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**JHyde** · (This post was last modified: 24-05-2010 02:25 PM by JHyde.)

Welcome to Ruth's Diary! almh, Beatriz and I are really excited to bring you this new project, published weekly. We're picking up the action right before she starts in Section D. almh and I wrote the first two entries, this one and the one up next week. Enjoy and please review!

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19th August 2003

It's been a while since I last wrote a diary - I didn't really see the point of continuing to write one when there was nothing to talk about other than the monotony of GCHQ and the usual dramas. Now, however, seems a good time to restart.

I have a chance to work with MI-5 in Section D, the counter terrorism department. On secondment at first, but with the possibility of being kept on. I want to write in a diary about my time there because keeping a record will allow me to track my progress and identify ways I can improve, thus making me indispensable to the Section. This is the opportunity I have waited for, I don't intend to let it slip by me. The chance to make a difference and apply my esoteric education to something practical and important.
This morning (just a regular Tuesday morning) James called me into his office, and offered me the chance of secondment to MI-5, to be a proper spy.

"An opportunity has arisen," he said, "for a member of GCHQ to be seconded to MI-5. Naturally, your name was suggested. Would you be interested? Of course, it would mean moving to London." He paused. "And we'd like it if you could still report back to us, at your discretion."

The alarm bells in my head started to ring then. I'm being offered an opportunity to leave GCHQ and work for MI-5, but I have to spy on them and am beholden to my old employers. Of this I'm uncertain. Spying on a government department without due justification is wrong, and could have unexpected political implications if MI-5 ever found out. Can the government spy on itself? I think James sensed my discomfort with passing on information, and he introduced Amanda Roke to me later today. Roke is the Downing Street adviser; she's not an elected representative. Why should I need to send my communications via Downing Street as well as to Cheltenham? Moreover, James must surely remember me complaining about GCHQ listening in on UN negotiations last year. He knows my opinions on the ethics of such a situation. There is clearly a political agenda being pursued here, but I think I can push my discomfort aside long enough to see this for what it is. They plan to use me, but it doesn't mean I can't use this chance for my own ends.

I'm tempted to say yes to their offer, in fact I know I will. I've lived in Cheltenham so long and I want to live somewhere different. London seems as good a place to live as any. As for the work, it's the chance to do something meaningful that is also exciting. The whole spy thing, I mean. The whole idea of surveillance and counter-surveillance and all the gadgetry. I'm good at my work at GCHQ, I would be even better at Five. The work they set me there could hardly be as mind-numbing as the work at GCHQ. I went to one of the best universities in the country, I want to be able to apply what I learned there to my work, not spend my day stapling documents. I think MI5 will allow me to do this more than in my current role at GCHQ.

I have to tell James of my decision in the morning. I think he already knows my answer - he has been my boss for a couple of years now, and knows that the work bores me more often than not. I suspect he has the transfer papers ready to go.

2nd September 2003

I'm in London, and got lucky finding a house I liked with relative ease. There's no way I can afford to buy there though - perhaps later, once I'm able to stay in Section D. I start on Thursday and I'm nervous, of course. I'm worried about them finding out about James' directive, and will try very hard to be open and honest and friendly. I don't want to make a hash of this.

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Next week, find out what Ruth thinks of Harry based on first impressions, and the events of 2.3.