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“We’ll get through even this,” Marta finally uttered.
Falling into a deep sleep, Torne caught one small thought
by the tail, that had settled in him recently: he would never
be able to “zero” anyone, even for the sake of Marta. And
that thought in a strange way granted him peace.
February 2042
THE DEVICE
Maximilian jumped over the four steps of the porch and
ended up in front of the door of his brother’s building.
Gregor had been living there from the time he began his
dark deeds. Max was 14, and everything that his older
brother had achieved in his 25 years stirred up envy in the
younger.
As they had prearranged, instead of pressing the doorbell,
Maximilian would knock three times. At first he could hear
the barking of the Staffordshire terrier Cerberus. Then
Gregor opened up the door, with the habit of looking his
younger brother over sardonically and wagging his bushy
head of dreadlocks from side to side.
“Hi there, Bullshit, come in,” this standard greeting always
stirred Max’s fighting spirit – it was as though he had
wound up in his baby bed with his pants full and fearful