《信息币（亲友敲的一棒）》用其他笔名

4、第 4 章

　　[Interlude] S01E01.5 A Troika of Diaries and Memoranda (23-24 Jan, 1980)
　　From the Diary of Charles Hyde
　　Wednesday, 23rd January, 1980.
　　I came.
　　I spoke.
　　I was politely executed.
　　It was less a meeting I chaired and more a pageant of prevarication I attended.
　　Every department "recognised the importance of the issue," every initiative was "worthy of further study," and every concrete timeline "needed to be aligned with internal processes."
　　Every objection was dressed up as a precondition for support; every refusal wore the costume of assent.
　　Committees, working groups, feasibility studies. My blueprint was drowned in the traditional sludge of Whitehall procedure.
　　And he stood there, in the shadows of the stage, watching me in the spotlight as I followed his pre-written script to its inevitable, failed conclusion.
　　Victor... no, I shall call him Alistair.
　　He said we were never friends.
　　I told him to get out.
　　I, Charles Hyde, one of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State, told my own Permanent Secretary—acting—to get out of my office.
　　High drama.
　　'Information is currency'. He was right.
　　'Trust is a luxury'. He was right.
　　'We rely on predictability'. He was bloody well right about that too.
　　I predictably hate him now. And I predictably need him. A nauseating codependence.
　　He sent over the draft for the DLO mechanism a short while after he left. A clever, understated plan, filled with insidious efficiency.
　　I signed it almost immediately. Why? Because he was right. It's the only thing to be done right now.
　　To fight on his battlefield, with his weapons, according to his rules.
　　My first 'victory' was to accept a total defeat and sign a plan for more effective information-hoovering, drafted by the subordinate I had just humiliated.
　　What a spectacular irony.
　　We were never friends.
　　He won't have my trust again. Not ever. But he will have my attention. All of my cold, calculating attention. He will find that a Minister Hyde who is no longer trying to be 'Charlie the friend' is a much more difficult proposition.
　　The game just became simpler. And much dirtier. Which suits me perfectly.