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mousy-to-blonde and worn in a shallow fringe to just over the ears, slightly above middle height, not too thin, big-voiced, apparently a bit offhand – though that could be put on – a couple of years younger than A, and nowhere near his league for clothes. She wore a blue and white striped shirt, perhaps a man’s, run-of-the-mill jeans and trainers – the trainers not new – no jewellery, except a big square wristlet watch; eyes blue-black that methodically went left–right, right–left three times over every member of the audience and maybe stored a print of each. Afterwards, she could probably have done a seating scheme with a precise description of all her listeners in their proper spots. This comforted Esther. She felt B might be a fan of elementary method and order and would apply these to the frighteningly shifty and shifting practice of undercover work. True, Officer A had eventually become businesslike and basic in his talk, too, but Esther’s early impression, based only on the look of B, was she would treat almost nothing
but
the businesslike and basic, and Esther approved of this. She wanted to feel assured that undercover and its strengths and infinite, perilous snags could be nicely tabulated, and regulated. She liked tabulating.
    And B knew plenty about the perilous snags. She began with them: ‘You might want to pull your rumbled undercover officer out of the villain stockade in a hurry and with no farewell party or leaving present,’ she said, ‘just, vamoose. Especially no leaving present. Me: I had to come out in a hurry last time. Why I’m talking to you.
How
I’m talking to you. Me, I’m your vamoose paradigm, ladies and gentlemen. Yes,
such
a hurry. Now they see me, now no way. But, look, this was not defeat. In fact, a plus. The getaway procedures worked. As I said, why I’m talking to you,
how
I’m talking to you. Me, I’m here and OK. And I’m ready to go back. Not into the same firm, of course, nor even in the same bit of the country. The word will be around and my description. Hair dye and specs, plus handlebar moustache and bumper bra won’t make me safe there or thereabouts. But in principle, the withdrawal was fine. See it as like using the escape chamber from a submarine stuck on the sea bottom. Big crisis at the time and scary, but, afterwards, just a handy experience extra. And a comfort – one has shown it can be done and one has done it. Why I’m talking to you.
How
I’m talking to you. The Song Of The Man/Woman Who Has Come Through.’ Her cheery face grew a few degrees more cheery. She had tidily proved, at least to herself, that risk, properly dealt with, brought brilliant rewards. When they charted her morale at Hilston the graph line must have speared through the frame top. She’d have led a 1940 advance on Berlin from Dunkirk beach.
    B said: ‘Well then, what is the typical shape of the kind of firm you’ll send someone to infiltrate? But, hang on, hang on . . . you’ll ask is it possible – sane – to generalize? I think so, I think so. However, let’s start with a negative, shall we? When we talk about an organized criminal gang, this doesn’t mean like, say, the way an army regiment is organized, or an aircraft carrier, with clear lines of command, or ICI, or the C of E, or even a police force. It’s going to be more ad hoc and loose than those. If there’s a family element – very often the case – think of the Krays, and the Corleones, and some of the eternal south-east London crook teams – yes, when there’s a family side, this may give a kind of natural shape – perhaps, dad at the top, as long as he’s still got his marbles and balls, and the offspring in middle-management spots, or below. So, Vito Corleone, the godfather; then his sons and adopted son running lesser jobs, until the eldest boy is tommy-gunned to shreds on the toll bridge; the next son, Fredo, turns out weak; Vito gets doddery; Michael, the youngest, takes over and kicks out