Other things are happening in Singapore
18. Deputy Director’s Office, CNB Headquarters, 11:35 AM
DD Keefer Williams watched Lieutenant Ho Ming, the head of the CNB surveillance wing, enter and sit, stiff and upright, on the desk chair.
“Report, please,” he asked the man.
"Yes, Deputy. As you requested, we have put a patrol on Mr. Hodges's new secretary, Ms. -" he paused and consulted his notes, "Beatrice Thomson. It seems that all call her Trixie. We have also instigated a background check on her with an eye to any 'embarrassing' information."
“Very good. Have you found anything yet?”
"Nothing useful yet. Singapore is her first assignment with the U.S. State Department. She was only hired a couple of months ago. We learned that she comes from a small rural town in the state of -" again, he looked at his notes. Ming was an exact person and never uttered a word of which he wasn't entirely sure. "Alabama. Unfortunately, our sources for such a place are non-existent, and there is hardly even an acknowledgment of its existence on the Internet."
"Understandable. Keep looking, please. What about our surveillance?"
"Our crew caught up with her arriving home in a taxi about 9:30 PM last evening. They believed she had been drinking. Unfortunately, they began the coverage too late to know where she had been or with who. She went in and was next seen this morning going for a run."
"Running? In Singapore - the heat and humidity? No American does that! Did she meet someone?"
“My men swear she didn’t. Remember that in Alabama in the USA in the summer is as hot and moist as Singapore.”
“Perhaps. Anything else?”
"No, She's stayed in the rest of the morning."
"Keep watching. Assign a backup unit. I want every move watched. Have we got any remote surveillance?”
“We are, at this moment, installing a high definition telescopic video camera on an adjacent building of flats. It will give us a close-up view of Ms. Thomson's patio, unobstructed by the privacy railings."
“Fine. How are we coming with the phone tap?”
"As you know, we are forbidden by the Foreign Office to conduct electronic surveillance on members of foreign delegations."
"Yes. Only because the Foreign Office wants to use their people to do it."
"Fortunately, Ms. Thomson has not yet been accredited as a member of the U.S. Delegation. She is on trial service or probation. Therefore we are free to tap her phone. We will have it in place later today."
"Excellent. While we are working to contain Amanda Jones's accusations, we don't want any more trouble from this lawyer. She doesn't sound like an undercover agent, but leverage on her might prove to be leverage on Hodges. Keep up the good work, Lieutenant."
"Yes, Sir." "Ho stood and saluted. He turned on his heel and exited the office.
Keefer sat, tapping his fingers on his desk and studying intently the sharp color surveillance photos of Ms. Thomson. He idly wondered what the video camera of her patio would reveal.
With that thought in his mind, the Deputy Director stood up and went to check in on his “charge,” Amanda Jones.