The Arabian Oryx

"Something outside distracted him and he looked out
the window. Across the yard, the priest was bending down
to pet a strange animal. The small antelope-like creature
had made a shallow hole for itself under a banana tree and the priest was talking to her. It looked like an Arabian oryx. He had only seen one in a history book. Why was it in his yard?"

Alvarez hallucinates - page 42

Miles From Nowhere

"Palm fronds rustled beneath a tangerine and gold sky as
Yussef awoke to discover that he was alone in the high desert.
His family was gone. He had wandered from their camp just
before dark and fallen asleep under a cluster of three date palms.
At dinner, there had been a travelling salesman trying to sell
shoes to his father and Yussef had found the whole conversation
very boring, so he had wandered off. Now he was sorry."

Yussef is alone - Page 1

Paris Romance

"Paris at midnight was a beautiful place. Strolling
down the Champs-Elysées, holding hands with Pierre, the
lights at Christmas illuminating the Parisian sky - she
could smell the hot chocolate and crêpes at a vendor’s
caravan along the street.
Snow began to fall as the young couple walked up
the Avenue towards the Arc de Triomphe."

Yvette remembers - Page 102

Dreaming of Les Halles

"Outside the shops, she could see the snow falling
softly. The long hallways made of glass allowed her to look from inside the modern structure to the outside where aged buildings, steeped in history, gave her the sense of being in a time machine. She marveled at the juxtaposition of the architectural designs within this one small area."

Yvette dreams - Page 115

Refugee Camp in the Desert

"Just when it seemed like there would be confrontation
between the soldiers and the doctors, three black helicopters swooped over the desert rim and landed near the compound. Different soldiers, fierce looking warriors, got out of the helicopters and came toward the boxes. The soldiers who had been guarding the camp look tired and sick – not like these new soldiers. Some of these soldiers wore crisp new uniforms with a picture of an eagle on their arms. Under the eagle were the numbers “101”."

Yussef's mission accomplished - page 21

Captured by "Insurgents"

"The Blackhawk was a pile of smoking rubble about one
hundred meters away. The kid and his goat were sitting against a wall close by. Standing around Alvarez was a group of five men with black hoods and AK47s."

Alvarez & Yussef Captured - Page 33

Pita Waiting in the Desert

"Thoughts of his family and home in Fiji flashed through Pita’s mind as he sat in his tree, eating a Mint Clif bar. He was proud of his unit and proud to be in Iraq, but he missed his family and his homeland, too.

As the dust rose higher off the playa, Pita saw a second car approaching from behind his position. It appeared that the
two cars would intersect near a grove of date palms about one
kilometer away from the tree in which he was perched.

When the first car arrived at the grove, he watched as two
armed men in ski masks got out of the trunk and disappear
behind some trees. They both took up offensive positions,
squatting down in the sand, and out of sight of the car. Two
other men stayed inside the car. The second car arrived within a few minutes. It was a black Citroën with only one occupant."

Pita waits for his target - page 162