Operation Snake

Chapter IX

Hilary met me as I rode into town, looking like the much beaten sheriff in some western movie. I piled the jewels and gold coins in front of the temple, explaining to the assembled people that Ghotak was fleeing with the temple's money. Then we found an ironmaker who had the tools to cut the trap loose, and she took me to her room and got my ankle bandaged. Later, 1 returned to the silent house and collected my things. I didn't linger, staying only long enough to pack the few things I'd brought. I kept seeing a small, delicate form poised in the doorway, drifting through the empty rooms. I got the hell out quickly.

My ankle still hurt, but thick bandages swathed it, and I could walk without limping. The door to Hilary's room was ajar and I called out as I pushed it open. She was standing in the center of the room and as I entered she sprang at me, letting go with a roundhouse blow that caught me on the cheek.

"You louse!" she yelled. "Give me those batteries." She swung again and I ducked away.

"Why, Hilary, honey," I said. "Whatever are you talking about?"

"I'll kill you," she yelled, lunging at me. I grabbed her wrists and whirled her in a semi-circle. She landed on the bed, bouncing three times on it. She came off the third bounce swinging, arms flailing the air at me, pure fury in her blazing blue eyes. I ducked the blows and she paused, her breasts heaving.

"You'll get all hot and bothered carrying on like that," I said. "Why don't you sit down and tell me what it's all about?"

"You know bloody well what it's about, you big, ugly louse," she said. Suddenly her voice broke and tears flooded her eyes. "You've no right," she choked out. "No right at all. I worked my bloody ass off for this story."

I moved over to her and took her in my arms, and suddenly she was on the bed with me, clinging to me and sobbing. She had worked hard for it and I knew how much it must mean, but I couldn't let her send it.

"Look, doll," I said. "Maybe you can do your story but I have to get clearance first. I've got to speak to my boss who'll check it out with British Intelligence. But I can't do anything till I get in touch with him."

She sat up. "Then let's get out of here and fast," she said. Her arms encircled my neck. "For other reasons, too," she added. "I want you again, Nick, but not here, not in this place. Come back to England with me, for a few days, anyway. My folks have a little cottage in Surrey where we can hide away."

"Now there's a good idea," I said. "Let's work on it.

We got up, collected our few things, and walked from the Inn. As we headed toward the mountains I knew that the trip back across them to Khumbu, no matter how hard it was, would be easier because we were heading home. I gazed back at the roof of the Royal Palace flashing in the afternoon sun. His Majesty had not been seen accepting outside help. Not only was his image intact but so was his strange kingdom. Only a handful of people knew, and half of them were dead now, that a clever attempt to take over a nation had been tried and had failed. I saw a line of marchers carrying long streamers snaking their way through the streets.

"Do you know what that's all about?" I asked Hilary.

"A procession celebrating the death of the yeti," she said. I nodded, and an image of the terrible creature flashed before my eyes. Like Hilary, I would not be quick to scoff at old legends any longer. We knew less about the strange things of this world than we realized, that much this land had taught me.

At Khumbu, I made contact with British Intelligence, and a special airliner picked us up and flew us to London. I'd gotten Hawk on the phone and briefed him fully. He was pleased, and he sounded approachable. I brought up Hilary and her story.

"It means a lot to her," I said. "And seeing as how it's over and done with, what harm can it do?"

"Nothing is ever over and done with, N3," he answered from three thousand miles away. "We don't want to start another diplomatic row which will end in military action, you know."

"I take it that means no story," I said.

"Oh, what the hell, let her send it," he said in a sudden rush of words. 'The Chinese will scream denial and call us liars but they do that all the time, anyway."

"Thanks, Chief," I said. "Shell be grateful."

"And you'll get the benefit of that gratitude, I'm sure," he said crisply. "Make sure you're back here no later than the weekend."

"Yes, sir," I said. The phone went dead and I told Hilary. Her enthusiasm was delirious. I smiled, thinking of Hawk's words. She filed the story and we drove to her house and met her folks and her kid brother. Her brother, like all twelve-year-olds everywhere, was full of questions, energy and enthusiasm.

"Come on into my room," he said. "I'll show you my new pet." Hilary and I followed the youngster as he led the way into his model-airplane-bedecked room. He pointed to a cage standing on an end table.

"It's a black racer," he said. "They make awfully good pets."

He reached in and brought out the serpent, a gleaming jet black.

"Golly, I hope you're not afraid of snakes," he said to me. Hilary's eyes met mine with suppressed laughter.

"Where is that cottage you told me about?" I asked quietly.

"I'll get the keys," she laughed.

We left her brother and his black racer and found the little cottage in Surrey. The English countryside, the orderly, uncomplicated atmosphere and Hilary. It was a great parlay and I drank in all three. It was dusk when we reached the cottage and we went out to dinner first. When we returned, I made a fire to take the damp chill out of the air and we sat on a thick throw-rug before the fireplace. Hilary's cheeks glowed in the firelight, her blonde hair sending out sparks of glittering brass. I turned off the lamp and the rest of the room faded into blackness. There was only us, the circle of firelight and the warmth. We were back in our cave in the Himalayan mountains, and Hilary fell into my arms, her lips thirsting, eager, her body throbbing with desire. In moments we were naked beside the fire, the warmth of the flames flowing over us, heightening the fever of our own bodies. Hilary's large, full breasts found their way to my lips as she pressed against me, and she moaned and cried out as I traced a slow pattern of pleasure with my tongue.

Hilary held my head against her stomach, her thighs, her breasts. She was feverish in her hunger, small sounds of ecstasy rising from inside her to fill the little room. When I held her very essence she gasped, and her small cries changed into an incessant plea for more. We made wild, unbridled love for three days, losing track of time and the world, making the cottage into our own, self-contained world just as we had that little cave.

But the days had to come to an end. It was near dawn and I lay awake, thinking of how, within a matter of hours, I'd be back in New York and then in Washington, sitting across the desk from Hawk. Hilary lay beside me, awake, too, holding my hand cupped around her breast.

"You'll come back to see me sometime?" she asked suddenly, her voice small and somehow lost I nodded and turned to see her smile, a sad smile.

"I'll make believe, anyway," she said. "And I stand on what I said that night in the cave. God, it seems so long ago now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're tremendous to make love with but no one to fall in love with."

"I never said you were wrong," I answered.

"But you do leave a big hole when you go," she said, turning to look at me. "I thought it wouldn't bother me. I guess I'm not that different."

I left Hilary that morning. She drove me to the airport and I saw her frank, pretty face and waved to her from the airliner. Then we wheeled out onto the runway and it was over. As the giant plane flew high over white cloud formations that looked like mounds of snow, I kept seeing a small, wispy, delicate form drifting through the clouds, and I thought about the difference between being wanted and being loved. Someplace, they came together, of course, but the trick was to keep them apart. Or was it?