Abacus

considered what Hobbs had just said. “Never a truer word spoken, mate.”
    * * *
    Randall was woken from his daydream by a gentle tap on his shoulder. “Another coffee, Bob?”
    “Sorry, no thanks, Meg.” Looking down at his sleeve he thought, Maybe the big guy is right and I should get rid of this shirt . No one really wants to remember those occasions.
    Randall rose to his feet and grabbed his jack et from his chair. “All right, lady and gents, let’s get back into it.” Everyone threw their share of the bill into the middle of the table as they left, leaving a heaped pile of cash and change. Leanne returned to hurriedly neaten the pile of notes and change as Meg came over to collect it. “Till next we meet, Meg,” Randall called as he headed for the door.
    “Yes , Bob, see you next Tuesday.”

    CHAPTER 9 – THE BAIT

    Looking out from the Fishbowl, Randall watched his busy team go about interviewing a team of safe breakers. During these busy times, the phone constantly rang, usually from defence lawyers trying to get to their clients before they sang. So whoever had a free hand would pick up the next call and stall the lawyers just long enough to allow the extraction of an admission. Just as Randall was about to take the next call, he felt the vibration of the DL phone in his pocket. When it rang, he had a feeling of excitement and anticipation. It usually signalled the opportunity to rub out another problematic crook from the landscape.
    O pening the phone, he read the simple text message. Check the bait . He immediately deleted the text, flipped the phone closed and thoughtfully tapped it on the desk. “The bait” was a term used at DL for a person who was nominated to assist him with his assignments. He was often asked to check “the bait” just prior to a new assignment.
    Randall had had many baits over the years, but once they broke the rules, worked outside of the parameters or generally put DL at risk, they were finished. He both supervised the bait, and when required, gave the order to terminate the bait. The actual termination was performed by DL. He never knew where they died or how they died, he just knew they had. There were the odd occasions where DL themselves had decided that the bait was unsuitable and simply sent him a text to say they had “Changed the bait.”
    This had been the case in a few instances where the bait had turned h ostile and had tried to report DL to other authorities. This would prove to be a fatal error in judgment as DL were so well connected and so powerful they would quickly get word of the information and deal with it appropriately. Once the bait had been changed, Randall received the details of the next recruit in the following days. Generally, baits had serious outstanding offences, outstanding debts, drug habits, and were loners. They were basically people who generally could not be believed or trusted by society. Having leverage applied by Randall on behalf of DL, such as reduced jail time for family members, jail avoidance for themselves, elimination of debts, cash incentives and the threat of an untimely death, they soon became model recruits. So basically the bait was chosen for their dishonesty, debt to society, drug addiction and lack of ties to the community. This made them people who had nothing to lose, would not be believed in what they had to say, and most importantly would not be missed when they were gone. Randall was acutely aware that the bait’s movements were being continually monitored by DL, and therefore, it would stand to reason, that his movements too were under close scrutiny by the organisation.
    In order to fund the baits’ activities and DL expenses, Randall was provided with four thousand dollars cash each month. The cash was delivered by mail to his home address. It came in a plain brown envelope on the very first day of the new month.
    His current bait had an Irish background so he simply referred to him as Irish. Randall had handled him for about seven months, which was an eternity in this line of work. They shared quite a good relationship, which was not an ideal situation as it was inevitable that one day Randall would more than likely be required to give the order for his termination. Deep down Randall hoped that DL would make that decision before he had to.
    In response to the latest DL text, Randall walked out of the office, down the hall, and out into the car park to make a private call. “Irish, my lad, how are