Clercq pointed his pen at the photograph that showed a main entrance road to the MERC. ‘We’ll situate our IMSI catchers somewhere on the road to the centre. It will be not too far, not too close. We’ll identify phone numbers associated with a few vehicles, based on people we find interesting. We’ll refine it as we go, as it becomes clearer. That okay?’ IMSI was the international mobile subscriber identity, which identified phone network users by country and cellular network. The IMSI was subdivided into a global format of country code, network code and sequential number. It was unique and all stored on a SIM card.

‘Hopefully one of them will be more interesting than others,’ said de Payns.

Templar said, ‘If that works we’ll follow and identify them, and go from there.’

De Payns nodded; the plan was to scan for cell phone signals using a ‘spinner’, and then try to work back and discover the owners of the phones and who they were talking to. If the MERC campus was jammed or was a non-device/non-transmission zone, then it was a good bet that the scientists and engineers would reach for their phones and fire up as they exited at the end of their working days. Once the Alamut team had identified a person of interest and their phone, Templar would follow them and find out further details.

De Payns wanted the reconnaissance phase of the operation to use one small team and be completed inside two weeks. ‘It will just be the four of us in-country.’

‘In one car?’ asked Clercq.

Yes,’ said de Payns, opening a second package. ‘The cover will be scouting for a film in beautiful Pakistan.’

De Payns pulled a sheet of paper from the pack. It listed the personnel in the briefing room and their assigned ID for Operation Alamut. A single source of truth about false IDs was essential, because when an agent was questioned, or their bona fides checked while they were operational, any verification done by the Company had to be made on the right IDs.

All four people in the briefing room would travel on fictive IDs, with passports, and they needed credible backstories for why they were in Pakistan and why they were lurking around an alleged bioweapons factory. The legends had been established by the DO at the Cat, and each Alamut team member had to do their own work-ups on their legends. A good legend wasn’t just committing life details to memory. To sustain a legend the operative needed believable predicates for when they were stopped by police or intel, or just asked questions by a hotel concierge or a taxi driver. New IDs were supported with LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, but the operatives were also expected to find a disused apartment and have mail sent to them there, to reinforce their false credentials.