"How could I have carried so much evil in my womb?! Hell is not big enough to contain all of the evil you have!" She lifted her cane again but did not hit him this time. "Now tell this man where to find the woman he loves and his son!" The old woman hobbled away, stopping for a moment to straighten her body.
Nikolas approached Dr. Tsipras. "Okay, now it is just you and me. Don't make me do something I will regret later."
"Okay, okay, just take it easy," pleaded the doctor in a trembling voice.
"Tell me everything. I want the truth!
Where is Anna, where is my son?"
"It wouldn't be a good idea for you to see him right now."
"Why?"
"Because he is young and he thinks that you are dead."
"Where is he? Tell me."
"His uncle Plato is an Air Force helicopter pilot based on the island of Crete or Rhodes, I'm not really sure. He is all over the
Aegean Sea. Your son is with him. He thinks of Plato as his father, but I don't know exactly where he is."
"I see," murmured Nikolas, looking down.
"As I said before, all in good time, Nikolas. Have patience."
"Patience?" Nikolas asked incredulously.
For a while, he stared silently at the man and for the first time now realized how much evil was lurking in him. He saw a slug, slimy and low, a faceless parasite that lives treacherously in the dark. Unnoticed, it consumes its victims, one by one.
"It is all very clear," continued Nikolas, a big sigh emerging from his lips. "How about
Anna? Where is she?"
Dr. Tsipras tried to sit up. "Anna? Oh, yes, Anna, Elder Anna! She is an Abbess in a monastery, converting an old men's monastery into a convent. Would you believe that? Anna always wanted to be the best, always to be on top. But she failed. She failed miserably when she met you."
Nikolas hit him again, but Dr. Vassili Tsipras smiled cruelly and went on, "If she had married me, she would be a doctor's wife, and have everything she would want. And now, she
waits for a ghost, a shadow, an adolescent's dream."
"Your time has come, Vassili Tsipras! I'll kill you!" Nikolas grabbed the doctor by the throat, clenching his teeth. "Where is Anna!" he demanded again.
The doctor's face turned blue, his tongue hung out, and he tapped on the floor with his foot, giving the impression that he was ready to talk. Nikolas loosened his grip. Taking deep breaths, Doctor Vassili Tsipras pointed west, and then began speaking: