It's hard to be fashionable when the threat of imminent assassination hangs over one's head. The "dress to kill versus dress to be killed" dilemma is one faced every day by individuals ranging from presidents and company CEOs to minor league mobsters. After all, a bullet-proof jacket can really spoil the cut of an Armani suit (although not quite as badly as a bullet-hole, which tends to win every time when it comes to spoiling the look of a suit - and, quite frequently, the person wearing it).
But behind a discreet shopfront on New York's Third Avenue, the discerning consumer who doesn't want a death threat to limit his or her wardrobe can find a solution: custom bullet-proofing. Quark, a security consultancy with two decades of experience behind it, will bullet-proof that Armani jacket, Boss suit or Burberry overcoat using Monarch I/A body armour. Monarch is soft and light enough to crush in your hand, yet strong enough to stop a 9 mm bullet. The service is not cheap - bullet-proofing starts at about $3,000 - but it is effective, and Quark also offers its clients the option of finishing off the ensemble with a bullet-proof umbrella ($2,500).
If this sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, it should come as no surprise to hear that beside a photograph of the president of Japan - a Quark client - is a letter from the late Cubby Broccoli, producer of the Bond movies, thanking Quark for its assistance in advising on gadgetry.
Industrial espionage
While it is a very specific type of client who will be investing in bullet-proof raingear, the demand for the general services of Quark and other security consultancies has never been higher. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that industrial espionage is costing US companies anywhere between $24 billion and $100 billion annually and such companies are turning increasingly to the services offered by Quark and others in an effort to protect themselves. Quark consultants have also operated in Ireland, most recently for individuals in horse-racing and breeding circles who believed that their operations were under surveillance.
"Industrial espionage is everywhere," says Mr Gregg Graison, vice-president of Quark. "In a lot of Europe you can buy eavesdropping equipment and cellular interrupt equipment, which it is absolutely illegal to possess in the US. All technology-based industry is vulnerable; banking and financial institutions; brokerage firms; construction bids and tenders. If you're bidding for a multi-million dollar contract and I know what you've bid, then I'll outbid you. There is a huge electronic war out there which you don't read about."
Hidden cameras
For those who do turn to Quark, the company offers everything from $300 video cameras to armoured cars. One small room in the company's showrooms is filled entirely with hidden cameras and VCRs. They lurk behind pens, clocks, smoke detectors, desk flags, pictures of Babar the Elephant, personal stereos, the bridge of a pair of sunglasses, even within the friendly, hat-topped head of a Paddington Bear doll.
There is even an 8 mm video cassette recorder to go with them, capable of up to five hours of recording. "Hidden video cameras have become very popular," says Graison. "They have become very small with lens openings that are about one millimetre in size. You could be on top of them with a magnifying glass and never know they were there."
Elsewhere, there are $10,000 bomb detection units capable of sniffing out a bomb in the mail and other, more sophisticated units which retail for $500,000. There are scramblers which can be fitted in mobile phones, seismic sensors which can detect a footstep 25 feet away, or an approaching vehicle 300 feet away. It is even possible to buy a 42-foot, 15,000-lb Navy Seal assault craft with a top speed of about 50 knots, an armoured car which fires tear gas at attackers or a 10.2-ton armoured tank, powered by a 160-horsepower Rolls Royce engine, complete with gas launcher, sniper rifle or machine-gun as well as laser target designators.
Another room contains night-vision lenses capable of amplifying light up to 30,000 times, including four-lens, head-mounted binoculars which retail for just over $3,000. In one corner of the showroom stands a dummy wearing NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protective clothing, which proved particularly popular with media organisations during the Gulf War. There is an irony about Quark's business which it doesn't take long to perceive. Quark, and other firms like it, sell both surveillance and counter-surveillance equipment. It is not inconceivable that an individual or company which becomes the victim of electronic surveillance could end up buying equipment to counter the threat from the very people who supplied the surveillance gear in the first place.
"Unless you make surveillance equipment, how can you make counter-surveillance equipment?" argues Graison, with barely the hint of a smile. "This is a strange industry. Here in America alone there is a $100 million business for counter-surveillance equipment that doesn't work. You buy a bug detector, but do you have a bug to test it with? I know people who say that they can get equipment for $200, but I sell the intercept equipment and I know that stuff doesn't work. People lie, and the worst thing we can do is give a person a false sense of security.
"They see all the stuff out there, selling for $100, $200, $300 - and it doesn't work. Getting the right product in someone's hands is the most important thing."
Cutting corners
Yet, despite the threat of electronic surveillance, or even death, people and companies remain reluctant to invest in effective self-protection. Even governments cut corners: according to Graison, one Central American government recently bought a consignment of faulty Israeli bullet-proof jackets because they were cheap. If there's one thing worse than wearing a bullet-proof jacket, it's wearing a bullet-proof jacket that doesn't work.
"To get people to take precautions is the hardest part of my business," he says. "Security chiefs have the hardest time getting money out of their offices for protection equipment. To tell someone in the public eye to take precautions is difficult, because some don't want to."