Chapter 17

Standing in the crowded airport terminal, watching the flight information scroll across the screens and listening to the boarding announcements, Julian felt strangely calm. It was as if simply boarding that plane and flying across the ocean could offer him even the slightest hope. Just as he held his boarding pass and was about to head to the security checkpoint, a military courier in uniform rushed through the crowd and stopped in front of him. He snapped to attention, saluted, and handed Julian a sealed telegram marked urgent. "General Hauser, it's an urgent dispatch from the border. There's an emergency on the front lines. Command orders you to return to your unit immediately and lead your squad into action!" Julian's outstretched hand froze in midair. He looked down at the heavy telegram, then up at the plane outside the glass window, slowly taxiing toward the runway. It was the very flight he was supposed to board. The plane's engines roared, as if mocking the futility of h