He went upstairs.
Eamon turned toward the kitchen. “I’m going to review the balcony angles again on the floor plan,” he said.
Luca turned his head and inclined it toward the courtyard. I followed. He settled into one of the wrought-iron chairs, and I sat across from him.
“You’re somewhere else,” he said.
“I’m thinking about the moment.”
“Which moment?”
“When it happens. The concert. How it will unfold.”
“I wonder if I will look away.”
I nodded.
“Is that what happened in the Army?” Luca asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Did you look away at the wrong time?”
I held his gaze for a few seconds and then looked down. Luca was patient. I exhaled and leaned forward, my hands on my knees.
“It didn’t really happen like that. There was a sequence of events.”
He waited for me to continue.
“Afghanistan. Eastern mountains. Dry air, the kind that cracks lips. Our unit was attached to a convoy escort that day. It was a routine movement.”
An image of the valley we traveled through unfolded in my mind. “Two vehicles ahead of us hit a roadside device. A dull thump first, then dust lifting off the road in a slow gray cloud. Not large enough to destroy them, but large enough to stop the column. Standard protocol was to secure the perimeter, wait for the ordnance team, and hold position.”
“And that’s what you did?”
“Yes, for about four minutes.” I looked at my hands on the table. “There was a village about three hundred meters up the slope. Mud walls. A line of low houses climbing the hill.”
Luca leaned back slightly.
“We could see movement in it. Some people were trying to pull other people inside quickly. There were men taking positions along the upper wall.” I stopped briefly. “They were about to set mortar tubes, sufficient to take us out. Once they had us pinned at the vehicles, the convoy would have no angle on them.”
“You were certain,” Luca said.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Pattern recognition,” I said. “I’d seen the same thing twice before in different places.”
Luca nodded once.
“I had a line up the slope. If I moved fast enough, I could get inside the village before they finished setting the second tube.” I paused. “The plan we were supposed to follow was to wait for the ordnance team. Secure the vehicles. Return fire if attacked.”
“But you’d already calculated that waiting made it worse.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me steadily. “So you left the perimeter.”
