Section 2 Summary

"Pawn to Queen's Fourth"

The meaning of this title is described in the first of the two quotes heading this section. The title is a chess move, part of an attack strategy in which "contact between the opposing forces develops very slowly." The second quote is from an oft=recounted legend of a dying man who attempts to evade death, but finds he can't.

It's December of 1972. Catherine Velis narrates her fall from grace at what she describes as a "Big Eight" accounting firm - her refusal to make an illegal alteration to a document personally prepared by her for the firm, the subsequent irritation of her boss, and the decision by the board of directors to punish her by sending her to Algeria. She describes the posting as described to her, as a job with an oil company loosely affiliated with OPEC...