Undercover by Bill James Read Free Book Online Page B

towards bringing a properly documented case against the firm I’m placed with.’ He had been going to say ‘against the firm I’m embedded with’ but corrected that in time. ‘Bed’, even buried in the middle of a bigger word, could suggest the wrong kind of intimacy.
    â€˜So, you aim to scupper them?’ Iris asked.
    â€˜To bring them to trial.’
    â€˜You’ll pretend friendship, and then betray them?’
    â€˜Not friendship. You’re being deliberately naive.’
    â€˜You’ll be workmates, apparently.’
    â€˜We’re talking about mobsters, Iris. They kill people. I don’t owe them loyalty. This might be the only way they can be neutralized.’
    â€˜â€œNeutralized” meaning destroyed.’
    â€˜Their organization destroyed, yes. If I’m lucky.’
    â€˜And will you be?’ There had been a staccato harshness about her string of questions up till now: an interrogation. This one was not like that, but loving and anxious. ‘They’ll know the police are likely to try something of the sort, won’t they? A new face in the crew – it’s bound to make them wary, suspicious, isn’t it?’
    â€˜The training showed us how to counter that.’
    â€˜Yes? How?’ she said.
    â€˜Preparedness. Thoroughness.’
    â€˜Thoroughness at what?’
    She’d returned to her attacking mode. He could feel possible trouble in this new area of cross-examination, but he had to respond. ‘Thoroughness at sticking to the new identity. We prepare a full, convincing – and, of course, phoney – background for ourselves.’
    â€˜Which “we” is that?’
    â€˜Undercover candidates.’
    â€˜Are there plenty?’
    â€˜Plenty of what?’ he said.
    â€˜Plenty wanting to do undercover.’
    â€˜They’re never without volunteers.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜It’s stimulating. A lot of police work is deeply boring. This is a way out.’
    â€˜Stimulating because it’s dangerous?’ she asked.
    â€˜Because it requires non-stop skill and alertness. And the undercover officer will be solo, of course. So, it’s one against a horde.’
    â€˜â€œFacing fearful odds”, as old fashioned yarns used to say? More glory – if you win.’
    â€˜People will take on a challenge, yes.’
    â€˜If there are so many available, why can’t they get someone from closer – geographically closer, I mean?’
    â€˜The distance is important,’ he said.
    â€˜Important how?’
    â€˜There’s a . . . there’s what could be called a confidential element.’
    â€˜Is that true of all secondments?’
    â€˜Not all.’
    â€˜You need to come from some way off so you won’t be recognized by anyone – revealed, by an awkward fluke, as a cop?’ Iris asked.
    â€˜And other factors.’
    â€˜Which?’
    â€˜Background – that kind of thing,’ he said.
    â€˜The children and me?’
    â€˜It wouldn’t be watertight if my home and family could be traced.’
    â€˜What wouldn’t be watertight?’ she replied.
    â€˜The confidential side of it all.’
    â€˜There’s only one side of it all, isn’t there, Tom – the confidential side? You have to construct a brand-new bloke, somebody with a make-believe past and no findable family or chums or career or education. Wasn’t there a stink recently about undercover people with protest groups who actually gave their false name in court when prosecuted for their supposed protest activities?’
    â€˜Now and then police work is like that, whether it’s here or there.’
    â€˜But this will be
there
, won’t it? The distance factor – that
important
distance.’
    â€˜I’ll be entitled to some travel allowances, if the work drags on. Home breaks are guaranteed.’
    â€˜Steve’s