasons for this. Dunlop & McLaine’s experience of writing bids wasn’t fantastic, and they weren’t as big as their competitors. However, what was most annoying to William Dunlop, was that the firm could not provide verifiable examples of previous work they had carried out for the security services in the past because they were all ‘secrets’ under the auspices of the Official Secrets Act 1989. Will stood up and walked slowly around his desk to take a seat close to Paddy.

“We still represent the MOD in nearly all external matters, and we still represent Scotland Yard. However, I am pissed off that we lost those other contracts. Mainly because we deserve them. Not just because of convention, but because we’re better at managing them than the current incumbents,” said Will.

Will handed Paddy a draft copy of the new Justice and Security Act, a piece of legislation that would bring in reform and oversight of the various clandestine services operating in the UK. One way the Act hoped to achieve this was by significantly expanding the scope of Parliament’s ability to scrutinise MI5, MI6, GCHQ, and the Joint Intelligence Committee which advised the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. Parliament currently had a Select Committee which conducted oversight of all these agencies. However, its powers were very limited.

That was all about to change with the new Act. The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) would be given its own secretariat, independent of government and would be allowed to appoint its own investigators. In addition to a permanent Legal Counsel which would sit on the routine meetings of the committee, there would also be a Legal Investigator. Effectively, the committee would appoint its own intelligence team to spy on the spies. Both of the legal roles were being put out to tender, albeit in a restricted capacity with a limited number of firms being invited to tender. The winning firm or firms would then provide a nominated individual to fill each role for the ISC.

“We are in a very unique position. I have it on good authority that all our traditional competitors for these roles are conflicted because they already advise the security services. The only other firms left to compete with are international and I’m hopeful that this may present concerns to the evaluation panel for security reasons. Dunlop & McLaine are completely home grown, and we have a history as well as an intimate knowledge of the very agencies which they are seeking to scrutinise. When this new legislation comes in, ISC will effectively become the big player in UK intelligence and it’s a chance for this firm to rightfully reclaim its position as the leader in this specialist field of law,” explained Will.

“That’s absolutely fascinating, Will. Where do you see me fitting in?” asked Paddy.

“Well, here’s the thing. Your background is in intelligence operations. Therefore, your operational experience, combined with your experience in international law, makes you an ideal candidate to formulate our bid.”

Dunlop & McLaine needed someone to bring a fresh approach to the whole process. Plus, in preparing the bid, Paddy would get a chance have to look at all of the past bids Dunlop & McLaine had submitted to other agencies. In doing so, he would get to learn about all about all of the various different types of work Dunlop & McLaine had carried out over the years. He would probably also get to meet plenty of new faces within the firm, which would help with his induction.

“Finally, as you know, time is a commodity in the law, and, no offence, yours is cheaper than the rest of our’s, being a trainee,” joked Will.

“I’d be delighted to help,” replied Paddy.

“Great. I’ll provide you with some documents now so you can take them home and have a read through. I would ask that you try not to lose these. If you do, we’ll probably lose our right to bid, and as you can imagine that wouldn’t make me very happy with you,” said Will.

Dunlop asked Paddy to return to him in the following morning with some thoughts on an approach. “In the meantime, you’ll have a lot to attend to today, what with finding accommodation and all the rest. So once I’ve shown you around downstairs, if you’re happy we’ll call it a day after that.” said Will.

“Thank you very much, Will, that’s much appreciated,” replied Paddy.

“No problem. Here, take this.” William handed Paddy a distinctive green USB memory stick, along with a hard copy green folder. “You’ll see there’s some sort of overly complex colour coding system for files in this office. Green concerns government tenders, apparently! I try not to fuss myself too much with it. Anyway, in there you’ll find the official letter issued and signed by the Chairman of the Committee inviting us to tender. You’ll see there are only six others who have been invited to tender as well. They are not named, but we know who they are.”

Paddy opened up the folder. The contents looked extremely official. The bottom of the letter read that bids were to be returned in an envelope sealed by wax with the firm’s insignia stamped on it. “That’s pretty old school,” Paddy thought to himself.

“Do you know anything about the Chairman, Paddy?” asked Will.

“Not really,” replied Paddy

“Do you know anything about the composition of the committee?” asked Will.

Paddy examined the bottom right column of the letter which listed out the names of the various committee members. “Just a crowd of Members of Parliament, and a few civil servants…their names are familiar,” replied Paddy.

“Yes, well that’s merely the public face of the committee. The Executive, if you will. I urge you to find out as much as possible about the members and report back to me on that as well,” suggested Will.

“Using all legal means at my disposal, I presume,” said Paddy.

“Exactly. Now you must be eager to explore your new surroundings, surely?” asked Will.

“Yes, indeed, Will. I would be delighted.”

“Excellent, we do believe in you having your own office, by the way. We’re not the type to throw you in the middle of the corridor for everyone to see. We appreciate that privacy and good work go hand in hand. However, you being a trainee, we do need to supervise you. As such, your office is bolted on to your master’s. Your master is Sir Mark Glover; you may have heard of him.”

“Yes, wasn’t he one of the international observers in the Iraq Weapons Inquiry?”

“That’s right. He’s also former SAS, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

“I’ll be on my guard then.”

“You should be,” said Will with a smile in his eyes.

Paddy was led off to another staircase, The fourth floor dealt with all the corporate and real estate work and William Dunlop explained that they were probably the two most profitable arms of the firm. Dunlop & McLaine wasn’t even in the same league as the magic or silver circles in these areas. In fact, Dunlop was able to name off the firm’s main clients in these areas in a few seconds.

“Our approach in corporate is to focus our attention on a few loyal clients and we get rewarded for it. That’s our model,” explained Will.

Paddy was led down a corridor which had five doors on each side. Each door had a Partner’s name on it. Each door represented a Partner’s unit or section.; beyond the door, each room was split into several offices.

“So here we have Trevor Campbell’s door. His specialty is dealing with media and publishing companies. He has a team of six who all share this door. He has three primary clients, namely, Oxford International Press, the Spectacle Newspaper Group and the British Armed Forces Broadcasting Service. Believe me, they keep the team very busy indeed.”

Next door along was Real Estate. Dunlop & McLaine advised on Real Estate for all its corporate clients. However, they had two principal clients which occupied most of their time.

“The Duke of Westminster and the Duchy of Cornwall,” explained Will. Until very recently, the Duke of Westminster’s commercial property portfolio in and around Mayfair had ranked him as the richest man in Britain. That was before the influx of Russian oligarchs and certain Indian steel tycoons. On the other hand, the Duchy of Cornwall was the Crown Estate of Prince Charles. It was a private company with a net worth of over £700 million. However, the true value of its assets was unquantifiable.

The third floor was a mad house. There were people running left right and centre across the corridor, and unlike the floor above, all the doors were wide open. Despite it being only 8:30 in the morning, Paddy could hear the sounds of printers running and telephones ringing.