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corporate client who had his cell phone number, the man called him forty-six times in one weekend with instructions. “I said, ‘All due respect to you, but let me get on with it,’” Nick recalls. In another case, a client wanted surveillance but wouldn’t say why. The team followed the subject but had no idea what they were supposed to be looking for. Sometimes business matters are so sensitive that clients are reluctant to share them with the surveillance operatives—who, after all, could leak the details to a competitor for a price. But without details, surveillance isn’t particularly effective. “We always need an aim,” Nick says. “That way, we can tell what’s important and what’s not.”

Often, clients assume that surveillance means simply hiring someone to tail the subject around town. But the professionals explain that it’s much more difficult to execute successful, undetected surveillance than many people think. When tailing someone who’s emerging from the London underground—the subway—a surveillance team will have a man behind him, carrying an encrypted radio, to tell the team at which Tube stop he’s exiting. As the target steps into the sunlight from the underground, he’s got several options for where to go next. He might hail a cab, in which case the team needs to have a motorcycle or car surveillance team ready to follow. Alternatively, the subject might cross the street and enter a hotel, in which case an operative on foot needs to go in right behind him, lest he slip into an elevator or a men’s room and vanish from sight. Or he might turn and walk up the sidewalk. A good surveillance team will have operatives stationed at each of the intersections the target might reach next. And each time the target reaches an intersection, the surveillance team leapfrogs ahead, keeping out of sight, with cars picking up the agents on foot and depositing them ahead of him. There, they reset into positions to cover each of the next set of travel options. Orchestrating all this on the fly without attracting notice, without losing the subject, and without getting into a car crash can be something of an art form.

The team must also consider appearance. The operatives themselves have to be able to fit into every environment. They rarely wear disguises in the Hollywood sense of the term, but they do wear clothes that blend into a variety of situations. If they’re tailing an executive at a high-end hotel, that means suits and ties for the men, and business attire for the women. But if they’re at a ball game, those suits would stand out. The last thing a surveillance operative wants to do is attract any notice at all. One rule: it’s always easier to dress down than it is to dress up. It’s easier for a male operative wearing a suit to whip off the tie and jacket and appear “office casual” than it is for an operative to go from shorts and a T-shirt into an executive outfit. Quick costume changes are part of the surveillance operative’s day.

At the highest end, where targets, such as executives, might be suspicious of surveillance or might have been themselves trained in counterespionage techniques, the operation becomes the proverbial game of cat and mouse. Take the example of the target getting off the London underground. If he suspects he’s under surveillance, he knows an operative will be in the same train car with him. But he doesn’t know who it is. Surveillance people are good at not looking as though they’re paying attention. The wary target needs to flush out the surveillance team.

One way to do that is to be alert as the train pulls into the station. London underground stops have “Way Out” signs that point toward the exits. The subject can spot the signs from the train as it slows down for the stop. Knowing that the direction of the arrows is the direction that foot traffic will move on the platform, a savvy target will move toward the rear of the train car, getting off through the last set of doors, and proceeding toward the subway exit, thus forcing any followers from the same train car ahead of him.

This maneuver puts the surveillance