Page 92 of Carbon

“What kind of tattoos? Where?”

“An infinity symbol over his heart that he got for me.” The simplest but my favourite. “A Chinese symbol at the top of his back that he said happened while he was drunk, and, uh, this circle with flames coming out of it on his arm.”

“Can you draw them?”

“I can try.”

Nye passed me a sheet of plain white paper, and Emmy handed me my fountain pen. I drew the infinity symbol first. A thin black line, simple. Nothing to indicate the complexities locked into the heart that lay underneath it.

“I never saw the symbol on his back. Ben said he didn’t know what it meant either.”

“How about the third one?”

I started with the circle at the bottom, then added a thinner line inside it and closed my eyes as I tried to remember what the rest of it looked like. One tall central flame, I was sure of that part, and shorter ones either side. The outermost curved downwards like a Fleur de Lys. My lines went wobbly as I recalled the one and only time I’d seen the pattern gracing Ben’s arm, and I itched to be able to reach out and touch it.

I’d barely got the outline done when Emmy began tapping away on her phone. She held up the screen for me to see.

“Did it look like that?”

Yes! “Exactly like that. Where did you find it?”

“I’ve seen it a few times before.”

“Where? What does it mean?”

Could we finally have found a clue to Ben’s hidden identity?

25

Emmy tapped the phone, and the symbol appeared on the big screen that dominated one wall of the room.

“La grenade à sept flammes. The seven-flame grenade. It’s the emblem of the French Foreign Legion. And if Ben Durham cared enough to get it permanently inked on his body, I very much suspect he was a legionnaire.”

“Legio patria nostra,” Xav muttered.

“What?” I didn’t understand any of that.

“Their motto. The legion is our fatherland.”

“It would also explain why we can’t find any trace of Durham after he turned eighteen. All recruits are required to join under an assumed name,” Emmy said.

“Why? Isn’t that dishonest?”

“Joining the legion represents a fresh start. Many of the recruits have, shall we say, troubled histories.”

The thought of a young Ben running to France to get away from his old life was another ice crystal through my fragile heart. Was it a coincidence that he’d joined up so soon after my mother told him I’d moved on? I hoped so, but I suspected otherwise. Hang on, didn’t he say he’d had problems with his own mother too?

At the other end of the table, Luke tapped away on his keyboard. “I think the legion uses a separate computer network, and I’ve never tried to access it. I’ll call Mack, but it might take us a while to get that information. Also, my French is shit.”

“I can translate,” Emmy said. “Or Xav or Sofia. But I’ve got a better idea. This may be a case where human intelligence wins out.”

She pushed back her chair and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?

“I need to make a few phone calls.”

She swept from the room, and as soon as the door closed behind her, everybody began speaking at once.

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