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"That girl won’t do any more sniping. Probably lost her left hand. Certainly broke her nerve for that kind of work. Scared the living daylights out of her. In my book, that was enough."
― James Bond[src]

An unnamed assassin with the codename of "Курок", or "Trigger" in English, is the main antagonist in Ian Fleming's 1962 short-story "The Living Daylights". Her disguise as a cellist would inspire the character of Kara Milovy in the story's film adaptation.

Appearance[]

"Trigger" is described as taller than the other women of the orchestra, with long, straight, fair hair, falling to her shoulders. Her face is described as pale and beautiful in profile. Based on her stride, Bond assumes she may be Polish or Russian in origin.

"The Living Daylights"[]

"Trigger" was a deadly sniper employed in the Soviet Union by the KGB, who was suspected by British Intelligence operatives at "Station WB" to have been used before in various ranged operations across the frontier borders of Berlin. In the autumn of 1960, she was assigned to "Operation Extase," to assassinate a defector known to British Intelligence as "272" as he fled from East to West Berlin.[1] The KGB knew when and where 272's extraction was to take place so she, most likely accompanied by a contingent of other operatives, waited in the top few floors of the Haus der Ministerien, for the man to rush across the Zimmerstrasse road that divided East and West Berlin, and to kill him before he could take refuge in the ruins on the other side, left from the Second World War.

To provide cover noise for her firing, the Ministry of Culture had a women's orchestra play each night of the stakeout, and to disguise her and her associates, she arrived each night carrying a cello case, and chattering with the other performers, so that she would look no different than any other of the musicians. It is possible that her associates in the orchestra were agents as well, as each case afforded an opportunity to disguise a weapon or other stakeout equipment. In either case, she got on well with her coworkers, and could be seen joking with them by enemy sniper James Bond.

After three nights with no sign of 272, the man finally ran across the road. She fired at the defector with her Kalashnikov Rifle, while Bond adjusted the scope on his Winchester .308 International Experimental Target Rifle from a killing blow to her heart, and hit her left hand instead, preventing her from firing further. This wound potentially cost her her hand or even some of her arm, and ended her career as a sniper.

Gallery[]

See Also[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Fleming, Ian (1965). Octopussy: The Last 2. The New American Library, 82. 
  2. Fleming, Ian (1965). Octopussy: The Last 2. The New American Library, 108. 
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