The Eye of Shiva (30 page)

Elizabeth's left eye twitched. She could feel a headache lurking.
Her intuition began sounding alarms.

"
You may be right. You have to intercept him," she said.

In India, Nick slowed for a
bored looking white cow with long ears standing in the road. No one seemed to pay attention to a cow in the middle of traffic. They just detoured around it. Nick did the same. The cow looked at them as they went by.

"We don't know where he's going
," Nick said.

"I can track
Cobra's phone," Elizabeth said. "You've got to get a helicopter and go after them."

Nick thought of
Akron, Langley's aging agent with the cowboy hat. "Langley's guy here has a chopper. Get Hood to light a fire under him and have him fueled up and ready to go."

"I'm going to warn the president," Elizabeth said, "but
I don't think there's much he can do. If you're right and Cobra is going to try and launch, there isn't a lot of time. You're all we've got. You have to stop him."

"Yeah
, sure. Out." Nick broke off the connection. "You all heard that," he said.

"
Just another day at the office," Lamont said. "Where's our cowboy friend got his bird?"

"I don't know," Nick said. "Selena, call him. Find out where he's got the chopper stashed. If he hasn't heard from Hood, he will.
He's number 3 on speed dial."

He handed her his phone. She called.
Akron picked up.

"
Yeah."

"This is Sel
ena. We met the other day. Remember me?"

"Darlin', how could I forget? What can I do for you, Sweet Pea?"

Selena had the phone on speaker.

"Sweet Pea?" Lamont said. "Is this guy for real?"

"I heard that," Akron said. "What do you want?"

"
Sounds like you haven't talked to the DCI yet," Selena said. Her voice was flat.

"Why would I? He doesn't talk to peons like me."

"You're about to get a call from him," Selena said. "Get your ass in gear and get your helicopter ready for us, now. We need to know where it is. We'll meet you there."

Nick smiled. Selena didn't get called Sweet Pea every day
. He suspected it was a first. "Darlin'" would have been enough to piss her off.

"Whoa, don't get riled up,"
Akron said. Lamont shook his head. "Hold on, I got another call. Call me back in five." He disconnected.

"That will be Hood," Nick said, "Sweet Pea."

"Don't start," she said.

Nick pulled over. "No point in going farther
into the city until we know where he's got his chopper."

His phone signaled a call.

"Carter."

"
Guess you got some clout," Akron said. "Sorry I pissed off the lady."

"Lady?" Selena said.

"Don't make it worse," Nick said. "Where's the field?"

Akron
gave directions. "Where are we going?" he said.

"I don't know yet. Just get the engine warmed up."

"We going in hot?"

"You could say that," Nick said.

CHAPTER 58

Akron's directions took them to a grassy field outside the city surrounded by a rusted chain link fence. A metal hangar with a white roof was the only building. A weathered wooden tower with an orange windsock stood at the far end of the field. A large sign next to the gate advertised sightseeing tours and special excursions. It listed a phone number. The helicopter was parked on a concrete pad in front of the hangar.

"Where the hell did he get that?" Nick
asked. "An Army-Navy surplus store?"

"
That bird's gotta be fifty years old," Lamont said.

"What are you talking about?" Selena asked.

"That's a Huey," Nick said. "An old one. You can see where the U.S. markings are painted out."

"I'll bet it's left over from Vietnam," Lamont said. "Be about right for this guy. It's what he flew over there."

The Huey was painted olive drab and had seen better days. The big side cargo doors were open. A row of seats had been fitted inside for sightseers but they didn't appear comfortable or like they belonged there. The bird still had the military look. The only things missing were M60s mounted at the doors.

Akron
came out of the hangar. His cowboy hat was gone. In its place was an olive green radio helmet. He wore faded green fatigues with his name stenciled in black on the breast pocket, combat boots and aviator style sunglasses. Nick hadn't seen that style of uniform for years.

"You sure about this?" Lamont said. "He looks like he
thinks it's 1968."

"We don't have a choice," Nick said.
"We need him."

"Afternoon,"
Akron said. "Nice day for a tour."

"You really get sightseers?" Nick asked
, pointing at the sign.

"Oh, yeah. Not many, but some. Enough to pay for gas."

"How come they let you run a business here?"

"It's a long story. A couple of people owed me favors. A little grease from the Agency didn't hurt either."

"The Indians know you're an agent?" Selena asked.

"Nope. They think I'm a crazy ex-pat
with money. Long as I don't make trouble, they leave me alone. It's a pretty tolerant place here, or at least it used to be. That's changing, though. I'm thinking of getting out, going back to the States. Do some hunting and fishing."

While they were talking, they'd drifted over to the helicopter.

"What did you fly in Vietnam?" Nick said.

"Hueys
, just like this. Sharks."

"Sharks?
" Selena looked confused.

"What we called
the gunships," Akron said. "The transports were Dolphins."

He patted the side of the craft. "She's a good bird. Where are we going?"

"I don't know yet," Nick said. "Let me make a call."

Harker answered. "
Great minds, Nick. I was about to call you."

"You know where we're going yet?"

"Cobra took off ten minutes ago. We're tracking him now. There's only one site in Kashmir, near a place called Pahalgam."

"Where's
Pahalgam?"

Akron
heard him. He said, "I know where it is. It's southeast of here. Lots of old temples, health resorts, mountains and rivers."

"
They keep a half dozen missiles and their launchers in a tunnel complex there," Elizabeth said. "It's got to be where he's going."

"
Send the coordinates."

"On the way," Elizabeth said.

Nick's phone chirped.

"Got it."

"I talked with Rice. He's going to do what he can but I don't think it will be in time to help."

"Any rules of engagement?"

"Just stop him," Elizabeth said. "However you can." She disconnected.

Nick looked at Akron. "You got any weapons?"

Akron smiled. "I figured you might ask. Follow me."

He led them into the hangar. The back was
partitioned off for living quarters. Akron went into what passed for a living room and pulled up a faded oriental rug, exposing a trap door in the concrete floor.

"Give me a hand," he said.

They pulled up the heavy door. A narrow ladder led below. Akron picked up a flashlight and started down.

"Wait there," he said. "There isn't a lot of room down here."

They heard him moving crates aside.

"Here you go," he said. He handed up an M-16, then two more, then belts weighted down with loaded
30 round magazines. He handed up a Colt Model 1911 .45 in a leather holster.

"That one's for me," he said.

Akron climbed up and turned off the flash. They closed the trap door and put the rug back in place.

Akron gestured at the M-16 Selena held.
"You know how to use that, Sweet Pea?"

Selena started to
move toward him. Nick put his hand on her arm.

"Hey Akron?"
he said.

"Yeah?"

"Sweet Pea here can shoot rings around you with one hand and kick your ass while she's doing it. So knock off the sexist bullshit, okay?"

"Sorry," he said.
He didn't look sorry. "Old habit. I just wanted to know."

They checked out the rifles. Clean and oiled, in good shape. They inserted the magazines. Akron belted on the holster and .45.

Nick said, "Let's get going."

CHAPTER 59

Ijay's h
elicopter set down on a broad, flat area where the launchers would stage in time of war. A helicopter with army markings was parked to one side. Rao had radioed ahead. General Chatterjee was expecting him.

The entrance to the tunnel was a thirty foot
square opening carved into the side of a mountain. The complex was located in a forest of evergreens and surrounded by high, snow-capped peaks. A road to the site continued past the tunnel to an ancient Hindu temple set a mile away on a green hillside. The temple was in ruins, destroyed centuries before by one of the Muslim rulers.

For Rao, the ruins were
one more reminder of how Islam desecrated everything he held sacred. He shook out two more of Krivi's pills and swallowed them. He felt full of energy, light, invincible.

The steel door
s to the tunnel stood open. Waiting just inside was the first of six mobile transporters. The camouflaged, phallic shape of an Agni III ICBM lay flat along the trailer, waiting to be raised into position. The missile was about forty feet long and six feet around. The nose cone tapered to a rounded point and was painted black. The body of the missile was white. The Indian flag was painted on the side.

Agni III
had been designed to provide long range counter-strike capability. It was powered by a two stage, solid fuel rocket that drove it to a speed of over 5km a second. Guidance was provided by a sophisticated inertial navigation system. The twenty kiloton warhead was roughly the size of the bombs that had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was set to detonate five kilometers above ground.

An air burst was more destructive than a conventional impact explosion.
Everything within one mile of the hypocenter would be completely destroyed. The blast wave would travel outward at nearly the speed of sound. A mile away from the center it would have enough power to hurl a fifty ton railway car from it's tracks and crush it. Two miles out, the damage would still be severe. Anyone left alive in that two mile radius would receive a lethal dose of radiation.

Islamabad had a
crowded population of around two million people. One missile would obliterate the city. Hundreds of thousands of people would die in the initial blast. The radiation would leave the ground poisoned for many years.

The
tunnel complex was guarded by a detachment of twenty-four men under the command of a lieutenant. The officer approached and saluted. Four sentries in battle dress and wearing maroon berets stood by the tunnel entrance, armed with assault rifles.

"Secretary Rao?
The general is expecting you. May I see some identification, sir?"

Rao showed his RAW credentials.

"Follow me, sir."

Rao glanced at Ijay. They had already determined what they were going to do.
They followed their escort into the tunnel.

CHAPTER 60

Nick sat in the co-pilot's seat next to Akron. They were flying
a hundred feet above the highway leading to Pahalgam, below Indian radar. Nick hoped it was good enough to fool any antiaircraft defenses at the tunnel. There wasn't anything he could do about them if they spotted the Huey. 

He felt himself slipping into pre-combat mode. He was hyper alert, watching the countryside flash by below as they paralleled the road from Srinagar to Pahalgam. Next to him, Akron
was in his element. He seemed younger, even happy. It was as if he'd dropped thirty years in a moment. He hummed to himself, one hand on the collective, the other tapping fingers against his leg.

B
ack in the cargo bay, Selena and Lamont sat in the makeshift tourist seats. Selena cradled her M-16 across her knees. She'd put on a pair of Ray-Bans against the wind rushing through the open cargo doors. Her lips were set in a tight line. Lamont looked relaxed, half asleep, but Nick knew it was an illusion. His rifle was propped against his body under his arm.

Nick heard
Stephanie's voice over the comm link. The noise in the chopper made it difficult, even with headphones covering his ears.