She wakes up to silence, though in the night she was twice woken by an unbearable roaring in her ears, only to find the dark room and its small, comforting emptiness around her. But now there is complete stillness. She has never known such a thing in Piraeus.

She splashes herself with tepid water from the jug to get rid of the smell of night sweat, and scrubs off every trace of yesterday’s make-up. Then she dresses in the clothes she keeps here at the Cordelio: a smart, dark navy bouclé wool jacket with short leg o’mutton sleeves and a matching A-line skirt, which she got a local seamstress to make up for her. ‘Spend everything you have on your clothes, my darling,’ her mother always said. ‘If the whole thing burns again, you’ll have something nice on your back when you escape.’ None of this would have surprised Mama, she thinks, as she puts on fresh make-up. When she walks into the main room of the Cordelio, she finds Niko standing in the half-open door. The room is empty otherwise, though the wireless is on. The boarded-up windows and dim lightbulb make the room feel as if it is underwater. The national anthem is playing. It stops, and after a short pause, starts again from the beginning. Hearing the tap of her heels, Niko wheels around, sees it is her and relaxes. ‘My God, koukla. You look just like a goddess. You’re the only good thing these eyes have seen today.’

‘It’s happened, hasn’t it?’ she says. ‘The Germans are here.’

Niko tugs angrily at his moustache. The radio begins to play the anthem again. ‘I shall always know you, by the fearsome sword you hold …’ Snarling, Niko runs to switch it off. ‘Bastards: as if they hadn’t surrendered. Yes, the Germans have come. Och, this fucking world.’

He makes a briki of coffee and they drink it together at one of the tables.

‘I’m worried about Pavlo,’ Zoë says. ‘And Apostoli. What if the Germans pick them up?’

‘Your brother can look after himself. He’s clueless – for God’s sake, with all the junk he puts into his arm! – but he’s as lucky as any man I’ve ever known.’

‘Lucky, Niko? Are you sure about that?’

‘First, he had Katina Valavani for a mother. Second, he has you for a sister. And third, he has the Devil on his back, telling him where to put his feet. He walks through life like a blind man and yet he never steps in shit.’

‘I have to worry. He’s my little brother, and I promised to look after him.’