![]() After this walk, Mrs Verloc notes that her husband's relationship with her brother has improved. Verloc eventually agrees to go for a walk with Stevie. On Verloc's return from a business trip to the continent, his wife tells him of the high regard that Stevie has for him and she implores her husband to spend more time with Stevie. The driver's tales of hardship, whipping of his horse, and menacing hook scare Stevie to the point where Mrs Verloc must calm him. Verloc's mother and Stevie use a hansom driven by a man with a hook for a hand. The move is motivated largely by a desire to avoid straining Mr. Verloc's mother informs the family that she intends to move out of the house. The novel flashes back to before the explosion, taking the perspective of Winnie Verloc and her mother. ![]() He later speaks to his superior, Sir Ethelred, about his intentions to solve the case alone, rather than rely on the effort of Chief Inspector Heat. The Assistant Commissioner shares some of the same high society acquaintances with Michaelis and is chiefly motivated by finding the extent of Michaelis's involvement in order to assess any possible embarrassment to his connections. Knowing that Michaelis has recently moved to the countryside to write a book, the Chief Inspector informs the Assistant Commissioner that he has a contact, Verloc, who may be able to assist in the case. Heat informs The Professor that he is not a suspect in the case, but that he is being monitored due to his terrorist inclinations and anarchist background. After The Professor leaves the meeting, he stumbles into Chief Inspector Heat, a policeman investigating a recent explosion at Greenwich, where one man was killed. ![]() The Professor describes the nature of the bomb he carries in his coat at all times: it allows him to press a button which will kill him and those nearest to him in twenty seconds. Comrade Ossipon meets The Professor, who discusses having given explosives to Verloc. The novel flashes forward to after the bombing has taken place. Unbeknownst to the group, Stevie, Verloc's brother-in-law, overhears the conversation, which greatly disturbs him. Verloc later meets his friends, who discuss politics and law, and the notion of a communist revolution. Vladimir explains that Britain's lax attitude to anarchism endangers his own country, and he reasons that an attack on 'science', the current vogue amongst the public, will provide the necessary outrage for suppression. Vladimir informs Verloc that from reviewing his service history he is far from an exemplary model of a secret agent and, to redeem himself, must carry out an operation – the destruction of Greenwich Observatory by a bomb. Although a member of an anarchist cell, Verloc is also secretly employed by the Embassy as an agent provocateur. Soon after, Verloc leaves to meet Mr Vladimir, the new First Secretary in the embassy of a foreign country. The novel begins in Verloc's home, as he and his wife discuss the trivialities of everyday life, which introduces the reader to Verloc's family. The group produces anarchist literature in the form of pamphlets entitled F.P., an acronym for The Future of the Proletariat. Although largely ineffectual as terrorists, their actions are known to the police. Verloc's friends are a group of anarchists of which Comrade Ossipon, Michaelis, and "The Professor" are the most prominent. Stevie has a mental disability, possibly autism, which causes him to be excitable his sister, Verloc's wife, attends to him, treating him more as a son than as a brother. He lives with his wife Winnie, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Stevie. Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives and bric-a-brac. Set in London in 1886, the novel follows the life of Adolf Verloc, a secret agent.
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