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Liberty Watson is a white girl who was street-raised in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, an ethnically and criminally diverse vice ghetto. Her parents were usually strung out or locked up, so the cops and the scumbags took their turns babysitting her. Somehow she turned out fine. She’s happy, reasonably well-adjusted and has that rarest of attributes, a strong, if over-spirited, positive character.Turk Street offers any number of recreational outlets and related business opportunities to neighborhood youth, from the underground casino, to quick cash ventures available through street robbery. If a kid didn’t mind working naked there are the strip clubs and fantasy booths not to mention the ubiquitous prospects in the Great Outdoors on The Stroll for prostitution. Of course, when debts require immediate attention, Turk Street folk can always fall back on the block’s oldest occupation and become a police informant. There is never a shortage of friends who can be ratted out in return for a reduced sentence or chump change. Lieutenant Michael Ambio, the district’s bent narcotics commander is always hiring.Playing snitches against each other (Ambio prefers to call them cooperating individuals) keeps everyone on their toes. He finds it far more interesting than tedious, albeit honest, police work. He performs his job like a game of chess. Trafficking in betrayal is just plain fun for Ambio.Liberty is no angel, but she’s managed to avoid the shortcuts, hustles and hazards that have broken the lives of most of her friends. She isn’t looking for a way out. The Tenderloin is her home. She has no natural enemies here. She only wants a position of integrity here.For so many reasons Liberty wants to become a police officer. It has been her singular goal. She doesn’t want be a dirty cop like Lt. Ambio. She wants to emulate Mary Washington, the portly patrol sergeant who has looked out for her since childhood.Liberty does well on the police exam, but fails the background investigation. Even though she has no prior record, the bosses decide that she is simply too close to people who have absolutely no moral turpitude. Of particular concern is Dante Bishop, her best friend since the second grade, and a quickly rising neighborhood crack prince. The Department won’t risk possible embarrassment. If she’s truly interested in helping her community perhaps she’d consider working as a cooperating individual? She’d sooner contract AIDS.Bad luck is what happens to young adults in the Tenderloin. In trumps. Liberty’s mom runs up a gambling marker that is life-threatening and Dante gets arrested and requires bail money. Liberty is suddenly in a position where she needs too earn cash to supplement her tip money as a barbecue waitress. It’s not long before Ambio makes his pitch. She already has the trust of all the right people, he tells her. He wants her to make buys for him. Given the way life is going for her no one will question why a good girl is suddenly buying street dope. Like everyone else here it will be seen as natural that she wants to alter her mood. If she is industrious, she could earn more than pocket money. She might even be able to work her way up the criminal ladder and bust someone significant. Ambio has no idea how true this promise is.
