17At the beginning of June, the hard-drinking retired colonel of the Republican Army, Napoleon Zervas, returned to Epirus, where he was born. Word spread quickly throughout the region that the well-loved Zervas was forming a guerrilla force. Fearless but not flawless, the card-playing bon vivant had the ability to create the spark that could ignite an armed resistance movement. Of course one of the first he approached in Metsovo was Yiannis, the seasoned front line surgeon. The meeting had taken place in a temporary camp Zervas had set up at Katara, where he was combing the neighboring villages for recruits. Yiannis told the swarthy, stocky colonel he would think about it. And he did, although he didn’t discuss it with anyone. He would have appreciated Maria Christina’s thoughts on the res
