No 13034, Monday 07 Sep 2020, Afterdark

Solution to 14A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Win a lot of money; beat the sailor on vessel (3,3,7) HIT THE JACKPOT {HIT}{THE}{JACK}{POT}
10 Cunning control to lock outside a plant (9) ARTICHOKE {ART}{1}{CHOKE}

11 A new story placed earlier and rest (3,2) LIE IN {1}{N}<=>{LIE}
12 That man’s method of kindness... (5) HEART {HE}{ART}
13 ... asking whether monk is unwell in capital (9) ISLAMABAD {IS LAMA BAD}
14 Start to strip... (3,3) T?E ?F? (Addendum TEE OFF [DD] - See comments)
16 ... topless, gathering being pretentious (4) ARTY pARTY
19 Letters from commissar about one from middle east, perhaps (4) ARAB [T]
20 Ironwork by artist, something seen above the head (6) FEDORA {FE}{DO}{RA}
25 A ripper finally, at the end Don goes; out for a duck (9) GOOSANDER {A+r...eR+DON+GOES}*

26 Encounters may encourage eschewing terrible sins, according to sources (5) MEETS Acrostic
27 In Manila, thieves get the stick (5) LATHI [T]
28 Dwelling on a thought primarily to retain branch workers (9) APARTMENT {A}{PART}{MEN}{Th...t}
29 Testing time, ex pondering about taking away second son and daughter (13) EXPERIMENTING {TIME+EX+PoNdERING}*

DOWN
2   A new entrant in local network (8) INTRANET {1}{ENTRANT*}
3   To attend carefully, inquiring trusted sources? Understood (5) TACIT Acrostic
4   Imported vaccine in the end’s toxic preparation (6) EXOTIC {v...nE}{TOXIC*}
5   You change your attitude when you turn over this (1,3,4) A NEW LEAF [CD]
6   Measure constant speed, essentially covering a length by metro transport (9) KILOMETRE {K}{1}{L}{spEed} over {METRO}* (Correction - {K}{spEed} over {1}{L}{METRO}* - See comments)
7   There in Scotland, nothing very fixed, as British capital intervenes (6) OVERBY {O}{VER{Br...h}Y}
8   A pouch, small with long tail at one end (6) SACHET {S}{ACHE}{Tail}
9   Bridge player in team is spiteful (5) SNIDE {S{N}IDE}
15 Susceptible to condition? Take a tablet first and four by start of evening (9) FORMATIVE {FORM}{A}{Ta...t}{IV}{Ev...g}
17 A shoot with leading hero’s habit undressed in city (3,5) ABU DHABI {A}{BUD}{Hero}{hABIt}
18 Anticipated fine mineral, some heartless Engineer led to ultimate ruin (8) FORESEEN {F}{ORE}{SomE}{E}{ruiN}
21 Consents to sacrifice name and wealth (6) ASSETS ASSEnTS
22 I long to grow contained but lively (5) AGILE {AG{I}{L}E}
23 Whirlpool on top, only to replace Electrolux at the first position (6) VORTEX V(-e+o)ORTEX
24 Shopping mall is concealed, name is missing, beginning to display instead (6) ARCADE ARCA(-n+d)DE
26 Composition book held by setter’s torn at the corner (5) MOTET {M{OT}E}{Torn}

Reference List
Sailor = JACK, A = 1, New = N, Artist = RA, Daughter = D, Constant = K, Length = L, Small = S, Bridge player = N, Fine = F, Name = N, Long = L, Only = O, Book = OT(Old Testament)

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The ABU DHABI international airport, the second busiest in the United ARAB Emirates, lies about 30 KILOMETREs from the HEART of the city. Syed Al Baqari owns several shops and restaurants in the upmarket shopping ARCADE in the airport. With his ASSETS making money for him he can afford to LIE IN bed all morning in his luxurious APARTMENT, but he had a restless business mind that is always EXPERIMENTING with novel avenues of expanding his empire. He is up early this morning, during TEE OFF at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, he MEETS a gentleman in a FEDORA. The person introduces himself as Mohamed Fayeed, an importer dealing with EXOTIC food items. Fayeed tells Baqari, how he can HIT THE JACKPOT in this business by using his connections in the airport to facilitate the easy export of Fayeed’s consignments to places like Istanbul or ISLAMABAD. The silver-tongued salesman Fayeed, has no difficulty in getting Baqari agreeing to his plan. The SACHETs, supposedly containing processed Greek ARTICHOKE arrive that very afternoon from Fayeed’s storehouse. They need to be cleared rapidly through the customs as they have short shelf life and Baqari ensures their safe passage through a particular customs official, with whom he has a TACIT understanding.

It is a shock for Baquari to see the police at his door later that evening, who are there to arrest him. “This must be a mistake; I have done no wrong”. The police officer says SNIDEly, “yes, nothing wrong at all, except you helped export 20 kilos of heroin, which sells at $ 150 per gram”. It turns out that hidden among the packets of artichoke, are several fake artichokes filled with the white powder. Fayeed had not FORESEEN that, ARTY, the sniffer dog in the employ of the customs could smell heroin from miles, even if hidden thus. Since Baqari is only an innocent victim of a conman, he is let off after questioning and a hefty fine. Baqari decides to TURN a NEW LEAF and now refuses to get sucked into the VORTEX of dangerous business expansion, preferring to spend his time listening to Arabic MOTETs.