Befriend and Betray

Criminal organizations succeed by enforcing a strict code of trust and loyalty. To penetrate these organizations and gain access to their inner circles the police need a magic bullet. Alex Caine is that magic bullet. Only thirty years old, Alex, who grew up hard on the mean streets of Montreal, already brings a lifetime’s worth of experience (foster care, military service, prison time) to the world’s most dangerous occupation: professional gang infiltrator. It is his job to befriend criminals, participate in their illegal activities, gather evidence – then live long enough to testify against them in court. Inspired by real-life events, Befriend and Betray tells the story of Alex’s first infiltration assignment – the case that transformed him from a rootless young man into a highly effective, defiantly unconventional crime-fighting resource. Approached by P.C. Lau, a ruthlessly ambitious soldier for the Kam Tin Triad, Alex is asked to help his old prison acquaintance with a business proposition. Since Alex comes from Montreal and speaks French, P.C. figures he’s just the man to be the face of the Kam Tin as they try to move their heroin into eastern Canada. What P.C. doesn’t realize is that Alex has been approached by the police and Criminal Intelligence Services who’ve asked him to say “yes” to P.C.’s proposal – thus giving them a long sought-after way into the Kam Tin. Complicating matters for Alex is the fact that his girlfriend Melanie has no idea that he’s agreed to work for the police. Alex figures that the less she knows, the safer she’ll be. Trouble is, the more he lies to protect her, the more likely he is to lose the one person who sees him as more than just a valuable crime-fighting asset. Combining action, suspense, humour and actual details drawn from the case files of Alex Caine, Befriend and Betray tells the story of one man’s re-birth as an infiltrator – and his struggle not to lose his identity or his life along the way.