Spy Tips on Saying No, Security Cameras, Criminal Fear, and more
It’s dangerous to say no to a spy. In a business where motives are questionable and loyalty is skin-deep, declining the wrong request can earn you a trip to the morgue.
Preserving a corpse is not a frequent job requirement for a spy. But if you must, stashing a body is a lot like storing high explosives. Air, water, and heat are the enemy.
Sometimes, the least-Secure parts of a security system are the security cameras themselves. If leaves obstruct the lens because the landscaping hasn’t been maintained, you can approach from a blind spot. And if you get close enough, borrowing the video feed is as easy as stealing pay-per-view.
The key to surviving a fall into shallow water is safely displacing your body’s mass. A flat surface floating on top can help absorb and distribute your weight evenly. Miss the target and you may as well be jumping right onto concrete.
Orchestrating a fake sighting isn’t a job that calls for subtlety. It’s not enough to dress an imposter in the right clothes. You need to make grand gestures and attract attention to colorful details. Do it right, and eyewitnesses will be lining up to swear they saw a dead man buying drinks.
Every class of criminal has their own set of fears. Usually, the bogeyman lives in the mirror. Thieves triple lock their doors. Embezzlers check their bank accounts obsessively. And cartel soldiers get the hell out of any car that won’t start right away.
The key to fake surveillance is delivering real boredom. If someone suffers for the information you’re feeding them, they’re much more likely to believe it.
Large amounts of cash present a huge temptation, to steal, to kill for, to counterfeit.
After a career spent doing bad things for good reasons, it’s hard to say exactly where you draw the line. You might not know exactly, until someone asks.
Turning an asset is a multi-step process. You back them into a corner, you pile on stress, you create tension with the people they trust, and if you can cut them off from good influences so you’re the only voice in their ear. It’s a formula that works so well, it even works on spies who ought to know better.
Weighing operational risk is tricky when your life is on one side of the scale. Withholding flight-plan data may put your life in danger, but you try to remember that if you jeopardized thousands of innocent lives to save your own, you wouldn’t want to live with yourself anyway.