Jay Qasim is an agent with MI5.
Well, yes and most definitely no!
No, if you ask Qasim about it. Yes, if you ask MI5 about it although they might also say no just to cover their backsides. Internally, though, they know they can pull the right strings when they need to.
Jay Qasim is a British citizen of Pakistani descent who likes his life and would prefer to keep things as they are. As we learn from the blurb on his first recorded adventure, he is a dope dealer living in West London and as he tells us elsewhere, "business was ticking". He goes to mosque on Friday. He lives at home with him mum. His pride and joy is his BMW, a two-year old luxury car that he paid "over the odds" (I like that expression) for but which was worth it because it was his mobile office.
Qasim's real name is Javid but as he tells us, no one calls him that, not even his mother. "No self-respecting drug dealer is called Javid. No playa is called Javid. Girls don't wanna be giving out their phone number to a guy called Javid." He is at or near 28 years old and has not desire to move to his own place because, as he reasons, there is no real shame in living with your Mum, especially if you're Asian, and besides, have you see the house prices?
Calling someone a drug dealer definitely throws a bad connotation on the individual and while Qasim fits without a doubt, he is more of a "casual seller" than a hard-core pusher. He keeps his supply of marijuana in the trunk of his car and will make deliveries when asked. He does this illegal activity to give him a bit of spending cash, not to become rich. Well, he does need to pay for his new Beemer which is a huge step up from his old Nova. But Qasim is in the drug trade the small amount he is as more of a sideline than an occupation.
So we have a well-mannered, quite pleasant young man in his early twenties living a simple life selling a bit of weed on the side and living at home with his mum and not interested in making waves about anything.
Which is interesting because while there is really nothing in his life to be considered noteworthy by anyone, he is being watched very carefully from two different directions.
Homegrown terrorists, Muslims who have extremists views about either getting even with the "kafirs" who have treated them poorly or who want to bring Sharia law to the infidel West, start approaching him every so subtly at first and stronger later.
And MI5 has been watching his every move for a while and looking for the first opportunity to have him hauled in by the authorities to have a leverage to force him to work for them.
When the observations by both of these sides turn into actions, Qasim's life will change forever.