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Siena, Italy

Gabriel Baleeiro felt more relaxed than he had in years Arh the square in front of the Basilica San Doht air of Tuscany He had never thought of churches as rohout the square and the late-night lovers wandering together, the façade of the fortress-like basilica made him feel like he had stepped back in tihts,&039; Jessica said, bu her in front of hi man from some 1940s film

&039;After twenty-five years, you need rinned, shyly dropping her gaze &039;You&039;re thinking you can&039;t wait to get back to the hotel&039;

&039;I can wait,&039; he said &039;It&039;s a beautiful night But I a forward to what happens e return to our roohed &039;Not tonight&039;

She gazed up at hi he hadn&039;t seen in her in ages Music drifted from the open door of a trattoria across the square

&039;No,&039; she agreed &039;Not tonight&039;

The Baleeiros were doctors, Gabe the senior surgeon at St George&039;s in London, and Jessica the head of the pediatric oncology unit there She was British born and bred, while Gabe hailed from Brazil They&039;d ht study sessions, but twenty-five years had passed in a blur of patients and surgeries and they&039;d had to steal ro sunny holiday with their two sons, ere noelve and fourteen and staying with their grandmother in Milton Keynes, they had rarely been away froether in Tuscany, no kids - was so of a second honey in love with his wife all over again

&039;You knohat this re the cobblestones in the shadow of the church &039;With all the lights?&039;

&039;Sao Paolo,&039; Gabe said &039;The festival, that night you first ain and leaned against him as they walked &039;You knoell&039;

&039;I knoell Soet, but this trip has reminded me&039;

&039;Aren&039;t you a bloody romantic?&039;

He sed hiave him a quick kiss It felt to Gabe like he&039;d won a prize of some kind, but he knew that his life with Jessica was the prize For the second tiht in the azed at each other He knew he had aged well - the white streak in his hair the one thing that put the lie to his boyish face - but Jessica had aged even better Not that she had been untouched by the years; instead, the lines at the corners of her eyes and the edges of her lips had given her an austere, dignified beauty that youth could never achieve

&039;I don&039;t want to go ho, do you think, before the boys noticed our absence?&039;

&039;With yourthehed, and then grew serious again, reaching up to touch his face &039;We need to do this more often, love Take some time for ourselves&039;

&039;I don&039;t know,&039; he said, shaking his head &039;It&039;s unbeco in doctors, you know All this soppy affection And very un-British of you, too You&039;re th&039;

Jessica gave hier that&039;

Then she pulled hily He didn&039;t wait for her to kiss hi tocouples around theed only to theht exploded

The air ruptured as the front of the church blew out, glass and rubble erupting and cru down onto the cobblestones The blast threw the Baleeiros off their feet, still locked in an e and sliding to a stop Gabe struck his head and blacked out, co and the echo of the explosion still resounding off of the façades of the buildings in the square

Jessica was kneeling by hi down her cheek frolassy but she seemed otherwise unhar to hi him

&039;I think I&039;uese

Not that it mattered She&039;d barely have heard him over the screams of the other people in the square Sorief - as a doctor and a surgeon he had couish

The cobblestones shook beneath hi His chest rose and fell with shallow, ragged breaths and he glanced around, blinking at the realization that he ht,&039; he said, this tilish &039;Just shaken up Come on&039;

He sat up, wavered a bit, and then stood and stared at the church Most of its face had collapsed and its interior yawed vast and dark, the glow of the festive lights in the square barely reaching within

&039;Are you sure you&039;re all right?&039;

&039;We&039;ve got to help&039;

She hesitated, her concern for him etched on her face, but then it vanished and was replaced by the determined mask of the doctor

&039;Where do we start?&039; she asked

&039;Follow the loudest screa the people only now strea out of the trattoria and a wine bar, as well as the busker as on his knees weeping over his broken guitar

&039;This way,&039; Jessica said, grabbing his hand

They ran toward the church A sixtyish woman stood over a man who&039;d been struck by stone debris He looked shattered, his chest misshapen and his jaw askew as blood bubbled froed a dark look, and he knew they were thinking the sa to , trying to move a chunk of wall off a third It took all of Gabe&039;s will to turn his back on the dying old man and run to them

&039;Wait!&039; he said &039;Let me look at her first&039;

They looked confused and he realized they didn&039;t understand English He started to gesture to hi &039;doctor,&039; but then Jessica was there, rattling off so in siirls stared in shock at their fallen friend, whose legs and pelvis were trapped beneath an enorirl was blessedly unconscious

Gabe dropped to his knees beside her, checking her pulse as he lowered his head and listened for breath sounds Her pulse eak but steady and she was still breathing If paraear in tiht live, but it was going to be a near thing

&039;Honey,&039; Jessica said &039;Have a look at this&039;

He turned and saw the two college girls staring at hiirl, had blood soaking through the fabric of her long, stylish sweater in a dozen places or lass jutted from the left side of her face and froainst her chest, and he knew solass that concerned hi hi at her fallen friend

She staggered a little, weak from loss of blood already In minutes, or less, she would be unconscious She would die unless he could staunch the flow of blood, but there were so many wounds

&039;Jess, help ot to figure out how to get these-&039;

&039;Gabe,&039; his wife said, and her tone brought hilanced at her and saw that she had neverat the ruin of the church ide eyes, her htly open, a kind of sickly fear etched upon her features Only then did he realize that she had never irl, never been worried about the college girls at all Not once she had seen this

There were things e from the blasted husk of Basilica San Do that hewith his head, for the winged figures rising coht as if they were there one one the next They seemed to be s as they darted from the black void of the church and into the sky above the square He cocked his head back to watch their ascent, blinking again as they shi Demons made of smoke

&039;Meu Deus,&039; he prayed in a whisper

But as he watched e, he knew that God had turned his gaze away froht

Saint-Denis, France

The helicopter set down a quarter mile from the Saint-Denis cathedral Even from the air, Beril Demirci had been able to see the cracks in the street from the earthquake that had struck just before noon, noelve hours ago, but nobody orrying about the earthquake now Soineers were trying to figure out whether there were buildings in danger of collapse, but she doubtedmuch firsthand evaluation Not if they valued their lives

&039;This is as far as I go!&039; the helicopter pilot shouted, wanting to ave hieable but secretly almost as terrified of the helicopter as she was of the horror unfolding in Saint-Denis right now She had never been in a helicopter before, and now that she had she hoped never to do it again

&039;Thank you!&039; she called, trying to figure out how to turn the latch that would open the door

As she fumbled with it, someone did it for her from the outside and the door rattled as it slid on its tracks With only a small satchel as her travel case, she jumped down from the chopper - could she call it a chopper, or was that silly? - and turned to face the soldier who had opened the door

&039;Miss Demirci?&039; he shouted over the noise

She nodded and he turned away, gesturing for her to follow The soldierthe strap of her bag over her head so that it hung behind her as she ran The roar of the chopper increased and then quickly began to dilanced back to see that the pilot had already taken off, headed away from here as fast as his aircraft could carry hiht

Which one, the sound of artillery shelling grew even louder It thumped the air and she felt every shot and every i her heart The soldier led her toward a cluster of roup of other people in uniforh her Turkish homeland had its share of military activity, Beril had rarely seen soldiers up close and knew next to nothing about the way such things were organized Only by their bearing could she identify these people as officers of some kind, so she followed her escort and relied upon hiht her not to the table but to a tall, dark-eyed woht her bulky helmet made her head look enorue She had a tendency to speak her thoughts unfiltered; it frequently got her into trouble at ho to happen here She had been called into thecrisis, and knew the focus needed to remain on the horrors at hand It was sihts fro

&039;Major Rojas,&039; the soldier said &039;This is the wo for&039;

The dark-eyed major frowned &039;Beril Demirci?&039;

&039;That&039;slost in the roar of nearby battle She looked around, hoping for some kind of shelter, but the major seemed in no hurry to take cover

&039;Major Paola Rojas, UN Security Forces You&039;ve heard of Task Force Victor?&039;

Beril nodded

&039;Good,&039; Major Rojas said &039;Come with me&039;

She nodded to the soldier, who turned and ran off to wherever he was meant to be next Theorders into phones and radios, though they see to repeat themselves Runners came up to the table, received orders and raced away One of the officers poked furiously at a blueprint or so spread out on the table and tried to