‘Any fresh clothes would be much appreciated, sir. There’s no need to apologise for the fact that they’re army apparel.’
‘I appreciate your flexibility,’ he said calmly, a tight smile on his lips, and amusement – or perhaps smugness – sparkling in his eyes. ‘You will dine with me in the main hall in an hour, and there you will meet my fellow Antidote collaborators. They are grown men and women, like ourselves; this city is not only populated by what you so ignorantly think of as “child soldiers”, you see.’
The General grinned eerily, almost savagely at Margaret after he had said this, and a wet chill crept slug-like down her spine. She shuddered as she realised that he had again probed her mind, but she was too frightened to react this time, so she merely nodded compliantly and hoped that he did not notice the crimson splash of embarrassment spreading across her cheeks.
‘Enjoy your bath, Doctor,’ he said as he turned and started to walk away. ‘A soldier will show you to the dining hall in a few hours, and we will speak further then.’
PART FIVE
17
ADRIANA
17th September 2020. Bangkok
Adriana tossed and turned in her sleep, sweating in the oppressive heat of the underground room as she fought her way through a hyperreal nightmare. In the dream she found herself back on the small plot of land that her family tilled to eke out a living; a patch of earth nestled in a tiny village in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. She, the youngest child of the family, minded her siblings’ children while they worked in the fields, or, as was the case with the eldest two, in factories in distant cities during the week.
Adriana was deeply absorbed in her book, a dog-eared and haggard copy of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies in English, her second language, and she devoured the words in a semi-trance as the unruly children wrestled and raced around her feet in the cottage. From outside, however, the sound of a car rolling up the dirt track caused her to pause her reading.
‘Adriana, I’m going into the village to thee what thith ith about,’ her mother lisped through the gaps in her rotten teeth.
It was a rare occurrence that a car entered their remote village, and Adriana’s mother, chief gossip among the local housewives, always had to be first in line for any news from the outside world.
‘Of course, mama,’ Adriana mumbled, not bothering to raise her eyes from the novel. ‘I’ll keep an eye on the little ones.’
The portly woman wrapped a shawl around her head to combat the autumn chill that crisped the air, and then she shuffled out of the humble dwelling. To Adriana, utterly spellbound by the words on the page, her mother seemed to have only been gone for a few seconds when she rushed back into the house, abuzz with keen excitement.
‘Adriana! Put that thtupid book down, girl, put it down and thtand up!’
‘What is it, mother, what’s wrong?’ she asked, stirring with consternation at the urgency in her mother’s voice.
‘Nothingth wrong, girl. In fact, for a change, thingth jutht might be coming right! Let me thee how you look,’ she said, gripping Adriana’s arms and turning her around, as if she was a mannequin on a pedestal.
‘Mother!’ she exclaimed, aflutter with amusement, but also feeling a prickle of rising suspicion. ‘What are you doing?’
‘No, no, thith won’t do,’ her mother muttered under her breath, her brow knitted with concern as she shook her head with disapproval. ‘Thith won’t do at all. Hurry up, into your older thithters’ room! We can uthe thome of Ana’th clotheth. And let’th put thome of Nikita’th makeup on you, yeth, that will thpruce you up a bit.’
‘Mother, calm down please, and stop pushing, ow! Just give me a minute to breathe, and tell me what’s going on!’
‘Opportunity ith knocking, girl! Opportunity, fortune, luck – all of which have been in exthremely thort supply here in rethent yearth!’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘A woman from the thitty arrived here in that car. Thee ith a job agent! Can you believe it, a job agent, coming out here, to thith plathe! Thee’s looking for pretty girlth to work abroad. Abroad, my girl, in Franth and Germany!’
‘Work abroad? Really? Doing what?’ Adriana asked. Her pulse began to quicken with excitement – excitement that elbowed any murmurings of fear and suspicion out of her mind.
‘Waitrething in high clath rethtauranth! They’re willing to pay Romanian girlth in Euroth, my dear, in Euroth! Thee thaid on a good night you could make ath much ath one hundred Euroth for a thingle thift!’
Adriana gasped in shock.
‘One hundred Euros in one night?!’
‘Jutht imagine, Adriana, you could get uth out of here! You could thend the brat-th to thchool! You could make your own dream come true, and finally enroll in univerthity!’
Adriana’s heart was now thumping with elation and her soul was fast becoming intoxicated on the heady wine of optimistic joy.
‘I could really go to university? Really?! I-, I … do you really think she’ll choose me, mother?! I mean, I, just, I’m … I can’t even think right now, I’m so excited! How will I even be able to speak to her without blabbering like an idiot?’
‘Just keep your mouth thut and let your beautiful eyeth do the talking; everyone knowth that you’re the prettietht girl in all the Carpathianth. That’th why your father and I haven’t let any of these local boyth near you. We knew you’d be destined for thomething better, and here it ith, finally! Quickly, let’th get thith makeup on and get you into the jeanth, and find a nice blouthe for you. The woman is over at the Petrethcu house right now, having a look at their daughterth, but thee’ll be over here nextht. Hurry!’
Five minutes later Adriana was attired in
