Free The Adversary by Michael Walters

old Soviet cars and buses, belching thick fumes. The square was thick with clouds of pigeons, scattering for breadcrumbs thrown by a small group of school children passing on the far side. It was still early, and there were relatively few pedestrians other than a few suited figures heading into the government and commercial offices in the streets around the square. “I know
I
have to go through it,” he said. “But I’m still not clear why you have to.”
    Nergui shrugged. “I thought we’d been through this,” he said. “I know the team well. I understand all the pressures you have to face. I’ve no axes to grind—”
    Doripalam turned, shaking his head fiercely. “No axes to grind? Come off it, Nergui, this is your show from start to finish. It’s nothing to do with the Minister, except that his signature has somehow appeared on the bottom of the terms of reference. What was it he thought he was signing?”
    Nergui smiled. He was, as always, leaning back in his chair, his ankles resting on the corner of the desk. How did he always manage to look so relaxed these days? Perhaps after all the life of a pen pusher had turned out to suit him. “I think you’re getting muchtoo cynical,” he said. “It must be the job that’s getting to you.”
    Doripalam sat himself slowly down in the chair opposite Nergui, trying to control his exasperation. “Okay,” he said. “Tell me again, very slowly, what it is you’re trying to do here.”
    â€œIt’s really very simple,” Nergui said. “We have had something of a political embarrassment. We know it wasn’t your fault, and I know exactly the problems that you’ve been facing. They were problems I faced when I was in the role, and I never succeeded in resolving them. We’ve both made some progress, but we both know there’s a long way to go.”
    â€œYou mean corruption?”
    Nergui nodded. “We all know that the civilian police was made up initially of every deadbeat that they wanted to kick out of the militia. We took people who could barely string a sentence together and then stuck them in positions of real power. And then we seemed surprised when that power became corrupted almost overnight.”
    â€œThere are some decent people in the team,” Doripalam said.
    â€œI’m not denying it,” Nergui said. “Especially among those we recruited later—as the present company amply demonstrates—though even there we were hampered by the poor wages we could offer. Who wants to come risk their life in the police force when you can earn twice as much working in a shop?”
    â€œI suppose I did.”
    Nergui nodded. “I suppose you did. And one day I’ll have to make a serious attempt to find out why.” Hesmiled faintly. “But you’re the exception, along with one or two others. There’s a hell of a lot of them out there who really just aren’t up to it. The worst ones are corrupt—not seriously so, for the most part, but taking the odd quiet backhander just to turn a blind eye. The ones who aren’t corrupt are just incompetent—they don’t understand what the job is or why it matters. They don’t follow the procedures. They lose us virtually every case we manage to get to court. And the few who aren’t corrupt or inept are just lazy. They can’t be bothered with the job.”
    â€œThat doesn’t say a lot for my leadership.”
    â€œOh, come off it, you’ve only been in the job five minutes, and I know you’ve made some real progress. How long was I in the job? What does it say about my leadership?”
    Doripalam knew better than to try to answer that one. “Okay, so where does that get us?”
    â€œIt gets us to a point where maybe we have an opportunity to begin to put things right.”
    â€œI’m not sure I