The death cult leader turned to his followers, who resumed their chant, an unholy keening from mutilated tongues. The tempo accelerated as the dark priest joined in, and when he spun back to the youth, he was clutching a wickedly curved blade with archaic symbols etched into the gleaming metal.
The youth’s determination to meet his end with dignity gave way to an agonized scream as the leader drove the blade into his abdomen and sliced upward, disemboweling him as another of the murderous clan slipped behind him. The sharp bite of wire burned like liquid fire against the youth’s throat, and then everything went mercifully black as it bit through his larynx and carotid artery, terminating the flow of oxygen to his brain.
The first part of the ceremony completed with the youth’s murder, the cult members lit torches and pounded drums in preparation for the next horrific phase – one that would extend long into the night, culminating in the youth’s remains roasted to ashes over the fire and his skeleton discarded in a massive pit with thousands of other unfortunates. Only then would the cult return to its caves along the rim of the boneyard, satiated until the next offering to the goddess of destruction, who required regular grisly tribute as her due.
Chapter 11
New Delhi, India
Drake elbowed Spencer as the SUV rolled to a stop at the end of a dirt road. In front of them was a houseboat, one of a dozen moored to the riverbank, its hull swaying slightly to the tug of the river’s current. The Frenchman killed the engine and opened his door.
“This is it,” he said. “Everybody out.”
The gunman led them up a rickety gangplank to the houseboat entrance while the driver stood by the SUV and lit a cigarette, checking his watch after blowing a plume of gray at a sliver of moon. The warm air was redolent of decay; the river’s brown rush frothed with diluted toxicity from factories upstream.
The gunman swung open the front door and switched on the lights, and Drake entered behind him with Allie’s bag. She followed him in, trailed by Spencer, who looked worse for wear from having been assaulted by the hostel staff. The gunman turned on a wall air conditioner and then sat in an easy chair facing a moldy couch, an expectant expression in place. Spencer sat on a barstool by the kitchen, and Drake and Allie took the couch, facing their host, who sat forward with his fingers steepled.
“All right. You have questions,” he said. “Might as well get them out of the way.”
Spencer cleared his throat. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Casey Reynolds. I’m American.”
“Why are you helping us?” Allie asked.
“That’s complicated.”
“Try us,” Drake said.
“I’m with the DOD, the Department of Defense. With its military intelligence agency, more precisely – the DIA. You landed on my radar when your friend Carson was killed.” He paused. “I was assigned, among other things, to keep an eye on him.”
“Why?” Spencer asked.
“He’d downloaded a lot of imagery on an area of the country that’s of strategic interest to us. His inquiries tripped some alarms. I’m not sure exactly why, but we were chartered with finding out everything we could about what he’d discovered.”
“And?”
“He was killed before we learned a whole lot.”
Spencer’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not the whole story, is it? Doesn’t explain why you’d risk breaking me out of the hotel and being snagged by the cops.”
Reynolds sighed. “Two days ago, my agent went missing in the area Carson was researching. He’d gone there to nose around, see what he could learn on the ground after we picked up some suspicious chatter. He dropped off the game board and hasn’t been heard from since. His disappearance has to be connected with Carson – hours after my man went dark, Carson shows up on a slab in the Subzi Mandi morgue. That’s no coincidence.” He looked hard at Spencer. “You had a two-hour dinner meeting with him after you flew to India. Which makes you the last person to have seen him alive. I’m guessing you didn’t get on a plane to broaden your cultural horizons, am I right?”
Spencer didn’t say anything.
“Look,” Reynolds continued. “We know he was after some kind of treasure. That’s not a secret.”
“How do you know that?” Drake asked.
“The NSA. We have everything he downloaded.”
“Why is the DOD interested in lost treasure?” Spencer snapped.
“The truth is I’m not completely sure why we were ordered to put Carson under surveillance. We work on a need-to-know basis, and apparently I don’t need to know that. Only to watch him and report back to my superiors.”
“Back to why you helped us escape…” began Allie.
“I’m stationed in New Delhi. A desk officer, if you like. So I can’t go investigate what happened to my agent or follow up on what Carson was looking for in person.” Reynolds paused. “But you can.”
“Wait. The DOD can’t investigate the loss of one of its own men? That doesn’t make any sense,” Drake said.
“I already ran it up the flagpole and was ordered to stand down and let my superiors handle it. But I don’t have confidence it’s a priority or that they can do much. So I need some unofficial help from someone deniable.”
“You want us to see if we can find your man?”
Reynolds nodded. “More that I want you to finish the job Carson started. Whatever he was onto, it was worth killing him to keep quiet. I’m afraid that’s also what happened to my agent. If I’m right, that changes everything. People don’t murder for nothing.”
Drake shook his head. “You want us to put ourselves in danger? For what? Why would we continue working on something that people are being killed over? Carson was decapitated. What’s the most appealing part about that?”
“Do you know much about how Indian law works?” Reynolds asked quietly.
Drake started to splutter a denial, and Spencer cut in. “What’s your point?”
“Here’s the deal,” Reynolds said, turning to Spencer. “Your friend aided a homicide suspect to evade the police. That’s a felony. And you, Spencer, are wanted for Carson’s murder, and from what I hear, the cops are anxious to put you away. They have your papers, so you can’t escape. The short version is you’re both screwed.”
“We’ll get attorneys to fight it,” Drake countered.
Reynolds smiled sadly at him. “This isn’t the U.S. Here, they stick you in a mudhole that makes a Russian gulag seem like Club Med, while you fight the system. I’m talking something that makes a Turkish prison look like a five-star luxury cruise. And Mr. Ramsey, there’s no question that you aided and abetted Spencer, so you’re also provably guilty. In other words, doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it, they have you dead to rights, so you’ll be spending years in hell before you’re even sentenced. They take it personally when foreigners come here to help murderers escape justice – and I get the feeling they’ll want to make an example of you to show how honest the system is: that even a rich, privileged white man can’t weasel out of a felony in India.”
“But he didn’t kill Carson!” Drake said.
“You know that, and I know that, but they believe Spencer did it – or rather, they believe they have enough to pursue the case, which for our purposes is the same thing.” Reynolds eyed Spencer. “You’re not in Kansas anymore. If the locals want to put you away, they’ll find a way to do it.”
“Wait,” Allie said. “I still don’t understand. What does Carson searching for lost treasure have to do with the Department of Defense?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Reynolds said. “But I plan to find out.”
Spencer snorted. “You’re going to have to do it without us.”
Reynolds glared at him. “That’s not very smart.”
“Forget it. We’re not going to help.”
“You know what happens when I walk out that door? One of two things: either I run interference
for you so you can continue where Carson left off, or the cops pick you up within an hour. They’ve got the city on alert, and there’s no way you walk away from that – in fact, you’ll be lucky if they don’t gun you down on sight. You’ll be taking your chances, with no passports, no knowledge of the country, and every cop within a hundred miles looking to flip your switch. How long do you think you’ll last? Bear in mind that at the point they catch you, you’re of no use to me anymore. Right now, free, you are. So instead of throwing around the attitude, I’d suggest you think things through, because I don’t have all night.”
Allie frowned. “How did you find us at the hostel?”
“I have informants in the police department, which is how I know they want Spencer in the worst possible way. You’re just lucky I got there before they did.” Reynolds let that sink in. “Here’s my offer: if you follow through with Carson’s research and help me, I’ll make all of this go away. Everything. Charges will be dropped, the investigation will go nowhere, and you’ll be free to leave India.”
“We don’t know much more than you do,” Spencer said. “He thought he had a lead on some treasure. That’s it. All I know is he paid someone a deposit – that’s not much to work with.”
“I know all that from his downloads. But I don’t know who he paid, or what for, or whether there was more to it than that. And frankly, I’m not an expert on treasure hunting. However, you are, which is why I’m talking to you.”
“You mentioned your superiors. You can’t ask them for more information, so we at least have a clue what we’re doing?” Drake asked.
“Don’t you think I already tried that? They told me to mind my own business and report back if anything changes.”
“That doesn’t strike you as weird?” Spencer asked.
“Of course it does. Everything about this does.” Reynolds sighed again. “Look. I don’t take losing a man lightly, especially for no apparent reason. This guy was a seasoned field operative – there’s no way he wouldn’t have been in contact by now unless he was dead. So something went wrong. Now I’m out of options, which is why I’m here. So the question is whether you’ll do the smart thing and help or spend the rest of your lives rotting in a fourth-world jail.” Reynolds’s voice softened. “Carson was murdered within hours of my man going dark. They’ve got to be connected, and I need to understand why. Believe me, if I had any other viable alternatives, I wouldn’t be sticking my neck out for a bunch of amateurs.”
Allie held his stare. “You’d turn them in, wouldn’t you?”
Reynolds acted as though he hadn’t heard her question. “I’m going to use the bathroom. Talk it over. When I come out, let me know what you’ve decided. What happens from there is out of my hands.”
“If we agree?” Drake asked. “How good are your contacts with the police?”
“Good enough.” Reynolds rose. “You’ll still need to be careful, but I can run enough interference that you’ll have a better than fighting chance. Files can get lost. Reports unwittingly erased. Evidence misplaced.”
“This is blackmail,” Spencer growled.
“Not at all. I’m giving you the opportunity to clear your name and possibly find treasure in the process. But most importantly, you don’t have a better offer, and we both know it.” Reynolds paused in front of one of the doors. “Take your time. I’ll be back in two minutes.”
When he was gone, Spencer joined Allie and Drake on the couch. “This is BS,” he began.
“You ran. Innocent men don’t run,” Allie fired back.
“Maybe that was a miscalculation,” Spencer conceded.
“I’ll say,” Drake said.
Color rose in Spencer’s face. “It’s a little different when you’re the one who’s been questioned all day on a couple hours of sleep.”
“That’s water under the bridge. Question’s where do we go from here?” Allie said.
“I don’t trust him,” Spencer said.
“He did save your life,” Drake retorted.
“And we seem to be safe,” Allie reminded him.
“If you call being blackmailed safe.”
“Do you see any other way out?” Drake asked quietly.
They sat in silence for several moments. “We can try to slip across the border into Pakistan or Tibet,” Spencer said.
“Three white people, two without passports?” Allie asked.
“Nothing’s impossible. Maybe we could buy some fake papers,” Spencer tried.
“Compounding your problem if you get caught,” Allie said. “Which assumes you can just knock on doors and find someone who deals in fake IDs that are competently executed enough for international travel.” She shook her head. “And we’d still need to traverse India to get there. Doesn’t sound doable.”
“Allie, you should leave. This is our problem. You don’t need to get sucked into it,” Drake said.
“Seems like I already am.”
Reynolds emerged from the bathroom and waited, one eyebrow cocked. Spencer stood and moved back to his stool. “We don’t really have a choice, do we?”
“Not a good one,” Reynolds agreed. “This is a safe house. You can crash here while I do what I can to call off the dogs. Roland will stay and keep an eye peeled. He can help you with whatever you need.”
“What’s his story?” Spencer asked.
“Former French Foreign Legion. Been here forever. Very resourceful.”
“Trustworthy?” Drake asked.
“What do you think?” Reynolds asked. “You made the right choice.”
“So you say,” Spencer shot back.
Reynolds nodded. “Get some sleep and get to work once it’s light out. In the meantime, I need to spread some money around and buy you some time. I’ll be in touch.”
When Reynolds was gone, Allie turned to Drake and Spencer. “I don’t know about you, but I can hardly see straight. Let’s get some rest while we can, okay? It’ll be tomorrow before we know it.”
“This sucks,” Drake grumbled as he opened one of the bedroom doors and looked inside. “Two beds in here.”
Allie walked to the other and swung it wide. “One here,” she said with a yawn. “See you boys in the morning.”
Drake carried her bag to her and made to kiss her, but she turned at the last second so his lips landed on her cheek. “Good night,” she said, and pulled the door shut behind her.
Drake stared at the wooden slab for a long beat before eyeing Spencer. “I hope you don’t snore.”
~ ~ ~
Chief Inspector Raj Desai felt in his jacket pocket for his cell phone, which was vibrating. He stood to close his door when he saw the number on caller ID.
“Yes?” he answered.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” an angry voice demanded.
“There was a complication.”
“I heard. You managed to lose him not once but twice.”
“It’s not as straightforward as we first thought. Both times he had help escaping. We had no way of knowing he was working with confederates, or we would have approached the situation differently.”
“I thought I made it clear that your top priority was to take him out of circulation. Now I have to hear that he evaded the best minds on the New Delhi police force, first at the hotel and later at a hostel?”
“We couldn’t hold him. I told you that. The judge wouldn’t sign off on it without more evidence.”
The caller’s voice quieted. “Which I provided you with.”
“Unfortunately he’d already been released. But don’t worry. We have his documents, and his likeness is plastered across the city. He won’t get far.” Desai hesitated. “Although it would have been nice to know that we weren’t dealing with a lone man. He apparently had an entourage, including someone with a gun. Which makes this considerably trickier to manage.” The inspector told the caller about the two men and the woman the witnesses at the hostel had seen.
>
“This is the first I’ve heard of a group. But it doesn’t change anything. Whether just the one or several, they must be stopped. Find him, as well as his associates, and lock them up or finish them off – I don’t care which, although I want to understand what they know before you neutralize anyone.”
“We may not be able to be quite so surgical. If we find them and it’s a choice of trying to take them alive or a kill shot, which would you prefer?”
The caller exhaled audibly. “Dead men tell no tales.”
“Which is as I presumed.”
“What have you learned about the target?”
“American, ex-military, no arrests other than some dropped smuggling charges in South America a few years ago.”
“Smuggling? Drugs?”
“Artifacts.”
“Then he’s an adventurer, not acting in some clandestine capacity.”
“That’s how it appears. As was the other one.”
“At least that’s something. But I’m extremely disappointed at how this has been handled so far. See to it that it’s cleared up quickly.”
“I’ll call when I have more to report,” Desai agreed.
“Do so, whatever the hour.”
The caller hung up and turned to the man sitting beside him. “Events are spinning out of control. I don’t trust the inspector to be able to handle this – our faith in him was misplaced.”
“Shall I arrange for an alternative?”
“Yes. The more eyes on the street, the better. But the troublemaker has help, apparently.” The caller gave a short summary. “We need to learn who they are and ensure that anything that could compromise us is contained. Whether one or four bullets, it’s all the same to me.”
“I have a specific contractor in mind, someone we’ve used before. He’s discreet and reliable.”
“Make the call.”
Chapter 12
The Goddess Legacy Page 6
