"Afridi has a viper in his little terrorist band of brothers. Someone betrayed him."
"Why does Cobra want him?" Nick asked.
"He wants to question him. Then he's going to kill him."
"Mm." Harker picked up her pen. "Tells us something about Cobra. Question Afridi about what? Did he say?"
"He wants to know where Afridi got the gold to support Abu Sayyaf."
"The gold?" Nick said. "Not many people even know about that. Did you get Cobra's name?"
"No," Selena said. "Ijay never mentioned it. Anyone Cobra calls on that phone must know who he is. But I have an idea how we might ID him."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Cobra wants to question Afridi in person. He's going to meet Ijay after he grabs him."
"When?" Nick asked.
Selena smiled. "Three days from now."
"You're thinking we spot Afridi and watch for Cobra to try and grab him."
"Yes."
"Why don't we turn the tables on them?" Lamont said. "When Cobra shows up, we do the grabbing. Him and Afridi too."
"Two for the price of one," Nick said. "I like it. What do you think, Director?"
"It has possibilities," Elizabeth said, "but there are two problems that I can see. Afridi is one of them. Our primary objective is Cobra. Afridi isn't the one who put Ronnie in a hospital. As much as I'd like to get rid of him, he's a secondary target and he's bound to have bodyguards. He'll be at a mosque. You go after him there and you run the risk of setting off a riot. Kashmir is always on edge. The whole area could explode with very little provocation."
Nick said, "You said two problems. What's the other?"
"We have to consider the political implications. All we know about Cobra is that he's high up in India's intelligence agency. What do you think will happen if you grab him and he turns out to be important, like Langley's deputy director?"
"That's easy. The shit will hit the fan."
"It will. And eventually it will all land right here, on us."
Nick threw up his hands in frustration. "So what do you want us to do?"
"I want you to observe what happens between him and Afridi. I want you to get pictures so we can find out who he is. Then I can decide the next step."
"He said he was going to kill Afridi," Selena said.
Elizabeth looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Your point being?"
"You don't have a problem with that?"
There was a note of surprise in Selena's voice.
"Why should I? Afridi's group has killed hundreds of innocent people. He's a jihadist who wants to establish an Islamic state in Kashmir. He's demonstrated that he'll do anything to achieve that end. Don't forget, the explosives that blew up the embassy and the AK that shot Ronnie were probably purchased with money that came from him."
"I still think we should at least try for Cobra," Nick said. "He wants to know where Afridi got the money and so do we. If we can take him without a problem, we ought to do it. Cobra's gone rogue. He gave up his protection when he set up those attacks in the Philippines."
Harker considered. "What would you do with him?"
"We need a safe house in Srinagar," Nick said. "A nice quiet place where we can ask him a few questions. He doesn't have to know who's doing the asking."
There was a hard quality in his voice that made Selena glad it wasn't her he was talking about.
"There's no time to set that up," Lamont said.
"Lucas could help." The bracelets on Stephanie's wrist made tiny metallic sounds as she twisted them.
Lucas Monroe worked for the Director of the CIA and was Stephanie's lover. If Langley had a safe house in Srinagar, Lucas could find out where it was. Elizabeth had a good relationship with DCI Clarence Hood. Revealing the safe house location would require his okay. He didn't have to know exactly why she needed the house. In fact, he would probably prefer not to know. Elizabeth made a decision.
"That's a good idea, Steph. You talk with Lucas and I'll call Hood. I'd be surprised if Langley doesn't have a safe location over there."
"Then it's a go," Nick said.
Elizabeth nodded. "Be careful, Nick. Don't create a problem for us. If you succeed in getting Cobra, try not to hurt him."
"What about transportation?"
"I'll get you a Gulfstream. You can take weapons and fly right into Srinagar."
"What's our cover when the Indians want to know what we're doing there?" Lamont asked.
Elizabeth thought for a moment. "We could use the film company ploy."
"Cool," Lamont said. "I always wanted to be in movies."
CHAPTER 35
Hood gave them use of a CIA safe house in Srinagar. The team would pose as a Canadian film company making a PBS documentary about Kashmir. Their Canadian passports were real. The names on the passports were not.
Their ride was a Gulfstream V, courtesy of a DEA seizure from one of the Colombian drug cartels. The interior of the plane was decorated with hand-painted murals of happy workers harvesting coca leaves under a sunny sky. Dominating the forward bulkhead was a panel picturing a stocky man with a white shirt and a black mustache. He had a broad smile, large square teeth and black eyes that reminded Nick of a snake. He stood next to a silver Bentley parked in front of a palatial mansion, handing out candy to a flock of excited children. Nick figured it was a portrait of the plane's previous owner.
It was a big plane for just three passengers, but it had the range and speed they needed. Inside, it was like a luxury hotel. The seats were wide and comfortable. There were beds in the rear cabin. The center cabin sported a dining table, couch and bar. Polished rosewood accents were everywhere.
They took seats in the front cabin. The flight plan called for refueling in Anchorage and then a direct shot over the North Pole. Arrival in Srinagar was set for some time the next afternoon.
Two hours into the flight, Lamont headed to the back of the plane and lay down on one of the comfortable beds. In a little while, they heard him snoring.
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."