CHERUB: The Syndicate

13: Thugs

In the car on the way home, George got a text from Riley telling him that his mum was absolutely livid and had grounded him for six weeks. George didn't mind too much because he'd still see Riley at school, so he took the opportunity to rub it in, gloating about the fact that he wasn't even in trouble.

"Do you think I'm ruining his life?" George asked after he'd sent the reply. "I mean, he's hardly likely to get a good job if he keeps messing up his education."

Katie shrugged. "His dad's probably got enough money stashed away in a trust fund that he'll never need to work, so I wouldn't worry."

George was satisfied by this, so he just stared out of the window while Alice explained what she'd said to Zach.

"The travel agency is a code for a monetary exchange in Melbourne. It does sell flights, but its main purpose is to wire money internationally, mainly to countries in southeast Asia. Its main clients are immigrant dockers who use it to send money back to their families, especially elderly relatives. However, the Syndicate and my bank use it as a way of laundering money and committing fraud across national boundaries with very little chance of tracing it."

Katie nodded. "So you need someone working there who's not going to report anything, right?"

"Exactly. The basic scheme is for dirty drug money to be given to the dockers in cash. They keep a small percent, then they send the rest home. The travel agency enacts a large fee and siphons off the rest of the money. It then treats it as legitimate business profits and funnels them through another group of laundering techniques. Should the government go looking, they'd have to prosecute hundreds of dockers, which isn't possibly politically, or they'd have to find systematic wrongdoing in the business itself. Thus, so long as everyone inside the business is sound, nothing ever leaks."

"Easy," Katie laughed. "I suppose some of it finds its way to Zach's bank account?"

"And mine. We use the agency as a front for a number of other schemes, since any bank moving that quantity of cash would be investigated, but a travel agency is less suspicious and the Australian government is very wary of upsetting the docking unions if they go prying. It's very convenient for quite a lot of illegal transactions. All you have to do is learn the details of what's going on, then do your job normally all the time you're there."

"But why me? I mean, I assume you've told ASIS all about what goes on, so why have someone on the inside?"

Alice smiled. "That's the best part. Lots of different gangs use the agency, which is a big reason they don't harass the Syndicate. By working there, you'll hear all the gossip and rumours from the dockers coming in with their wages, but also from the other gangs who'll be moving their cash too. I would think that so long as you get Zach to trust you, you'll become ASIS's most valuable asset overnight."

"I'll ring ASIS and let them know what's going on. When do I start?"

"Zach will let me know and I'll pass it all onto ASIS. To tell you the truth, that was the first I'd heard about their staffing problems. It's an absolute gift to get someone on the inside."

With Riley not allowed to invite George over for the next month and a half, the focus of the mission shifted onto Katie and the pressure was off the younger agent. Dawn and Linda made a visit that weekend from ASIS's offices for a special briefing with Katie about her new role, but it didn't really concern George so he preferred to swim lengths and cool off while Alice sat on a sunlounger and read a magazine.

"They're gone," Katie said, stepping out of the french windows and absorbing the heat of the sun for a second. "Brian, I think some of your friends are at the door. They saw that we had visitors, so if they ask, say it was someone from social services."