I have spent six months interviewing them about how they reached the top in a traditionally male career and trying to understand what the life of a female spy is really like. The most storied MI6 job of all belongs to Ada, who is the head of technology, known as “Q” after James Bond’s mastermind gadgeteer. Rebecca is the chief’s deputy, who oversees strategy. They work in the most important and rapidly evolving areas of spycraft. For the first time, three of them are women. Kathy is one of four directors-general at SIS, each of whom reports to the chief, known as “C”. But she is one of the most powerful spies in Britain. “My dad just said, ‘Go for it.’” This self-effacing northerner says she is “not particularly brave”. She jokes that when she was first offered a job at the agency, also known as MI6, her mother questioned whether she wanted to commit herself to something so “wacky and unfamiliar”. Kathy, who is in charge of all intelligence operations by SIS officers and their agents around the world, ushers me over to a bank of armchairs next to a large window overlooking a paved landscape. I am not allowed to describe it to you, but I can tell you this: it is giant and austere and the slicing wind makes my eyes water.Īt the door, I am met by a small, cheerful woman with short, wavy blonde hair whose beaming welcome is at odds with the sterile eeriness of this place. We travel by car, boat and train to a place where officers of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, the overseas espionage agency known as SIS, learn their craft. I do not know where I am going and have only been instructed to meet my contact at a central London landmark. My journey to the school for spies starts in the half-light of a waking city. Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |