More trucks filled with troops sped past them, heading toward the mosque.
"What's our next move?" Lamont said.
"Time to bring Harker up to date and see what she wants us to do."
Nick touched the transceiver in his ear. "Director, you copy?"
"Copy, Nick. Go ahead."
"Things are going south over here."
He told her about the attack at the mosque.
"Any sign of Afridi or Cobra?" Elizabeth said.
"Negative."
"Where are you now?"
"Heading back to our hotel."
"This changes everything," Harker said. "It makes war between Pakistan and India a certainty."
"I thought the same thing."
"Keep trying to find Afridi."
"We need more Intel or we'll never find him."
"I'll see what I can do," Elizabeth said. "Be ready to get out of there in case things start to heat up."
"I think they already have," Nick said.
CHAPTER 42
The threat of war had sent tourists and businessmen packing, leaving a glut of rooms in Srinagar. The hotel they'd settled on was nearly empty. They had the entire top floor to themselves.
Selena stepped from the shower and began drying off. She wrapped a towel around her hair and walked across her room to the window, leaving damp footprints on the wood floor. It was raining, a steady, depressing rain that fell from skies thick with gray cloud. Selena looked out over Lake Dal and watched the rain.
Nick and Lamont were in rooms to either side of hers. She didn't feel like dealing with her feelings about Nick right now. They were all tired and separate rooms had seemed like a good idea. Nick hadn't argued about it. She was grateful for that. At the same time, it made her feel sad.
There was a soft noise behind her. She turned her head in time to see a silent, dark shape coming at her. There was a gleam of steel in his left hand. He wore a black ski mask. She could see his eyes, black pupils wide, intent on murder.
Years of Korean martial arts training and conditioned reflexes took over. She spun and blocked the knife thrust and kicked out. The blow landed off-center. Her attacker stumbled and recovered. He turned and came at her again. She pulled the towel from her hair and whipped it around his arm, pivoted and pulled him past. The knife sliced along her ribs under her breast as he went by, a sharp clean pain. The front of her body was suddenly slick with blood.
She held onto the end of the towel and jerked hard and leapt into the air. She struck him in the chest with one of her feet. Something cracked. He grunted and staggered back. She landed and pulled down and around and back, twisting his arm into an impossible angle. The shoulder joint gave way and he let out a muffled scream of pain. The knife clattered across the floor. She pivoted to land a kick to his spine and slipped in her blood on the polished floor.
She landed hard on her hip. Pain shot down her leg. Her attacker scrambled for the knife and she swung her leg and tripped him. He landed on his back. She rolled and brought the hard edge of her rigid hand down on his throat. A choking, gurgling noise came from his mouth. Blood ran over his lips.
She rolled away and got to her feet, breathing hard, and watched him die.
A fist pounded on the door.
"Selena. Selena, open up." Nick's voice.
She went to the door and unlocked it.
Nick and Lamont were in the hallway. Nick saw the blood.
"You're hurt."
"I'm all right," Selena said. "I think."
He looked beyond her at the motionless figure on the floor.
"Lamont, watch the hall. There could be more of these guys."
"I'll be right outside," Lamont said.
Nick stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He guided her over to the bed.
"Sit down."
Nick saw a hotel bathrobe hanging by the bathroom door. He took it and draped it over her. Red spots began to appear through the white cloth. He went into the bathroom and got some towels. He wet one, came back out, opened her robe and gently began cleaning away the blood. He held a dry towel against the wound until the bleeding slowed. The cut was eight or nine inches long, the flesh laid open in a wide gash.
"It's nasty, but it's not too deep," he said. "It needs stitches."
"There's a kit in my belt pack."
He found the kit. He cleaned the wound with disinfectant and sprinkled antibiotic powder on it.
"This will hurt."
Nick began stitching the edges of the wound together. She winced as he worked.
"What happened?"
"I'd just come out of the shower and I was watching the rain. I heard a noise. When I looked, I saw him coming at me. He must've been hiding in the closet. He was good, he almost had me. I hurt him but he kept coming."
"He must be one of Cobra's men."
Selena began shivering. "I feel cold," she said.
The shivering turned into shaking. Her whole body shook. Nick put his arms around her and held her close.
"I…don't know…why…"
"Shh," he said, "shh. It's all right. It's just a reaction, it'll pass soon."
He held her for what seemed like a long time before the shaking stopped.
CHAPTER 43
Stephanie came into Elizabeth's office, her face flushed with excitement.
"Cobra," she said. "I've got him. I hacked into RAW's computers and took a look at their personnel files. Then I pulled a record of all the phones issued by the agency and referenced it against that list and Cobra's encrypted number. Cobra's information was behind four layers of security. He's the Secretary for Special Operations at RAW, the equivalent of our DCNS. His name is Ashok Rao."
"That explains how he had the resources needed to fake those calls," Elizabeth said.
"I also found out who Ijay is. He commands a black ops unit that works under Rao. He has birthmarks that remind people of the spots of a leopard. That's how his group got their name."
"Very poetic. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that they were the ones who blew up the Indian Embassy in Manila."
"It might be hard to prove that."
"We have a bigger problem to worry about," Elizabeth said. She briefed Stephanie on what Nick had told her about the Hazratbal mosque.
"Nick said it was a massacre. Automatic weapons turned against unarmed civilians."
"It must be what Cobra meant in that phone call," Stephanie said, "about the Army being ready."
Elizabeth shook her head in disgust. "He has to be stopped. It's too late to prevent a war. Indian soldiers firing on Muslims at a holy shrine is the last straw."
"What are you going to do about Rao?"
"I'm going to tell Rice what we found out and let him decide. Without presidential authorization he's untouchable. I can't do anything right now except let Nick know who he is."
She picked up her pen and set it down again.
"Rao is trying to start a war. Why?"
"His file was extensive," Stephanie said. "He's a Hindu nationalist and was an active field agent in Afghanistan for several years before he was singled out for promotion. His wife and son were killed in a terrorist attack by Afridi's group. He blames Pakistan and he hates Muslims."
"Lots of people in India hate Muslims and Pakistan too. They don't try to start a war because of it. Rao may be psychotic."
"If he's crazy, he's doing a good job of hiding it," Stephanie said. "The only medical notes in his file are routine. His psych profile shows tendencies toward violence and paranoia but that wouldn't be unusual for a field operative. "
"Anything else?"
"He has a high IQ. He comes from an acceptable caste for his position, but he's risen as high as he's going to. It's a little unusual that he got that far, which says a lot about his ability. He's also a devotee of Shiva. That's not unusual in India."