Mark Chisnell - The Defector

MarkChisnell

Published byMark Chisnell at Smashwords

Originallypublished as The Delivery by:

Century BooksLimited

20 VauxhallBridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA

Copyright Mark Chisnell 2009

Mark Chisnellasserts the moral right to be identified as the author of thiswork.

This is a workof fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues are products ofthe authors imagination and are not to be construed as real.

SmashwordsEdition, License Notes:

T hank you fordownloading this ebook, you are welcome to share it with yourfriends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed fornon-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its completeoriginal form. If you enjoyed this book, please returnto:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/markchisnell

to discoverother works by Mark Chisnell.

Therear e more books, blogs,journalism and lots more information on the author at:

http://www.markchisnell.com

Reviews of The Defector

An excellentdrug-smuggling thriller.

TheBookseller

This is aremarkable thriller chillingly violent, full of tension and witha very original ending.

PublishingNews

New Britishfiction writer Mark Chisnell will have to go a long way to top hisdebut.

BristolObserver

A fabulous andbrilliantly written story.

PeterboroughEvening Telegraph

What animpressive debut it makes Compelling, hard to put down.

City MixAuckland

A tautthriller TheDefector allowedChisnell to create Janac, a truly memorable anti-hero.

The Press,Christchurch

An evilstoryline, with little relief and with great tension created.

Hawkes BayToday

This thrillerhas pace and immediacy.

WairarapaTimes-Age

Throw in alove triangle, the microcosm of a boat at sea and some good sailingand youve got a fine yarn Chisnell has managed to create a smartand articulate villain, always the best kind.

SailingMagazine, USA

Theculmination of the game will astound you.

Trade-a-Boat,NZ

Never, never,never would I read a psychological thriller Just as well, then,that I didnt read the description on the back cover until afterId finished the book, and by then was too breathless, terrifiedand awed to care. The books strength is the authors confident,original, at times tawdry, writing style.

Boating NewZealand

Janac returns in The Wrecking Crew also by Mark Chisnell

Reviews of The Wrecking Crew

Its a greatescapist yarn with Janac a really nasty villain who gives Hamnetuntold grief. I enjoyed this one.

Hawkes BayToday

I foundit impossible to put down.

Boating NewZealand

A real rippingyarn, hard to take seriously but begging to be made into anall-action film.

Qantasin-flight magazine

Perfect forsummer reading.

CityMixAuckland

Foreword

The Prisoner'sDilemma - n. A philosophical conundrum enacted through a game withtwo participants which gives an insight into the behaviour of theindividual in society

ThePrisoner's Dilemma was discovered by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher, twoscientists at the American RAND Corporation think-tank, back in1950. It got its name from the story told by one of theircolleagues, Albert W Tucker, to illustrate the game.

Two prisonersare held in solitary confinement, both accused of collusion in thesame crime. They are each given the chance to turn State's evidenceto assist in the conviction of the other. If they both choose toremain silent, they will each be convicted for one year. If theyboth choose to turn in the other, they will be convicted for threeyears each. However, should one of them remain silent and the otherturn State's evidence, the squealer will go free and the other willdo five years.

In Prisoner'sDilemma terminology squealing to the authorities (hoping to leaveyour fellow prisoner to his fate while you escape scot-free) isknown as defecting. To remain silent, (hoping for the shortestcombined prison term for the two of you) is known as cooperating.We can use these terms to write the Prisoner's Dilemma down inshort-hand.

Two Co-operators: Both receive one year in jail

Two Defectors:Both receive three years in jail

OneDefect and One Cooperate: The Defector goes free and theCo-operator gets five years.

Theproblem for each player is whether or not they can trust theirfellow prisoner to remain silent. If they can, both of them get offlightly. But of course if one player, with both their interests atheart, decides to cooperate and remains silent whilst the otherdefects and squeals, then the co-operator ends up in jail for five years whilst thedefector gets away completely. That would seem a pretty bad deal ifyou were the co-operator. So, the thinking goes, wouldn't it bebetter to squeal - just in case? But if both prisoners are thinkingthe same thing they both end up in jail for three years instead ofone - if only they could have kept quiet.

Such is thetrain of thought which takes us to the most frequent result of aPrisoner's Dilemma in modern western society - mutual defection.But the Prisoner's Dilemma is not just a mind game, it appearseverywhere, everyday of our lives - it is the central metaphor forour interpersonal behaviour. Take the case of an unmanned barrieron a railway system that has no ticket inspectors. Hop over thebarrier and you get a personal gain - you save the fare. But ifenough people do it, eventually the rail company has to put thefares up - and everyone who pays will suffer for the free ride thebarrier hoppers are getting. In Prisoner's Dilemma terms thefreeloader is defecting - putting his personal welfare ahead of thegroup interest. Whilst the ticket buyer is cooperating, hoping thateveryone else will do the same and prices will stay down.

The Prisoner'sDilemma can be found residing just as clearly in insurance cheats,tax dodges and traffic queue jumpers - all relatively innocuousexamples. But what if the Prisoner's Dilemma were taken to theother extreme? What if the choices involved were life and death?And what if the lives belonged to people you knew and someone youloved? This book is about just such a Dilemma.

Prologue June 1992

It was Friday,and Fridays were always bad. This particular Friday was worsebecause of the rain. I love the place. Always have, and probablyalways will. Good old England. But I hate the rain, boy, do I hatethe rain. And more than anything I hate driving in the rain. Thatday was typical, it was June and barely drizzling hard enough toget the wipers out of intermittent and into first gear, but therewas a cloud of spray on the road so bad I could barely see the endof the bonnet on the BMW. And I was late. I was always late, Iguess it was just a part of the lifestyle.

I saw thelorry a little late too, coming out from the slip road on my left.These guys, they think they own the road. And this one was typical,indicator on and just shove it out. I was doing nearly twice hisspeed and he only had to wait a few seconds and I'd be past him.But oh no, he wanted me to move over. But I didn't, I flashed thelights onto full beam, thumbed the horn and floored it. I'd justburst through the curtain of solid spray kicked up by the frontwheels as they moved to avoid me. He over-reacted a little, I musthave surprised him. I felt it more than saw it. The cab rocking andthe squwoosh noise as the tyres let go on the wet road.

It was when Isaw the trailer fill my rear view mirror that I knew it was goingto be bad. Then there were the horns, the almost human wail ofanguish as the inevitable slowly, hopelessly, became fact. The gateclosed, the trailer just shut down the motorway behind me. I heardone crash, a high pitched screech that lowered into a grinding,ripping tenor howl before exhausting itself in a dull whumf. But bythen I was gone, mist and drizzle and spray swallowed up the scenebehind me. There was nothing, no one in the rear-view mirror. Iwatched a rain drop slide down the back window. I was the last onethat made it through. I drove on, there was nothing else to do. Youhave to carry on, don't you?