Spy Story (novel) - The Studies Centre

The Studies Centre

Len Deighton's fascination with military history and computers are combined in Ferdy Foxwell's Studies Centre. The Centre possesses a mainframe computer, which is used in contract to the Ministry of Defence and its officers for studying likely military scenarios for the Cold War becoming a Hot War.

Ferdy is an expert games player, and usually defeats the officers sent to play against him. A noteworthy win involves simulating the ability of Soviet amphibians to land on ice on the Bering Strait in winter time, which extends their range and allows them to act as a deterrent to warships, which US Navy officers did not expect.

Ferdy and his programmers are also somewhat playful, inserting whimsical error codes into the computer's software. An example given is "I'm only a bloody machine but I know how to print a label once only" for a specific program halt.

The Studies Centre does not only run real-world military strategy simulations; it also produces simulations of historical battles, for the education of military professionals. One simulation discussed is a re-run of the Battle of Britain exploring what might have happened if the Germans had fitted drop tanks to the Luftwaffe Bf-109E-4 fighters. "During the battle the Germans had long-range drop tanks for the single-seat fighters, but did not use them. Once you programme double fuel loads for the fighters, there are many permutations for the bombing attacks."

Ferdy's interest in producing defeats, and his success in both historical and real-world situations produces, much suspicion from his colleagues and from the Ministry, after only a few years. Both Patrick Armstrong and the Colonel have been called in by the Minister to investigate possible breaches in security, as Ferdy's passionate activity could be the work of the KGB for the purposes of breaking military morale, as well as learning tactical secrets useful in a possible war in the future with the Soviets.