38Victim: Aria TheaksLocation: San Cristobal, VenezuelaCompany: United Oil2 February 2008Initial eventAt 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday 2 October, a young woman in a maid’s uniform knocked on the door of Jessica and Connor Theaks. Mr Theaks is a UK national, employed by United Oil and based out of San Cris...
I CAN SMELL the blood. It is all that I can smell. It coats my nostrils, my lungs, it stains the inside of my throat. It is on me. It covers my hands, has turned my white blouse crimson, and I do not know how much of it is mine, how much comes from the dead. The bodies litter the hospital lobby l...
It was rarely used, this barrier, normally unmanned, cars simply coming and going. But it was all change now. A security guard, young with rippling muscles under a too-snug shirt, waiting with a flat face, a steady stare, like he could dissuade a gunman by his expression alone. ‘Here we go again,...
The snow lit up crimson, scarred an acrid black. The heat rolled, barrelling outwards so that the knot of people gathered in the street recoiled, turning their heads towards the cold night. A sound like champagne corks popping, the tinkle of glass and clouds of thicket dense smoke billowed from t...