"And I thought I was shameless. I have nothing on him." He had been singing about Bangkok and about Chess. Molokov was singing about domination, if not of the world than at least of them. It was some kind of perversion of the game. Once upon a time, Freddie had imagined that he played the game of manipulation as well as he played chess and now he saw how wrong he really was. He wasn't an expert.

His stomach twisted. He knew what was coming and he could almost see the look of hate in Sergievsky's face as they sat across from each other. He hadn't cared. He'd just wanted the other man to hurt as much as he did.

And now? Did he care about hurting Anatoly? He wasn't sure. Even that much was far past where they were here on screen.