The Winner Stands Alone

"I will speak English, not out of politeness, but because I want you to understand."

And turning back to Ewa, he says:

"I said I would destroy a whole world to get you back. I started doing that, but was saved by an angel. I realized that you didn't deserve it. You're a selfish, implacable woman, interested only in acquiring more fame and more money. You refused all the good things I offered you because a house deep in the Russian countryside didn't fit in with your dream world, a world, by the way, to which you don't belong and never will.

"I sacrificed myself and others for your sake, and that's not right. I need to go to the very end, so that I can return to the world of the living with a sense of duty done and mission completed. Now, as we speak, I'm in the world of the dead."

THIS MAN'S EYES ARE FILLED with a look of Absolute Evil, thinks Hamid, as he listens to this absurd conversation, full of long silences. Fine, he'll let things go to the very end, as Igor suggests, as long as that doesn't mean him losing the woman he loves. Even better for him, Ewa's ex-husband has not only turned up accompanied by some vulgar woman, he has insulted Ewa to her face. He'll allow him to go on a little longer and will know when to bring the conversation to a halt, when it's too late for Igor to apologize or to beg forgiveness.

Ewa must be seeing the same thing: a blind hatred for everything and everyone, simply because one person didn't do as he wished. He wonders what he would have done were he that man who is now apparently fighting for the woman he loves.

He would, he thinks, be capable of killing for her.

The waiter reappears and notices that the plates are all untouched.

"Is anything wrong with the food?" he asks.

No one answers. The waiter understands: the husband must have caught his wife in flagrante with her lover in Cannes, and this is the final confrontation. He's seen it all before, and it usually ends in a fight or a row.

"Another bottle of wine," says one of the men.

"You don't deserve anything," says the other man, his eyes fixed on the woman. "You used me just as you're using that idiot beside you. You were the biggest mistake of my life."

The waiter decides to check with the host before bringing them that other bottle of wine, but one of the men has just got to his feet, saying to the woman:

"That's enough. We're leaving."

"Yes, let's all leave, let's go outside," says the other man. "I want to see how far you would go to defend a person who doesn't know the meaning of the words 'honor' and 'dignity.'"

Two males fighting over a female. The woman asks them not to go outside, but to return to the table. The man with her, however, seems ready to respond to the insult. The waiter considers warning the security guards that a fight might ensue, but the head waiter is already complaining that the service is too slow, so what is he doing hanging around there? He has other tables to serve. He's right, of course. What happens outside isn't his problem. And if he admits to listening in on a conversation, he'll get told off. He's being paid to wait at tables, not to save the world.

THE THREE OF THEM CROSS the garden where the cocktails had been served and which is now undergoing a rapid transformation. When the guests come down from supper, they'll find a dance floor lit with special lights, a seating area furnished with armchairs, and several small bars all serving free drinks.

Igor walks ahead in silence. Ewa follows, and Hamid brings up the rear. There is a small metal gate at the top of the steps down to the beach. Igor opens it and asks them to go first. Ewa refuses, but he seems not to mind and goes down the many flights of steps that lead to the sea below. He knows that Hamid will not prove to be a coward. Until he met him at the party, he had considered him to be nothing but an unscrupulous couturier, a seducer of married women, and a manipulator of other people's vanity. Now, however, he secretly admires him. He's a real man, capable of fighting to the end for someone he believes to be important, even though Igor knows that Ewa hasn't one iota of the talent of the young actress he met tonight. She can't disguise her feelings at all; he can sense her fear, he knows that she's sweating, wondering whom to call, how to ask for help.

WHEN THEY REACH THE SAND, Igor walks right to the end of the beach and sits down close to some rocks. He asks the others to do the same. He knows that despite her terror, Ewa is also thinking: "I'm going to spoil my dress. I'm going to get my shoes dirty." But she sits down beside him. The other man asks her to move over a little, so that he can sit there, but she won't budge.

He doesn't insist. There they are, the three of them, as if they were old acquaintances in search of a moment's peace in which to contemplate the rising of the full moon before they go back up the steps to listen to the infernal racket of the discotheque.

HAMID PROMISES HIMSELF THAT HE will give Igor ten minutes, time enough for him to say everything that's on his mind, to vent his rage and then go back where he came from. If he turns violent, he'll be the loser because Hamid is physically stronger and, as a Bedouin, trained to respon

d swiftly and precisely to any attack. He doesn't want to cause a scene at the party, but the Russian should be under no illusion: he is prepared for anything.

When they go back up, he'll apologize to their host and explain that the situation has been resolved. He knows he can speak openly to him. He'll tell him that his wife's ex-husband had turned up without warning and that he'd felt it best to remove him before he caused any trouble. If the man doesn't leave as soon as they return to the party, he'll summon one of his own bodyguards to expel him. Igor may well be rich and own one of the largest mobile phone companies in Russia, but he's being a nuisance.

"You betrayed me, not just during the two years you've spent with this man, but during all the years we spent together."

Ewa says nothing.

"What would you be capable of doing in order to keep her?" he asks Hamid.

Hamid wonders whether he should answer or not. Ewa isn't a piece of merchandise to be haggled over.

"Can you rephrase the question?"

"OK. Would you give your life for the woman beside you?"

There is pure evil in the man's eyes. Even if Igor had managed to steal a knife from the restaurant (Hamid hadn't noticed him doing so, but he must consider all possibilities), he will have no problem disarming him. No, he wouldn't give his life for anyone, except God and the chief of his tribe, but he must say something.