The Eye of Shiva (27 page)

"Where is Afridi now?"

Elizabeth looked at the monitor and the image of Afridi's convoy.

"He's in the Khyber Pass, about to cross into Afghanistan."

CHAPTER 51

The Khyber Pass was a major gateway between West and East. The old Silk Road connecting the Mediterranean to China had come through the pass. Invading armies seeking to plunder the riches that lay beyond the snow-capped peaks had fought and died by the thousands in the narrow defile. In the days of Marco Polo and the trade caravans the route had been little more than a steep and difficult, rocky trail. Now there was a modern, blacktop highway. The camels had given way to trucks and armored personnel carriers.

Afridi signaled
a stop when they reached the summit. They were still five kilometers inside Pakistan. Around them the market center of Landi Khotal bustled with tradesmen and trucks bearing goods from both sides of the mountains. Merchants eyed the heavily armed pickups and gave them a wide berth.

Afridi
got out to stretch and look out over the view. The day was clear, the sky cloudless. A constant wind blew through the pass, bringing with it the smell of dust and spices and the passage of time. To the west, a long series of switchbacks descended to the brown landscape of the arid
Lowyah Dakkah plain
in Afghanistan
. To the east, the plains of Peshawar were turning green after the passing of the monsoon rains.

Afridi thought of his ancestors, warriors among the invading hoards f
rom the west, a scourge upon the Hindu unbelievers.

With God's help,
I will raise a new scourge upon them
, he thought.

All that was needed was
a spark to ignite the wrath of the faithful. That, and the weapons to arm them. The spark had been struck at the mosque in Srinagar. Afridi intended to fan it into flames. The weapons waited only for gold to buy them. Gold that lay in a forgotten canyon, mixed with the bones of elephants.

After the men had refreshed themselves, Afridi ordered everyone back into the trucks. They headed toward Afghanistan.

Once down from the pass, the convoy turned south and then back into the mountains, following the alternate route Afridi had taken on foot months before. An hour before dark, they arrived in the canyon where he'd found the coins.

Everything was as it had been. The scar left by the landslide that sent the elephant to its doom was a
gray line down the side of the mountain. At it's foot, the huge pile of rock and debris lay where it had fallen centuries ago.

"
Post sentries," Afridi said to Sayeed. "The Shinwari will know we're here. They need to see we're ready for them if they try anything."

"The men are hungry."

"Let them eat while it's still light. No fires. Split everyone into two groups. Feed one, while the rest stand guard. Then the other. We'll begin clearing the rocks tomorrow."

"
Insha'Allah
," Sayeed said. He walked away and began giving the orders.

Afridi sat down on a rock, took out a copy of the Qur'an and began reading. He didn't know he was being observed or he would have been less tranquil as he studied the Book.

On the other side of the Khyber Pass in New Delhi, Rao's phone alerted him to a call.

"I have Afridi's location," Krivi said. "He's just west of the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, this side of Kabul."

"What's he doing there?" Rao asked.

"
Nothing, yet. Setting up his camp. Do you have a satellite over the area?"

Rao made a quick check. "Yes."

Krivi gave Rao the coordinates.

Rao brought the area up on his monitor. The
light would soon be gone but there was still enough to see Afridi reading a book.

"I see him," Rao said. Bile rose in his throat at the sight of his enemy.

"Can you get to him there?"

Rao
thought about it. The only way was to send Ijay and the Leopards in by helicopter. It meant flying across Pakistan from Kashmir, through the mountain valleys. A night mission was bad enough in itself. With Islamabad alert on the eve of war, there was a high risk of failure. The chances were good Ijay would be intercepted.

On the other hand,
Ijay had one of only two Rudra attack helicopters modified with experimental stealth technology. Even the Americans didn't have anything like it. The technology was untested in combat, but field tests had gone well. If anyone could get through Pakistan's air defenses, Ijay could.

Rao made up his mind. "Yes. I can get to him."

"How can I help?" Krivi said.

"You seem to have a lot of resources," Rao said.

"A few."

"
My team will have to cross Pakistani air space. Can you distract their defenses tomorrow evening, if I tell you when?"

"
Where will the flight originate?"

"
From Poonch. It's near the border, west of Srinagar."

"
I'll see what I can do and call you back," Krivi said.

Fifteen minutes later, Rao's phone rang.

"You have a corridor one mile wide west of Poonch and across to Afghanistan from 2000 to 0600 tomorrow," Krivi said. "Tell your pilot to stay low and inside the corridor. He may still run into problems."

"
Good," Rao said. "That should be enough time."

CHAPTER 52

In the morning, Afridi set his men to work
moving rocks. It was tedious, hard labor. After several hours had passed, Afridi was beginning to doubt there was more to find. Then one of the men shouted. He pointed at a large, yellowed bone in the debris. They found more bones and the remains of a wooden pack cradle, still tacked with rotted bits of leather. Then an iron box about a foot square.

Afridi stood next to Sayeed, looking down at the box. His men gathered around him, waiting. A rusted lock held the top shut with a metal clasp. Afridi
broke the lock away with the butt of his rifle. He lifted the lid.

A collective gasp came from the men.
The chest was filled with jewels that shone with brilliant colors in the bright morning sun.

Sayeed sucked in his breath at the sight of so much wealth.

"God is Great," he said.

"Allah has blessed our cause," Afridi said. He looked at the sky. "Come, brothers,
we must pray and give thanks."

After the prayer,
Afridi picked up the chest with the jewels and took it over to one of the trucks while the men continued digging. He sat on the worn seat in the cab and looked through the gems. Sunlight poured through the windshield onto the stones. Afridi had never seen such beauty. Diamonds. Sapphires as large as bird eggs. Stones of yellow, red, green and blue, rough cut and polished. At the bottom of the chest, buried under smaller stones, something glowed blood red. Afridi reached in and grasped it and took out a ruby so big he could barely get his fingers around it. It was as big as his palm, heavy in his hand. It swirled with color as it caught the rays of the sun, changing from a fiery glow to a deep red and back again.

A jewel for a king
, he thought.
Or a caliph.

In the next few hours t
hey found the remains of two more beasts and six more of the iron chests. Two of the chests had broken open where they'd fallen and spilled hundreds of gold coins under the stones. Three other chests held shaped pieces of reddish gold set with precious stones.

Afridi held one
of the heavy pieces in his hands and hefted it.
From the Peacock Throne
, he thought.
Enough gold to build an army.

He kept the men working for
the rest of the day but they found nothing more. Afridi called a halt to the digging. It was enough. It would soon be dark and the road was dangerous at night, plagued by bandits. Afridi decided to leave early the next morning. He called the men to him.

Afridi
went to each man and gave him ten gold coins. It was more wealth than any of them had ever seen or could hope to earn in three lifetimes. One coin would feed a family for a year or more, a village for many months. Any man would be tempted by such riches as they'd found. Afridi knew that a man who had riches was much less likely to give in to temptation.

"God has said to be generous and to reward the worthy," Afridi said. "You are faithful men
and you have earned this gift. We will take the rest and use it to bring death upon the infidels."

His fighters shouted and brandished their rifles.
"Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!"

"
Park the trucks facing out. Man the guns and post sentries," Afridi said to Sayeed. "Then we eat."

"
The men have worked hard," Sayeed said. "Hot food would be good and the night is cold."

Afridi nodded. "Build a fire under that ledge." He pointed toward a
nearby rocky overhang. "Not a big one."

Sayeed said
, "Do you expect trouble?".

"Always.
I don't think the tribesmen will do anything, not against those guns. If they were, we'd already know. I worry more about the American satellites."

An hour later the camp was settled for the night. The men not standing guard sat around the small fire. The flames cast shadows and light against the canyon wall. The heat of the day faded and the temperature plummeted. Overhead, the sky was deep black and filled with stars.

Afridi wrapped himself in his cloak and lay down on the hard earth, his rifle beside him. Once, when he was younger, the ground would have felt almost as soft as a bed, a place just to rest. But he was older now. It was a long time before he drifted into an uneasy doze.

The sound of
helicopter rotors drawing near woke him.

Instantly, he was up and shouting.
He grabbed his AK.

"Wake up! Wake up!"

The rotors became a roar overhead. The canyon floor flooded with bright, white light. Clouds of dust rose from the beating blades as a half dozen men dressed in black dropped on long lines into the clearing.

Afridi raised his rifle and shot
one of the dangling figures. The man fell from the line and hit the ground. A burst from one of his comrades slammed into Afridi's chest, knocking him to the ground. He was aware of pain. He couldn't breathe. He heard the rapid
tacktacktack
of automatic weapons, the screams of men dying, the indifferent beat of the helicopter blades. His last thought was of the giant, blood red stone he'd found among the jewels.

CHAPTER 53

It was evening in Virginia and day in Afghanistan. The satellite Elizabeth used to
observe Afridi came into range. The black and white image was crisp and clear. It wasn't what Elizabeth expected to see.

"What on earth..."
she said.

"What happened?" Stephanie
asked. "It looks like they're all dead."

Afridi's campground was
destroyed. Elizabeth counted thirteen bodies sprawled on the canyon floor. The trucks had been torched, leaving charred hulks. A thin column of black smoke lazed into the sky from one of them.

"People coming," Stephanie said. She pointed to a group of bearded men approaching in a battered pickup. A machine gun was mounted in the back.

"Tribesmen," Elizabeth said. "Probably Shinwari. They must have seen the smoke and decided to take a look."

Stephanie zoomed in on a bearded corpse lying on his back. His mouth was open, his eyes staring at the sky. The front of his light colored shirt was
dark with dried blood. A rifle lay on the ground next to him.

"That's Afridi," Stephanie said.

"It wasn't the tribesmen," Elizabeth said. "They're just showing up."

"That leaves Cobra's man."

"Ijay. I guess Cobra decided he didn't want to hear whatever it was Afridi had to say."

"I wish all these people would just kill each other off," Stephanie said. "It would save us a lot of trouble."

"That's a bit bloodthirsty, Steph. Anyway, Afridi isn't a problem anymore."

"I rest my case."

"We've still got Cobra to deal with. I'd better let Nick know about Afridi."

"Look at
that mound of rocks," Stephanie said. She pointed at the stones and dirt  Afridi's men had moved and piled to the side. "That's some serious labor."

"
They were looking for something. We still don't know what."

"
If they found anything, Cobra has it now."

On screen, the tribesmen had gotten out of their truck and were fanning out through the site. Elizabeth called Nick.