The smoke is so damn thick it could be wallpaper.
The ashtray is piled with the remnants of "Popular Brand" cigarettes, and the table is spread with a map of Eastern Europe. The Polish "Lightning" Brigade lost another squad in the Indiana Hills, with 16 men dead and equipment damaged, yet the battle report was buried on the third page, behind updates on the logistics of the British and French armies.
Colonel Wadysław Sochański had both hands on the table, the veins on his neck throbbing.
He had just spent half an hour on the phone with the NATO liaison officer, who was polite and meticulous in his wording, but the core message was the same: "Not my problem, you're on your own."
