Note: this story takes place in 2002 or thereabouts, meaning that Angleton's adventure would have taken place about 1970.
It was midway through a rainy spring afternoon when Angleton finally looked up from feeding cards into the Memex and treated me to a glare close to absolute zero on the Kelvin scale. "Please stop pacing around my office, Mr. Howard. Have you nothing better to do?"
I scowled into my mug of cold coffee. "Not unless you want to send me down to the stacks on urgent business for more files. Bridget's been on my case about my timesheets and my so-called insubordinate attitude. Unless I have an errand as an excuse, she'll pull me into her office for a lecture as soon as I leave here. And then you probably won't see me for the rest of the day. You don't think I like being stuck in here, do you?"
Before the situation could escalate Andy intervened diplomatically: "He gets like this sometimes. I think he's bored."
"Then perhaps an educational session is in order," Angleton replied thoughtfully, staring at the files on his desk. "Yes, GRANITE RAVEN will do. Sit, boy; perhaps we can salvage something from this afternoon after all." Under his scrutiny I had no choice but to collapse obediently into the second-best office chair (Andy was occupying the other one).
"Attend, if you please. We have already discussed the importance of being thoroughly prepared for every assignment, no matter how simple it may look at the outset. This investigation illustrates my point." Angleton tapped his desk for emphasis and began.
"These events took place perhaps thirty years ago. I was phasing out of fieldwork at that time but still took on the occasional investigation when requested, particularly when it was one of the Auditors doing the requesting. This particular Auditor's brother-in-law, whom I will call Smith, had been making a nuisance of himself. Smith was a managing director at Britten-Norman, on the Isle of Wight. Aircraft manufacturers – you are familiar with them? Good. You may recall that the island has a reputation for being heavily haunted as well.
"This particular Auditor's cover identity was that of an employee in the Ministry of Defence. As such, Smith had complained to him about a recent series of disturbances both in the factory and his office, to the point that his staff were spreading rumors that the place was haunted. Smith himself was more concerned about possible industrial espionage and was muttering darkly about 'the Soviets.' My contact, however, had taken the complaint seriously enough to do a preliminary investigation and was concerned that the source of the problems was more likely to be paranormal in origin, though he was not certain of this. Regardless, he told his brother-in-law that he agreed with his suspicions and that he would send someone with experience in these matters to investigate. Hence my appearance on the scene.
"I should have checked the Shipping Forecast before my departure. The Laundry's budget then was no more generous than today and our travel department had booked me by coach. A storm was blowing up and the crossing from Southampton was not a pleasant one." I hastily rearranged my face into a sympathetic expression as Angleton stared at me icily.
"Were you seasick, boss?"
"No, but the weather was inclement enough that several of my fellow passengers were." I grimaced and, satisfied, he continued.
"At any rate, I arrived at Britten-Norman and found myself greeted by Smith's director of engineering, a man named Evans. He struck me as the quiet, patient type and told me he had been on staff there for fifteen years. He was a good foil for Smith, whom I met next. I had been warned that he was a fussy and somewhat paranoid type, though well respected in his field. That is exactly what he turned out to be, though fortunately he was conventional enough that my old Sherbourne tie went some way to reassure him. My cover identity, a Ministry employee working for Smith's brother-in-law, went unquestioned and we convened in Smith's office to discuss the case.
"Smith did not need much encouragement to describe his concerns. He told me at great length about various incidents in the administrative offices, including reports of movement and lights in offices at night. When the security officer investigated, he found no one in the building although he did note a strong feeling of unease as if someone were watching him. In addition, Smith and Evans both said that their confidential files had been searched.
"Smith was quite indignant about the 'violation' of his filing cabinet, as he phrased it, but it struck me that Evans, the quieter of the two, was deeply worried. As soon as I had a chance to question him alone I did so. Evans told me that he kept his confidential notes from committee meetings in a locked desk drawer in chronologic order; he had noticed recently that they had been rearranged and that on close inspection of the cabinet he had seen scratch marks, implying that someone had picked the lock.
"'And what were the topics covered in your committee meetings?' I asked. Even the belief that he was speaking with the Department of Defence was not enough to reassure Evans, but with the assistance of my warrant card I finally pried it out of him. The committee in question was in charge of developing new defence technology. Recently they had discussed reviving a highly secret method of aircraft evasion developed during the war. The RAF had used it experimentally in 1944-45 against the Luftwaffe, and then for some reason unknown it had been shelved. It was referred to as Project Granite.
'How does this project work?'
'Well, it disrupts the ability of radar to locate aircraft. The position indicated on the screen will be 500 to 1000 feet off. And if you're trying to use antiaircraft weaponry, you can see that would seriously affect firing accuracy. It's odd, though.'
'Odd how, exactly?'
'It hasn't been made clear to me exactly how the radar is disrupted. I chair the meetings, but the real work is being done by a small subgroup on the committee. It's made up of three of our older engineers. Marsdon, Keeler and Pike.'
"I didn't recognize the other two names, but Marsdon rang a bell. There was a Marsdon in Q division during the war and he had been involved with air defence. I had a feeling he would be able to tell me exactly what Project Granite was.
"At my request Evans pulled the file of committee notes and began leafing through it with a frown. 'It's happened again. The paperwork isn't in correct order. What's thiiiUUGGGH – '
"I had of course gone warded and in addition I had only caught sight of the paper out of the corner of my eye. Poor Evans, unfortunately, caught the full force of the basilisk image which had been inserted into the file and hit the floor seizing. He died almost immediately. I snatched the image out of the file, folded it without looking at it and stuffed it into my pocket as two of the secretaries came running into the room.