LITMIR.BIZ

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lighting the way for the escapees.

      «Now you can turn on the headlights,» Trevor said quietly after some time. The burning building disappeared behind the hill. «Sangin is maybe twenty-five kilometers from here, not more. Just drive to the river without stopping. There is a British base somewhere there… A patrol should see us.»

      Trevor was slurring his words. Only then did Kate notice that he was pressing his hand to the left side of his chest. Blood was dripping through his fingers.

      «Are you wounded? What’s wrong?» Kate asked.

      But Trevor remained silent. He lost consciousness and his body went limp.

      «Please, keep talking!» Kate shouted frantically, but she received no answer. Realizing that she was now essentially alone, Kate pressed her hand against Trevor’s wound and stepped on the gas pedal.

      Trevor woke up in a bed of a military hospital. Kate was sitting next to him in a white coat draped over a military uniform, with an open book in her hands, dozing.

      «Where am I?» asked Trevor faintly.

      «We are in Kandahar, on the US base,» Kate answered sleepily. She smiled.

      «How long was I out for?»

      «Almost three days. You had to have surgery, but it’s all over now.»

      Trevor looked around, then glanced at Kate with a barely noticeable smile:

      «I believe we haven’t had the chance to be introduced. I am Trevor Blanche.»

      «I’m Kate, Kate Larsen. From Australia. I wanted to thank you for saving me.»

      «No need, Kate. I am here thanks to you, so we are even.»

      The next day, Trevor and Kate were transported from Afghanistan to Switzerland. In Zurich, Trevor continued to undergo treatment and spent all his free time with Kate. Trevor even tried to romance her, but after a few nights spent together Kate made it clear that she had no intention of starting a serious relationship with him, to avoid disappointment, she said, and thought it best to keep what they had uncomplicated. In truth, Kate was testing Trevor. She liked him a lot, but her female intuition told her he wasn’t into committed relationships, so she tried to instill a keeper’s instinct in him.

      Trevor, however, easily accepted her terms and continued to regard Kate only as a colleague.

      Initially, this irritated Kate, but she hid it well and always seemed happy to see him whenever they were set to work together.

      In fact, this kind of relationship between a man and a woman should have ended once and for all after some time, but they were doing the same job. So, after two-, three-week trips, they would part and return to their respective homes, friends and families – to their own worlds.

      Trevor had known Etienne, a cameraman, for more than a decade, ever since he worked in Sierra Leone. Etienne was French, but with some Scottish blood flowing in his veins, from this mother. He spent most of his childhood and adolescence at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland, on the shore of Loch Linnhe, in the town of Fort William, where his mother was born and where her family still lived.

      Etienne absorbed Scottish traditions into every cell in his body. He was extremely proud of the history of Scotland, which he deeply respected and considered his own. That was why, at the age of 35, his French heritage could only be found in a few traits on his slender face. Even the tattoo on his left shoulder bore the words of Scotland’s motto in Latin: «Nemo me impune lacessit»8.

      Etienne was not a talkative sort, or showed feelings at the drop of a hat. In fact, he was careful to hide all emotion. He even joked with a stony face, while his highest praise was a curt «Not bad».

      Trevor valued his friendship with Etienne. They had worked side by side for many years. Etienne accompanied Trevor on almost all of his journeys.

      In addition, Etienne has been seeing Kate for over a year; they spent a lot of time together. Trevor thought it odd to see the tall, lean Frenchman with an aquiline nose and long hands tenderly treat the small Kate, who was a foot shorter than him. Trevor had been observing them with a smile, comparing their relationship to a dance of fire and ice. It was clear that Kate’s hot heart was melting the ice that covered Etienne’s heart.

      Trevor began working with Dan eighteen month ago. Dan was a short, open-hearted young man, a pacifist and a bit of a ladies man. Only twenty-five, he was accepted to Les Mondes as a promising, young and ambitious reporter immediately upon graduating from Tampere University. Rochefort, chief editor of Les Mondes, took the young reporter under his wing. Rochefort appointed Dan as Trevor’s assistant, and Dan ended up accompanying Trevor and Etienne on several trips to the Middle East. A rumor went around that Dan was a distant relative of Rochefort, or even a love child from a long abandoned liaison. Be that as it may, Rochefort was clearly concerned about the future of this young man and he was helping him to find his own place in journalism.

      After Etienne and Kate made their relationship official and Kate had moved to Paris to live with him, Dan became Trevor’s buddy during his sojourns to the nightlife of Paris and Zurich.

      Dan, too, was secretive about his past. He never spoke about it, but he was happy to be useful to his more experienced colleagues and closely watched Trevor, acquiring the essential skills of a hardened war correspondent. It was Dan, as Trevor’s assistant, who was lately covering the USA v. Woud trial, the scandalous case of the biggest illegal arms dealer in history, tried by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

      Chapter 3

      Geneva, Switzerland

      15 December 2011. 15:45

      Trevor was sitting on the veranda of a busy restaurant watching an elderly couple talking quietly at the table near the entrance. He was amused by how the man was stealthily feeding a small dog that was sitting under the table.

      Trevor flipped through a fresh newspaper, trying to find the latest news on the Woud trial, but seeing nothing asked the waiter for the bill. That was when the encounter happened that turned his life upside down, inadvertently exposing that part of him which he had not even guessed existed.

      Trevor was surprised to hear someone speak in Serbian. A man and a woman, clearly tourists, were talking to one another. They had two children with them, close to the age of seven. The man’s voice sounded familiar. Trevor was ready to swear that he knew the man well. He shoved the newspaper aside and stared at the retreating silhouettes of the family. The woman was walking ahead, holding the children by their hands. The man was inspecting the cobblestones engraved with the names of cities, incidentally turning towards Trevor. He was a short, stout man, about fifty, balding, with thick glasses, and dressed in a well-worn but clean suit and an oversized navy raincoat.

      Suddenly it dawned on Trevor that he knew the man. He got up and shouted in Serbian: «Jovan? My friend, Jovan, it is you!»

      The man glanced back. His wife also noticed the stranger who was loudly calling after her husband. Both children immediately clutched their mother.

      «Jovan, hey! It’s me, Trevor. Don’t you recognize me, old man?»

      «Teo?!» the man responded, throwing open his arms. «Trevor! Well, I didn’t expect to see you here! It’s been a while! It is a small world, I guess!»

      The friends hugged tightly.

      «I thought I’d never see you again,» said Trevor. «How long has it been? Ten? Twelve years?»

      «Teo, fifteen years at least! You were serving in the Legion back then,» Jovan responded slowly, tears of sincere joy fogging his glasses. «I forgot how you look. Let me see you!»

      Jovan wiped his glasses and after putting them back, he scanned Trevor. Grabbing his shoulders, he joyfully exclaimed: «You are

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