Beirut Station by Paul Vidich EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Paul Vidich
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical Thrillers
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Beirut
July 2006
Beirut’s heat wave made the evening air in Analise’s apartment oppressively
warm, and she was glad her hardship tour was ending. e last bit of agency
work, and the most dangerous part, was coming in the morning. She
rehearsed what she had to do, going over the details—the vehicle, the
bomb, and the face of the targeted man. She closed her eyes to summon a
memory of his photograph, but a whispered question interrupted her
thoughts and her mind returned to the man lying next to her in bed. He
had said “What’s troubling you?” and was waiting for her answer. When she
could no longer stand the silence, she crossed the bedroom and threw open
the window for the weak Mediterranean breeze. Nearby pop music and
laughing voices came in with the cooling air and relieved her sense of
connement. She smelled the tobacco of his cigarette and felt the sea air on
her skin.
“It’s nothing to do with you,” she said, returning to bed. She knew the
mistake that men made, thinking that silence after coitus was a woman’s
way of expressing dissatisfaction. She stretched her hand up toward the
ceiling fan, her wrist moving one way, then the other, watching how light
from the half-closed blinds carved ribbons on her small hamsa tattoo. She
clenched and unclenched her st, letting the dim illumination deepen the
red markings.
“Why did you have it done?”
“is?” She lowered her hand. “It brings good luck and wards off evil, if
you believe in that sort of thing.”
“How long does the henna last?”
“ree weeks. Maybe a month. en it fades. Like everything.”
“Something is bothering you. You’re not the type to depend on luck.”
She turned on her side and looked into Corbin’s eyes—wide, mysterious,
and content. She felt no obligation to respond to his comment, which she
knew was something he’d said to ll the silence. e tattoo was there to be
done, and she had done it on a whim, feeling vulnerable, wanting to avail
herself of whatever powers it offered. Little of her life was spontaneous
then, and she had done it because she could. She wasn’t going to tell him
that, or anything else, and certainly not what troubled her. She had trained
for what was coming the next day and prepared her mind to be ready if
everything suddenly changed, her life at risk. Her non-official cover with
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees wouldn’t protect her
from an angry mob.
eir eyes lingered on each other—hers dark and almond-shaped, his
green and round but darker in the dim light. Her long, olive-complected
legs were next to his pale white form, and for all their intimacy she felt the
distance of their different backgrounds. She took his cigarette and put it to
her lips, brightening the end, and exhaled from the corner of her mouth.
She handed it back.
“You said you quit.”
She thought of the ironic comment she could make, but it was not the
time or place to hurt him or be insincere. “You need to leave soon.
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