The Eye of Shiva

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."

Nick's face closed down. Selena knew she was being bitchy. She could feel the urge to start an argument with him. They hadn't talked about getting married since it came up in their hotel room in Manila. They'd left it hanging. Then Ronnie had been wounded and she'd gotten angry at Nick in the hospital. Since then Nick had been keeping to himself in his apartment. Most of the time they only saw each other at work.

Damn it, she thought, why do I always end up in this place when I think about getting married to him?

She loved him. But that day in the jewelry store she'd backed off, fast. She still hadn't figured out why she was pushing him away. It was as if something was knocking on a door inside her mind, demanding attention. She didn't want to open the door.

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that."

"Why did you say yes when we were on that island? Since then it seems like you really meant no."

She heard a new tone of resignation in his voice. It made her uneasy.

"I said yes because it seemed right."

"So what changed? It sounds like you don't think it's right anymore."

"No, I don't think that," she said. "I mean, I still think it's right. Something keeps getting in the way, but I'm not sure what it is. We talked about one of us getting killed, but I don't think that's it, not anymore. I don't know."

"It feels like you're always trying to pick a fight," he said.

Selena decided to say nothing.

"You have to stop doing that," he said. "I really hate it."

She started to get angry again. Who the hell was he to tell her that she had to do anything?

"I think that can be arranged."

Selena got up and moved to an empty seat across the aisle and began reading her article. She couldn't concentrate. After a few minutes she gave up pretending to read and stared out the window.

A half hour before they were due to land in Anchorage, Lamont emerged from the rear of the plane yawning and stretching. He looked at Nick and Selena sitting apart. The feeling of tension in the cabin was like a cloud.

"What did I miss?" he said.