“Inside he can barely stand still from the ants crawling up his toes, ankles and shins. But stand still he must. He had arrived here intoxicated with the idea of bringing down a great city at midnight. It had been his father’s dream to ransack Nagapattinam, the jewel of the Indian Ocean. The promise of it had loomed out of the sea, like one of those tottering cakes made of flour and sugar served in his village at weddings.”