The Collation Unit

In the 1970s computers were beginning to overwhelm the Secret Services. Quickly, too much information was coming into GCHQ and things were being missed. The Collation Unit was set up underground in six floors beneath some old aircraft hangars at Mannington airfield just outside Cheltenham to make connections and prioritise everything.

In April/May 1982 they spotted some very strange things happening in Georgia and Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, London decided to move the only satellite covering this area down to the South Atlantic where some Argentinians had begun to invade the Falklands. When tensions began to develop with London, Mannington had to resort to old-fashioned means of finding out what was going on in the Middle East. They found Mark Tanner, an irrigation engineer from High Wycombe, who was working on new Military Cities in Saudi Arabia. He was there to make enough money to pay off his mortgage after a small difficulty involving a fire. It is true to say that however technology moves on, it still all comes down to people on the ground …

A tense and exciting story with an unguessable ending, this is a must-read for spy thriller enthusiasts and anyone who has always wondered what goes on behind closed doors.