Invisible Armies

Chapter 5

Laurent and Danielle sit companionably next to one another, beneath the window, their backs to the wall, out of the sun. Occasionally she mops sweat off both of them with her shirt. At least all his cuts, mostly small and ragged, have now clotted shut. She feels weak from hunger and the brain-sapping heat, and they are almost out of water, but these things do not worry her. She has too many worries already, there is no room for any more.

"What brought you to India?" he asks.

"I got a job. In Bangalore."

"Why take it? I'd think Americans wouldn't come."

"I don't know. I was in law school, NYU, and I couldn't stand it any more. I don't know why. I guess I needed to do something drastic. So I came here. Then I quit the job and went to a yoga ashram in Goa. It's not as flaky as it sounds. I'm not like one of those New Age ayurvedic women."

"Right this moment it doesn't much matter to me if you are," Laurent says drily.

"I guess not. Anyways I was doing yoga teacher training at this ashram. I just graduated last week. I was just about to leave, go back to Boston, as soon as I got the certificate."

"And Keiran knew you were in India, so he emailed you to deliver Jayalitha's passport," Laurent says.

Danielle nods. "No indication there might be trouble?"

"No. All he said was that the roads were bad and I might want to go with a friend from the ashram or bring a driver. But after four months in an ashram what I really wanted was to get away from everyone else for a little while, and I was feeling all Little Miss Invincible Biker Chick. Yeah. That worked out well, huh?"

Laurent smiles. "So you were to give Jayalitha her passport and then leave? Only that?"

"No. I was supposed to help her get back to Goa and put her on a plane to England. We were supposed to be in the airport right now. And here I am. Locked up, and beat up, and fucking starving. I'm glad you're here. If you weren't I'd be going nuts right now."

"I'm glad you are here too," Laurent says solemnly.

"What happened to you?"

"I was collecting groundwater samples in a village not far from here. One of the villagers must have informed on me. I woke up surrounded."

"How did you go from the French Foreign Legion to that village?"

"It's a long story."

Danielle looks at him. "You got something better to do with your time?"

"Perhaps not."

"Actually," she says, "begin at the beginning. Why join the Foreign Legion in the first place?"

Laurent shrugs. "I had an unhappy childhood."

"Unhappy how?"

"In the usual ways. Followed by a troubled youth. Again in the usual ways. My story is simple. I wanted to be someone else. And the Legion offered a way. And a certain glamour. And extremity. I've always been drawn to extremes. I despise the ordinary. So here I am, extraordinarily uncomfortable. I don't suppose you know how to pick locks?"

"Sorry. They don't teach you that in the Legion?"

"They do, but these Indian cuffs are unusual. I don't think I can open them while in them. Do you have anything that might work as a pick?"

She shakes her head. "They took my day pack. And my travel pouch. I've still got my wallet. Nothing much useful in there. Some coins. Shoelaces. That's about it."