Chapter 65 Gasping Breath

• Arkan caught Wilhelmina's body just before her head struck the wooden floor. She weighed so little, so out of keeping with the woman who had haunted Rania and Aleksander's lives for weeks, that for a moment he forgot whose body he was holding. Her lips were blue, her chest rose and fell with a shallow, wet rasping sound, and her fingers clawed at the sleeve of his jacket like the fingers of someone drowning.
• “Help!” he shouted toward the dark hallway at the back of the room. “Anyone!”
• Hurried footsteps came from the kitchen, and a wiry old man appeared, dragging a small oxygen tank on wheels. His white hair was cropped short, and the way he moved, so efficient, so wordless, said he had done this hundreds of times. Without asking anything, he fitted the mask over Wilhelmina's face and turned the valve until the hiss of gas could be heard.