Chapter 21
Madagascar
The Senegalese soldier let him enter after having identified his identity. He was obviously warned in advance that Alain would come to the headquarters of the Light Brigade of French Colonial Army located in the suburbs of the city. An Indochinese noncommissioned officer led him to Captain Duclós´ sober office. Garnier assumed a priori that the appointment had been made with an intelligence officer, fact that was later confirmed by his interlocutor´s first cautious questions and then openly once the man realized that he was in front of a colleague. Both men hit it off from the beginning and after a while they started treating each other on a first-name basis. Once the gentle interrogation that Duclós had submitted him was ended it was Alain´s turn to speak freely.
“ ... What surprised me most was meeting again Lieutenant Westkamp -now suddenly turned into a Captain- and second in charge of a force slightly less than a regiment of Ascaris.”