I walked into the forest with Nazari following closely. The tents were grouped in clusters. We nodded to folks, who sometimes nodded back, sometimes said hello in French, or sometimes in English. I was scanning up ahead and after a while I saw the road that the Sprinter van had taken, pretty much parallel to the route by which we had entered. When we got to it I was initially uncertain which way to turn, left or right. There was no sign of the cluster of small tents from before.

Those tents had been hiking tents, one or two-man shelters. I turned left intuitively. We walked along the gravel and sand trail for a minute or two. Nazari said, “What are we looking for?”

“A bunch of tents, small ones. One or two-man.”

After a while I noticed something red through the woods. We got closer and I saw a red cord strung up between two trees. I recognized it from the other day, when sleeping bags had been hung up to air on it. The tents were gone but they’d left the cord. Probably because it was knotted badly and they hadn’t bothered to cut it down. I slowed. “The tents were here but now they’re gone.”

We stood around looking at nothing. Across the trail and into the forest, in the main part of the camp, a couple of guys were sitting around a small fire outside a semi-circle of tents. They were looking at us. I walked over.

“Speak French or English?”

They were young, in their twenties. They all nodded. The guy in the middle was tall and heavily built, he said, “French, English, Arabic, Swahili. We’ve got it all covered, friend, you choose.”

I spoke in French for Nazari’s benefit. “There were some guys camped over there. Do you know where they went?”

The guy clammed up and his buddies looked away from us, avoiding eye contact. I said, “Calm down guys, no trouble. I just wanted to speak with them. Now I see that they’re gone and I wondered if you knew anything that could help me. I’m not police.”

“So what are you?” The big guy was tapping the fire with a stick. Sparks flew up.

“I’m just a guy, like you’re just a guy.”

“They left yesterday, for the other side.” He indicated the direction of the English Channel.

“All of them at once?”

“That’s right. They had money. If I had money I’d be gone, like them.”

“So what, they just pay the fare and get across?”

“No problem. You have money you get a ride on the cruise ship, it’s no problem. Those guys you’re looking for, they were on a guided tour. An all-expenses paid package.”