Jason Tan was a tall and fit man of 43. As usual, the DDSI would have his morning shower followed by breakfast before driving himself to the office. Every morning at eight, the Deputy Director of Special Intelligence would meet up with his superior, DSI Sim Swee Keng, for the morning brief—a daily event to try to make sense of all the intelligence reports from their assets around the world. These intelligence reports were usually channeled through Singapore embassies around the world via secure satellite uplink to the Special Intelligence Department HQ at Mindef. Some physical intel such as micro films would have to come in via the diplomatic pouch which diplomats would carry with them through the customs, skipping the checks.

DDSI Tan had played this game of cat and mouse for most of his life. He was part of SID’s HUMINT in Australia from 1985 to 1999 when he was called back to Singapore urgently. In Australia, RAAF Col Andrew Bert Liew had simply disappeared after a drive from Geelong in New South Wales to Queensland. His car was found in a wasteland near the Great Victoria Desert, his body was never found. It was through this Royal Australia Air Force Colonel that the Singapore Government knew that the Aussies would interfere with the East Timor crisis in 1998 and that the Aussies would pack enough firepower to thwart the TNI. For that, Col Liew, now DDSI Tan, was awarded the Intelligence Star. The Intelligence Star was the highest prestige in the intelligence community, it was his second.

He was called back to Singapore because of his younger brother, Marcus Tan. Marcus was part of SID’s ELINT branch and was in Jakarta doing what he was trained to do best—collecting electronic intelligence. Marcus’s cover was that of a journalist from Hong Kong and would usually pass his intelligence report, a thumbnail-sized microchip, to a local police officer—also a fellow SID agent—who would in turn put it into an electric switch-box two blocks away from the Singapore embassy building. It would be collected by a trusted embassy staff on his way to work the next morning. Any attempt to force open the capsule would result in the self-destruction of its contents, thus, the ambassador, after receiving the capsule from his staff, would begin the task of retrieving and deciphering the contents and sending it to SID HQ via secure satellite uplink. All these were done in a room in the basement by the ambassador himself.

Marcus had successfully intercepted Suharto’s multi billion-dollar fund transfer to bank accounts in Switzerland and was about to pass this intelligence report to the Singapore embassy when he was killed-in-action. Jason’d learnt that his brother had met the police officer on the street when another mob broke out, this time against the foreign journalists. The police officer could have fired a warning shot to disperse the mob and saved Marcus. Instead, Marcus and his T.V. crew were lynched by the angry mob. His body was dumped by the roadside after being mutilated. Jason believed that he wasn’t told of the truth, that whatever the truth, it’d certainly involve the SID, that the SID caused that death of his brother—his only next-of-kin.

"Morning boss," Jason greeted the DSI as he entered the latter’s office, "how’s your tooth?"

"Nah, could have been worse. Dr Koh’s good, I didn’t feel a thing when he’s doing the filling," the DSI replied as he gestured Jason to the seat. "Good for you, at least you’re getting a break. It’s good to get away from all this madness once in a while, well, you deserve the break."

"Ha, damn right! Yup, envy me ‘cos for the next 7 days I’ll be waking up at 8 and be doing nothing except to enjoy the sea breeze on the sandy beach of Langkawi."

"Maybe you might wanna try to find yourself a wife over there? Why am I suddenly thinking about Baywatch? Ha, but, before you go, mind telling me your analysis of what’s going on on Earth," DSI Sim said, suggesting that they should get back to business.

"Okay, you’re the boss and I don’t think you wanna be late for the CDF briefing again. Well, the Israeli’s attack is making our friend up north a little fidgety, nothing much from Uncle Sam though," Jason replied as he thumbed through the pages, each with "TOP-SECRET" printed in bold at the top. "And, this is disturbing, the number of assets caught up north had increased to nine as of this morning."

The briefing went on for half an hour. Then, Jason went back to his office as DSI Sim made his way to the CDF’s office at the other wing. DSI Sim would have another round of briefing with the Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Raymond Wong, together with the Director of Joint Intelligence, Major-General Bernie Foo. The Special Intelligence Division (SID) mainly managed human intelligence (HUMINT), electronic intelligence (ELINT) and signal intelligence (SIGINT) from active agents throughout the world. The Joint Intelligence Directorate (JID) managed covert operations, sometimes called black operations. The JID also managed all intelligence reports from their own sleeping agents, also known as moles. The CDF would then report daily to the minister of defence the contents of the brief.

Once in his office, Jason turned on his PC, placed his right thumb on a fingerprint reader beneath his desk then keyed in his password to access his computer. As the Deputy Director of SID, Jason had the access to the database of all active agents roaming around the world—mainly in ASEAN. In this game of spies—no, they preferred to be called agents—there were unwritten rules. Any spy, no, foreign agent caught should not be publicized nor tortured. However, these unwritten rules would be broken as and when deemed necessary, in extreme cases, spies caught were executed. Otherwise, those caught would be kept under detention for exchange of their own fallen agents. Jason was the reason behind eight of the SID agents caught in Malaysia; the ninth was caught by his own incompetency. An one-star general in charged of the Intelligence and Security Department (ISD)—an equivalent of the SID—in Malaysia had managed to contact Jason through a double agent. Jason was offered US$3.5 million dollars and a new life, new identity in a new place of his desire for the identities of all SID agents in Malaysia. Jason accepted the offer and gave him the eight agents’ identities as appetizer, and to prove his worth, after all, these bastards were responsible for Marcus' death.

Jason had applied for a 7-day leave two weeks ago and had told everyone in office that he’ll be going to R&R—a term commonly used in government service for rest and recreation—in Langkawi. To the others, they knew they won’t be seeing the DDSI for the next 7 days. To Jason, today was the last day of his life in Singapore and that he’ll be the man behind the worst case of treason in Singapore’s history.

DSI Sim had allowed Jason to leave at lunchtime for him to prepare for his trip, after all, Jason hadn’t took leave for the past two years and the SID does owed him more than just half a day—they owed him the actual reason of his brother’s death. Jason’d copied the databases into an MD and kept it in his blazer pocket. He left the Mindef building in Bukit Gombak at around 2pm and was on his way to his new life. Instead of heading straight to Langkawi, Jason’d stop over at JB for his clandestine exchange happening tonight. Tonight, Jason’d receive his first-class BA ticket to Scotland, new Scottish I/C and passport already filled with customs stamps from all over the world—a sign of a frequent traveler—and US$3.5 million dollars would be credited into his newly opened account in the Bank of Scotland under his new Scottish identity. Time was on his side, he’d have no problem reaching JB by tonight.

[Drive in]