The Human Body (31 page)

He stops for a moment, just before his armpits start to perspire. He looks up at the gray massif of the Schiara. The clouds are huddled around the peak, as if they were conferring. Whereas in Torino the mountains were a distant border that emerged and vanished depending on the smog, whereas in Gulistan they were a forbidding wall, here in Belluno he could reach out and touch them.

The soldier at the guardhouse raises his hand in salute and remains stock-still as the lieutenant walks by him. Egitto is escorted to his new office on the first floor of the main building. Someone in the room next door is talking on the phone with a marked Trentino accent, laughing often. Egitto goes to the window overlooking the parade ground, which is surrounded by poplars. It's a good location; he'll like it here.

“Lieutenant?”

An NCO stands in the doorway uncertainly, looking like he's about to knock. Who knows why he hasn't and why he's called to him instead. “Yes, Corporal?”

“Welcome, sir. The commander has asked for you. Would you please follow me?”

Egitto picks up his hat, which he'd placed on the table, and adjusts it slantwise on his head. They go up two floors, then halfway down a hall. Here the corporal stops in front of an open door. “He's in here,” he says, motioning for Egitto to enter.

Colonel Giacomo Ballesio puts down the sandwich that he was clenching with both hands. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, then leaps up, bumping the edge of the desk with his belt buckle—the lamp teeters and a pen rolls to the floor. Ballesio pays no attention to that little mishap. He throws his arms open, joyfully. “Lieutenant Egitto, finally! Come in, come in. Sit down. Let's talk.”

The military rankings used in the novel are English translations of the Italian ranks, which differ from NATO equivalents. For example, many of the soldiers bear the rank of
caporalmaggiore
, corporal major or simply corporal, as opposed to NATO's private first class or simply private. Other examples are marshal (
maresciallo
) versus NATO's master sergeant, or first corporal major (
primo caporalmaggiore
) versus NATO's lance corporal.

The
genio
is the Corps of Engineers, the unit responsible for military civil engineering projects (fortifications, trenches, etc.) as well as explosives detection. The bomb disposal unit is part of the
genio
.

Little Trees or Arbre Magique are disposable air fresheners in the shape of a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in cars. They are made of a material very similar to beer coasters and are produced in a variety of colors and scents.

The Lince is an armored four-wheel drive tactical vehicle produced by Iveco and adopted by the Italian Army. It is similar to a Humvee.

When Second Lieutenant Puglisi provokes a fight at the latrines by trying to get ahead of Corporal Major Di Salvo, he warns the corporal not to mess with him because he's from Catania. Di Salvo, undaunted, retorts that he's from Lamezia. Catania is in Sicily, Lamezia Terme in Calabria.

The third of Franz Liszt's Three Concert Études is usually known as
Un sospiro
, Italian for “A sigh.”

The Croma, the car Egitto's family affectionately nicknamed
La Musona
, is a sedan produced by Fiat. The first model appeared in 1985.

The expression
luna mendax
(lying moon) is a counterintuitive Latin mnemonic for remembering whether the moon is waxing or waning: When the moon looks like a D (fuller on the right), it's growing,
luna crescens
(you'd logically expect it to look like a C); when it looks like a C (fuller on the left), it's diminishing,
luna decrescens
(you'd expect it to look like a D).

Dari is the variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan, where, along with Pashto, it is one of two official languages. Also known as Afghan Persian, Dari is mutually intelligible with Persian (Farsi) of Iran.

The Red Zone, outside the security bubble, is a term loosely applied to all unsecured areas beyond the range of a military post.

A hecatomb describes any immense slaughter. In ancient Greece and Rome, it referred to a public sacrifice offered to the gods, consisting of a hundred oxen.

The Schiara is a mountain in the Dolomites in northern Italy, near the town of Belluno.