City of Kabul - Jada-e-Maiwand District

Microrayon Apartment Complex - Three Days Later

The apartment was newly constructed, government-created accommodation. The interior smelled of fresh paint and glue. Leo tried to open the window but it had been bolted shut, perhaps for his security since the Soviet-made glass was shatterproof, each pane costing more to import than an Afghan glassblower earned in a year. He rested against the window, watching as the sunset refracted through dense city smog, transforming a layer of dirt and dust into patterns of red and orange light. He was on the fifth floor, the top floor of what would be, were it situated in the outskirts of Moscow, an anonymous concrete block of apartments unworthy of a second look. But in Kabul the building’s blandness was notable, a foreign anomaly based on Soviet designs entirely unlike the traditional stucco buildings. Built at breakneck speed, using none of the local trades or traditional craftsmanship, these apartment blocks had sprung up across the Jada-e-Maiwand district after the invasion as if from spores. This particular building, finished only last week, had a barbed-wire perimeter fence with security spotlights and was patrolled by Soviet soldiers, not Afghans, a measure of the mistrust between the two forces. Fearing further reprisals after the brutal public spectacle of Dost Mohammad’s death, Soviet personnel, including advisers, had been moved into secure compounds. Leo’s protests had been overruled. There were to be no exceptions. In a matter of hours they’d created an occupation-force ghetto, exactly the legacy of division and suspicion that Dost Mohammad wanted to leave behind.