The fourth problem was the briefcase and its securing mechanism. Military couriers carrying classified documents did not simply carry them loose. The briefcase was chained to the body’s coat with a leather-covered chain, standard practice for officers transporting sensitive material. The chain and briefcase had to be correct in their physical details: the right weight, the right type, the right wear.
The briefcase was attached to Martin’s coat. It contained the deception documents and a number of additional items designed to support the impression that Martin was a real Combined Operations officer with real business in the Mediterranean.
F. THE SMALL OBJECTS THAT MADE THE LARGE LIE PLAUSIBLE
British intelligence had studied how real courier operations worked and how enemy intelligence services assessed the authenticity of captured documents. One conclusion was that the documents themselves were only part of the assessment. A professional intelligence reader evaluating captured papers would also consider the context: who was carrying them, what other material was with them, what their personal effects said about their life and habits.
A courier who was real would have personal mail. He would have receipts. He would have the small debris of a person who had been going about normal life before being assigned a dangerous mission. A courier who was a prop would have only what the prop-makers thought to put with him.
The team building Martin’s identity understood this. They set about constructing not just a person but a life.
The most important personal element was the fictional fiancée. Martin was established as being engaged to a woman named Pam. The name was rendered in the romantic diminutive precisely because a real fiancée would have signed her letters that way. Two love letters from Pam were placed with the body, written in the voice of a young woman deeply in love and slightly worried about her absent officer.