Flashback

Начало книги

You are reading the second book of the Saskia Brandt series. It may be read as a standalone novel, but it will spoil aspects of the first book, Déjà Vu. If you intend to read Déjà Vu at all, I recommend reading it first.

The second of the two aeroplanes described in this book—British South American Airways’ Star Dust—was real. It did indeed disappear in August, 1947, on a daytime trans-Andean flight between Buenos Aires and Santiago. The aircraft was well maintained; the crew was experienced and capable; weather conditions were good. Its last transmission was a single word that the radio operator keyed fast and clear, twice: ‘STENDEC’. I have cast my story with the actual people involved in that flight: BSAA staff, the crew of the Star Dust, and her passengers.

DFU323 is entirely fictional.

Autumn, 2003, near Regensburg, Germany

This was the place where Tolsdorf had come to die. North was the Bavarian Forest, a dark froth always visible, even on gloomy days. East: the rich plain of the Danube. To the south were the great stone feet of the Alps, and to the west the uplands of Franconia. He had grown to love this area during his work as a ranger for the forest authorities, and when government cuts made the position redundant, he had chosen to stay forever. The idea that he would die here, alone, no longer scared him, because as the twentieth century ended with the loss of his job, something had changed within Tolsdorf. He had reached an amicable divorce with himself. His eyes were steel grey now, not blue, and his hair was white, not blond. When he spat, perched on his rock overlooking the Danube, he looked down at the phlegm and noted the black flecks with indifference. Something was coming for him, alright, and it would find him here.

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