The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1005: Chapter 60: Fishing Enforcement_3

Victor paced back and forth as he explained, ”Based on my understanding of these crime syndicates, they will likely first have you do a small task. If that goes smoothly, they’ll hand us bigger assignments. At that point, I’ll send someone to set them up, teaming up with the Great Paris Police Hall to spread some enticing bait and create a demand for Gervais to forge documents. As soon as he wants to do that, he’ll definitely send someone to Brest to contact Francois. With Gervais as a guarantor, approaching Francois to gather intel from him becomes much more feasible.”

Such meticulous arrangements and clever designs—Arthur knew immediately that Victor wasn’t new to these tactics.

Yet, he still hadn’t realized that fishing enforcement tricks like this had been honed by the first detective in human history all the way back in the 19th century.

If Victor’s plan executed smoothly, then Francois might not understand why he went from a life sentence to death row until the very end.

Arthur couldn’t help but sigh, ”The crime syndicates in Paris certainly hit bad luck running into you. I used to think I did pretty well in London, but comparing myself to you shows a gap.”

Victor replied with a smile, ”Brother, in Paris, you can’t trust anyone. Trusting others costs dearly. I have some legitimate reasons for manipulating these criminals, but most people in Paris engineer plots for unspeakable motives. You wouldn’t believe how much envy my good performance drew when I first joined the force.”

”The guy you just beat outside the office, he initially pretended to teach me fighting skills to strengthen our bond, then tried to lure me into the illegal operations of a disreputable lodge, but I didn’t fall for it. Later, he even sent an accomplice to invite me to rob an apartment on Rue Homerie.”

”Back then, though my life was tight, I always adhered to rules and lived honestly. I can’t claim great justice or integrity, but at least I kept my bottom line. Otherwise, if I faltered even a step, today you wouldn’t be going to Brest Prison to meet Francois but me.”

”Realizing they couldn’t drag me down, they started reporting behind my back. They gathered dirt on me from hooligans and compiled it into booklets for my superiors. Luckily, my old boss was decent to me, handing me the complaint materials each time.”

Arthur, having served as a senior officer at Scotland Yard, understood that Victor spoke unvarnished truth. Internal conflicts within police departments are often worse than those in corporate offices. Since these institutions deal with criminal activity, office struggles often focus on sending rivals to prison.

Arthur spoke up, ”I’ve often thought there are two kinds of informants who can’t be trusted. First, police officers; second, pimps. That’s because police intelligence mostly comes from riffraff who’ve just ratted on their own crew, they’ll say anything to avoid punishment. As for pimps, they live off prostitutes, and as soon as police arrest their cash cows, they offer bribes as soon as they can. Whatever clues we want, they’ll dare to provide.”

Victor sighed at this, ”Brother, you’ve got it right. You seem to be a decent leader in the police department. The officers at Scotland Yard working under you are fortunate.”