Three Brothers by Joerg H. Trauboth

Author:Joerg H. Trauboth
Language: deu
Format: epub
Publisher: ratio-books
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Cologne

Thomas is looking forward to Berlin. The government is planning to publicly announce a policy change in the use of German Armed Forces in Afghanistan with a press conference including a number of specifically chosen advisors. He is travelling to Berlin in his combat uniform and with no luggage. He plans to be back in Cologne by the evening, before he heads to Hammelburg to join the others and depart for the training exercise in Afghanistan.

In the reception hall of the train station he sees the horrifying images from Büchel on the television screens, it all happened less than an hour ago. There are police, military, and emergency helicopters everywhere. The images of his last mission in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush Mountains are immediately present. As if at the push of a button. As if they have never left. Is this crap going to start happening here, he wonders, I have to call Marc right away and ask him what he thinks of it.

The people in the train station pause for a moment. “My God, how horrible,” some of them say.

But Büchel is far away. These people have places to be, they rush to their trains. But they cannot avoid the devastation. The wave of media attention sends fear and terror into every corner of the country of 80 million people, making each of them aware that they could be the next victim.

The Intercity Express 555, scheduled for departure at 08:48 to Berlin is a few minutes delayed. On this Friday morning, just like every morning, the platform is swelling with people. Many of them are tourists who want to visit the German capital for the weekend. Thomas’s employer had generously bought him a reserved seat in the first-class section at the front of the train.

“Attention on the platform, the train is arriving!”

The ICE train shrieks to a stop, the doors open, and the travelers disembark with their luggage and fight their way through the masses of people waiting to board. Thomas looks down the platform to the end of the train and sees two railway policemen with dogs talking to each other. Then he suddenly hears something that makes him shutter:

“ALLAHU AKBAR! WAR ON THE UNBELIEVERS!”

He sees a tall, blonde man with a beard, nickel-framed glasses, and a huge backpack throw his hands up in the air. Thomas does not hesitate for a second, he pulls out his pistol and aims at the man, but there are too many people in between. He cannot get a clear shot. The railway policemen remain motionless.

Thomas is caught by the powerful waves of pressure and hurled through the blasted wall of the train car to the newly boarded passengers.

Glass, people, and debris fly through the air.

Thomas is laying in the gangway amongst innumerable bodies. He carefully feels his face, then the rest of his body, he seems unharmed. Apart from the awful ringing in his ears. The old woman next to him silently looks at him with wide, open eyes. She grabs on to him as though she’s expecting another wave of horror.

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