Conversations on a Train: Part I

The 08:53, Shepherd’s Bush to Milton Keynes, 30 April 2009.

First Carriage.

Seat at a table facing North, the direction of travel.

The man opposite me is speaking on his mobile. We are the only ones in this section of the carriage; the boxy space between the driver’s booth and the main compartment. He announces to his invisible colleague that they have won a counter-terrorism contract for £3.7 million. I resist the temptation to bite and keep scanning my own slightly less exciting agenda for today’s curriculum development meeting. He blinks first and asks what I’m reading. Enough pleasantries are exchanged to melt the ice and we get down to the question of ‘counter-terrorism’ and just what does he need £3.7 million for: training people to interpret satellite images that can tell you the difference between marijuana and cocaine (different colours apparently) or whether the boat, jeep, cart is carrying a load of metal that might be ‘hot’ or might just be a bag of tools. He tells me that if they suspect that the cargo is ‘hot’ they can apprehend the people involved and ‘gently and politely eliminate them’. We giggle as he realises what he’s said. ‘Not literally, of course’. I wonder. There are ‘thousands’ of counter-terrorism interrogations happening everyday he reassures me, weeding out those who have ‘integrated’ in an attempt to appear ‘normal’. We are haunted by spectres of an enemy we can’t see except for their traces in satellite imagery taken from 30 000 feet above us.

Like a Fish needs a ....

Sighted, 11.30pm, Saturday 18th April 2009: woman in little black dress, 4 inch stilettos, lacy stocking tops, cycling her racing bike down Shaftesbury Avenue, the West End of London. Ladies, there are no excuses left for not getting onto two wheels.