Chapter 4 Chapter two
Sinead had an unhappy childhood.She looked out the window of the plane, and those bad memories came back to her again.She thought of that afternoon in Derry, the afternoon that had shaped her life.
"What are they going to give you for Christmas?" Louise asked.With one hand she brushed the long red hair off her small freckled face, while with the other she clutched her heavy schoolbag tightly.
"I don't know," Sinead shrugged, "I hope they will buy some cosmetics for me in Ulis."
"I'll get a new radio," Angela interjected.She opened her brown eyes wide with excitement at the thought.
"But you already have one." Louise looked at her little friend and frowned.
"But it's blue."
"What's wrong with blue?" asked Sinead.Suddenly she found that there were only three of them on the whole road.The road leads to the housing estate in the center of the Bergside, where they all live.The three little girls have known each other since the first day of primary school and have been inseparable ever since.
"Because it's not pink," Angela argued, "I want a pink one."
"You always have what you want," Louise said in a sour tone, "I wish I could have parents like that."
"I think so too," Sinead said, stopping and grabbing Louise's sleeve, "don't move," she looked around, "do you hear that?"
Her two little friends looked a little overwhelmed.Louise grabbed her bag tightly, while Angela turned her head nervously to look around.
"Come on, you're scaring me," Louise whispered.
"I didn't hear anything," Angela said.
"Yes," Sinead said, "it's just too quiet, and there's no one on this road."
"My God!" Louise exclaimed, "we'd better run away."
They know what's coming next.It's part of their daily lives, but sometimes they forget—perhaps subconsciously choosing to ignore this harsh reality.Apparently the word came out from above that the entire street was going to be cleared so no innocents could be hurt, but people forgot to tell the three girls.
A British patrol appeared on a path in front of them, and Sinide exclaimed, "This is bad!"
Without warning, a volley of bullets flew from an abandoned house and landed on the girls' left.The soldiers fell to the ground and quickly launched a counterattack against the IRA.
"Run! Run!" Louise screamed, dropped her schoolbag and ran, followed by Angela.
"No!" Sinead yelled, "Squat down! Quickly squat down."
A gunfight broke out, with bullets flying everywhere.Sinide lay down on the ground, looking at the street in front of her in horror, but when she saw Louise and Angela lying on the ground as well, she seemed to come alive again.Thank goodness.She breathed a sigh of relief and closed her eyes.Bullets flew around, crackling and hitting the asphalt road.
As the comrades began a second round of firefights, a British soldier ran to the house where the IRA militants were hiding.He crawled next to Sinide, and asked after a pause, "Are you okay, dear."
Sinead nodded, but didn't tell him that she was so scared that she wet her pants.Mom will kill her.
When the fighting subsided a bit, the British soldier continued to move forward and climbed to the intersection of the path leading to the front door of the house.He turned around and waved to the other three companions to advance, not expecting to be fired back by the Republicans.Based on the experience of dealing with terrorists in the past, these terrorists should have escaped through the back door and fled back to the hiding place deep in Bergside.
Sinide struggled to stand up and ran to her friends.Meanwhile, explosions toppled the dilapidated house—a lure at the front door claimed the lives of three British soldiers.
"My God, God, Mother Mary!" Sinead screamed, "Help me, someone help me!"
When the neighbors ran out, they only saw this scene: Sinide fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face, and her hands were bloody. "Louise, no, Louise, please God, don't do this."
A man pulls her up and two women bend down to save Louise and Angela, but there's nothing more they can do - the two little girls are already dead in the firefight.
After downing a gin and tonic, Lindsay dozed off.The plane was passing through Bristol and encountered a turbulence while crossing the English Channel.She woke up with a start and looked up to see the man sitting across the aisle, still absorbed in a Dan Brown novel. Since becoming a member of the "Irish Times", Lindsay has devoted herself to her career, and of course she has no time to fall in love.But in her opinion, the only part of being in a relationship that you miss is sex, and the more you're single, the less it's a big deal. God, hope I don't become frigid.she thinks. Lindsay pondered the task before him.Every big shot was going to Venice, the news was going to make her a name, and she just hoped she could handle the next twice-a-day deadline. Little did she know that the challenge that awaited her was far more daunting than that. Far beyond imagination.
"Did they contact us?" "Not yet, sir." At this time yesterday, thousands of foreign tourists were still prowling Piazza San Marco and the water's edge in the heart of Venice, and now even those pesky pigeons are afraid to risk flying into it.More and more Italian Army and Gendarmerie regiments entered the area and blocked it from the outside world. At the same time, there were several members of the Italian Special Forces at the scene. Several helicopters belonging to the Italian Air Force hovered over the square, monitoring the situation on high alert, while the lagoon outside was full of Italian Navy ships. To make matters worse, the rising tide over the city walls, into the square and surrounding shops. "Al Qaeda?" Alberto Ghirlandaio was the head of the Gendarmerie.This was the first time he had encountered such a situation, and although it wasn't too much to deal with, it was coming soon. "I don't think so," replied General Edgardo Bucharettini, the Italian army chief of staff. "It's not very their style." "Do you know what their goal is?" Alberto is five years away from retiring. He has been relying on this job for the past 16 years to make a living, but the development of things makes him doubt whether he can still Stay till Christmas. This is not what he wants right now. The ground suddenly shook, and the general looked at Alberto uneasily.The soldiers occupying the square began to rush to the shore, where the wreckage of gondolas littered the water. A second explosion followed. The windows of the five-star hotel Dandolo Palace became shattered, and glass shards hit the terrified staff inside like a torrential rain. "It's a bomb." Edgardo said the obvious fact, and Abeto agreed. Until recently, Venice had been spared terrorist attacks, and the most recent one was only in Rome.Abeto remembers his time in Rome when a group of terrorists calling themselves the Anti-Imperial International Brigade fired rockets at the British and American embassies in protest of an international economic summit in the city.After that came the car bombing next to the US embassy.Thankfully, Abeto was transferred to Venice about two weeks later.Venice had been a paradise—until that very moment. As Abeto walked towards the shore, his cell phone rang. "They want to talk."
Notes: .
After downing a gin and tonic, Lindsay dozed off.The plane was passing through Bristol and encountered a turbulence while crossing the English Channel.She woke up with a start and looked up to see the man sitting across the aisle, still absorbed in a Dan Brown novel. Since becoming a member of the "Irish Times", Lindsay has devoted herself to her career, and of course she has no time to fall in love.But in her opinion, the only part of being in a relationship that you miss is sex, and the more you're single, the less it's a big deal. God, hope I don't become frigid.she thinks. Lindsay pondered the task before him.Every big shot was going to Venice, the news was going to make her a name, and she just hoped she could handle the next twice-a-day deadline. Little did she know that the challenge that awaited her was far more daunting than that. Far beyond imagination.
"Did they contact us?" "Not yet, sir." At this time yesterday, thousands of foreign tourists were still prowling Piazza San Marco and the water's edge in the heart of Venice, and now even those pesky pigeons are afraid to risk flying into it.More and more Italian Army and Gendarmerie regiments entered the area and blocked it from the outside world. At the same time, there were several members of the Italian Special Forces at the scene. Several helicopters belonging to the Italian Air Force hovered over the square, monitoring the situation on high alert, while the lagoon outside was full of Italian Navy ships. To make matters worse, the rising tide over the city walls, into the square and surrounding shops. "Al Qaeda?" Alberto Ghirlandaio was the head of the Gendarmerie.This was the first time he had encountered such a situation, and although it wasn't too much to deal with, it was coming soon. "I don't think so," replied General Edgardo Bucharettini, the Italian army chief of staff. "It's not very their style." "Do you know what their goal is?" Alberto is five years away from retiring. He has been relying on this job for the past 16 years to make a living, but the development of things makes him doubt whether he can still Stay till Christmas. This is not what he wants right now. The ground suddenly shook, and the general looked at Alberto uneasily.The soldiers occupying the square began to rush to the shore, where the wreckage of gondolas littered the water. A second explosion followed. The windows of the five-star hotel Dandolo Palace became shattered, and glass shards hit the terrified staff inside like a torrential rain. "It's a bomb." Edgardo said the obvious fact, and Abeto agreed. Until recently, Venice had been spared terrorist attacks, and the most recent one was only in Rome.Abeto remembers his time in Rome when a group of terrorists calling themselves the Anti-Imperial International Brigade fired rockets at the British and American embassies in protest of an international economic summit in the city.After that came the car bombing next to the US embassy.Thankfully, Abeto was transferred to Venice about two weeks later.Venice had been a paradise—until that very moment. As Abeto walked towards the shore, his cell phone rang. "They want to talk."
Notes: .