When I met Bystrova, I was a green recruit, and she was my instructor in special training. And she was also the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. No wonder I fell in love like a fool. As it turned out—there’s no cure for it. And even though so much has changed since then—now I’m an influential figure in the intelligence structures, I have connections and influence—she still gets me like before. And the thought won’t leave me: to take her without asking. Simply because, from the recent past, she is already in my hands.