The next hour was beyond anything Jack had ever seen on a river. Going upstream and crashing through five-foot high standing waves was a first. Often Chitra was faced with four or more channels, each as wide as a small river. Once he hesitated and held steady against the current before making his choice and going full speed into the channel he selected. Jack thought if he is wrong there is no turning around for another try. Even in the rough running, Jack saw both Anita and Kathy were maintaining good lines of fire.
Bahadur, standing beside Chitra, who was piloting the boat from a center console, pointed to an island in the river protected from the main current. A small inlet led to sheltered anchorage on the down riverside of the island, and Chitra was heading for it. They were out of the current now, and the noise of the hull crashing against the surging current had quieted. Chitra skillfully grounded the boat parallel to the shoreline. Bahadur in the stern tilted up the outboards to protect the propellers and called for Jack and the ladies to go ashore. Jack thought without his street smarts gained from five years with the Pittsburgh Police, he would not have thought anything was wrong. Now from the bow of the boat, he had his eyes riveted on Chitra, who like Bahadur was wearing a holstered British Army Webley. Anita, from her place in the stern was preparing to go ashore carrying her shotgun. Jack had picked his up as soon as it was clear they were going to stop.
Jack saw Chitra, with a deft hand movement, slip the loop off the hammer spur that held the Webley firmly in the holster. Chitra, still in the helmsman position at the center console, half turned his body away from Jack and bent to pick something off the deck with his left hand. His right hand hidden from direct view began to slowly withdraw the Webley. His eyes were not on Jack who raised his shotgun, and as Chitra started to bring his weapon to bear, Jack fired. The charge caught Chitra in the chest and blew him overboard. Jack moved toward the stern and pumped another round into the chamber.
Anita, standing ankle deep in the water, had turned and crouched as soon as she jumped off the boat. Bahadur laughed as he saw Anita had the shotgun centered on his chest. He told her to go ahead and shoot, and he slowly swung the Webley up. Anita said, “Sorry, old friend,” and shot Bahadur just below his chest. Her shot merging with the roar from Jack’s shotgun. Bahadur, with a surprised look on his face, slipped into the bottom of the boat. Jack could see Bahadur wasn’t dead, but his weapon was nowhere in sight. Moving quickly down the gently rocking boat, Jack was covering Bahadur with his shotgun. Kathy beat him to Bahadur and scooped up Bahadur’s Webley.
Bahadur opened his eyes, looked at Anita, and said, “You were always the best.” He paused and said, “They will be waiting for you in Kathmandu. The Arabs have Jack’s picture and all your names. The Maoists don’t know you are coming up the Trisuli on foot. The river is easy from here. The money was just too good. Drug running is more profitable than terrorism. I have no love for al-Qaeda. They have no soul. Anita, I am sorry. You saved my life and I tried to take yours.”
The light went out of his eyes. Anita reached over the stern, found no pulse in the carotid artery, and closed his eyes.
“Too bad. He was a good warrior that just couldn’t stand being poor. Is Chitra dead?”
“I hit him full in the chest, and he went into the water and drifted out with the current. I’m sure he is dead.”
Jack put his arm around Kathy and said, “Come on ashore. We’ll rest here a bit and plan the next part of this trip. Killing is hard to do.”
Anita said, “I’ve seen and done a lot of killing. Some are worse than others. But even with an old friend like Bahadur, I knew I could not hesitate. I’ll still shed a private tear for him.”
Kathy said, “Thanks. Anita, I just have to stop worrying about Jack. I think in some ways he’s still wearing his Marine or cop uniform.”
As Anita hoisted herself into the boat, she said, “Don’t kid yourself. This job is far more dangerous than either the Marines or the cops. We are all alone out here. We have to rely on each other, so don’t ever hesitate to shoot. Bahadur knew the rules of the game. If you are involved in continuous violence, the odds are you will be seriously hurt or killed. To survive long-term, the only choice is to get out. Bahadur didn’t. Now he must be left where he fell. No ceremony. No gathering of friends. Remember, those rules also apply to us. You two go ashore. Let me take care of Bahadur.”
Leaving Anita with Bahadur, Jack and Kathy went for a short walk on the sandy river beach.
Kathy said, “I’m not sure I believed they’d try to kill us. It was different with Yuri’s gang. I knew what we had to do. Thank God for you and Anita. I might have hesitated.”
“It never gets easy. Turn your cheek in this business and you’re dead. We’d no choice.”
When they came back, Bahadur was gone.
Anita told him she had pushed his body out into the river and had seen another body drifting by dressed in white cloth.
Kathy remembered from her studies poor Hindus who cannot afford the considerable cost of cremation will put hot coals in the mouth of the deceased and put them in the river. True or not, this river is not without stray bodies on their way to the Ganges.
Kathy wondered out loud, “Was Bahadur a devout Hindu or Buddhist?”
Anita said, “I doubt it. He was always more interested in making souls than saving them. Anyway let his god sort that out. We put him on his journey to the Ganges.”
Then she said, “Guess what? Bahadur had only one day’s rations and no blanket or air mattress in his kit. This is as far as he was going. Here he planned to kill us.”
Jack took Bahadur’s cell phone, money, papers, and watch. The two Webleys and Bahadur’s .270 rifle with a scope, carefully stowed in a compartment under the rear seat. If his body were found, they might as well let people think he was robbed. As they prepared to push off, Jack thought this was the most remote, wildest place he’d ever seen. On their short walk he’d seen several fresh pugmarks in the sand. Someplace nearby a tiger was lurking, probably one of the places where the jungle came right down to the river’s edge.
Facts and Fictions 