"I would fight for her and, if it came to it, I think I would be capable of killing for her."
Ewa can stand the pressure no longer; she would like to say everything she knows about the man on her right. She is sure that he murdered the actor and destroyed her new companion's long-cherished dream of becoming a film producer.
"Let's go back up."
What she really wants to say is: "Please, let's get out of here now. You're talking to a psychopath."
Igor appears not to hear what she said.
"You'd be capable of killing for her, so that means you'd be capable of dying for her too."
"If I fought and lost, yes, I think I would. But let's not start a fight here on the beach."
"I want to go back up to the party," says Ewa again.
Hamid, however, feels his male pride is in question. He can't leave there like a coward. The ancient dance performed by males--humans and animals--in order to impress the female is just beginning.
"When you left, I somehow couldn't be myself," says Igor, as if he were alone on the beach. "My business was prospering, and I could keep control of myself during the day, but at night, I would plunge into black depression. I had lost a part of myself I could never recover. I thought I might be able to do that by coming here to Cannes, but when I arrived, I realized that the part of me that had died couldn't and shouldn't be resuscitated. I'll never take you back, not even if you came to me on bended knee, begging forgiveness and threatening suicide."
Ewa breathed easier; at least there wouldn't be a fight.
"You didn't understand my messages. I said I would be capable of destroying whole worlds, and you didn't get it. Or if you did, you couldn't believe it. What does it mean to destroy a world?"
He puts his hand in his trouser pocket and takes out a small gun. He doesn't point it at anyone, though; his eyes remain fixed on the sea and the moon. The blood starts to flow faster in Hamid's veins. Igor either wants to frighten and humiliate them or this really is a fight to the death. But will he kill them there, at the party, knowing that he'll be arrested as soon as he goes back up the steps? He can't be that mad; if he were, he could never have achieved all he has achieved in life.
Enough distractions. He is a warrior trained to defend himself and to attack. He must stay absolutely still because, although the other man isn't looking directly at him, he knows that his senses will be alert to any gesture.
The only part of his body he can safely move is his eyes, and he can see that there is no one else on the beach. Up above, the band is just beginning to tune their instruments, preparing for the most enjoyable segment of the party. Hamid isn't thinking, his instincts are now focused on acting without the interference of his brain.
Ewa is sitting between him and Igor, and she seems hypnotized by the sight of the gun. If he tries anything, Igor will turn and shoot and she might get hit.
Yes, perhaps his first hypothesis was correct. Igor just wants to frighten them, to force Hamid to show himself to be a coward and lose his honor. If he really wanted to shoot them, he wouldn't be holding the gun in that casual manner. It would be best to talk and try to get him to relax a little, while he thinks of some way out.
"What does destroying a world mean?" he asks.
"Destroying a life. A whole universe gone. Everything that person saw and experienced; all the good and the bad that came his way; all his dreams, hopes, defeats, and victories ceasing to exist. As children, we learned by heart a passage which I only later found out came from a Protestant priest. He said something like: 'When the sea bears away into its depths a single grain of sand, the whole of Europe grows smaller.' We don't notice, of course. After all, it's just a grain of sand, but at that very moment the continent is diminished."
Igor pauses. He's starting to feel irritated with the noise from up above; the sound of the waves was so calming, allowing him to treat this moment with the respect it deserves. The angel with the dark eyebrows is watching and is happy with what she sees.
"It was supposed to teach us that we were responsible for creating the perfect society, namely Communism," he goes on. "We were all brothers and sisters, they said, but, in fact, we were spies trained to betray each other."
He becomes calm and thoughtful again.
"I can't quite hear you."
This will give him a reason to move.
"Of course you can. You know that I have a gun in my hand and you want to come closer to see if you can grab it off me. You're trying to engage me in conversation in order to distract me while you consider what to do. Please, don't move. The moment hasn't yet come."
"Igor, let's just drop the whole thing," Ewa says in Russian. "I love you. Let's go away together."
"Speak in English. Your companion here needs to understand what you're saying."
Yes, he would understand, and later on, he would thank her for it.
"I love you," she says again, in English this time. "I never received your messages. If I had, I would have come running back. I tried several times to phone you, but never got through. I left many messages with your secretary, but you never called me."
"That's true."