The Oracle Read Online Free PDF

threatening rumble of the M47s’ engines could be heard.
    Somebody rekindled the fire and a swarm of sparks rose upwards towards the sky. A youth with curly hair and just a shadow of a beard walked resolutely towards the gate and shouted at the officer: ‘Molòn lavè!’ It was the phrase in ancient Greek that Leonidas had shouted proudly at the Persians twenty-five centuries before at Thermopylae, two words as dry and hard as bullets: ‘Come and get us!’
    Another drew up alongside and echoed him: ‘ Molòn lavè ! ’, then another and another still. They climbed up the bars of the gate and raised their fists rhythmically, and their cry became a chorus, a single voice vibrating with passion, with disdain, with determination. And the officer trembled at that voice and at those words that he had heard as a child at his school desk – the cry of Hellas against the barbarian invader penetrated into his chest like the stab of a knife. He looked at his watch and his men jerked their arms into position, ready to attack at his order.
    He shouted again into the megaphone: ‘This is your last warning. Disband immediately and clear out of the University buildings.’ But the cry of the students was stronger and more powerful, and nothing could subdue them. Suddenly, from a nearby church, a bell pealed, solemn, persistent, grievous. Ringing out in alarm. Another bell answered from another bell tower, and that sound infused the youths with new energy and gave new vigour to their cry.
    The fifteen minutes passed and their shouted words continued to afflict him, like fire raining down from the sky, mixing with the bronze thunder of the bells.
    He looked again at his watch and at his men, undecided. Another officer, higher in rank, advanced and stood next to him. ‘What are you waiting for? Go ahead, give the order.’
    ‘But, Colonel, they’re all over the gates.’
    ‘They were warned. Their time is up. Proceed!’
    The tank advanced towards the gate, but the students didn’t move. The tank commander in the turret turned towards the colonel, who urged him on with a gesture of his hand. ‘Forward, I said! Forward!’
    The tank started up again and drove straight into the gate, which fell inward on impact. The students dropped to the ground in bunches and were crushed under the gate. The troops surged forward while still more youths flooded out of the building, attempting to put up opposition. The soldiers opened fire, aiming to kill, and the courtyard sounded with cries, moans and confused yelling as the frantic students searched for their friends, tried to assist the wounded. The boy with the curly hair lay on the ground in a pool of blood. Many raced, shouting, up the stairs, followed by their attackers who knocked them out with the butts of their rifles, stabbed them with their bayonets. Some sought shelter behind closed doors, but the soldiers broke through and rushed down the halls and into the classrooms, shooting wildly. Splinters of wood and chunks of plaster flew left and right. Flakes of plaster rained down from the walls and ceilings.
    Michel’s car was just arriving at the designated spot, but Claudio was nowhere to be seen.
    ‘What do we do now?’ asked Norman.
    ‘Wait here. This is where we were supposed to meet. He must have gone in. If he comes out with Heleni, he’ll need us and the car. We’ll keep the engine running and stay ready. This is the only way he can come out.’
    Claudio was inside the University, running from room to room in search of Heleni. He shouted her name down the halls, up the staircases. He saw her suddenly come out on a landing with a group of her comrades. A squad of soldiers appeared at that moment at the end of the corridor and their leader shouted: ‘Stop! You’re under arrest!’ The youths ran towards a window, trying to drop down from it and get out that way. The officer shouted again, ‘Stop!’, and let go with a burst of machine-gun fire. Claudio saw Heleni stand