Baffled in the Tropics

Palm trees were lined along a peaceful canal filled with green water. Houseboats were drifting through while ferrying tourists on an unforgettable journey. On one of these houseboats, Michael and Vishnu were enjoying the local delicacies. Initially Michael intended to immediately find the soldier and recruit him; however, once he saw the beauty of the city and the waters surrounding it, he decided to take a day off. After all, he had never taken a vacation before; so this was a first for him.

The boat gave a flash tour of the backwaters and let it's passengers off. Michael stepped off and gave the owner an enormous tip; he watched Vishnu hop off the boat and chuckled. Vishnu had been jumping and hopping around ever since his legs were healed; clearly, he was still experiencing the joy of being able to walk again.

They caught a taxi and gave the address to the soldier's house. However, when they arrived, they immediately realized that the address was no longer valid. There wasn't even a house there anymore; the waters had risen and swallowed the plot of land.

" Now what do we do? How do we find him? This was the address on the Military records." Michael complained. Since his first recruiting experience went so well; Michael had grown complacent.

Vishnu chuckled. " The government might be trying to digitize India, but India is still mostly analog." He started walking to a nearby house.

Michael followed while wondering what Vishnu was talking about. Vishnu started asking the neighbors about an ex-soldier that used to live in the area. Eventually, they stumbled upon someone that knew the new address of the veteran.

They caught a taxi and gave the driver the new address. Michael turned to Vishnu. " I didn't know that you can speak the local language." In India, nearly every state spoke a different language. Malayalam was the official language in Kerala.

" Well, I had quite a bit of time when I was sitting around in the Living Center. They had some language books so I learned some new languages." Vishnu explained.

Michael smiled; he was glad that Vishnu was intelligent. Long gone are the days of ignorant muscle brained soldiers. The elite soldiers of today can rival genius scientists. After all the battlefield truly brought out the potential in a soldier and the soldiers always experienced the newest technologies.

They reached the new address and started walking to the house. Immediately, Michael spotted issues. There were clearly multiple people living in the house. Due to the nature of what he was going to do; Michael wanted there to be as few witnesses as possible.

" Go and ask the neighbors and see if we have the right house. Also, Find out about the situation in the house. Who all are living here?" Michael asked Vishnu. Vishnu nodded and walked towards the neighbors. Michael turned his attention back to the house and recalled the ex-soldier's profile.

Daas Tavade used to be a Lieutenant in the Paramilitary wing of the Indian Army. The paramilitary guys flew in from the sky straight into the battlefield; needless to say, they were always ready for anything. Daas was on a mission where they had to suppress terrorists on the Kashmir border. When the terrorists were cornered they used a desperate measure to buy some time. A chemical attack using a substance that was banned long ago by the United Nations.

The attack was devastating; the chemicals attacked the organs and turned the soldiers into walking corpses. The military hospital did not have any experience dealing with this chemical so they only made the injuries worse. Daas was medically discharged and was currently in partial life support. He could not eat solid foods and had to rely on others to use the restroom.

Michael was sympathetic towards Daas's situation; however, he did feel that the situation was perfect for him. Daas would have a lot of resentment towards the Indian military because of their negligence on the intelligence report and also later in the hospital. This would make things easier for Michael; Daas would not have any problems fighting for a private force. Furthermore, Daas was only 29 years old; he would still have ambition in his heart and would cherish the opportunity to fight again.

" Michael, I checked with the neighbors." Michael's thoughts were interrupted by Vishnu.

" What did you find out?" Michael asked.

" Well, We have the right house. Daas Tavade lives here with his parents. They moved a month ago because their old house was destroyed in a flood. Daas lives with his family in this rental house. Their whole family including the parents and the three children live here. The situation is not good; Daas's father was retired but went back to work because they were having financial hardships.

Both his younger siblings are in college so the family is struggling to pay the fees. The family survives on the pension from the military and the income the father makes." Vishnu explained. He was ashamed to see a veteran struggle so much. Compared to Daas, Vishnu's previous situation was much better.

The new situation threw a wrench in Michael's plans. In order to get to Daas, he will have to get past his parents and siblings. Furthermore, Daas definitely had a lethal injury; There was no way Michael could heal him without making a scene. It was one thing for the parents to know, but in this scenario, even the neighbors will discover Michael's abilities.

In Vishnu's case, he was practically abandoned at a living center by his wife. Nobody really cared about him, so Michael could easily approach him. Even after Vishnu was healed, it was easy to continue to pretend that he was injured and leave the town. However, Daas is far too attached to his family and even this community. The whole neighborhood knows about the dying soldier and some people even occasionally lend a helping hand to his family. So even if Michael could secretly heal Daas; It would be nearly impossible to leave with him without alerting anyone.

Michael decided to ask Vishnu for help; honestly, he was not familiar with Indian culture so he could not come up with an optimal solution. "We need to convince the parents to let me heal Daas. We also need to do it in a secretive manner to avoid attention. Then we have to bring him out of this town without letting anyone know. What do you recommend?"

Vishnu thought about it for a while. It would be hard to avoid attention since they were foreigners. After a while, a light bulb went off in his head. " I have an Idea!"