by Gary Jonas
“You think she called the fake cops with the guns?”
He nodded and ran his thumb back and forth over his fingertips. “How you say? More money for her.”
We let Behruz take over the piloting chores and rearranged ourselves to get as comfortable as possible in the cramped conditions. I drifted off to sleep for a short time, but woke up after having a dream about getting arrested for drug trafficking in a foreign country. Esther stood in the seat watching Behruz's every move.
“You're awake,” she said glancing back at me.
I nodded.
“It's all berries here. He's been on his best behavior since Kelly almost bumped him off.”
I gave her a thumbs up.
The helicopter felt like it would shake apart in midair, but in spite of the teeth-jarring ride, we made it to Moskvina Glade in one piece.
***
The base camp consisted of a series of tents. One was a large community tent, while the rest were smaller supply tents and sleeping quarters. There were only a few people remaining at the camp, but when we climbed out of the helicopter, Victor and Brenda exited the large tent to approach us. Two large men preceded them. They wore heavy coats.
Both were Russian. I knew one had to be Pavel and the other had to be Yuri.
“Which one of you is Chekov?” I asked when they neared.
“Kuznetsov,” Pavel said.
“Can I call you Chekov?”
“If I can call you Kirk.”
“Works for me,” I said. “I always wanted to be the captain of my own starship.”
“This is my brother, Yuri,” Pavel said.
Brothers in crime. Great.
“Welcome to base camp,” Victor said when he reached us.
Brenda rushed over and embraced me.
“I'm glad you're all right,” I said.
“That's a two-way street,” she said. “We have to talk!”
“We will.”
“Storm coming,” Pavel said pointing toward a mountain peak. “Better get gear unloaded.”
Esther appeared beside me. “I'm going to explore,” she said, and popped away.
Yuri pulled Behruz aside, and I turned a blind eye as it wasn't my concern. There was no way I could keep drugs off the street, and even if I could find a way to dispose of the heroin in the chopper, it would be like dropping a Band Aid in a river. It was more important for us to find Indra and get the weapon.
Three Tajik men approached. They said something in their language to Yuri, who looked around and shrugged. Then he said something to them and they nodded and moved to the helicopter to help unload the cargo.
We unloaded our gear, and Yuri stepped between us and the helicopter when we came back to help with the boxes. He shook his head and frowned.
Pavel clapped me on the shoulder. “My brother, our men, and Behruz will get rest of supplies. Let us check your gear. Make sure you are prepared.”
The three Tajik men kept looking around as they carried boxes from the helicopter to a supply tent. They seemed agitated.
It started to snow as we walked back to the community tent. Inside, Pavel looked over our gear and gave us his approval. “Very good equipment,” he said.
Kelly shrugged. “Of course,” she said. “I was in charge of the purchase.”
Pavel slipped out of his coat. He wore a right-handed leather shoulder holster with a double mag pouch. I didn't read too much into it, but I did make a note because his brother was a drug dealer. Pavel was probably a drug dealer too. Family business.
It only bothered me because I didn't have a gun with me. It was too much trouble to get one through the international flights as I didn't have all the paperwork arranged, and I didn't think I'd need one. I glanced over at Victor, who was at the far side of the tent pouring himself a cup of coffee. If I'd known about his little shadow trick, I could have had him bring a gun over. I made a note to ask him about it.
“We begin climbing first thing in the morning,” Pavel said. “Eat and rest tonight.”
“Will do,” I said.
“Oh, one last question. Did you get acclimated to altitude?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Thinner air here. Exertion will wear you down faster. Did you spend any time at Djirgital to acclimatize yourselves?”
“We lived in Denver for many years,” I said. “I think we can handle it.”
“What is Denver?”
“It's the Mile High City in Colorado,” I said, and moved toward Victor, who now sat drinking his coffee at a table.
Kelly caught up to me. “Your time in Denver was years ago.”
“I feel fine,” I said.
“Just be ready to get tired faster than you expect.”
I waved her off. I was in pretty good shape. No worries.
Brenda moved toward me and raised a finger, but she’d need to wait. I had to deal with Victor first. “Sorry, baby, I’ll be right back,” I said.
I approached Victor, and sat down across the table from him.
“How's it hanging?” I said.
“Greetings, Jonathan.” He sipped his coffee.
“Did you put blood in that?”
“You have the look of a man in need of an answer, and I don't think my choice of refreshments rates a spot on your list of questions.”
“Fine. I'll cut to the chase. How did you and Brenda get away from those cops?”
“Did you see us?”
“Yeah. You fell sideways and vanished into a shadow.”
He nodded. “So you have your answer.”
“I didn't know you could do that.”
“Your point?”
“My point is simple. Why not just take us through shadow to get here?”
“Limited range.”
“What is your range?”
“I'm not certain, but I can't cross oceans. And crossing continents in multiple jumps is exhausting. Especially with a passenger.”
“But you did it,” I said.
He shrugged.
“Could you hop into a town someplace and bring back a gun?”
“Not from here.”
“All right, can you just bounce around in the shadows until you find Indra on the mountain?”
“I can go places I've already been if they're within range. For a mountain search, I'd be limited to line-of-sight jumps.”
“Or you'd end up in a rock?”
“No. I might miss the entrance to the cave that leads into Mount Meru. You should rest up. We'll be climbing for six to eight hours tomorrow.”
“You don't look tired,” I said. “You had quite the journey with Brenda today.”
“I took it in easy jumps. I'll be fine.”
The three Tajik men entered the tent arguing with Yuri.
“What's their problem?” I asked.
“They've been like that all day,” Victor said. “Pavel said they're worried about the storm and they want to go home.”
“Is it supposed to be a bad storm?” I asked.
“I'm not a meteorologist.”
“Great. So the locals are worried about the weather, and we're technically accomplices in a massive drug trafficking ring. This just gets better and better.”
I pushed away from the table and Esther popped into view in front of me. She remained translucent, so I didn't say anything to her.
“We have a problem,” she said. “Follow me.”
She drifted outside, and I walked after her. Brenda and Kelly sat talking and watching Yuri argue with the Tajik men. Pavel sat at a table rubbing his temples. Brenda jumped to her feet and started toward me.
“Sorry,” I said and kissed her. “Esther needs me.”
She sighed. “Mister Popularity. Hurry back, I want to tell you about traveling through shadows!”
“I want to hear all about it.” I kissed her again and followed Esther.
Once we were outside, I said, “Did you check out the storm?”
Esther shook her head. “I don't know anythin
g about storms.”
“So what's the problem?”
“You'll see.”
She drifted away from the camp, and I trudged after her. Snow fell in large flakes, but the wind wasn't bad and the ground was merely dusted with white. The temperature didn't seem too low.
All in all, I was kinda looking forward to the climb. It gave us focus.
Esther stopped beside a pile of rocks. “Take a gander,” she said.
I walked over and looked down.
The body of a Tajik man lay prone on the ground, a dusting of snow covering his pale flesh. Two large puncture wounds stood out in stark red on his throat.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“What do we do?” Esther asked.
“The guy's dead,” I said. “There's nothing we can do.”
I stared at the body for a moment longer then heard voices, so I turned to look back at the tent. Yuri and the three Tajik men were still arguing as they moved to another tent. Pavel stepped out and spotted me. He started in my direction.
If he came all the way over here, we'd have a bigger problem, so I walked toward him to meet him halfway. My tracks in the fresh snow led right to the damn body. While it was obvious the body had been there longer than I'd been in camp, I still didn't want to have to explain any of it. Yeah, there's a vampire here, and he's hungry from his trip, so he drank one of your men dry. That's not a big deal, right?
“What you doing out here?” Pavel asked as we converged at the halfway point.
“I had to take a piss,” I said.
“Outhouse,” he said and pointed at a port-a-potty beside the main tent. “Try next time.”
“Now you tell me.” I continued toward the main tent trusting that he would follow me rather than go check out my story and find a corpse where a yellow stain should have been. To help make that the case, I tried to engage him in further conversation. “So, what are your men so upset about?”
“That is nothing. Not concern of yours.”
“They seem pretty agitated. Is it the storm?”
He fell in step beside me, and I relaxed. “They are, how you say, missing of their homes.”
“How long have you guys been out here?”
“Too long,” he said. “Behruz will head back to Dushanbe soon. Do not be surprised if men go back with him.”
When we reached the main tent, he pointed to a line of others. “There are cots in each tent. Blankets. You sleep there,” he said indicating which tent was mine. “We eat at six and begin climb at seven.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said and ducked back into the main tent. Pavel peeled off in the direction of his brother and the men.
I walked over to Victor, pulled him up and punched him in the mouth.
“Why, thank you,” he said. “I had an itch on my lip.”
“What the hell?” Brenda said. She and Kelly moved toward us.
I gripped Victor's collar and pulled back, ready to punch him again. My left hand hurt, but I didn’t care.
“Well, aren't you full of piss and vinegar this evening,” Victor said with a grin.
“What's the problem?” Kelly asked.
“Victor murdered one of their men. Drained the guy dry and left his body at the edge of camp.”
“I was thirsty after our journey.”
“What happened to not needing to kill to feed?”
“The men don't speak English, except for our guide, Pavel.”
“So?”
“So I couldn't just command them to let me drink. They have to be able to understand my commands for them to work, and I don't speak Russian or Tajik.”
“You had to kill the guy?”
“I couldn't have him telling his friends I bit him.”
I wanted to punch him again, but I held back.
“Don’t worry,” Victor said. “Pavel said the man was planning to ride back to civilization with Behruz. By the time anyone misses him, we’ll be long gone.”
“So what's the deal here, Victor? Are you going to pick them off one by one?”
“Depends on how long we have to search the mountain. I'm fine for a few days. But yes, I'll need to feed again, so the three men will be two.”
“And if it takes longer than a week, you'll start killing us?”
“I can stretch things out a bit with commands to drink a bit from Kelly, a bit from Pavel, and perhaps you’ll willingly give me a sip too in order to spare them, but let's see if we can achieve our objective before we cross that bridge. Now unhand me, you ignorant buffoon.”
He grabbed my hand and peeled it from his lapel. He put extra pressure on my cut and I grimaced. The guy was a lot stronger than he looked, though he didn’t need vampire strength to aggravate my injury.
“What if they find the body?” I asked, rubbing my hand.
“They won't.”
“I did.”
“No, your ghost friend did. Am I right?”
“Yeah, but I walked over there. My tracks are still visible in the snow.”
“Not for long,” Victor said. “Fresh snow will obscure them soon.”
“And if that doesn't happen in time?”
“Then I'll point the finger at you.”
“I wasn't here when he was killed.”
“They won't know when the man died.”
“You're an asshole,” I said.
“Stop worrying. I can command Pavel to believe the man went home with Behruz, and he can placate his brother and the others.”
“And that makes it okay that you killed a guy?”
“It makes it so it doesn’t matter to anyone but you.”
“You suck.”
“When I’m thirsty,” he said with a grin.
I fumed and walked away from him. I grabbed my duffel bag and left the main tent.
The wind kicked up, and as I stepped outside, the snow intensified. I could still see my tracks, but Victor was right; they'd be gone soon. Pavel had seen me over there, but I knew he was already in another tent with his brother and their men.
Esther drifted along beside me as I walked to my tent. “I'll stay with you,” she said. “If that blood sucker tries anything, I'll wake you up.”
“Thanks, Esther.”
“Jonathan!” Brenda called.
I turned and she hurried to catch up.
“I’ve been distracted,” I said when she reached me.
She kissed me. “I understand. The men set up the tents like we’re at Catholic School Camp, but I say Kelly can have her own tent and Victor can stay out in the cold.”
“I like the way you think.”
When we reached our tent, Yuri stepped out of it. That surprised me as I figured he’d be with his brother. He said something I didn't understand.
“Sorry, man, I don't speak Russian.”
He made a few gestures, but I couldn't make heads or tails of them.
“Pavel!” he yelled.
Pavel poked his head out of the next tent over.
Yuri spoke to him and Pavel nodded.
“He says he put lamp in your tent in case you need light.”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell him thank you.”
I slipped into the tent and looked around. A battery powered lamp stood on a crate between two cots. I set my duffel on the far cot and sat down. Esther made herself visible once we were inside.
“You all right?” Brenda asked sitting on the cot beside me.
“What was he doing in here?”
“Uh,” Brenda said and pointed at the lamp. “Making sure we could see?”
I looked at the lamp. It appeared to be innocuous, but Yuri might have put a bug in there. Or planted one somewhere else. Of course, he didn’t speak English and wasn’t likely to have sophisticated equipment in the Pamir Mountains, so I was overreacting and I knew it.
Why? Because he was a drug dealer and I was paranoid.
I didn't know what to think, but Brenda was right; the simplest explanation was that he thought we‘d need light.
<
br /> “I need a drink,” I said.
“There's water in the main tent,” Esther said.
“A real drink.”
It occurred to me that I could go get a real drink. All I had to do was pay a visit to Club Eternity, but I couldn’t take Brenda or Esther with me, so that was out.
“You need sleep,” Esther said.
“I need a drink more,” I said.
“Let’s just cuddle up and rest,” Brenda said.
She was right. I shoved my duffel bag onto the floor and stretched out with her. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek.
“I think that’s my cue to scram,” Esther said and popped away.
“Victor saved my life this morning,” Brenda said.
“I know, baby. I’m sorry I’ve been distant. If they find that body…”
She hugged me tight. “Victor is right. Behruz is leaving tonight, and Pavel was complaining about not having enough porters and that the men wanted to go home. This won’t be a problem.”
“So you’re on Team Victor now?”
“No, but saving my life does earn him some Brownie points.”
I sat up and stared at her. “And you don’t care that he killed a man?”
“I guess I never thought about it. That’s odd, isn’t it?”
“Not so odd if he commanded you not to care or worry about it.”
She shrugged.
“He’s a manipulating son of a bitch.”
“It will be all right,” Brenda said.
That was easy for her to say. Victor was fucking with her head.
“We have better things to do than worry about a stranger,” she said and moved her hand down my stomach and into my pants.
“Now?” I asked.
“Always,” she said and laughed.
Later, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but my mind raced.
We were searching for a Hindu god to take his prized weapon away from him. We were in the mountains in a strange country and the only way in or out was by helicopter. I wasn't sure if I could go to Club Eternity and step out into Tulsa, Oklahoma. Maybe I could, but Brenda and Kelly couldn't. Nor could Esther. On top of that, we had companions who were criminals and didn't speak our language, and one of our guys had killed one of theirs, which was not likely to make things any better. Add that to Victor hypnotizing people into not caring, and I didn't like the way things were looking.
