xp_logs | Kashmir Waltz: Greater Goods

Before leaving Sonamarg, Angelo goes for an early-morning walk with Samie. Up the side of a mountain. The two of them have a rather nice chat despite Angelo's discovery that he really needs to quit smoking.

"Why are you wheezing?" Samie called back over her shoulder merrily as they scrambled up what she had insisted was a path up the side of one particularly steep slope. "This is just a nice brisk walk!"

"'Cause I smoke too much," Angelo admitted wryly. "Tried to give up, but it never takes. Also, I'm not used to this."

Samie tsked at him, but did slow down. She was making the climb look disgustingly easy. "Smoking isn't good for you. You should try again."

"So a lot of people keep tellin' me. I probably will." His attention was distracted by the scenery around them - he'd never seen anything quite like this, or not before he got to Kashmir, and the novelty hadn't worn off yet.

"You should see the real trekking routes," Samie said as they climbed. She was breathing a little more rapidly, but not much. "The ones that lead right up to Ladakh. This is just an afternoon's walk, really. The real routes take days. It's marvelous," she said, her eyes almost glowing with anticipation. They had purchased her a spot on one of the better treks, at Nathan's insistence, and she hadn't stopped bouncing all morning.

"Maybe I'll come back here sometime, when it's not for work. I'd have more time for trekkin', then."

"So you like my country, then?" Samie asked mischievously, looking back over her shoulder at him. "If you want to come back..."

"I do," he answered with a grin. "Never been anywhere like it before."

"Different from where you grew up? Somewhere in the States, no?"

"Very different. That was a city. LA. When I got to New York state... I couldn't sleep for a month 'cause it was too quiet. An' that was the first time I saw the stars, too."

"Tell me about Los Angeles?" Though Samie's manners were good, once her curiosity was unleashed it was boundless, Angelo had noticed.

He thought about that for a minute, trying to figure out where to start. "It's big... really polluted, the drivers are insane but nobody ever walks anywhere. Noisy as hell, all the time. But it was home, for most of my life."

Samie's expression softened a little, growing almost tentative as she cast another look back over her shoulder at him. "Why did you leave? If I had a choice, I never would have left Kashmir, but my father insists I be educated properly."

"I didn't have that much choice, when it came down it. Had a fallin'-out with my old friends, an' I couldn't stay. Met someone who offered me a place at the school where I met Nathan, so I left."

"A falling out." Samie was gazing down thoughtfully - at his hand, actually. "I've heard it's difficult in the States at times, being a mutant..."

He followed her look automatically, and suddenly remembered the scars. Too late to hide his hands now, though. "Yeah," he answered simply. "Sometimes it can be."

"So why are you and Nathan here, then?" Samie asked curiously. "If there's so much to be done at home, why come all the way to India to help mutants here?"

"There's others workin' on improvin' things at home," he said with a shrug. "An' I know there are here too, but it sounded like the work needed more people here than there..."

"Even though it turned out to be something so simple?"

"Next time, it might not be."

She smiled. "That's very optimistic."

He grinned. "Yeah, I'm feelin' more optimistic these days."

"Oh, I approve of optimism. A few years ago, no one ever would have thought that a girl my age could travel across Kashmir safely, but I haven't run into any trouble. Things have gotten much better than they were when I was younger."

"That's good to hear," he said, smiling. "Mind you, there's parts of America I wouldn't call safe for a girl travellin' on her own."

"Well, at least I speak the language," Samie teased as they reached the top of the slope. "You and Nathan could have gotten yourself into all kinds of difficulties. Look at the car you rented!"

"Good thing we ran into you, then, isn't it?" he teased right back, idly taking her hand and swinging it as they stopped to admire the view.

"He seems to me to be the type of person who does not deal well with frustration," Samie said more seriously, although she was still smiling. "I should consider it protecting my countrymen, doing the translating so that he did not get frustrated..."

Angelo nodded, vaguely amused. "Could see it that way, yeah. He threw me in a lake once."

"Oh? I could see him doing something like that, I think..."

"I was feelin' sorry for myself over somethin' or other, an'... into the lake it was."

"Very direct," Samie said with that broad grin.

He laughed. "That's one way to put it, yeah. I seem to remember usin' different words at the time."

--

On their way back to Srinagar, Nathan and Angelo finally hit paydirt. Only it's not what Nathan expected.

They had decided to take the long way back to Srinagar, to hit up some of the other villages on the list Nathan had taken from the DRMA computers. The first two villages had been unhelpful, but in the third, they'd driven in to find the food drop in process. Finally.

Although this just had to happen after we bid goodbye to our translator, Nathan thought, ignoring the growing tension he was feeling as he strode up to one of the DRMA trucks, managing a smile for the young man unloading bags. "~Afternoon,~" he said in Hindi, and then switched to English, just to see how far he got. "Mind pointing me to whoever's in charge?" he asked, shifting back to the British accent.

The young man grinned at them, then stuck a thumb at a middle-aged woman standing by the driver's side door of the lead truck, frowning thoughtfully as she crossed items off a list. Nathan gave him a quick nod of thanks and then went over to the woman, his smile improving a little.

"Afternoon," he said as she looked up at him inquisitively. "Sorry to bother you-"

"Oh, no bother," she said with a smile of her own, her English good but accented. "Just fussing over my lists, here..." She gave him a quick, curious up-and-down look. "Journalist?"

"You've got a good idea," Nathan said amiably, leaning against the side of the truck. "Spare a few minutes?"

"Absolutely," she said, then stuck out her hand. "Leora Desai. I'm one of the field coordinators for DRMA."

"Nathan Morrow," Nathan said, shaking her hand. "Freelance journalist. I'm working on a story," he said, and then decided to go for broke. "I've heard that the Indian government's stepping up their efforts to provide training and medical support to young mutants in the rural areas, and that DRMA might be involved in that somehow?" He gave her an apologetic smile. "The information was rather vague. I'd just like to make sure that credit gets given where credit's due, though."

Leora blinked at him, but her smile grew. "You're well-informed," she said, sounding surprised but pleased. "We haven't had the opportunity to publicize what we've been doing, unfortunately - mostly because we're just in the initial stages. Call it a trial program. We're doing some investigative work, passing our findings back to the government." She looked mildly regretful. "India's own NGO infrastructure for dealing with the needs of mutants is not nearly as developed as it should be. Thankfully, the government seems to be willing to step in to fill the gap."

"So," Nathan said, keeping his smile on even though his mind was spinning rapidly, mulling over straightforward explanation and her obvious sincerity, "this is in the nature of a cooperative venture?"

"Oh, yes. As I said, not the ideal set-up, really, but trust me, our board of directors wasn't going to get involved in anything they hadn't thoroughly examined. The programs the government's developed over the last year are stellar, truly stellar. I was just in one of the schools myself, last time I was in Delhi." Leora smiled brilliantly. "Another six months and the medical support program should be fully implemented - we're just setting that up now. That, at least, we can have more direct participation in. For right now, we're just facilitating getting these young people to proper educational facilities when they need it."

And she believed it. All he needed to do was listen - her mind was open, uncomplicated, rather pleasant as a matter of fact, and she regarded what DRMA had been doing not just with satisfaction but with pride. Real pride.

"Do you have some time to give me some more details?" he asked pleasantly. "People I can get in touch with, back in Delhi..."

"Of course! Why don't we step over here for a few minutes, out of the way..."

--

Angelo was sitting on the hood of the jeep again, waiting for Nathan - he'd been left to guard their things, after the last time. He jumped down as he saw the older man approach, heading round to the passenger door.

Nathan shook his head at him. "You drive," he said. He should have had Angelo driving right from the get-go today, really. "We're done here," he went on tiredly, getting into the passenger's seat as Angelo shifted over to sit behind the wheel.

"In this town, or in Kashmir?" Angelo asked, starting the car.

"Both." Nathan slouched as Angelo started back down the road they'd come. He explained, briefly and rather curtly, his conversation with Leora Derai. "So," he concluded, "a dead end. Either that, or if there's something fishy going on up here only the people at the higher levels know about it." Was it really that bad to be clinging to the possibility, to not want to let this go just yet? Maybe Leora was just uninformed. Maybe the moon was made out of green cheese, too.

"Which wouldn't be that surprisin', really. Maybe the Professor'll be able to root more out when we tell him."

"This was a hell of a long way to come for not much payoff," Nathan pointed out, wondering why the fatigue had come crashing down on him like it had.

"Yeah. But we didn't know that when we started. An' it's done, now." Today was a pragmatic day, apparently.

The road was ridiculously bumpy, really. "Take the road back to Srinagar," Nathan said with a sigh. "We'll fly out tomorrow or the next day, depending on when I can get flights. Nothing much more to be done here, if the field people think everything's innocent..."

Angelo just nodded, turning the jeep onto the right road when they reached it.

"I suppose it wasn't entirely a wasted trip." Nathan gave him a sideways look. "You made a friend."

Angelo grinned, then turned his attention back to the road. "Yep."

"I noticed you and that friend were saying very extensive goodbyes this morning."

Angelo tried to look innocent. He wasn't very good at it. "Well, y'know... seemed the thing to do."

"Hey, did I sound condemnatory? Because I was definitely not condemning. Perfectly healthy sort of thing. That sort of extensive goodbyes, at your age..."

Angelo was still grinning, but chose to change the subject. "So. Is there anythin' to do in Srinagar, if we can't leave until the day after tomorrow?"

"Lots. We could go take a look at some of the gardens... there are other shrines besides the one we saw on our way out," Nathan said. The muscles in his arm spasmed suddenly and he frowned, rubbing at it. "The gardens, though, definitely... that's one of the reasons people come to Srinagar in the first place."

Angelo noticed the problem with his arm, but didn't comment. "The gardens, then. Wouldn't wanna miss an attraction like that."

"And maybe some shopping." Okay, now he was rambling. Hangover plus disappointment made for a rambling Nathan. "Least we could do is bring home some gifts, since we're coming home otherwise empty-handed..."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, definitely. Gotta get Amanda somethin', an' the others that watched Joyita for me."

"Lots of smallish stuff you could bring back easily. Maybe we'll go down to the market when we get back." It was still relatively early. If the weather held they'd be back in Srinagar late afternoon, once they got back out onto the main road.

"Sounds good," Angelo said with a grin. "I'll see what I can find."

Nathan slouched farther in the seat, ignoring the bumps. It felt like someone had taken the wind out of him, really. That was the sensation.