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"Adele Lister, 36, from Birmingham originally. Mother, bit of a tart maybe, divorced twice, but relatively normal childhood. Normal until her stepfather tried to rape her at age 16. He stabbed her face with a broken bottle. Gouged out her eye, made a start on the other one but the landlady heard her screaming and stopped him before he made her totally blind."
"Lucky girl."
"Or not. Lives on a small pension. Used to go to a one of those workshops for the handicapped –, hand painted greeting cards, little knit scarves, shit pay. Then she got a job at a lawyer's office as a receptionist but they switched to a new computerized system a few years back. Plus, she gets bad headaches."
"Don't blame her."
"Some rich bird from a charity gives her those swank clothes."
"Think she's angling for someone to buy her more up-to-date attire?"
"She's a little long in the tooth for that sort of scam, don't you think? And she's hardly pretty, is she?"
"Some guys don't need a pretty face. As long as the stepfather didn't cut her up where it counts…"
"You are crude."
"Can we use her?"
"I doubt it. We've got nothing on her. And how would we train her if we did?"
"She's blind, not stupid. I'm sure she's trainable."
"How smart could she be? Chumming around out with a guy like that?"
"Maybe she has no idea what he is."
"Or maybe she does. Could all this be on purpose?"
"How do you mean?"
"Could she be one of them, sent to check him out?"
"You mean a vor?
"I was thinking FSB?"
"No. She checks out. She's a total civilian. Moved here to get medical treatment eight years ago. The stepfather died in prison a few years back. There was a victims' comp settlement, but that must have ran out ages ago. She-"
"Did I ask for her fucking life story?"
"No, but I'm just saying, she's a total civilian. She's not one of them and she's not one of us, and I can't see how we can make her one of us. She's just some random unfortunate who's had a tough life."
"And it just got tougher."
"Through no fault of her own."
"That fucking bastard! I think she's suffered enough without having to contend with his sort. Why can't he just leave her alone before he fucks up her life even more? What if she falls for him or something?"
"All the more reason for us to bring him in. Peacefully. If we can do it without blowing his cover, even better."
"He's not budging. I'm telling you, he won't come in. He's perfectly happy running the family for Kirill. He likes what he does, the sick fuck."
"And I repeat myself – all the more reason to bring him in. That and it's turned political. We're getting pressure from all sides now. MI6 wants to loan us some men. They say we don't have the resources to deal with this alone. They want him brought in, but they want it to look like an arrest. So do I. We need him intact - cover and all. That way we can put him back out in the field if we need to."
"But the spooks will try to claim him for their own!"
"The hell they will. They'll help bring him in but Nikolai Luzhin is the property of Scotland Yard Russia Desk. He's my fucking mole, and I'm going to do everything I can to keep him."
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