Fifteen minute break

“Hey there, neighbor!” Dajana panted.

Viktoria’s piercing scream shot through the humid, gasoline-smelling underground garage and echoed for several long seconds.

Dajana stared at her, stunned.

Dajana drummed her fingernails on the grimy glass table of the rooftop terrace, slow and tense. A tiny muscle kept twitching in her cheek, her forehead folding into wrinkles on its own.

At least forty-eight hours must have passed since Ted had first pretended to be unconscious. He tried to piece it together from the two figures who appeared around him from time to time.

“Let’s see…” María José rubbed her dry palms together, trembling with excitement.

She straightened the four-legged magnetic board, adjusting it carefully so it wouldn’t wobble.

“One thing’s clear,” Bernard burst out the moment Günter finally disappeared into his own house. “You’ve let your emotions take over your brain — but risking everything just because you can’t control yourself? That’s beyond stupid!”

Bernard carefully arranged the breakfast table on the patio. The sun was still low, its rays not yet reaching the surface of the pool. The complex lay wrapped in peaceful silence; its residents were in no hurry to start the day.

Dajana crossed the courtyard with a proud smile on her face. It was as if Viktoria asking her for a favor had been some sort of distinction.

The afternoon sunlight shimmered dazzlingly on the surface of the pool.

“Hey there, neighbor!” Noud called out cheerfully.

“You filthy, red-haired, arrogant bastard!”

Noud rushed down the stairs, his lips pressed tightly together, forcing himself not to shout—or rather, not to scream it into the suffocating air of the stairwell. He was about to explode with rage.