The Hunt for Shambhala

15

Riley saw the gunmen first and yelled at his friends as he dived for the cover of the beach hut bar. “They’re firing! Get down!”

Decker threw himself at Selena and pulled her to the ground, shielding her from the bullets with his own body. Exploded palm culms and coconut matting sprayed over their heads as they hit the hot sand and a bullet ripped into Charlie’s upper arm. All around them terrified tourists screamed and scattered in every direction, not knowing where the danger was coming from.

But Decker knew where it was coming from — Kaleka and his thug who were now dragging Diana roughly by her arm across the cooling sand toward the sea.

“Where the hell are they taking her?” Selena said.

“Maybe they have a sub in the Arabian Sea?” Charlie said, wincing as he pulled up his shirt sleeve to see the wound. “Shit — they definitely got me!”

Riley glanced at the wound. “Just a flesh wound, you big girl.”

“The bullet’s lodged inside!” Charlie protested.

Riley leaned in closer. “Oh, shit… sorry.”

“You really think they have a boat moored somewhere?” Selena said, wincing as she glanced at Charlie’s arm.

“No, it’s not that.” Decker pointed through the beach shack towards a low concrete building a few hundred yards to the north.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Riley said.

“Quads?” Selena said.

“It’s what I would do,” Riley said.

Selena frowned. “That’s no recommendation.”

“Let’s get after them!” Charlie said, wincing again.

Selena turned to him and placed her hands either side of his face as if he were a small, silly child. “Charlie, you have a bullet in your arm. You’re staying here while I call an ambulance.”

“That leaves us, mate,” Riley said to Decker. “Last to the quads buys dinner?”

“And the drinks,” Decker said, fixing his eyes on the Australian.

As she tied a tourniquet on Charlie’s arm, Selena gave a subtle smile — she was glad to know Decker wasn’t all business after all.

Decker didn’t see it. His gaze was fixed on the fracas unfolding over at the quad hire shack, where Kaleka was indiscriminately spraying hot lead from the machine pistol in all directions to clear the punters away from the quads and free up his escape route.

Selena frowned again. “So are you going to let them get away with Diana or just sit here like a couple of idiots?”

“She has a point,” Riley said. “And I’m not getting my wallet out tonight under any circumstances.”

“We’ll see about that,” Decker said, and sprung to his feet. A second later he was vaulting over the rum-soaked bar of the beach hut bar and scrambling through the chaos toward the quads.

“Bastard!” Riley said.

The two men sprinted along the top of the dunes and used the coconut palms for cover as they made their way toward the quad shack. Up ahead, Kaleka had forced Diana on a quad and was climbing on board behind her. With his left hand on the handlebar and his right hand pushing the MP5 in her back, the Indian revved the quad, screeched out of the shack and hit the sand. A second behind him was Mukesh, and as he swerved his quad out onto the beach he turned and fired his pistol at Decker and Riley.

They hurled themselves into the air and crashed down behind the quad hire building with a second to spare. Mukesh’s bullets punched a line of holes in the large bright-red sign above the store and sprayed them both with splintered wood.

Decker pulled his head down to dodge the lead and splinters, and turned to see Selena diving down beside him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Ambulance took Charlie to hospital,” she replied. “He wasn’t best pleased when I jumped out the back just as the paramedics closed the doors, but I couldn’t miss this for the world! This is treasure hunting!”

“Crazy as hell…” Decker said, turning to Riley. “You know what I’m thinking?”

“That it’s remarkably cheap to hire quads here?” Riley said.

“No,” Decker said, working hard to suppress a smirk. “Which one of us got here first?”

“I believe,” Riley said, jumping to his feet and straddling a Yamaha ATV quad, “that the bet was first to the quads, not the quad shack.”

Before Decker could protest, the Australian fired up the ignition, revved the quad, gave the American a salute and shot away across the sand.

“Son of a bitch,” Decker said. Shaking his head with disbelief he climbed aboard another of the idle quads, a bright red Honda. “Get on!” he yelled at Selena, and she jumped on the back and put her arms around his waist.

By the looks of things Riley had gotten the last automatic and so as Decker balanced himself on the seat he checked it was in neutral before turning the ignition key. He released the park brake and took off after the former Australian commando.

Out in the twilight darkness of the beach everything was still hot and getting dangerous very fast. Pulling in the clutch with his left hand he kicked the shift lever up with his left foot to go up into second, and again into third.

“You can drive this, right?” Selena said.

“Yes,” he snapped.

To the right, the beach twisted in a shallow arc and beyond it the grimy distillation towers of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation rose up into the haze of the north. To the left, Riley was powering across the sand in pursuit of Kaleka and Diana.

Decker increased speed and changed up into fourth. His quad had five gears and a moment later he was in top, standing up to get a better view of the action ahead. Either side of him, tourists, beggars and vendors illegally selling sunglasses and hats watched in confusion as he burned the Honda over the sand in a desperate attempt to catch up with Diana Silva and her kidnappers.

Weaving in and out of the tourists Riley soon pulled alongside Mukesh and raised his leg. For a second, Decker though he was going to go for the world’s highest kick and strike the Indian thug in the face, but then he saw the Australian launch his boot at the handlebars and the plan became clear.

Mukesh’s quad instantly responded to the sharp kick and spun off down the dunes. The young Indian man struggled to level off but the slope was too steep and the quad tipped over on its two left hand-side wheels. He panicked and turned the handlebars the wrong way and now the quad was flipping over and over like a toy car. It came to a stop a few seconds later at the bottom of the dune, the velocity of the crash snapping Mukesh’s neck like it was balsa wood.

When Riley saw he had neutralized the threat from the young gunman, he looked at Decker for a second before pointing up the beach. “One down, one to go.”

Decker was a trained marine, but he was an officer and a pilot. That gave him a different skillset to those men who trained to be commandos, and the difference was never better demonstrated than in the way they were able to brush off death. He saw now that Riley Carr was no exception to the rule.

He’d read about the soul-crushing selection course in the vast Western Australian outback that men had to pass if they wanted to get in the SASR. He had nothing but respect for those who even attempted it, never mind passed.

Ahead, Kaleka was now turning east at the top of Miramar Beach and when they made the same turn a few seconds later they saw him and Diana violently swerving off the sand. Racing up the dunes the Indian hitman launched his quad up a series of low, concrete steps and disappeared into a small grove of palm trees.

“Where now?” Decker said, pulling up beside Riley.

“He went in there!” Selena said.

“Goa Miramar Resort,” said Riley. “Stayed their on my third honeymoon.”

Before Decker even had time to consider how Riley Carr had persuaded at least three women to marry him, the Australian was ramming his quad up the concrete steps and weaving it through the palm grove in pursuit of the kidnapped woman.

Decker followed suit and as he hit the grove, he heard the now familiar sound of people screaming up ahead. The sound of terrified holidaymakers was met by a fierce barrage of quad-horns and then the grim sound of automatic weapons’ fire. Somewhere up there in the resort, a very dangerous man was starting to feel hunted. If he started to feel trapped as well Decker was worried innocent people might get hurt.

With Riley no longer in sight, Decker followed the narrow track that wound through the palms and dropped down to third gear to take a shallow corner. Mud and gravel chips flew up in a wide arc behind him as he dropped down again to second and revved wildly to gain speed and come out of the bend.

The track was now leading up a slope, at the top of which he was able to see Riley again. The Australian’s quad was stationary and he had raised himself up off the saddle in order to scan the area for Kaleka.

Decker pulled up beside him and joined the hunt. They were parked up in the center of the resort and now security guards were scrambling to contain what they presumably thought was a terrorist threat in the middle of their luxury hotel.

“Great,” Decker said. “We don’t need this.”

“We need to get out of here,” Selena said.

Ahead, the American saw the Goan moonlight flash for just a second off Kaleka’s rear brake lights. He was over the other side of the resort now, beyond the main swimming pool and heading for the entrance. If Riley was thinking the same thing as Decker, it was that if Kaleka got into the backstreets of Panjim they would probably never see either him or Diana ever again.

“Last chance to take the bastard out,” Riley said, revving the quad. He nodded his head in the direction of the security guards. “Tell these guys thanks but not today.” And then he was gone, skirting around the eastern edge of the enormous swimming pool.

“Son of a bitch!” Decker said, and let his clutch out too fast. The quad lurched forward in a series of violent judders as the guards behind him opened fire with their pistols. Decker crouched low against the quad to avoid the rounds but they were firing over his head to avoid hurting the few remaining guests who were too drunk to scramble to safety.

At the end of the pool, Decker turned the handlebars and made a sharp right turn as he worked hard to catch up with Riley once again. Time was running out, and he didn’t want to have to tell Selena they had lost both her friend and the journal.