"From within such a calcified culture, no change can be generated; the impetus for reform must arise from without. Hence, the external threat posed b… - Matt Hughes

My intent was to spot not only Massim Shar’s cut-out but the other member of his criminal coterie who would be there to watch our transaction. There might even be a watcher to watch the watcher, trust being a commodity in short supply among the lawless.”

Filidor was becoming more and more convinced that he had recently been inhabiting a reality that was at sharp variance to the rest of the world’s.

"There are, occasionally, rarely, some difficulties," she admitted.
"That is a word that may cover a great swath of territory," I said, "from the low foothills of minor inconvenience to the insurmountable peaks of constant vexation."