Services
Prudence
Prudence is the whole of the firm’s work under one engagement letter. It begins with a question most clients have not asked themselves precisely: who, specifically, could be reading us?
The old word
When the firm was founded, a company that protected its clients from telepaths and precognitives was called a prudence organisation, and the firm has never seen a reason to call itself anything else. Prudence, in the sense the firm intends, is not caution. It is knowing in advance what could go wrong and arranging matters so that it does not.
The assessment
Every engagement begins with an assessment of four channels by which a client’s affairs can be read. The firm considers them together, because a client protected from one is usually read through another.
| Channel | What it means | How it is addressed |
|---|---|---|
| Telepathic | A talent reading the thoughts of people in a room, usually from nearby premises | Field survey, then inertial placement |
| Precognitive | A talent forecasting a client’s decisions before they are made, often from much further away | Field survey, placement with the decision-makers, and timing |
| Technical | Microphones, transmitters, and appliances that listen or report | Sweeps, inventories and advice on devices |
| Human | Staff, visitors, cleaners, couriers, paper | Procedures, and the discretion of the people we place |
The arrangement
The assessment ends in a written proposal and, if the client accepts it, a standing arrangement: inertials placed in the rooms that matter, sweeps on a schedule, readings each quarter, and a named director at the firm who knows the client’s affairs and can be reached at any hour. Arrangements are reviewed every three months and whenever the client’s circumstances change, for example before a transaction is announced or a will is read.
Engagements
The firm does not name its clients. The following are described with their permission.
- A manufacturer, 1984
- A company bidding for a defence contract found that a rival’s bids were always a little lower than its own. Our survey found a precognitive on the rival’s staff, three hundred miles away. We placed a Class III inertial with the client’s pricing committee for the six weeks before each bid. The client won the next two contracts.
- A family in Westchester, 2011
- The heirs to an estate believed that the contents of a will had been known before it was read. They were right: a device in the library, and a telepath among the household staff. We dealt with the first and the family dealt with the second.
- A law firm, 2019
- A firm acting in a long trial asked us to protect its war room. We placed two inertials in shifts for eleven weeks and swept the room each night.
A specimen letter
Runciter Associates
409 Madison Avenue · New York, New York 10017
Specimen · particulars removed
Personal and confidential
Dear ,
Engagement: prudence
Thank you for seeing us on . This letter sets out what the firm will do for you, what it will not do, and on what terms.
- Assessment. Over five working days from , our technicians will survey the field at your offices and sweep them for devices. You will receive our report by hand in the following week.
- Arrangement. If you accept our recommendation, we will place one Class III inertial in your boardroom on the days the board meets, and sweep the room on the morning of each meeting.
- What we will not do. We will not read, forecast or keep the thoughts of anyone, and we will not tell anyone that we act for you.
- Fees. A fixed fee of for the assessment, and a monthly fee of for the arrangement, invoiced quarterly in arrears.
- Records. Our readings belong to you and are shared with nobody else. Our own records are kept on paper in Secaucus for as long as you wish.
- Ending the arrangement. Either of us may end it on thirty days’ notice. The inertial is withdrawn at the end of the last working day.
Please sign and return one copy by hand.
C. Albrecht-MoyoConstance Albrecht-Moyo
Managing Director, Prudence
Accepted for the client:
Who leads it
Engagements are led by Constance Albrecht-Moyo, Managing Director of the Prudence practice, who signs every engagement letter herself.