Burned - Alex Verus 7 by Benedict Jacka

Author:Benedict Jacka
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

11

Most people in the world don’t travel much. In a lot of cases it’s because they just don’t want to. Either they don’t have any real interest in seeing other places, or they’re too occupied with the life they’re living already. But for a lot of people, it’s not a case of not wanting to, it’s that they can’t – either they don’t have the time or the money, or there’s something actively preventing them from leaving. When you’re in that second group, you usually have fantasies about getting to travel and see the world, visiting different cultures and having new experiences. There are people who spend their whole lives dreaming about journeys overseas.

So it’s really kind of sad that once you finally do get to spend a lot of time travelling, you tend not to appreciate it very much. Take me, for instance. I’ve visited more countries of the world than I can easily remember. I’ve even visited places not in this world, from bubble realms to shadow realms to the dreamscapes of Elsewhere. I’ve stood upon the tops of towers and looked out over castles the size of cities, walked through ancient forests where the trees have passed hundreds of years without hearing a human footstep, seen impossible alien landscapes that could never exist on Earth. Unfortunately, in pretty much every one of those cases, I’ve generally had more pressing concerns to worry about – either there are people trying to kill me, or people who might want to kill me, or things that aren’t people that might want to kill me, or people or things that don’t necessarily want to kill me but nevertheless are important enough that it’s highly advisable for me to pay attention to them instead of spending my time sightseeing. Usually the place I’m visiting becomes a blur, a few brief images standing out in my memory while I spend my time dealing with various threats and problems. And by the time they’re all sorted out, it’s time to move on.

A prime example was the location I was at now. Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and it’s famous for its historical heritage. It used to form one end of the ancient Silk Road, and it’s been ruled over the centuries by Romans, Byzantines, Mameluks, Ottomans and just about everyone else who had an empire in the area. Each of them left behind their own architectural legacy, and the Old City is supposed to be fascinating. It would have been nice to wander around and see the sights.

Right now I was not wandering around and seeing the sights for three reasons. First, it was dark. Second, the city was in the middle of a civil war. And third, I was supposed to be conducting surveillance on the inhabitants of the building across the street. Which was why, instead of enjoying the experiences of travel and new cultures, I was crouched on a dusty rooftop, hiding behind a parapet,

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