In order to guarantee his safe passage, he had been given the Maronite’s papers; he would have to rely on his shrewdness to outsmart the Italian army, but the Maronite’s papers would help him overcome those invisible gates and their ferocious guardians. Although he was familiar with that country and he knew its master, something had changed inside him: he no longer belonged to the giant, to that tragic, powerful lord of darkness – instead he was now owned by a merchant, a young man who confidently steered his ship through the boundless sea.
To reassure himself, Abdelkarim patted the Maronite’s papers hidden inside his wide white belt.
Until he’d accomplished his mission and delivered his message, Abdelkarim would only encounter obstacles he knew how to avoid: the nets that the occupying
