TWENTY-ONE
CHELTENHAM SPA, GCHQ, DECEMBER 2022
My first impression was the size of the structure as I approached. At a guess, it was as big as our national football stadium and about the same shape. What a glance didn’t reveal was that this was a hub, connecting its workers with satellites and ground stations covering every square inch of our planet—a giant ear. This place was designed to eavesdrop on military, commercial and even diplomatic communications and the irony was, inside reigned a cynic sworn to protect the United Kingdom and its citizens, but at the same time, preparing to sacrifice eighty per cent of them. And here was I, about to attempt to penetrate this top-security citadel. True, I’d do it in the name of its avowed ideals but, paradoxically, by subterfuge.
Seldom have I
