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" You revolutionists' the other continued, with leisurely self-confidence, 'are the slaves of the social convention, which is afraid of you; slaves of it as much as the very police that stands up in the defence of that convention. Clearly you are, since you want to revolutionize it. It governs your action, too, and thus neither your thought nor your action can ever be conclusive. (...) 'You are not a bit better than the forces arrayed against you -- than the police, for instance. The other day I came suddenly upon Chief Inspector Heat at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. He looked at me very steadily. But I did not look at him. Why should I give him more than a glance ? He was thinking of many things -- of his superiors, of his reputation, of the law courts, of his salary, of newspapers -- of a hundred things. But I was thinking of my perfect detonator only. He meant nothing to me. He was as insignificant as -- I can't call to mind anything insignificant enough to compare him with -- except Karl Yundt perhaps. Like to like. The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolutions, legality -- counter moves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical. He plays his little game -- so do you propagandists. "
― Joseph Conrad , The Secret Agent
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" The traffic warden looked up. " This your car?" " It is," said Skulduggery. The traffic warden nodded. " Very nice, very nice. But you can't park here, day or night." " I wasn't aware of that." " There's a sign right over there." " I didn't think it applied to me." " Why wouldn't it have applied to you?" Skulduggery tilted his head. " Because I'm special." " Don't care how special you think you are, you're parked in a no parking area and as such you're---" " We're here on official police business." The traffic warden narrowed his eyes. " You're Garda? I'm going to need to see some identification." " We're undercover," said Skulduggery. " This is a very important undercover operation which you are endangering just by talking to us." He opened his jacket. " Look, I have a gun. I am Detective Inspector Me. This is my partner, Detective Her." The traffic warden frowned. " Her?" " Me," said Stephanie. " Him?" " Not me," said Skulduggery. " Her." " Me," said Stephanie. " You?" said the traffic warden. " Yes," said Stephanie. " I" m sorry, who are you?" Stephanie looked at him. " I'm Her, he's Me. Got it? Good. You better get out of here before you blow our cover. They've got snipers. "