Page 96 of Carbon

We all gathered around while Gideon took the seat to the right of Black’s and paused for a few seconds, fingers steepled as he thought through his words.

“Ben Durant joined the foreign legion at eighteen, and even during the selection process, it was evident he possessed skills most of his peers did not. Many who join the legion are followers, and the culture is to do as you’re told without asking questions. But Ben did ask questions, and while it rankled some, it also meant he caught the attention of those in command, and that’s how he initially got onto DGSE’s radar a number of years ago.”

“What’s DGSE?” I whispered to Nye, who was sitting next to me.

“Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure. France’s external intelligence agency.”

“Like MI6 or the CIA?”

“That’s right.”

Wow. That sounded serious, but how did it leave Ben on the run now?

Gideon continued, “We borrowed Ben for the occasional job over the years, after he became a French citizen at nineteen by the process known asFrançais par le sang versé.” He glanced at me. “It means French by spilled blood. He was shot while hunting illegal gold miners in French Guiana.”

My hands flew to my mouth. “Shot? Where?”

“In his left leg. Not too serious, luckily.”

“So, what went wrong last year?” Black asked.

“Ben was stationed in Chad, with the deuxième Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes. Their mission was to disrupt the extremist groups operating in the region—never easy, but relatively routine. Except one day, Ben walked in on his French commanding officer and a first class legionnaire raping a woman and her ten-year-old daughter. According to his testimony, they laughed and invited him to join in, but that didn’t sit too well with his moral values. Unfortunately, in the ensuing fight the first class legionnaire, a Polish man by the name of Radek Bosko, died, and Durant damn near took out the officer as well.”

Emmy moved to sit next to me at that latest revelation. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head. What was the point in lying? Ben had killed a man. That should have scared me, but under the circumstances, I felt pride rather than fear.

She caught Gideon’s eye. “Go easy, Ren.”

He gave a barely perceptible nod. “The mother died, but the little girl survived. Of course, it got hushed up. France didn’t want the bad publicity, and the officer’s father was and still is a prominent politician. The affair was a disaster all round. The child, Kali, gave a statement saying Ben only pushed Bosko and he hit his head, which fitted with the autopsy findings. But he laid into Guy Leroux and broke his nose and three ribs as well as damaging his kidneys.”

“Good,” I muttered.

“Ben got dishonourably discharged, and Leroux got sent to a secure hospital after several of the regiment testified with a promise of immunity to say it wasn’t the first time he’d acted like that.”

“Hospital?” Black asked. “Surely that deserved prison? Leroux senior’s influence again?”

“Oui.”

“How did he get out? Escape?”

“Would you believe he got released when his latest psychological evaluation came back clear? It stinks like theputain de merdehis papa is. I didn’t find out until Emmy called me earlier—the corrupt assholes who made that decision have done a good job of keeping it quiet. Money, I suspect.”

“And now Leroux junior’s in London.”

“It certainly seems that way.”

Bile rose in my throat, and I fought to swallow it back down. That...that animal was after Ben, and judging by the camera footage from the hospital, he’d already hurt him once.

“What resources does he have? How well trained is he?” Black asked.

“Resources? Everything his papa has to offer. In terms of training, both he and Ben are well practised in both armed and unarmed combat. It could go either way.”

Sofia leapt up and began pacing. “We need to bring Ben in. Now.”

“Agreed,” Black said.

But how?

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