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“It’s the only reason I’ here”
His unspoken e seemed to be received
Get to the damn point
“You can overpower“I aht?”
He caught the sarcas near the tree, across the way, in the blue jacket, and the other one, near the Round Tower’s entrance? I doubt I’d evade them They’re not fat and out of shape”
Ivan chuckled “I aed this”
“I seeovernment”
“This bad thing?”
“You need to talk fast, or I may take my chances with your friends”
“No need to be hero Vitt is helping man nao, Sokolov ainst wishes of Russian government He slips away and, once in China, little can be done”
“Sounds like old news,” Malone said
“We think him dead Not true”
“So what else changed?”
“Sokolov has four-year-old son who is recently stolen He calls Vitt, who comes to find boy”
“And this worries you? What about the police?”
Ivan shook his head “Thousands of children go in China every year It is about having the son In China this is necessity Son carries faet daughters Son is what matters Makes no sense to me”
He kept listening
“China’s one-child policy is nightmare,” Ivan said “Parents must have the birth permit If not, there is fine that is more than Chinese et son in one try?” The Russian snapped his pudgy fingers “Buy one”
Malone had read about the problem Female fetuses were either aborted or abandoned, and decades of the one-child policy had caused a national shortage of women
“Problehts criestured with his short arms “Is worse than Russia”
“That’s hard to iine”
“Is illegal to abandon, steal, or sell child in China, but is legal to buy one Young boy costs 900 dollar, US Lot of money orker earns in year 1,700 dollar, US Sokolov has no chance”
“So Cassiopeia went to help So what Why are you concerned?”
“Four days ago she travels to Antwerp,” Ivan said
“To find the kid there?”
“No To find boy sheelse first”
Now he understood “So you obviously want?”
Ivan shrugged
Malone’s mind envisioned the torture video “Who has Cassiopeia?”
“Bad people”
He didn’t like the sound of that
“Ever deal with eunuchs?”
NI DID NOT KNOW WHETHER TO BE AMAZED OR REPELLED BY what Pau Wen had revealed about himself “You are a eunuch?”
“I was subjected to the sao”