The colonel seemed mentally preoccupied, as if he were constantly on the verge of saying something he did not want to say.
“I travelled a lot as a young soldier before the war," he began without prelude. “I served as a foreign recruit with the British in southern Africa and with the French in Tonkin and Cambodia. Strange things happen there—things you couldn't dream. That's one of the reasons I believe anything can be possible."
Dvorak looked directly at his host. “So," he said in a low voice, “you believe it too? That the thing was alive?"
