In the Absence of Iles Read Online Free Page B

Tom the adopted lad. Fiction, but not far from possible reality. We see that, even where there’s a sort of stability to things, based on powerful, wicked, holy kinship, it may be shaky, and therefore vulnerable to penetration.
    ‘The shakiness can be more so when the firm has no bonds of family to give at least a steady base, but this isn’t necessarily to your advantage. The reason? Well, such teams are likely to be villains who will join together – will agree to cooperate – for occasional major tasks needing a lot of manpower: e.g, the Great Train Robbers. What I meant by ad hoc. If it goes well, there’ll be a share-out afterwards of the particular loot from that particular job. But, when there’s no large project around, people waiting for the call will do their own crooked things and pocket their own crooked gains. In other words, the firm is not like a straight commercial company where all members at all times are supposed to be contributing by their work to a central accounts book. We can’t compare these criminals with what used to be called “organization men” in legit businesses – people devoted to and looked after by the company – because this organization might only last months, or even weeks. The one-off quality of such outfits makes them difficult from our point of view: they may not be in existence for long enough, first, to identify, and then bluff a way into.’
    She shrugged, as though to say undercover was much less than an all-purpose weapon. Most of her audience would know that. Esther did. Hadn’t she come to Fieldfare to find which purpose, purposes, undercover
did
suit? B said: ‘However, then there’s another kind of firm, altogether – not focused on the occasional massive heist – a bullion raid, for instance, or the Great Train frolic – but running a continuous trade, such as cargo-takes or illegal drugs supply. Here, there’ll be a need for minor people on the edges, say to watch for one certain super-valuable container from a ship’s hold and get it to a pre-arranged spot on the quay; or pushing at street corner level or at clubs, and couriering stuff from bulk suppliers. Lowlife doing that kind of very prole, small-time assignment will come and go, and will probably be doing their own bits of unrelated law-breaking at the same time.
    ‘It’s obviously through one of these marginal jobs that implanting a spy will be easiest – not easy, but easiest, though some are gender-specific, of course: you can’t put in a lady as dockside labour. But with drug mongers things are different: it’s bisexual, and if your woman or man can offer long-term reliability by sticking around, being efficient, not skimming either cash or substances, there’ll be a chance of moving up. Vital. You won’t want to risk sticking someone undercover to catch two shop doorway dealers and a user. He/she must be able to finger the leadership. We expect, don’t we, the prospect of at least ten years’ lock-up? We have to hack the heads off firms, not just tread on their toes.’ She paused and did another eye-inventory of her listeners. This time, though, it might not be simply to memorize: no, not just memorize, but to check they were mesmerized by her spiel. Esther felt mesmerized.
    B began again: ‘Now, let’s return to the toughest challenge – to firms that are family controlled: dodgy but possible. Several methods exist for getting aboard, but the main and historically most successful is to identify which of the family might feel discriminated against, undervalued, bypassed, and instal our man/woman close to him, on the pretext that she/he admires the runt figure regardless, sees hidden pluses, and can offer help to lessen or end this disrespect. I’ll give you a couple of examples.’ B had come on to the stage holding a Waitrose carrier bag and set this at her feet. Now, she bent down and brought a red ring binder from it and began to read of tricky but ultimately triumphant