Henri Laurier

In the novel Destination Unknown, Henri Laurier is a French gentleman whom Hilary Craven met on the train from Casablanca to Fez. He turned out to be obliging and friendly. He offered to help Hilary overcome her foreign currency restrictions the next time she travelled to Morocco and engaged her in polite conversation during the journey. On arrival, Laurier gave her his card and helped her with porters and engaging a taxi to her hotel.

Hilary later met Laurier again in the back room of a shop to which a tour guide had taken her. He turned out to be an operative working for Aristides's research establishment. He chided her for not responding correctly on the train. His polite questions about the weather in England was meant to elicit from her the passphrase about snow. Hilary explained that she was still fairly groggy from concussion after her "aircrash", which he seemed to accept. Laurier proceeded to give her instructions on her next step. He told her that a flight had been booked for her to Marrakesh. He noted that Hilary had become friendly with two tourists, an American Mrs Calvin Baker and an Englishwoman Janet Hetherington. He said that it would suit the purposes of his organisation if Hilary could persuade one of them to join her in the trip to Marrakesh.