Chapter 6: Recruiting A Spy

Friday May 23
9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

As soon as Resha got in my truck she gave one sniff and accused me of eating food from the “New Delhi In I” food cart. She ate Indian food and said the seasonings were unique. I said it was Sam, her food spent about ten seconds in the seat before I told her it was not allowed.

“Sam sat here? Today? With you?”

“It was just business ... and technically it was yesterday. But yes, like I said I have known her for some time. That is a secret, and it must stay that way.”

Next Resha had to thank me for the betting pool information Li gave her. Resha was paid less than the other girls so she appreciated some extra money. All these girls figure they will be gone after five years (probably true, unless there is a change in management), and their only prospects for the future are dismal, so they need every penny they can get their hands on, even if it means doing disgusting things for disgusting lawyers at work.

Instead of raping her like she expected I took her for a hot meal at an expensive place not far away. Despite being Hindu Resha is also Nigerian and very NOT a vegetarian. (She had enjoyed monkey brains - eaten from a live monkey much like that Hannibal Lector movie. She usually had to share her monkey with somebody like her mother.) The place we stopped did not have bush meat so we both ordered Nuske’s bacon. She ate both orders and was spoiled for life. She felt guilty and was quite charming about it so I got her an order to go - it would keep and she could eat it on the way to work next time - if it lasted that long.

On the ride home Resha raved about how Sam had treated her, she said it was almost better than me. Her session with Sam lasted over an hour, so she was not sure if that would happen again. Barnes gave the blanket order, but the girls thought that might be a one-time thing.

I honestly did not know, but I said that it was the type of good luck that is easy to talk away. Resha understood karma so she agreed with that. I also mentioned that Barnes might remain open to Sam after the time he spent in her hotel room. Resha was amazed at that revelation, and gave another prayer of thanks to somebody “in poverty” (?) from India.

Now that we were friends and were someplace where the walls could not have ears Resha was much more open about what she had seen and heard in the last few days, and how people reacted to the dismissals and the new computer tech company. The new tech support firm used the people they knew so it was hardly noticed. What did get noticed was that things got done, several secretaries talked about how, these techs fixed things instead of always brown-nosing the lawyers and calling their own help guys when the printers jammed. The greedy partners were very happy because they avoided a firm-ending disaster - Barnes had issued a memo about the dark web auction sites that scared them shitless - plus all the partners would share in the equity plundered with Ben and Chet’s sacking. They griped about the cost, Sam was charging a premium rate, but they were not going to go back to hiring unemployed jokers at bargain-basement prices, too much was at stake. Some partners wanted to take bids, to work the price down, but Barnes was very opposed to that, he sent out a slight irrational vehement memo that said “the Goldstein” might have a computer firm and stage another pirate attack. Nobody could figure that out, but it was pretty clear that other firms would not be invited in. In terms of the law stuff, some of the partners would pick up more work, but the consensus was that they had all moved up (bigger slices of the pie) and some younger guys would pick up the slack. We might hire more associates, once they are trained they do all the real work anyways.