Untouchable

by Stephanie Doyle

  For the first time in her life she’d been touched and she didn’t have the memory of it to take with her if she should die.

  Chapter 14

  “I can hear the water.” Lilith stopped to listen to the sound. The rumble of fast rapids drowned out any noises from the jungle behind them.

  “We’re not far back,” Tarak told her as he checked his GPS receiver once more.

  “Do you think we can get in front of her like you said? Maybe set a trap?”

  “Maybe. Whatever we plan we need to act soon. We’re not far from where she should be able to find some transportation. If we can’t stop her out here then trying to do so in New Delhi where she’ll have more resources will be next to impossible.”

  Lilith thought about that. “Not if we have more resources, too.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow but she was unsure whether he was impressed with her suggestion or amused by her comment. After all, she certainly had no resources to call upon. Her world had been the village and the monastery.

  But he came from a different world.

  “Resources,” he repeated.

  “You must know people. People of violence rarely work alone. Like Echo’s men. They come in packs.”

  “Okay, don’t compare me to her thugs. They’re all brawn and no brains. And most of them have ended up dead. I’ve been doing what I do for a very long time and as you can see I’m very much alive.”

  Lilith tried to stifle a snort but failed. She couldn’t remember the last time she made such a sound. “Maybe you do not have as much brains as you think. You could have very easily been dead an hour ago. You had no idea that your theory would prove true.”

  “You don’t live life like I do without taking chances and relying on your gut instinct. I knew when I touched you I wasn’t going to die. And I was right. You need to understand, Lilly, people like me, we’re a breed apart. For the most part the world is grateful we exist.”

  “We…So there are more of you?”

  “There are. There were. Good men. Good fighters all of them,” Tarak said, his face tightening.

  “Something happened.”

  “I lost several men on a mission in South America. It’s how I ended up with a bullet in my leg and emptiness in my soul.”

  “You were to blame?”

  He laughed softly. “No, but it doesn’t matter, does it? I can’t not feel the guilt. I hired them. I took them to that place and they died. It doesn’t really matter how.”

  “Like with Sister Peter.”

  “Exactly. You didn’t cause her death, but you feel it. Inside. That’s how it was with my men. I used some CIA contacts to set up that mission. One of them was a friend. I hope the other was the traitor.”

  “If you contacted this friend would he come?”

  “She might, yes. She always loved a grand adventure. If it comes down to it we can reach her once we get to Bomdila. If she’ll agree to meet us with her team we may have a better chance against Echo.”

  “That is if we do not catch up with Echo here. Now.”

  Tarak pushed through a heavy thicket and suddenly the roar of the water was intense. Waves of white foam flew over rocks at incredible speed. Lilith thought of the heavy rains they had trekked through. Of course the river was swollen. A small tributary, this river would eventually flow into the Brahmaputra, but for all its speed and force it could have been the mighty river.

  Suddenly Tarak’s arm was against her stomach forcing her back among the bushes.

  “You must stop touching me,” she insisted as she backed away from the pressure of his forearm against her midriff.

  “Shh. Look out there. About a hundred and fifty meters down river. It’s them trying to cross.”

  Lilith ducked behind Tarak, but, following his finger, she could see through the bushes to the threesome attempting to navigate the river by foot. Where they crossed Lilith could see boulders and rocks poking out over the water peaks. It would be a difficult crossing, but with balance and a little luck they would make it to the other side.

  Balance, luck and time.

  “This could be our shot. It’s going to take them a while to get across. The river is narrow up here. It’s rough, but we should be able to walk along the bottom of it. If we can make it to the other side before them then we’ll have our chance to move ahead.”

  But Lilith shook her head. “I cannot.”

  “You can’t swim?”

  “No, the water will be freezing. Runoff from the mountains.”

  Tarak scowled. “If this is about being a little cold…”

  “You do not understand. The cold water makes me sick. My pores close and the poison backs up. It makes me sick.”

  “Control the poison,” Tarak ordered.

  Inexplicably hurt, Lilith shook her head. “You ask me to control the beating of my heart. I cannot.”

  “You can.”

  Lilith searched for another answer and found it. Up river from where Echo was crossing there was a simple rope bridge. A base rope to walk across and two others to hold for balance.

  “They must not have seen it,” she said even as she pointed to it.

  “Or they didn’t want to take the time to go out of their way only to find that the damn thing would be unstable,” Tarak grumbled. “Look at it. We’re talking three ropes. Who knows what kind of condition it’s in?”

  “We’re close enough to Bomdila that there would be camping and water rafting in these parts. A bridge like that is used by guides to get tourists across the river. It will hold us.” Lilith was almost sure of it.

  Tarak ran a hand over his chin. “Once we get out there we’ll be exposed.”

  “They will be too concerned with getting over the rocks. Quickly. If we do not move now we may lose our advantage.”

  Lilith took the decision out of his hands and followed the shoreline for several meters until she reached the crude bridge. She turned to see if Tarak was behind her and was startled to find him so close. It was hard to believe that only a little more than a week ago he’d had a bullet in his leg.

  It was a testament to his strength and a reminder that this was not a man to be taken lightly. Not that she believed she ever had.

  Tarak turned his attention to the bridge and the water. He found the trees that served as the anchor for the ropes and tested to see how securely they were fastened. He tugged with all his strength but they remained tight.

  “Well?”

  “The ropes appear to be in good condition,” he admitted. Then his gaze drifted out over the rushing rapids. “It’s higher up than I realized. At least a five-foot drop. With the rushing water, if you fall you’ll be carried away so fast there will be no way to stop you. And that’s not considering what might break once you hit the rocks.”

  “Then I must not fall.”

  Tarak glared at her. “I don’t like this.”

  “We do not have a choice. If we wait until they cross and try to follow their path we will still be that much farther behind. If we cross now and start running we can get ahead of them. I know we can. Please. We have to act now.”

  “Fine,” he relented. “I’ll go first. You stay behind me. And stay low.”

  Tarak ducked under the support rope and stepped onto the lead rope. Lilith could see how he adjusted his feet on the thick rope to balance his weight. He paused for a second, glancing over his shoulder at his backpack, but he must have decided it was worth the effort to carry it across because he carefully placed one foot in front of the other and began to move out over the river.

  Lilith quickly followed although allowing some space between them in case she lost her balance. She didn’t want Tarak to be the first thing she reached for. Her gloves made gripping the rope on either side of her waist more challenging, but she’d often had to walk tightrope bridges such as these. They were used among the people of her village as pathways over waterways.

  Of course, she’d never attempted to use a
bridge like this over such fast rushing water while chasing three people who were armed.

  But Lilith imagined there was a first time for everything.

  Step by step Tarak moved out over the rapids. The roaring sound below made any attempt at conversation pointless. Lilith followed, copying his style of one foot in front of the other while her knees were bent as much as she could to shrink her height.

  Her last thought before she heard the crack of the gun was that they were almost halfway there.

  “Watch the rock to your left up ahead. It’s slippery.”

  Echo saw Rolf’s mouth moving as he tried to tell her something, but she couldn’t hear a thing. The idiot. What made him think that anyone could hear anything except the sound of water….

  A tickle at the back of her neck ran all the way down to the base of her spine. So strong she had to work to maintain her balance on the rock bridge that barely broke the surface of the water. Her combat boots gave her the traction she needed and after a second’s hesitation to secure her position, she allowed her senses to open.

  Someone was close. Her head swirled to her left and then to her right. It took her a second to process what she was seeing. Far enough away that it was difficult to make out the figures, but her senses weren’t lying. Over the water. Two people. A rope bridge.

  The bridge that she’d dismissed using because she didn’t want to lose time going backward. It was one of her faults. She tended to be impatient. Besides, there were enough rocks for her to cross where they were. If Kent and Rolf struggled that was their problem, but she had no intention of slowing down.

  Her eyes narrowed. It was easy to make out that the first person on the bridge was a man. Dark hair. Dark skinned. Most likely a native. Carrying a pack on his back. He might have been a guide. A tourist out seeking adventure in the jungle.

  But behind him was a woman. The gloves gave her away.

  Interesting. Lilith had a friend.

  That’s how she’d managed to track them through the jungle. Echo smiled. She’d been giving Lilith far too much credit. Obviously it was with the help of the man that she’d managed to get so close and had been able to take out one of Echo’s team. Lilith was as pathetic as Echo had originally suspected, needing a man’s help.

  Echo looked at the two men in front of her. Each were slowly navigating from one rock to the next, carefully choosing their steps and waiting a second between each before taking another. Yes, she had a team with her, but they were completely superfluous. More for show than anything else. Disposable. Replaceable.

  Definitely unnecessary.

  Echo removed a gun from her holster. She could shoot them both now and it wouldn’t slow her down for a second. She could shoot them, shoot the man on the bridge and then it would just be her and Lilith.

  Briefly Echo considered what Mummy would think of her two little girls battling it out. Then she remembered that there had been a reason why each of the sisters had been given a piece of the empire. A piece that wasn’t nearly as valuable without the other two. Each one got a taste of what was at stake. A way to tease the palate. It was only natural that each would want more. Or it should have been natural.

  Obviously Lilith was unnatural in that regard. Because despite Lilith’s valiant efforts to follow Echo, she was fairly certain it wasn’t to get the information back so Lilith could use it herself. No, there was a streak of altruism in her little sister that was as shiny as the gold necklace hanging around Echo’s neck.

  Good old Mummy had set it up so that the strongest would prevail and take from the others what was rightfully hers. Kwan-Sook had been no more than a blip on Echo’s radar. Lilith should have been less so only here she was still coming after Echo like a pit bull with a rope between its teeth.

  Echo glanced at her men. Rolf had made it to land. Kent wasn’t far behind. No, she didn’t need them, but at this point there was no reason to waste the bullets. Instead she aimed out to where the man was suspended over the river just beyond the halfway point.

  “You want to come after me, sister, you do it alone.” Echo narrowed her eyes, focused on the target and pulled the trigger.

  Lilith saw Tarak buckle before the sound of the crack registered in her brain. She watched blood spit out of his shoulder and then, after some jerky flailing, he lost his balance and started to fall.

  Miraculously he managed to catch himself with his other hand by holding on to one of the balance ropes even as his legs dangled over the water. He tried to swing his body forward and reach for the lead rope with his leg but missed.

  Lilith took a step forward and then stopped. “Tarak,” she called, although her voice was so breathy she knew he couldn’t hear her. All she could do was watch as he struggled to use his other hand to reach for the rope but his bloodied shoulder wouldn’t cooperate.

  “Lilly, you need to take my hand and pull me up so I can get a leg over the bottom rope.”

  Lilith reached down and offered her hand. It wasn’t far enough. She could see the struggle in his face as he tried to lift his shoulder. Crouching down on her two feet that were clinging to the single rope, she reached out even farther. He managed to swing his arm so that for a brief second she caught his hand. But it quickly slipped off the silken material of her glove.

  “You need to take the glove off, Lilly. I need to catch you and hold your hand for leverage.”

  “I cannot. It will kill you.”

  “No, it won’t. You know I’m not your enemy. There is no need to have your defenses up. Take a deep breath and feel yourself take control of the poison.”

  “It is impossible.”

  “Lilly! Now. I can’t hold this rope much longer.”

  “I could try to reach for your leg.” Even as she said it she tried to crouch even lower to reach down for his leg, but then she felt her balance wavering.

  “You can’t without falling. Just take the damn glove off and reach for my hand. You won’t kill me if you touch me, I promise. I can’t say the same if I fall. Hurry.”

  Lilith saw him grimace as a wave of pain crossed over him. The muscles in the arm holding on to the rope were strained and bulging, but as strong as he was he couldn’t lift his body weight with only one arm. His grip was tight but she could see that his knuckles were blanched white. He would only be able to hold on for so long.

  She looked at the water below and tried to see if maybe falling wasn’t his better option. The current would take him down river, but if he could find a rock or a branch to grab hold of he might…The thought was instantly crushed by the image of what might happen if his body slammed into one of those rocks.

  It was true. She was his best option.

  “I…I will not kill you,” she said aloud. She needed to hear the words. Needed to believe them. She began to pull the glove off her hand. She let it fall and watched as it was sucked up by the rushing water below.

  Looking down at herself, she found it almost strange to see her bare hand. It wasn’t often that it was uncovered, and in a strange daze she noted that her nails had grown too long.

  “I will not kill you. I will not kill you.”

  “Now feel yourself taking control,” Tarak shouted to her over the rushing water. “There are no enemies on this bridge. Just you and me. You can do this, Lilly. I need for you to do this.”

  He’d spoken of a sheen that covered her skin, the glimmering quality that signaled the poison. Looking at her hand now, she could see no evidence of it. Closing her eyes, she breathed in deep and willed herself to believe that she had control over her body. She could feel her heart beat heavily. Could feel the blood rushing through her system. Visualizing herself as a normal woman who was incapable of killing a man she cared about, she reached out as Tarak swung his arm forward at the same time.

  She caught his hand in hers. Linked her fingers between his. And pulled him toward the rope. She waited for the convulsions but none came. Instead he was cursing under his breath and working to maintain his grip.

>   It was the first time she’d ever touched anyone who hadn’t died. She wanted to sob because the emotions were so powerful, but there was no time.

  Finally Tarak gripped the rope with his wounded arm. Shouting in agony, he still managed to pull himself up so that his feet were on the bottom rope. Once he had his balance he could duck under the lead rope and begin making his way to the other side.

  Lilith followed as fast as her feet would take her. Both of them crouched low. Both of them waiting for the report of another gunshot.

  “Damn it.” Echo hadn’t hit the bastard hard enough. She raised the gun to fire again, but a wave rushed up over her ankles, then another as high as her knees. She struggled to maintain her stability on the rocks.

  “Let’s go!”

  She glanced up at Rolf, who was waving her on, obviously concerned with the speed and swell of the waves. She looked again to her target and saw that they were almost on the other side of the river. Overhanging trees obscured her line of vision. It wasn’t worth it to waste the bullet. Her only consolation was that at least he was wounded.

  If nothing else that would slow them down.

  “All right. I’m coming. Keep your panties on, boys.” With a few more careful steps she ignored Rolf’s outstretched hand and instead took one last leap. Her boots met solid ground.

  “Let’s move,” she ordered. “Fast. I want out of this damn jungle.”

  “You think she’ll still follow us?” Kent had obviously seen what happened on the bridge.

  Echo frowned. “You know, I think she’s stupid enough to do just that. Even alone. I’m really going to have to come up with a suitable way to kill her if the fool actually manages to find me.”

  Chapter 15

  “A hhhh!!!!”

  “It hurts very much, then?” Lilith tugged her bottom lip between her teeth out of concern. She’d never felt so ineffectual in her life.

  “Yes,” he said tightly. “Very much.”