“He lit a papirosa and surveyed his surroundings. Two customers were filling their tanks at the pumps. One was a weather-beaten old man, the other a gum-chewing teenage girl. A third car was parked outside the entrance of the convenience mart. That one had a couple of kids in the backseat. Kruchina had two of his own. They lived with their mother in Volgograd. He hadn’t seen them since the beginning of the war. They thought he was a hero, his kids. A defender of the motherland, a fighter for Uncle Vova. Kruchina had begged their mother to smash the television.” (Daniel Silva, The Collector)
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