The Eye of Shiva (20 page)

Selena
sat next to Nick. She was doing her best to read an article about the Mongolian language in the time of Genghis Khan but her mind kept wandering. A lot had changed over the past months. Before joining the Project she would have found the paper stimulating. Not today, though. Today the paper seemed to her as dead as the great Khan. She found herself looking at the painting on the cockpit bulkhead, where
the mustachioed drug lord
leered at her.

"That man's picture gives me the creeps," she said.

"Not exactly Santa Claus, is he?" Nick said.

"I wonder what happened to him?"

"
El Patron
used to run one of the big cartels down in Columbia."

"Used to?"

"One of his rivals put a bomb under that fancy car."

"Whoever it was
, I think they did everyone a favor," she said.

Nick looked out the window. There was nothing to see but an
ocean of cloud passing beneath them. His mind drifted with the drone of the engines. He thought about Selena. Both of them had been keeping away from talk about marriage. The more they avoided the subject, the more it occupied his mind. He was tired of thinking about it.

"How do you think it's going to play out?" she asked.

"Are you talking about Cobra?"

"What else
would I be talking about?"

"I can think of several things," Nick said. "The conversation we haven't been having, for one."

"Which conversation is that?"

"How many of them are there?"

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?"

Nick felt himself starting to get angry. Why couldn't she just give him a straight answer?

"Damn it, Selena. You know which one. The one about how we are or we aren't engaged."

"Oh. That one."

"Yes, that one."

"When I asked how you thought it was going to play out, I was thinking about Srinagar
," she said. "But since you brought up the
other
conversation, I suppose we can talk about that."

Nick's face closed down.
Selena knew she was being bitchy. She could feel the urge to start an argument with him. They hadn't talked about getting married since it came up in their hotel room in Manila. They'd left it hanging. Then Ronnie had been wounded and she'd gotten angry at Nick in the hospital. Since then Nick had been keeping to himself in his apartment. Most of the time they only saw each other at work.

Damn it
, she thought,
why do I always end up in this place when I think about getting married to him?

She
loved him. But that day in the jewelry store she'd backed off, fast. She still hadn't figured out why she was pushing him away. It was as if something was knocking on a door inside her mind, demanding attention. She didn't want to open the door.

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that.
"

"Why did you say yes when we were on that island? Since then it seems like you really meant no."

She heard a new tone of resignation in his voice. It made her uneasy.

"I said yes because it seemed right."

"So what changed? It sounds like you don't think it's right anymore."

"No, I don't think that," she said. "I mean, I still think it's right
. Something keeps getting in the way, but I'm not sure what it is. We talked about one of us getting killed, but I don't think that's it, not anymore. I don't know."

"It feels like you're always trying to pick a fight," he said.

Selena decided to say nothing.

"You have to stop doing that," he said. "I really hate it."

She started to get angry again. Who the hell was he to tell her that she had to do anything?

"I think that can be arranged
."

Selena got up and moved to an empty seat across the aisle and began reading her article.
She couldn't concentrate. After a few minutes she gave up pretending to read and stared out the window.

A
half hour before they were due to land in Anchorage, Lamont emerged from the rear of the plane yawning and stretching. He looked at Nick and Selena sitting apart. The feeling of tension in the cabin was like a cloud.

"What did I miss?" he said.

CHAPTER 36

Lohendra Bhagati
's job was to watch people. He'd been in the national police before being recruited by India's intelligence agency. He was a fervent nationalist, a factor that weighed heavily in favor of his selection. What had ensured it was an eidetic memory for faces. Once Bhagati saw a face, he never forgot it. He'd spent endless hours reviewing photographs and film of every person in RAW's database that might pose a threat of any kind to mother India. That included terrorists like Abdul Afridi. It also included pictures of known intelligence agents from other countries. Bhagati's boss reported to Ashok Rao.

Bhagati sat at a small metal table at a tea stall
in the Srinagar airport and watched people coming out of the secured area. It was a boring job but the strong, black tea helped keep him alert.

Three foreigners
came into view, pushing a cart filled with black equipment boxes. Two men, one black and one white, accompanied by a tall woman with reddish blond hair and unusual violet eyes. The white man was about six feet tall, muscular, with short black hair and intense gray eyes. The other man was smaller, wiry and tense. A distinctive scar marked his face. 

The woman and black man were unfamiliar. The third man triggered the part of Bhagati's mind that remembered people he
'd seen but never met. Within seconds he had it.

Nicholas Carter
,
Bhagati thought
. He was the one in Jerusalem, with their president. He works for an American intelligence unit.

A few years before, Carter had been
caught on live television protecting the U.S. president during an assassination attempt. The event had been seen worldwide. The two people with him must also be spies, probably part of the same unit. Why were they here, in Kashmir?

Bhagati got up from the table and followed them through the airport.
They stopped at an automobile rental counter. The woman talked to the agent behind the counter while the other two waited. She finished the transaction and all three headed for the rental parking lot. Bhagati watched them go.

When they'd left the terminal building, Bhagati walked over to the rental agent and showed his identification. She looked nervous. People tended to do that when they saw the wreath and three headed lion on Bhagati's credentials
that identified him as an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing.

"The foreign woman who was just here, the American. What vehicle did she take?"

"You mean the Canadian woman?"

"Canadian?"

"Yes." The clerk showed him the rental agreement. It was with Sarah Thompson of Toronto. Payment had been with a Visa card.

"She's part of a film crew. They rented a van, a blue Toyota."

"I'll take this," Bhagati said. He folded the paper and put it in his jacket pocket.

"We're supposed to keep that," she
said. "What do I tell my manager?"

"Tell him to keep his mouth shut about it," Bhagati said. "That goes for you, too. Understand?"

The clerk looked in Bhagati's eyes and nodded.

Bhagati walked away from the counter and took out his phone. His boss would want to know about this.

Nick and the others walked through the terminal building toward the exit for the rental car area, pushing the equipment boxes in a rented luggage cart. The atmosphere in the terminal wasn't reassuring. Srinagar airport was considered a prime terrorist target and the rhetoric between Pakistan and India was becoming more heated every day. Soldiers in full battle dress were stationed at regular intervals around the terminal, armed with automatic weapons.

"What's that they're carrying?" Lamont asked.
"Looks nasty."

Nick waited until they were past one of the soldiers before he answered.

"Those are Kalantaks, the lightweight version of their INAS assault rifle," Nick said. "Used for close quarter combat. It takes the 5.56 NATO round. These guys must be from one of their elite units."

"Seems like there are quite a few of them," Selena said.

"The way things are heating up between India and Pakistan, I'm not surprised. This airport is new. It's supposed to be a showcase for progress and development. That makes it a good target, along with the crowds of people."

They found their rental and loaded the gear.
The truck was well used but it had a brand new, large screen GPS on the dash.

"Who's driving?" Selena said.

They pulled out of the airport with Selena behind the wheel.

CHAPTER 37

Stephanie came into Elizabeth's office.

"Cobra just called his man, Ijay. He knows Nick and the others are in Srinagar. Their cover's blown."

Elizabeth had been
reviewing a CRITIC brief destined for the president's desk. She set it down, took off the glasses she used for reading and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"That didn't take long. It might even be a record.
How did he find out?"

"Nick and the others were spotted coming through the airport.
Cobra is still in New Delhi. He told Ijay to put eyes on their van."

"There's more, isn't there?" Elizabeth said.

Stephanie nodded. "Cobra wants Ijay to neutralize the team. That was the exact word. Neutralize."

"
Mm. Anything else?"

"Cobra
's not coming to Srinagar until Ijay has Afridi. He wants Nick and the others out of the way before that. He told Ijay to take care of things right away."

"What did Ijay say?"

"That his leopards were ready."

"Leopards?"

Stephanie shrugged. "That's what he said."

Elizabeth had a brief mental picture of a half dozen leopards leaping out at the team,
snarling, claws extended, tails twitching.

"It has to be a code name," Stephanie said.

"Or a unit designation. Steph, see if you can find a reference to an Indian unit with that name or nickname. We don't know who Cobra is but perhaps we can find out who he's talking to. When is Cobra going to be there?"

"He didn't say
, but it has to be soon. We have to give Nick a heads up."

"I'll do it now."

Elizabeth touched a button on her desk. The satellite call would come over the speakers in the room. They heard Nick pick up.

"
Yes, Director."

The connection was poor, distorted by atmospherics and static. It sounded like they were in a vehicle.

"Where are you, Nick?"

"In a rental van that smells like curry, headed for the safe house."

"Cobra knows you're in Srinagar."

"How?"

"You were seen at the airport. It tells us that Cobra has a network of agents out there. That might help us narrow down who he is. Meanwhile, we have a problem. Remember, he was talking to a man called Ijay?"

"Yes."

"Ijay is in Srinagar. Cobra told him to neutralize you."

"Neuter me?" The speaker crackled.

Stephanie snorted, suppressed a laugh.

"Neutralize, Nick, neutralize. Ijay told Cobra he'd use his leopards, whoever they are.
He intends to take the three of you out. Permanently."

"Is Cobra in Srinagar?" Nick asked.

"Not yet. He wants Ijay to take care of you before he gets there."

"If they spotted us at the airport, they probably know what we're driving."

"How far away are you from the safe house?"

"
Hard to say. The traffic's lousy and it's on the other side of Lake Dal."

Selena was driving.
A gravel truck coming in the opposite direction pulled out into her lane, passing a slow-moving car. The truck was painted in psychedelic red, yellow and orange colors. The gigantic chrome grill was wreathed in garlands of artificial flowers. A fringe of colored, knitted balls dangled inside the cab across the top of the windshield. BABA GANESH was painted across the bumper and the top of the cab in yellow letters a foot high.

The truck bore down on them. Selena could see the driver's face through the mud splattered windshield, grim and determined.
His horn bellowed. The windows of the van shook from the sound.

"Shit," Lamont said.

Nick gripped the phone, his eyes riveted on the oncoming truck. Selena yanked the wheel. The van veered onto the narrow shoulder, where a deep ditch paralleled the road. The wheels of the van rode the crumbling edge of the ditch. The truck roared by, horn blasting, taking her side mirror with it. Selena steered back onto the pavement. She clenched the wheel, her knuckles white.