I’ve replayed the meeting in Scotland more times than is healthy. Not the attack — that’ll come later — but the question that preceded it.
Two names were mentioned: One Italian and one Russian. I shut it down immediately. At the time, I told myself it was instinct. That was not true. It was pattern recognition.
The men who attacked me were not improvising. From what Gaia later described, their answers to questions during interrogation were poorly structured yet familiar. Debt. Obligation. Access. They spoke like intermediaries, not zealots.
I do not yet know whether this was Friggington’s doing or something else that fell under his remit. The distinction matters.
What I do know is that the curiosity in that room in Scotland was premature, and I will not address it again until I understand who else might be listening.
Patterns rarely present themselves twice.
Cross-Reference
Night of 3 March 2014 Two rooms, one resolve (24November2025)
The Road South Snow Behind, Trouble Ahead Perthshire → Edinburgh – Tuesday 4 March 2014 ( 01 December 2025)