BETWEEN THE HOTEL and the building that houses the Court lies a pretty park with a canal where ducks and swans swim. The park is an illusion. When you leave it, two fifteen-storey white towers, as cold as icebergs, rise up in front of a noisy expressway. The building is intimidating at first glance, and my step was uncertain as I climbed the dozen steps that led to the revolving doors that opened onto a checkpoint like at the airport. The ID procedures and the photo for the magnetic card impressed me. I would be entering a place of importance, and at first I thought I had aimed too high. After my first meetings, I returned to the hotel in a state of nervous excitement. I didn’t sleep all night. The next day, the prosecutor outlined my responsibilities with greater precision. I was to write position papers based on available information about Thomas Kabanga, a man I had never heard of, who was accused of conscripting and using child soldiers. Hundreds of UN documents, material from NGOs, video interviews with witnesses of the alleged crimes, newspaper articles, radio broadcasts—I had thousands of pages to read and millions of words to listen to. The work they were asking of me seemed outlandish. After a few meetings, as I walked down the long hallways to sign forms and confidentiality agreements, I realized I couldn’t work in an environment like this. Too many pretty women, too beautiful and independent as Amazons, looking you in the eye and telling you “send me an e-mail” when you asked them out for a coffee in all innocence, to avoid another evening alone. Those women were too complicated for me. They spent their days immersed in crimes and exactions, and imagined the worst of others. I decided to move into the Mövenpick and work in my room. I told my superiors that I would be five minutes away by train if they wanted to meet with me. Financially, it made little sense, but I was freed from having to keep house. The hotel kept me from setting down roots, my life was elsewhere, and nothing came between me and my search for the truth about Thomas Kabanga.