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-PART 8-

There was now no way that I could go back to Germany. MI6 had ratcheted down on me again. Luckily, I had my computer and other valuables with me.

I was in France illegally and needed to find another home. The only sensible choice was Italy. An internet search found a language school and accommodation in Rimini on the Adriatic. On March 2, I packed up my car again, and moved there. MI6 followed.

Driving up the autostrada to Milan to see a lawyer, I got re-peat sightings and the number plates of three cars - a white Fiat Punto, a silver Volkswagen Golf and a grey Fiat Bravo. The Golf got so close that I could make out the driver, a swarthy character in a red vest.

I rang the lawyer and he called the police, who told me to pull into a service station. The Punto and Golf followed me and parked near some bushes. When the police approached them, the occupants scattered into the woods.

They would not have run away if they were officials. The only explanation was that MI6 had hired an amateur surveillance team to watch me once the Italians had refused to help them any more. When the police left, I slashed the tyres of the two cars.

A few days later in Monte Carlo - April 8 - MI6 had me arrested again by the Monaco special investigations unit. I was becoming a connoisseur of police cells. MI6 asked them to confiscate my new Psion and mobile phone, bought just two days previously, but they rang the DST, who advised them to let me go.

No sooner had I crossed back into Italy in my BMW than the fat bloke in a red vest appeared again at the wheel of a white VW Polo, with a long-haired scruffy companion. They sat glued to my bumper all the way to central Milan.

I drove fast around a roundabout. They did the same, still sticking to my bumper. I drove around again, a bit faster. They tried to keep up. I accelerated again, and soon I was right on the Polo's own tail.

The fat bloke was grimacing in his rear-view mirror, unsure how to react, and his companion was shouting down his mobile phone. I flashed my lights, and gave them a friendly wave.
© Richard Tomlinson 2001

You can pre-order the book at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970554788/intelmilitgoverw