"People coming," Stephanie said. She pointed to a group of bearded men approaching in a battered pickup. A machine gun was mounted in the back.
"Tribesmen," Elizabeth said. "Probably Shinwari. They must have seen the smoke and decided to take a look."
Stephanie zoomed in on a bearded corpse lying on his back. His mouth was open, his eyes staring at the sky. The front of his light colored shirt was dark with dried blood. A rifle lay on the ground next to him.
"That's Afridi," Stephanie said.
"It wasn't the tribesmen," Elizabeth said. "They're just showing up."
"That leaves Cobra's man."
"Ijay. I guess Cobra decided he didn't want to hear whatever it was Afridi had to say."
"I wish all these people would just kill each other off," Stephanie said. "It would save us a lot of trouble."
"That's a bit bloodthirsty, Steph. Anyway, Afridi isn't a problem anymore."
"I rest my case."
"We've still got Cobra to deal with. I'd better let Nick know about Afridi."
"Look at that mound of rocks," Stephanie said. She pointed at the stones and dirt Afridi's men had moved and piled to the side. "That's some serious labor."
"They were looking for something. We still don't know what."
"If they found anything, Cobra has it now."
On screen, the tribesmen had gotten out of their truck and were fanning out through the site. Elizabeth called Nick.
"Director."
"Afridi's dead," Elizabeth said. "So are all the men he had with him."
"Where do I send the flowers?"
"Very funny, Nick. It looks like Cobra caught Afridi and his men by surprise. There's no one there now, except the locals."
"So we don't need an insertion into Afghanistan or Pakistan after all," Nick said. "I'm not sorry to hear that. I wasn't looking forward to it."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were getting soft," Elizabeth said.
"You don't give me the chance."
Elizabeth laughed. "I don't want you to get bored."
"What's next?"
"We still have Cobra to deal with."
"Where is he now?"
Stephanie had been listening to the conversation. She pulled up a map on her monitor. Rao's phone was marked by a blinking red dot.
"I've got a lock on his phone," Stephanie said. "He's not that far from you, on a road that goes to a town southwest of Srinagar called Poonch. It's right on the control line, near the border with Pakistan. Ijay would have needed to use a helicopter to get to Afridi. There's an airstrip in Poonch, the only one in the region. I think Cobra is going to meet him there."
"I don't know what this guy looks like," Nick said.
"I can fix that," Stephanie said. She called up a photo of Rao, hacked from his file on the Research Wing servers. "I'm sending a picture now."
Nick looked at the photo. Cobra was an innocuous looking man for someone who had caused so much trouble. There was something hidden in his eyes. Nick had seen it before, in the eyes of men for whom everything was a means to an end. It was the look of a man with no conscience.
"What do you want us to do?" Nick said.
"Go get him," Elizabeth said. "Find out what Afridi was doing in Afghanistan. Cobra went to a lot of trouble to track him down and kill him."
"I'll let you know if his location changes," Stephanie said.
"Copy that," Nick said.
CHAPTER 54
Nick and Selena rode in the front seat of the rental van, Lamont in back. Nick was behind the wheel. Black travel cases loaded with film gear and marked with the logo of the bogus Canadian film company took up most of the cargo space behind Lamont. Their pistols were out of sight.
"Check point coming up," Lamont said.
Concrete barriers placed in a staggered pattern across the pavement blocked the way. Four soldiers in Indian uniforms and carrying INSAS assault rifles waited by a covered truck parked at the side of the road. One of the soldiers stepped out and held up his hand to stop.
The soldiers looked nervous.
"Itchy fingers," Lamont said, as Nick slowed. "Don't piss them off."
Selena said, "Let me do the talking."
Nick came to a stop and rolled down his window. The soldier who approached had two red and gold chevrons on his shoulder boards. A corporal. The man was young, no more than twenty at most. He eyed the foreign faces with suspicion.
"This is restricted area," he said. His English was awkward, heavily accented. "Who are you? Why you come here?"
Nick said, "We're a film crew from Canada, making a documentary on Kashmir."
"No filming here. Turn around."
Selena leaned across Nick and began speaking Hindi. The soldier looked surprised. He answered her and held out his hand.
"He wants to see our passports," Selena said.
They handed over the passports. The soldier looked at each photo, comparing the pictures to the people.
Selena said, "Give him the letter."
Part of their cover was an official looking letter written in Hindi and English from the Indian Ministry of Culture, giving them permission to film anywhere in Indian Kashmir. It instructed anyone who read it to provide full cooperation to the distinguished Canadian film crew. It was signed by the minister himself. The letter had been provided courtesy of Langley's clandestine ops division. Even the minister would think it was his signature.
A second soldier came over to the van. This man had three stripes on his shoulder. The corporal gestured at the van and said something. The sergeant took the documents and studied them.
"You speak Hindi?" he said to Nick.
"Not me. She does." He nodded at Selena.
"Give me the key to the back of the van."
"It's unlocked," Nick said.
The sergeant barked out a command. A third soldier opened the doors and began looking in the cases. Lights. Sound gear. A computer. He held up an expensive steady cam.
"Please be careful with that," Nick said. If they did a personal search they'd find the guns. That wouldn't go over well.
The soldier finished searching and shook his head. He got out of the van and closed the doors.
"Why are you going to Poonch?" the sergeant asked.
Nick didn't have a story ready. He was about to make one up when Selena began talking to the sergeant in Hindi. She spoke for a minute before the sergeant replied. The conversation went back and forth. Nick had no idea what they were talking about.
The sergeant handed the passports and letter back to Nick.
"You may go. Be careful. There are reports of infiltrators from Pakistan. They will not treat you well if they see you."
"Thank you, Sergeant," Nick said.
The sergeant stepped back and saluted. Nick put the van in gear and they eased around the barriers.
Nick turned to Selena. "What did you tell him?"
"I told him we wanted to film the spot where the courageous Indian Army and proud people of the area held back the Pakistani hoards in 1947 and saved the nation."
"Did you really say that?"
"More or less. Not quite so dramatically."
"What's Poonch got to do with saving the nation?"
"The Kashmir Valley is a major corridor for invasion from Pakistan and Poonch is on a natural strategic choke point. When war started in 1947 there wasn't any airport. Civilian refugees hacked out a dirt runway in six days while a small unit of the Indian Army held the Pakis off. Once the strip was done, reinforcements and supplies could be airlifted in to block the invasion."
"Saving the nation," Nick said.
"Exactly."
Poonch was a city of about 500,000 people. They passed a large mosque on the side of a hill overlooking the city.
"Most of the people here are Muslim," Selena said. "The boundary line runs right through the city."
"Hindus and Muslims," Nick said. "You'd think after a thousand years or so they'd would learn to get along."