After midnight the town quieted. The clamor of the marketplace died out. The sounds of Indian music were one of the few sounds still maintaining a vigil over the bazaar. The discordant notes seemed strangely comforting to the Western ear. Kathy thought she couldn’t imagine a place so different from her home. She knew she’d never forget the vibrant marketplaces, the burning sun of the afternoon, the wonderful taste of the highly spiced curries, the mixture of opulence and abject poverty, and the fragrance of frangipani outside the windows of the bungalow.

Bahadur looked up from the spread of maps on the kitchen table and said, “Let me go over some essentials before we get started. Noise in the low flat land stretching between here and Birganj travels a long way. So no talking out there unless it is an emergency. If we get caught by some fluke, I may be able to talk us out of trouble. Remember, you are my friends and clients going for a trip on the rivers. A little bit of baksheesh can be very useful. Out here it’s not considered a bribe or anything illegal. It is merely a matter of sharing the wealth and letting business go on its course. Also, be careful of snakes. They love to sleep in the warm dust when the evening turns cool.”

Listening to the briefing Anita gasped at the snake warning and said, “For the first time I’m having second thoughts. I hate snakes and have just recovered from a fight with a cottonmouth.”

Kathy laughed and said, “Bahadur, she may be afraid of them but she managed to cut the snake in half after it had bitten her twice.”

“Anita, you live up to your reputation. Remind me never to offend you.”

“Just get us safely to Kathmandu and back, and nothing you could ever do will offend me.”

“Last point before we get started. The only people out there at night in the border area between here and Nepal are either border patrols or smugglers. I’ll do my best to avoid both of them. Now, a last gear check. Are you all okay, with your boots especially?”

Jack said his boots were fine. He had purchased comfortable over-the-ankle hiking boots in New Delhi.

After trying on the boots they had bought in New Delhi, Kathy and Anita had doubts about the fit. Bahadur sent out for mountain hiking boots. When the selection of boots arrived, Anita and Kathy each picked a pair that felt much better than the ones they had.

Anita lamented the lack of a weapon. Bahadur shook his finger at her and reminded them people going on chartered river trips carry cameras, not weapons. They were all dressed in bush shirts, khaki shorts, hiking boots and Gurkha wide-brimmed hats. The rest of the items they would need were across the border at Bahadur’s camp. People carrying packs at night in the border area were doubly suspect. Any border patrol sergeant would have to search the packs and that could lead to delays and trouble.

“If there are no more questions, let’s get started.”

 
Buy “Justice Beyond Law” on Amazon, as well as the rest of the Jack Brandon series and other books by Barry Kelly, a former CIA agent and adviser to President Reagan.