S.E.S · Unit Z · Restricted
Douglas Barker's Training Camp
The elite training programme for canine, feline, equine and specialist agents across the global S.E.S group. Nine modules. Eight instructors. One handler at the top of the kennel.
Section A
The Instructors
Camp Commandant
Douglas Barker
Beagle and Basset Hound cross · South London, S.E.S Unit Z
Specialism · Powers of Persuasion and Manipulation
Senior K9 officer and founder of the camp. Long ears, low centre of gravity, infinite patience. Douglas leads the camp's most sensitive module himself, teaching recruits how to read a room, mirror posture, build rapport and ask the question nobody realises they have already answered.
Audio Specialist
Jess
Black and white cat, ex CIA · Langley, Virginia
Specialism · Surveillance and Listening Implants
Recruited after a long and quietly distinguished career stateside. Jess shows recruits how to wear a wire, where to nap to overhear the most useful conversations, and how to walk away looking utterly disinterested. A beauty spot on her lip makes her one of the more recognisable agents in the service. The only instructor at the camp who has been surgically implanted, and politely refuses to discuss it.
Concealment Officer
Spike
Grey squirrel · Wandsworth Common, London
Specialism · Hiding Listening Devices and Cameras
Ex con out of Wandsworth prison, formerly a small-time addict on Wandsworth Common, where for years he was chased through the bins by a young beagle who, neither of them realised at the time, would one day be his commanding officer. Douglas spotted the talent: tiny hands, a head for heights, and an unmatched eye for a hiding place. Spike now plants and tucks away the S.E.S's cameras and microphones in places no human sweep would ever think to look.
Scent Instructor
Valentino
Truffle hunting pig · Piedmont, Italy
Specialism · Sniffing and Scent Tradecraft
Imported from a truffle estate in northern Italy, Valentino runs the camp's nose. Recruits learn to filter a scent from a crowd, follow a target through a market, and recognise the chemical signature of explosives, narcotics and freshly opened envelopes. Treats himself to a small Barolo on graduation day.
Concealment and Chemistry Lead
Brock
European badger · Sudeley Castle grounds, Winchcombe
Specialism · Hiding, Setts and Chemical Knowledge
Years of being hunted across the Cotswolds taught Brock how to vanish in plain sight and how to read the air for trouble. He runs the concealment module alongside Spike, and teaches the chemistry side of the job: powders, residues, neutralising compounds and the safe handling of anything that fizzes when it shouldn't.
Counter-Surveillance Lead
Bernard
French pipistrelle bat · A bell tower in Lyon
Specialism · Room and Body Sweeps
Echolocation gives Bernard an unfair advantage. He flits silently around a suite at night, mapping every reflective surface, every wire, every warm device. Recruits learn from him how to sweep a room or a person for hidden microphones and pinhole cameras, on foot and without the gear.
Voice Recognition Lead
Marjory
Queen's Guard horse · Wellington Barracks, London
Specialism · Voice Print Analysis and Speaker ID
A bay mare of the Household Cavalry, Marjory served seven seasons on ceremonial duty at Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards Parade, carrying officers through Trooping the Colour, State Openings and three royal weddings. Her career ended when a firework thrown from the crowd at a state procession spooked the line; Marjory took the blast on her near hind to shield her rider and was medically retired with shrapnel still lodged above the hock. Douglas, who had watched the parade on television, drove to the regimental stables the next morning and refused to leave without her. The years standing motionless on the forecourt had given her something no other recruit possessed: an extraordinary ear for the human voice, tuned to pitch, cadence, accent drift, stress patterns and the micro-tremors that betray a lie. She now leads the Voice Recognition module, teaching recruits to build voice prints, match a recording to a suspect, and identify a speaker through a closed door, a scrambled phone line or a crowd of a thousand.
Master Tracker, Visiting Faculty
Doug
Rhodesian Ridgeback · Cornwall, visiting recruit
Specialism · Long-Range Tracking and Surveillance
Doug travels up from Cornwall for residencies at the camp, the only non-resident on the faculty. A Rhodesian Ridgeback bred for the long hunt, he can run over forty kilometres at pace across moor, cliff path and coastal scrub without breaking stride, and he never, ever gives up a scent. He teaches the camp's hardest tracking module: holding a trail through rain, tide, traffic and crowd, working a target across counties if the job calls for it, and the quiet art of long-range surveillance on foot. Recruits who survive a week with Doug come back leaner, fitter and a great deal more patient.
Section B
Training Modules
M-01
Bernard
Surveillance and Tailing
Reading a street, identifying watchers, blending into traffic on four legs or two wings. Indoor and outdoor follows, foot and vehicle.
M-02
Jess
Listening Devices and Implants
Contact mics, laser mics, pinhole cameras and passive resonator bugs. What each can do, and how a recruit chooses the right one for the job.
M-03
Spike and Brock
Concealment
Where to hide a device so it survives a vacuum, a cleaner, and a casual sweep. Fake plug sockets, hollow books, loose carpet edges, hedge lines and rooftops.
M-04
Bernard
Sweeps and De-bugging
Locating bugs, cameras and trackers in rooms, vehicles and on people. Echolocation, RF scans, EMI checks, physical inspection, and what to do once you find one.
M-05
Valentino and Brock
Scent and Chemistry
Truffles to triggers. Targeted scent work, source isolation in a crowd, and the safe identification of powders, residues and unknown substances.
M-06
Camp Pool Vehicles
Fast Surveillance Driving
Animal-friendly S.E.S vehicles with harness anchors and quick-release seats. Rolling surveillance, handbrake turns, evasive driving, never any blue lights.
M-07
Marjory
Voice Recognition and Speaker ID
Building voice prints from pitch, rhythm, accent and stress patterns. Matching recordings to subjects, identifying speakers through walls, distortions and scrambled lines.
M-08
Douglas Barker
Powers of Persuasion
Mirroring, anchoring, open questions, reciprocity. Douglas's signature module, taught personally to graduating recruits only.
M-09
Doug
Long-Range Tracking and Surveillance
Holding a trail through rain, tide, traffic and crowd. Working a target across counties on foot, and the quiet art of long-range surveillance without breaking stride.
Section C · Field Assessment
Fast Timed Quiz
Ten questions per session, drawn at random from the camp dossier. Twenty-five seconds per question. Score six or more for a signed certificate from Douglas himself.
Training Camp · Live Assessment
25 seconds per question · 10 questions per session
Q 1 / 10
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