The Winner Stands Alone Read Online Free PDF Page A

was always a good Christian. I have influential friends,
     and Ive always been grateful to them. In short, I did everything right.
    I never harmed anyone who got in my way. Whenever possible, I encouraged my wife to do
     what she wanted to do, and the result: here I am, alone. Yes, I killed people during the
     idiotic war I was sent to fight, but I never lost my sense of reality. Im not one of those
     traumatized war veterans who goes into a restaurant and machine-guns people. Im not a
     terrorist. Of course, I could say that life has treated me unfairly and taken from me the
     most important thing there is: love. But there are other women, and the pain of love
     always passes. I need to act, Im tired of being a frog slowly boiling to death.
    If you know there are other women and you know that the pain of love will pass, why are
     you so upset?
    Yes, shes behaving like an adult now, surprised at the calm way in which shes trying to
     deal with the madman by her side.
    He seems to waver.
    I dont really know. Perhaps because Ive been abandoned once too often. Perhaps because I
     need to prove to myself just what Im ca- pable of. Perhaps because I lied, and there is
     only one woman for me. I have a plan.
    What plan?
    I told you before. Im going to keep destroying worlds until she realizes how important she
     is to me and that Im prepared to run any risk in order to get her back.
    The police! They both notice the police car approaching.
    Im sorry, says the man. I intended to talk a little more. Life hasnt treated you very
     fairly either.
    Olivia realizes this is the end. And since she now has nothing to lose, she again tries to
     get up. Then she feels the hand of that stranger on her right shoulder, as if he were
     fondly embracing her.
    Samozashchita Bez Orujiya, or Sambo, as it is better known among Russians, is the art of
     killing swiftly with ones bare hands, without the victim realizing what is happening. It
     was developed over the centu- ries, when peoples or tribes had to confront invaders
     unarmed. It was widely used by the Soviet state apparatus to eliminate people without
     leaving any trace. They tried to introduce it as a martial art in the 1980 Moscow
     Olympics, but it was rejected as being too dangerous, despite all the efforts of the
     Communists of the day to include in the Games a sport which they alone practiced.
    Perfect. That way, only a few people know the moves.
    Igors right thumb is pressing down on Olivias jugular vein, and the blood stops flowing to
     her brain. Meanwhile, his other hand is pressing on a particular point near her armpit,
     causing the muscles to seize up. There are no contractions, its merely a question of
     waiting two minutes.
    Olivia appears to have gone to sleep in his arms. The police car drives by behind them,
     using the lane that is closed to other traffic. They dont even notice the embracing
     couple; they have other things to worry about this morning, like doing their best to keep
     the traf- fic movingan impossible task if carried out to the letter. The latest call over
     the radio tells them that some drunken millionaire has just crashed his car a mile or so
     away.
    Still supporting the girl, Igor bends down and uses his other hand to pick up the cloth
     spread out in front of the bench and on which all those tasteless objects were to be
     displayed. He adroitly folds up the cloth to form an improvised pillow.
    When he sees that no one else is around, he tenderly lays her inert body on the bench. She
     looks as if she were asleep; and in her dreams she must be remembering some particularly
     lovely day or else having nightmares about her violent boyfriend.
    Only the elderly couple had noticed them sitting together. And if the crime were
     discoveredwhich Igor doubted, since there were no visible marksthey would describe him to
     the police as fairer or darker or older or younger than he really was; there wasnt the
     slightest reason