The Eye of Shiva

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.