Dying to Live

Chapter 15 - The Big Plan

"I've volunteered to do some of the diamond runs for Richard."

"He's our boss at MIB, Marty."

"Your ex-boss," said Marty.

"Okay, my ex-boss but Hazel's current boss."

"A couple of Richard's most trusted couriers have jumped ship. They've moved to rival firms and he's running out of people he can trust for the big runs. He approached me a while ago and I said I'd consider it. I started to think about the possibilities and came up with a few ideas which could make me some serious money. Then the Neil shit hit the fan."

An unshed tear appeared in the corner of her left eye. She wiped it away with her sleeve. Just thinking about her brother's troubles was hurting her.

"I started to think more seriously about what opportunities being a courier would open up for me."

"You mean apart from stealing a shed full of diamonds?" I said, stating the bleeding obvious.

"Yeah, but I told you I don't want to go to prison so I needed something which wouldn't have the MIB bounty hunters or Interpol on my ass for the rest of my life. I needed an idea which was a bit cleverer than just a simple robbery and something which could deliver the money in time for my, ahmmm, drop-dead deadline." Her eyes drifted up to the ceiling. "Neil you really are one wee shit."

"Nobody wants to go to prison, I said, "but the bottom line is there's nothing legal which can make you the sort of money you need."

"Not true," she said. "Do you know the mark up on a typical diamond deal? Of course you do, you used to manage some of the computer records in MIB, but do you know, Marty?"

"No."

"Well, the mark up isn't measured in percentages, it's measured in multiples. Typical is two to three."

"Which is pretty good but it's not going to get you the sort of money you need unless you've got thousands to invest," said Marty.

"You're right, but a multiplier of three is the return on a typical deal. That was before MIB started buying Chinese diamonds in Thailand."

"Chinese diamonds?" said Marty. "Bloody hell, are they making cheap diamonds in their sweat shops now?"

"Not exactly," said Hazel, "but in the last few years they've discovered three of the biggest new diamond mines in the world, somewhere in the north-east of the country. They mine them cheap, cut them cheap..."

"And sell them cheap," interrupted Marty, "trashing the world market, no doubt."

"No, that's where you're wrong. They are openly releasing a regulated quantity onto the world market and that quantity is small enough not to have a significant effect on market prices. But secretly, they're shipping thousands of carats through a brokerage in Bangkok."

"And MIB is doing business with the Bangkok brokerage?" I asked.

"Yep, exclusively."

"Which means?" asked Marty.

"Which means that instead of the typical two to three multiplier, dealing this way attracts a multiplier of six to eight."

"Fuck me," I said.

"Which means," continued Hazel, "if we take the lower end of six, because I have to deal slightly in the shadows. That means I can turn my twenty thousand into..."

"A hundred and twenty thousand," said Marty, doing the maths again.

"And if I take the money from the first deal and do it all again?"