Out through the smashed door I staggered in the bright light of the afternoon. I could have wept from the relief of the light. I took deep gulps of fresh air and turned my face upwards as if in prayer. For a few seconds my soul blossomed and then I was roughly uprooted as if I was no more than a dandelion that does not belong and pushed into a waiting drug squad car. I looked out of the window and saw that neighbors had gathered to watch. One of them met my eyes. There was no pity or compassion, only condemnation and disgust in her face. I was just another junkie fouling up her neighborhood.
I turned to the arresting officer. ‘I’m a cop. I’m a UCO.’ It ran hollow. So hollow it echoed in my brain.
And so hollow the cop said sarcastically, ‘No doubt.’
I said nothing else until Robin came to get me at the local police station where we had been taken.
‘We got them,’ he said, still buzzing.
‘And you were great,’ Federica added. She looked elated.
I was too shocked and shaken to reply. I felt my lip start trembling and tears welling up behind my eyes, but somehow, I clenched my teeth, swallowed my emotions and put on a brave face. I realized that both of them had known that it was not going to be a simple test purchase exercise. It was a full-blown bust-up, but they had not informed me because it had been a test of sorts.
I was not going to fail by falling apart.
I wanted their report to note that I was strong.
That I was the mouse to catch a lion.
FIVE
The next morning I stood in DS Dickie Mills’ spartan office. He used to be a UCO—for many years. Now he was top brass running the Met’s covert ops program together with five other undercover officers. He drove a 7 Series BMW and was unashamedly and brazenly tough as nails.
He was wearing a gray Armani polo neck, cream trousers with knife edge creases, and Prada loafers. When he rested his palms on the edge of his desk his gold Rolex peeked through.
‘There’s an undercover course in two days’ time. I want you on it.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Get the details from Robin.’
‘Yes, sir,’ I responded confidently.
‘That will be all.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘Come and see me after… If you pass.’
The undercover course, held at Hendon Training Centre, turned out to be a two-week long, bloody hard training session packed with interrogations, role-plays, cameos, pretend UC operations in real time, psychometric tests, psychological evaluations, and a final interview with cold-eyed UC officers.
There were twelve of us on the course. If I had thought my Police Academy training was a means of sucking the recruits’ individuality out and brainwashing them to unquestioningly obey the chain of authority at all times, then the undercover course was breaking down and hardwiring recruits on steroids.
For two weeks we were kept tired, stressed and disorientated with an incredibly intensive schedule and lack of sleep. Once I went to bed at 5.30 a.m. and had to be back in the classroom at 8.00 a.m. Our tutors frequently subjected us to abuse and degrading names. One even called me a cunt. Three students were simply arbitrarily dismissed and we never saw them again. Two broke down in tears and left.
We were expected, in fact compelled, to drink until the early morning hours with the staff and sometimes with the role-play carried on throughout the night to see if we could keep our created personas when we were drunk. Even the weekends brought no respite—we were given tasks that necessitated us traveling all over London and finishing at midnight.
My first time in the interrogation chair left me a shaking mess. I was supposed to take on the persona of a runaway turned stripper who dabbled in drugs and was looking for a job in a lap dancing joint. Tensely, I took the chair and perched on the end of it nervously. They began.
First they lulled you into a sense of false confidence by asking simple questions. With me it was the kind of drugs I had taken.
Easy. I felt myself relax.
Then they asked me for the street prices of those drugs.
I sailed through those.
Then they asked about the last hostel I had stayed in.
I was prepared. I told them.
‘What street is it on?’
I swallowed. I knew that. I had memorized it. But my mind was a blank.
‘Is it the one near Aldi supermarket?’ one of them asked, his eyes gleaming, sensing weakness.
I floundered. I had absolutely no idea. ‘I’m not sure. I didn’t go out much,’ I evaded. Black thoughts swirled in my head. After all this, I was not going to pass, after all. I felt so bad the tears pricked at the backs of my eyes, but crying, I knew, would only make them jeer and hound me mercilessly. I had seen them heap abuse on others for crying. I bit my lip hard and looked them in the eye.
‘So who was running the hostel that year, then?’
Oh shit. ‘I… I’ve forgotten,’ I stammered.
‘This is fucking bullshit,’ he roared.
‘Load of old bollocks,’ the other interrogator agreed, fixing me with a mean stare.
I was falling apart inside, but I kept my face calm. ‘Look, I didn’t want to say this before, but when I was in that hostel I was a total wreck. I took so many drugs I didn’t know whether I was coming or going,’ I said in a contrite tone of someone confessing.
I batted more questions. By the time I rejoined the others I was shaking with nerves and exhilaration. The fuckers had not broken me down.
By the end of the course, I was mentally exhausted, and had lost nearly half a stone in weight. There were five of us left standing. There were no awards or medals or ceremony to tell us we had passed. We just gathered in a restaurant for a meal and that was that.
Two of us went off to join foreign forces, another two were taken as part of the part-time index, which meant that they would be available for part-time UC work alongside their day job in whatever police department they belonged to. And I alone was taken on as part of the full UC unit.
I had passed!
SIX
DS Mills swiveled his large black chair and contemplated the bleak gray sky outside his window, as I stared in wonder at the chiseled, savagely handsome face of Jake Eden—a.k.a. Crystal Jake, the kingpin drug dealer. I could hardly believe it. The assignment was for me to infiltrate one of the Eden family clubs and find out how their secretive and vast drug empire was run.
Ever since I joined the police force all I had ever dreamed of had been just such an opportunity. Going after the big guys. Making a difference. To think that such a plum assignment had fallen so easily into my hands was shocking. I wanted to punch the air.
I put the photograph carefully back into the thin file it had come out of and picked up the photos of his brothers: Shane and Dominic Eden. Both extremely good-looking, but without that dangerous panther-ish quality of their brother.
‘We’ve been wanting to insert an agent into his organization for some time, but it needed to be the right person.’
I looked up at DS Mills. He was watching me expressionlessly. ‘What makes me right?’
‘The man at the helm of this evil gang is so mysterious and secretive that he is almost mythical. He trusts no one. Using a male officer in these circumstances would likely yield no result and could be dangerous for the operative. Gypsies have their own ways of dealing with snitches.’
‘And I’m the spider who will lure him into our web?’
‘Something like that,’ he admitted impatiently, obviously disgruntled by the analogy I had used. ‘We’re hoping that by inserting you into one of his clubs you will eventually meet him or one of his brothers and over time you will attempt to disarm one of them with your abundance of charm. These tinker families are close-knit. There are no secrets between them. One is as good as the other to bring Crystal Jake to his knees.’
I frowned. There was a touch of bitterness and envy in DS Mills’ voice. I wondered if this was a personal vendetta.
‘This is a level one assignment. High risk and long term. It requires someone intelligent with social insight, able to react quickly and adapt accordingly to situations. You will be living under your assumed identity for months and socializing with people that you must never forget are the enemy that you have been employed to finger. These are cunning, ruthless criminals who will kill to protect what is theirs.’ Mills kept his small, sharp eyes trained on me: seeking out my fears or telltale signs of weakness. If I was going to back out, this was my opportunity to walk away.
But I kept my expression as impassive and calm as the surface of a lake. He could never know what a seething mess lurked deep beneath. ‘This is what I trained for, sir.’ I noticed my voice was shaking.
Mills’ eyes searched me relentlessly for what seemed like minutes, but was obviously only moments. He frowned suddenly. A look of uneasiness crossed his features. Had he seen under the surface of the lake? But if he had, he had decided to ignore it. People were expendable to DS Mills. What was important was a job well done. And more commendations for him. ‘Good,’ he said curtly. ‘But be warned—do not underestimate Eden, he is a formidable man, a persuasive man with the ladies. And do not ever trust him no matter how close you get. Your life may depend on it…’
The sharpness of DS Mills’ tone was resoundingly clear. Suddenly, an unfamiliar feeling stirred the tiny hairs on my arms, and I didn’t know whether to feel terrified or excited about meeting Jake Eden. But I was certain that when I did my heart would be like a rock—strong, unflinching.
‘Robin will sort your cover alter ego with you.’ A semblance of a smile escaped. The interview was nearly over.
‘Sir, can I just ask, why me?’
His eyes shifted downwards. He hesitated, but he knew it was a valid question.
He smiled. It was rather unpleasant. ‘I guess it comes down to your looks.’
‘My looks, sir?’ My face was flaming. So it had nothing to do with my language skills or the accomplishments in my CV then.
Mills showed me a concealed skill, an adeptness in diplomacy that had once propelled him to become one of Britain’s best UC officers. ‘A hardboiled, experienced officer would be no good. You have the right amount of innocence and mystery. I believe you could be Crystal Jake’s Achilles heel.’
My eyebrows rose in shock. This was not what I had signed up for. ‘You want me to sleep with him?’
‘On the contrary. That would be improper and illegal. Such an activity could only be as an abject failure of the deployment and a gross abuse of your role and position as an officer of the Met. If he sleeps with you, you are finished. He will discard you like an old shirt. I want you to flirt with him. Tease him. Court him. In the old-fashioned way.’
I nodded, but I was confused. It seemed an impossible task. First that such a man would be interested in me and second that I would be able to keep him on such a tenuous string. It was more likely that sexual relationships between covert deployed officers and those they were employed to infiltrate and target were not officially sanctioned or authorized, but I could read between the lines. What he was really telling me was that Crystal Jake would lose interest in me as soon as he had had me! And that was why I was not to sleep with him.
‘If you cannot get to Crystal, then suck up to one of the brothers. You sure you’re up to this task, Strom? It’s not going to be a quick or an easy one and you’re going to have to keep your wits about you.’
‘Never been more sure of anything, sir,’ I replied firmly.
‘By the way…’ His eyes flicked to my nails, bitten to the quick. ‘You’ll need a new set of nails.’
‘Yes, sir.’
When I came out of Mills’ office I saw that the other officers were gathered around Mark’s desk. Mark was the man who had taken my form that first day.
‘A piss,’ he was saying, as he put his feet up on his desk.
Ah well, more testosterone-fueled posturing, telling stories of jobs gone by and bragging about who had brought in the biggest cache of guns or drugs: the usual dick swinging contest. I noticed that Robin was not around.
‘Who wants some tea and biscuits?’ I called out.
‘Sure. Get us a round,’ someone shouted. The rest of them laughed. The mood was jolly, as it usually was around there.
I smiled brightly. I went into the kitchen and made them all tea, just the way they liked it. I brought it out and handed them their mugs.
‘One sugar, two sugars, milk, black.’
Then I went to my table and noticed that since I had been gone the filing system had gone to pot again. I was gathering all the files that had not yet been properly categorized into a pile in the middle of my desk when I heard the first howl of fury. I looked up calmly. Mark was looking at me with a murderous expression. He had spewed the coffee all over his desk and some had spilled onto his precious Ralph Lauren trousers. Two others looked like they had had a sip of their tea, too. The others were warily putting their mugs down.
I dumped all the files back into the cupboard and smiled at them. Surprised. For a group of people that were always taking the piss out of others they had turned out to be pretty thin-skinned.
I had used salt instead of sugar.
SEVEN
Robin grinned at me. ‘If you want to bag a tiger you need the right equipment. You need a whole new set of clothes, bank account, the works. We need to create a package your targets cannot resist.’
‘Ready when you are,’ I replied, with a fierce thrill of excitement.
‘First, we’ll have to install you in a rented flat.’
And that was how I came to be sharing a flat in South London with another UC officer, but she was never there as she had her own ‘other’ life. Then for four months Robin and I painstakingly constructed my alibi and cover story.
‘We usually use our real Christian names,’ he said. ‘If someone from your old school recognizes you from across the street the hope is that they will simply call out your Christian name.’
I nodded, but I had pushed all my friends away after Luke died.
‘Do you have a name you’d like to assume?’
‘Hart,’ I said immediately. ‘Lily Hart.’
‘Right, time to apply for a passport dating from three years back and a driving license.’
‘Why would a runaway have a passport?’
‘Because she toyed with the idea of dancing in Amsterdam?’
They arrived in less than a week. Both fake passport and DVLA issued driving license had been created in collusion with the appropriate governmental departments and were good for travel and if I was stopped by the police. Using those, I opened bank accounts and applied for credit cards.
Robin took me to lap dancing clubs so I could watch the girls, the way they behaved, and how they interacted with their customers. I saw them rub their naked flesh against men and I thought I had cringed inwardly, but Robin must have sensed my discomfort.
‘The most important thing I learned, first and foremost,’ he said quietly, ‘was that whatever I was doing, I had to always remember that I was a police officer.’
I turned to him. His face was unusually serious.
‘Don’t allow yourself to get psychologically mixed up. Always keep what you are doing and who you are separate. At the end of the operation you will ditch all the physical trappings of your undercover alter ego, the hair, the clothes, the people you have befriended, and return to your own normal world.’
‘Is that really possible?’ I asked, surprised.
He looked me in the eye. ‘You have to. If you don’t maintain the line between the job and who you really are you will become a wreck. For example, if you find yourself in a position where you have to take a drug then you have to come out of that personality as soon as possible and tell your handler, in your case DS Mills. And if necessary you will have to go for counseling.’
‘Will I have to take drugs?’ I asked worriedly.
‘No, we will put i
t into your cover story that you’ve had a very bad experience, nearly died, et cetera, and no longer touch the stuff.’
‘When and how do I start asking for information?’
‘Work your way in very slowly,’ Robin said. ‘This is a long-term assignment and so requires a huge element of deception. We don’t want the target to get suspicious. He is very intelligent, wary, and uncommonly aloof. Don’t appear too eager for information. In fact, don’t ask for any information. Let some chances to ask for information go by. Don’t even appear curious. Lull him into a place of complete trust before you sink the hooks in.’
He then warned me that constant fear of discovery and letting the side down, which was part and parcel of undercover work, could manifest itself as sexual arousal. ‘Watch for it and be prepared for it.’
That night he also introduced me to Anna.
Over the next two months she gave me pole-dancing lessons and taught me some really cool moves that looked good and professional, but didn’t take an athlete to perform.
A week before I was due to start my assignment I had my nails done and glamorous red highlights put into my hair. I looked into the mirror. There. My alter ego was ready to be unleashed.
On the day before I was due to meet Patrick, who would take me on my audition at Eden, I went to see my parents. We had dinner together at a restaurant. The hole that was Luke was bigger than ever. My father told me he was very proud of me.
‘When will you come to see us?’ my mother said, crying quietly.
‘I don’t know, but I will call.’ The reality was I wanted my new life to begin. I wanted to stop being Lily Strom and begin my new existence as Lily Hart.
I had become quite close to Robin and on that morning before I left to start my assignment he hugged me. His parting words were, ‘Never let your guard down. Remember, one false move can give you away.’
Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes) Page 34