The Eye of Shiva (22 page)

"We have to assume Cobra's guy is coming after us," Nick said.

"Ijay," Selena said, "and his leopards."

"Right. We don't know how many he has
in his zoo but I doubt that it's more than a half-dozen at the most."

"He has to find us first," Lamont said.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem for him. For one thing, that van has a GPS that lets the rental company know where it is. All he has to do is tie into that and he'll know exactly where we are. Here."

"So much for this being a safe house," Selena said. "
We should just go back into town and rent a hotel room. Somewhere with hot water and a bed and no rats."

"
For now, this is perfect," Nick said. "We're isolated, away from the city. It's darker than the inside of the devil's closet out there, there's no one nearby and the fog will muffle any noise. It's a lot easier to deal with a problem here than in the middle of town where there are cops and witnesses."

"You want to set a trap for him?" Selena asked.

"That's exactly what I want to do. Ijay has no reason to think we know he's coming. He won't expect us to be waiting for him."

"When do you think he'll come?" Lamont said.

"If I were him, I'd wait until later. After midnight for sure. By then we'd probably be asleep."

"Since we have nothing to worry about because no one knows we're here,"
Selena said.

"That's right."

"Gonna be a problem for them to see the boat in this stuff," Lamont said.

"We'll leave a light on for them," Nick said.

CHAPTER
40

Ijay stood
next to a tree, motionless in the fog. Drops of condensation formed on his armored vest. His breath misted in the night air, blending seamlessly with the fog. Anyone seeing him might have thought he was part of the tree. He was dressed all in black. He wore a black ski mask over his face. The skin around his eyes was darkened with camouflage paint. He'd brought four of his team with him, now hidden in the fog.

E
veryone was in position. He'd go in the front with two of his men. If the Americans tried to retreat out the back toward the lake, the other two would cut them down.

The houseboat was
no more than a black shape in the swirling darkness. A dim light showed through one of the windows. The soft lapping of shallow waves on the shore and the smell of decaying vegetation on the beach were the only indication of the lake, invisible in the night. Every sound was muffled by the fog.

Ijay smiled to himself. There were only three of them, these American spies. Careless spies. The light in the window showed they were unaware of their danger.
By the time they realized what was happening, it would be over. He flicked the safety off on his silenced MSMC.

Ijay liked the weapon. It was
Indian made, based on the Israeli Uzi. It had been designed to overcome the failures of the INAS carbine carried by the regular forces. It took a 5.56 X 30mm cartridge and put out over 700 rounds a minute. You didn't want to be in front of it when it went off.

He gave the signal to move in. His men mounted the steps in single file
, silent as their leopard namesake. They took up position on each side of the door at the end of the boat. Ijay followed them onto the porch. The first man's name was Arjuna, named for the hero of the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna eased up the latch on the door. It lifted with a dull click. He looked a question at Ijay, who nodded.

Arjuna
opened the door, making no sound. He moved into the dark interior, his finger on the trigger, followed by the second man. Ijay brought up the rear. A glow of light showed at the end of the hall. There was a faint smell of propane in the air. In the darkness at his feet, Arjuna didn't see a thin wire stretched at ankle height across the passage. He tripped on the wire.

On the other side of the
flimsy wall separating one of the bedrooms from the hallway, there was a bright arc of electricity. Lamont had left the valve on the propane tank open and rigged a detonator. Gas filling the room ignited and exploded.

Arjuna
was engulfed in a hellish blue ball of flame. The force of the blast smashed the second man to the side and threw Ijay backward through the open door and off the porch. His clothes were on fire. He tore the burning mask off his face and rolled on the ground, back and forth until the flames were out.

The explosion had blown
a hole through the roof of the houseboat. Fresh air rushed in and fed the flames consuming the old, dry wood. The fire roared out into the night and shot upward in a blazing column. The fog turned red and yellow with reflected light.

Ijay scrambled to his feet
, stunned, trying to make sense of what had just happened. His weapon was somewhere inside the inferno, ripped out of his hands by the blast. He heard shouts and pistol shots at the other end of the houseboat. There was a short, quiet stutter of machine gun fire, then more shots.

Silence
in his earpiece.

If his men were still alive, they'd be talking to him.
He felt the beginnings of rage but pushed it down. Now wasn't the time. He'd made a mistake with these Americans. He'd underestimated them. It wouldn't happen again.

Ijay backed away into the fog, turned and ran.

Nick and Selena skirted the blazing houseboat and met Lamont at the van.

"
I think one of them got away," Lamont said.

"That IED of yours worked like a champ," Nick said, "but it
started a hell of a fire."

The houseboat was engulfed in flame.
The big timbers underneath the boat began to burn. The fire roared and crackled and clawed at the air. They backed away from the heat.

"I need to talk with Harker," Nick said.

Nick touched the transmitter in his ear. "Director, you copy?"

"Copy, Nick. Go ahead."

Her voice was clear and strong.
Satellite must be right overhead
, Nick thought.

"We have a problem. Cobra
's team tried to take us out."

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah."

"What's the problem?"

"We're fine but Langley is going to need another safe house. All this one is good for is toasting marshmallows."

"There's a fire?"

The remains of the burning roof folded inward and collapsed, sending a fiery column of sparks into the air. Nick watched the flames rise into the night.

"You could say that
. One of them got away."

"All right," Elizabeth said. "Nothing's changed. We still need Cobra if you can get him. Find a place to stay."

"Roger that. Out."

"What now?" Selena said.

"Now we look for a hotel and get some sleep."

"You're not worried about Cobra finding us?"

"He already did. They're not going to try anything else tonight.
There's no point in keeping out of sight now that Cobra knows who we are. Afridi will be at that mosque tomorrow and we're going to be there looking for him. Now we need to get out of here before somebody gets curious about this fire."

They got into the van, turned around and bumped out the dirt track until they came to the highway. Behind them,
all that could be seen of the burning houseboat was a deep, orange glow in the fog.

Selena drove
, remembering a hotel they'd driven by in Srinagar that might do. She really wanted a shower. Her mind went back to the lake and the firefight, a brief, surreal moment of utter violence. Wrapped in the fog, it had been like shooting at black ghosts in a dream world where nothing was real. It was real enough, though. She'd seen her bullets take down one of the black figures. With a start, she realized she was more concerned with finding a hotel with hot water and a soft bed then she was about the man she'd just killed.

She wasn't sure what that said about her
. Whatever it was, she didn't much like it.

CHAPTER
41

Abdul Afridi
and Ibrahim Sayeed were just two more bearded men wearing turbans and robes in a crowd of thousands. The high dome and graceful minaret of the Hazratbal Mosque stood silhouetted against snowcapped mountains and a storm lit sky filled with dark clouds.

All eyes were turned toward
a high balcony, where the chief cleric of the mosque would emerge with the relic of the Prophet. The crowd was silent, waiting for the moment. A sudden burst of sunlight struck the white marble building with translucent light, just as a bearded man wearing a white turban and dressed in a black robe embroidered with gold appeared on the balcony. For Afridi, it was a sign God was pleased with this gathering of His followers.

A vast, collective sigh rose from the crowd.
The cleric paused for effect, then held up a tapered crystal and silver container in his right hand. A green, woven cord attached to the container wrapped around his little finger. Two silver and green enamel teardrop shapes scribed with holy scripture trailed from the cord.

Afridi held up his open hands toward the relic and prayed for Allah's blessing. Next to him, Sayeed
's eyes moved constantly, searching the crowd for potential threats.

Nick had parked
some distance away on the main access road leading toward the mosque. He scanned the crowd through binoculars. A picture of their quarry was pinned to the dash.

"This is impossible," he said. "
We'll never be able to pick Afridi out in the middle of that. He could be anybody."

"Let's think about it," Selena said. "
Afridi is somewhere in that crowd right now. If Ijay wasn't killed last night, he'll be here somewhere. But I don't think he'll try anything with all these people around."

"No, I don't think
he would."

"That means
he'll wait until Afridi leaves and try to get him somewhere else."

"Makes sense," Nick said.

"If you were Afridi, would you put yourself in the middle of all that?" Lamont asked.

"I hate crowds," Nick said. "I'm the wrong guy to ask."

"If I were him, I'd hang out on the edge where I could get away fast. He'll probably be one of the first to leave. That's our best chance to spot him."

Nick
panned the binoculars past the crowd and adjusted the focus. Beyond the mosque was a wide, barren area with a few houses.

"
Trouble," he said. "A convoy of army trucks just pulled up. Soldiers are getting out." He paused. "They're in full battle dress."

"Armed?" Lamont asked.

"Take a look." Nick handed him the binoculars.

"Assault rifles," Lamont said. "
They're forming up. Looks like two or three hundred men. That's a lot of firepower."

Nick's ear began itching. He reached up to scratch it. "I've got a bad feeling about this. The crowd's peaceful. Why bring in
the military?"

"They're
advancing toward the crowd," Lamont said.

Nick was behind the wheel.
They were facing the mosque. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw more troops approaching.

"Time to boogie, boys and girls. This is going bad, fast." He started the van and turned around, ready to drive away.

"Too late," Selena said.

An officer broke away
from the troops coming up the road. He held up his hand and signaled them to the side. Nick pulled over. He left the engine running and rolled down his window.

"You are in a restricted zone. What are you doing here?" the officer said.
His voice was unfriendly.

"I didn't know we
weren't supposed to be here," Nick said. "We're making a documentary film about Srinagar."

"Where are your cameras?"

"In the back. We were getting set to film the crowd and the mosque. Waiting for the light to be right."

T
he soldiers moved past the van. They looked determined. Their assault rifles were held in the ready position. Nick saw that the safeties were off.

"You took no pictures?"

"No."

"Filming is not permitted here. You will leave immediately."
He put his hand on his holstered pistol.

"Nick, let's go finish that segment about the antiques market," Selena said.

"Listen to the woman," the Indian officer said. "Leave. Don't come back here."

Nick
didn't like his tone. He was about to say something when Selena gripped his arm, hard. She shook her head. He put the van in gear and began to move away.

Lamont
watched the mosque recede in the side mirror. "They're closing on the crowd," he said.