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FOREWORD

One of the recurrent the a price for your dreams But to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? For the past few decades, we have lived in a culture that privileged fame, money, power--and most people were led to believe that these were the real values that they were to pursue

What we don't know is that, behind the scenes, the real manipulators remain anonymous They understand that the most effective power is the one that nobody can notice--until it is too late, and you are trapped The Winner Stands Alone is about this trap

In this book, three of the four main characters face this ordeal:

Igor, a Russian ood reason for it--such as avoiding hu back the attention of the woman he loves

Haood intentions, until he gets caught up by the very syste to use

Gabriela, who--like most people today--is convinced that fame is an end in and of itself, the suprehest achievement in life

With these characters in mind, I wrote The Winner Stands Alone--not a thriller, but a crude portrait of where we are now

PAULO COELHO

3:17 AM

The Beretta Px4 cohs around seven hundred graht, invisible when carried in a pocket, and its s through the victi in its path

Obviously, the chances of surviving a shot of that caliber are fairly high; there are thousands of cases in which no vital artery was severed and the victim had time to react and disar the pistol is experienced enough, he can opt either for a quick death--by ai at the point between the eyes or at the heart--or for a slower one--by placing the barrel at a certain angle close to the ribs and squeezing the trigger The person shot takes a while to realize that he has been ht back, run away, or call for help The great advantage of this is that the victith ebbs sloay and he falls to the ground, with little external loss of blood, still not fully understanding why this is happening to him

It is far froht--in a lady's handbag No stopping power though," someone in the British Secret Service tells James Bond in the first fil Bond's old pistol and handing him a new model However, that advice applied only to professionals, and for what he now had in mind it was perfect

He had bought the Beretta on the black market so that it would be iazine, although he intends to use only one, the tip of which he hasa nail file That hen it's fired and hits so solid, it will break into four pieces

He will only use the Beretta as a last resort There are other ways of extinguishing a world, of destroying a universe, and she will probably understand the e as soon as the first victim is found She will know that he did it in the name of love, and that he feels no resentment, but will take her back and ask no questions about her life during these past two years

He hopes that sixwill produce results, but he will only know for sure to His plan is to allow the Furies, those ancient figures fros to that blue-and-white landscape full of diah-speed cars of no use to anyone because they carry only two passengers With the little artifacts he has brought with him, all those dreams of power, success, fame, and money could be punctured in an instant

He could have gone up to his roo to witness occurred at 11:11 PM, although he would have been prepared to wait for even longer The man and his beautiful co dress--for yet another of those gala events that take place each night after every important supper, and which attracted more people than any film premiere at the Festival