I’ve always meant to go into the spy store across the street from my bus stop. Yesterday, I missed the bus and I had twenty minutes to spare before the next one. This was my opportunity to finally go in and look around. They have some classic items in there. Haven’t you always wanted a fountain pen with a miniature camera concealed in the cap? They have that, and they have the lighter that takes a high-resolution snapshot when you flick it open.

For some reason, a lot of the classic spy gear is connected to smoking. I think it’s due to the influence of spy movies in which the hero is always going into a smoke-filled casino. Or he’s being interrogated by Europeans who offer cigarettes to the hero, maybe point them threateningly across the table, and even crush them into the cheek of the prisoner. But the spy hero comes prepared with a cigarette case concealing a movie camera and a dart gun, so he can fight back with his own tobacco arsenal.

Some of the best things in the spy store are modern upgrades to old ideas. For example, they have a miniature GPS tracking device. That may seem obvious and boring, but it’s really an enormous improvement on the old radio-based trackers. Back in the twentieth century, you could easily slip your tracking device into the mark’s pocket or stick it on his shoe, but when it came time to find his location, it wasn’t so simple. You were receiving a radio signal that told you the distance from the tracker but not the direction. You could drive around for quite a while before you worked out which way to go, and by that time the signal could be out of range.

A digital tracker with GPS transmits the actual map location to you, so it’s simplicity itself to find the target. The spy store even has one that’s integrated with a camera. You could stick this under someone’s bumper to find out where they’re going. The device is so small that it doesn’t have enough power to send you the camera footage, but the GPS signal makes it easy to keep track of the device and retrieve it later. This could be a dangerous gadget in the wrong hands. I’m glad I have no secrets to hide!