Kathy reported she had packed a large canvas shopping bag with documents and CDs from Ali’s office. The files, CDs and revolver were found in a locked drawer in the only file cabinet. They found no safes, and they hadn’t had time to search for concealments. Everyone wore gloves. She didn’t know about Arjun’s employees who were interrogating the house staff. Arjun replied, “They were not wearing gloves and probably left some prints behind, but they would not be on record anywhere.”

Jack said he didn’t remember touching anything. Kathy had wiped the gun she used to save his life and put it on the floor next to the third assailant. Arjun said he made a quick look around and picked up the canvas bag Kathy dropped when she went to help Jack.

Arjun added, undoubtedly, people had seen the cars and the two white men running from the house. The plates were fakes and would soon be destroyed. He had a safe and practical way of getting rid of the cars. He had a friend who would take the cars to Amritsar and sell them on the unofficial market. He could use some new vehicles anyway.

Kathy suggested they quickly scan the papers and CDs, leaving copies of the best data with Arjun for him to use as he saw fit.

Arjun said, “Thank you. I may be in some difficulty if I get linked to you. I think you should all leave India just as fast as you can. I understand Bernadette is going to Bangkok in the morning.”

Jack said, “I think we can be out of here tonight or early tomorrow. Arjunji, we owe you a great debt of gratitude for your wisdom and courage. None of this could have been accomplished without you. Please accept a standing invitation to visit us at any time. We would love to be your hosts, and I guarantee we will hold down the violence.”

Arjun said, “My God! I hope so. Working with you has put me in more violence than in the previous 42 years of my life.”

They spent the next two hours looking over the captured documents and CDs. Most of the important information about Fahad’s contacts with Yuri, al-Qaeda and other narco-terrorist organizations was contained on the CDs. Some of the files were about his spy networks when he had been a high-ranking officer in Iraqi Intelligence. Arjun made some copies for his use.

Just as they were getting ready to leave, the TV screen carried a news flash showing the house they had left in Defense Colony now enclosed in crime scene tape. Arjun translated that three Arabs had been killed at the house where a Mr. Abdul Ali Fahad had an import/ export business. None of the staff was harmed.

The police believe the Arab men were attacking the house and someone killed all of them. Only one man was shot. The manner of death of the other two men is being investigated. Local residents called the police when they heard shots fired. Two cars were seen leaving the scene. Westerners were in one of the cars driven by a woman. The owner of the house, Mr. Fahad, according to his staff, is in Kathmandu on business. Police have not been able to contact him. Citizens who have any information regarding this crime are asked to call the number on the screen.

Bernadette said, “All the more reason for us to get out of here before someone recognizes us, and the police figure out one Abdul Ali Fahad died in Kathmandu with seven other people.”

Arjun used his van to drop them and their shopping packages in Connaught Place. They caught separate taxis back to the hotel.

Kathy immediately checked on flights and booked them first class on a United flight to Tokyo and onward to Honolulu, where they planned to take a much needed five-day vacation. Kathy just wanted to get Jack to herself for a while. She still had not overcome how close she had come to losing him. What if she hadn’t grabbed Ali’s snub nose revolver? It was in her hand when she needed it. Killing wasn’t easy. She was still haunted by the look on the man’s face as he was dying. Jack told her time would help but it would always be with her.

Memories of Anita would always be with her. Anita was the big sister she never had. Anita was family. Now she had lost two family members to terrorists. A brother in the Twin Towers and Anita in a Tibetan craft shop, surrounded with seven dead terrorists. She would never hesitate to kill again.

 
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The next morning Jack and Kathy left for Connaught Place in a hotel car where, after doing some browsing and shopping, they met Bernadette in Tiffany’s for coffee. Arjun joined them a few minutes later. His panel truck was parked nearby on a side street. At 11:00 a.m. they left the coffee house, and Kathy got into the panel truck with Arjun. Jack and Bernadette followed in a second car from Arjun’s agency with Bernadette driving.

Arjun’s deputy and another of his employees with impressive-looking security credentials had already taken control of Abdul Ali Fahad’s import/export office and home. Fahad’s assistant and servant staff were being questioned by Arjun’s people in an upstairs guest room. They would be released as soon as Arjun gave the all clear. As Arjun approached C Block 432 in Defense Colony, he could see the driveway gate was open as planned and drove right in as far as he could. The wall along the driveway concealed people coming and going from the car.

Kathy and Arjun climbed quickly out of the panel truck, entered Ali’s house and went immediately to search their assigned zones. Kathy gave herself the office and began loading the office files into a canvas bag. She found surprisingly few files for a business office that had been operating for two years. The last drawer in the file cabinet was locked with a lock she had never seen before, and she went to get Arjun to open it. It took Arjun five minutes to open the drawer. Inside were maps, more files, a loaded snub nose .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, and a number of CDs. They found no computer in the office. Kathy told Arjun Fahad must have had a notebook computer and taken it with him.

Parked a few houses up the street, Bernadette and Jack watched the front of the house. They saw a car stop and two men looking like Arabs get out and head toward the house, leaving the car blocking the driveway.

Jack said, “Let’s go.” Bernadette floored the car to a sliding stop in front of the attackers’ car. Jack leapt out, vaulted over the hood and tore down the driveway. Bernadette was right behind him.

The two men heard the car roaring up and turned around. A revolver was just clearing the closest man’s pocket when Jack pinned the weapon to the man’s side and kneed him in the groin. When the man bent forward, Jack broke his neck with a downward blow of his rigid right hand. Jack pushed the dying man into his companion, who was struggling to stay on his feet. His gun was on the ground, and he had both hands on his throat trying to stop the blood gushing down his chest. Bernadette crashed into the man, knocked him down, and pulled her double-edged throwing knife, embedded in the side of his neck, across his throat. Jack scooped up both guns and watched in amazement as Bernadette finished her man and retrieved her throwing knife.

Jack ran toward the door. Someone might have come in the back. Inside the house no one had heard the fight. Racing past the panel truck, Jack reached in and blew the horn. Kathy immediately dashed down the hallway to the office where Arjun was packing up.

She yelled, “Finish up! We’re out the front door now!”

Hurrying to the door, they saw Jack charging down the hallway to the kitchen and back of the house. Arjun called to his deputy to leave the people and come down immediately. Kathy changed her direction and raced down the hallway after Jack. She was carrying the snub-nosed revolver she had found in Ali’s locked file drawer. Jack’s charge carried him through the kitchen into the small, enclosed courtyard surrounded with a six-foot-high wall. The door in the wall to the back alley was hanging open.

Jack never saw the third attacker step out of a closet in the kitchen behind him and swing up his handgun. From six feet away Kathy fired on instinct and kept firing until the hammer fell on a spent round. The gunman turned to look at her, dropped his gun, and slid down the wall. While Jack checked the body, Kathy quickly wiped the revolver and put it on the floor near the dead man. They both turned, raced out the front door and into their getaway cars.

Arjun moved the assailant’s car blocking the driveway and backed his car out of the driveway. His deputy and his helper had gone out the back door and, no longer in their police uniforms, had disappeared into the neighborhood. Bernadette and Jack jumped in their car and, with Bernadette at the wheel, drove out of Defense Colony. They could hear the klaxons of the arriving police cars.

Arjun led them to a large house on the edge of an upscale housing area bordering a golf course. A few minutes later the two vehicles were in the garage. Arjun, looking a little shaken, took everyone into his private office.

He took a few deep breaths and said, “Violence is easier to deal with if it is not practically next door. As I have said before, the Delhi police are quite good. We need to do a damage control now. Do you agree?”

Jack said, “Yes! Let’s get started with your action inside the house. First, however, I have to ask Bernadette about the knife.”

Kathy said, “What knife? I didn’t see any knife!”

“The knife she threw into one of the attacker’s neck, while I was finishing the first one in the driveway.”

Kathy said, “Bernadette, you killed one of the armed attackers with a knife?”

“Yes. I told you I wasn’t a stranger to violence. The IRA was a hard school, especially for a woman. I know how to use and throw a knife. Come on, people, let’s get on with the debriefing.”

Jack said, “You heard the lady. Go!”

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The BBC broadcasts had the usual cast of talking heads discussing the killing of al-Qaeda members in Kathmandu by a group opposing the Nepalese government. Was this an indicator people at the grass roots were turning against the Muslim extremists? Was it possible the Hindu world was fed up with Muslim extremists? Could groups like the Bahadur Thapa Battalion spring up in other countries and join the war against terrorism and extremists?

The association of Bahadur Thapa, a Nepalese war hero, with the incident stymied the police, who have not been able to find any trace of him. The main reason, they say, for searching for the westerners is to locate Bahadur Thapa. The reference to the Bahadur Thapa Battalion is also mystifying. The broadcaster then moved on to other subjects. Kathy told Arjun she was ready to drive whenever he wanted a break. Hours before the sun came up, everyone was sound asleep, except Kathy.

She enjoyed driving down this historical route with the huge banyan trees spreading their limbs over the road from either side, making a tunnel of living branches that had sheltered millions of travelers in their long history. The roadside was marked with dying cooking fires and Brahmin bulls, raising their heads and looking unseeingly into the car lights, patiently waiting for morning and better grazing elsewhere along the road. India was truly the land of mystery, much more so than China. A softness and beauty permeated India that China just didn’t have and never would.

She thought, maybe something is wrong with me. I am never happier or feel freer than when I’m driving down a road that doesn’t seem to have an end. The road sings to me. I can think so clearly. I want to be with Jack forever, but I am terrified of the thought of settling down and everything that means. If he asks me to marry him, I will and hope for the best.

Kathy drove on in the night and watched the dawning light sweep over the landscape. The mystery of the night was gone, driven away by the hustle of travelers resuming their journeys and the sounds of the awakening day. Kathy guessed they were no more than three or four hours from Delhi. The fuel gauge showed less than a quarter tank, so she began looking for a petrol station.

Arjun, sleeping beside her, awoke and told her 15 miles up the road was a good petrol station near a place serving breakfast. The rest of the passengers began to stir. Bernadette was the last to awake. Kathy spotted the petrol station and pulled into the pumps. Arjun took care of the refueling and payment. Back in the van, he pointed down the road on the left side to a large cottage-style building with outdoor tables under individual thatched roofs. Everyone headed for the restrooms. Arjun staked out a big table and ordered hot tea for all, knowing the coffee would be awful.

Jack waited for Kathy outside the ladies’ room, and when she came out, he gave her a morning hug, asking her if she had driven most of the night. She said, “How about all night? Is that worth another hug?”

Jack grinned and said, “What am I ever going to do with you?”

“The answer is to love me and feed me. Nothing else is needed.”

Arjun announced at breakfast he didn’t think it was a good idea for him to drive up to the Oberoi and let them all out, so he was going to drop them off at taxi stations, and tomorrow they would put Kathy’s plan into action.

Another three hours put them on the outskirts of Delhi. Everyone needed a bath and a change of clothes. Jack had to admit even his tough guy image really didn’t resist moving back into the suite at the Oberoi. Arjun pulled up a block from a taxi stand and Bernadette got out.

The taxis pulled into the Oberoi and dropped off three bedraggled westerners with almost no baggage. The doorman on duty recognized Kathy and gave them a grand welcoming. Jack cancelled Anita’s suite and told management they would check out tomorrow.

Kathy couldn’t wait to get in the pool. Jack joined her at the pool. He swam some slow, lazy laps, stretching and relaxing his large muscle groups. An excellent swimmer, Jack had done his share of lifeguarding and teaching to earn extra money in the summers. However, when it came to a 50-meter race, Anita could swim away from him, and Kathy beat him consistently by a few strokes. Anita had tried to tell him to move through the water, not to fight it. The words sounded good, but he didn’t have a clue what they meant.

Kathy swam up beside Jack and said, “You know we have almost no clothes. That’s the way I like it around our room, but we do need some duds, especially some of those wonderful sandals. So let’s go play married couple and shop. Yes! I knew you would like that.” She grabbed Jack by the hand and dragged him out of the pool.

Three hours later they returned with the hotel car loaded down with packages, including some canvas suitcases. Bernadette had spent the day resting and reading in her room. When they went to dinner, they discovered Bernadette had also shopped. They’d spent a fortune but agreed they felt and looked much more civilized. Tonight was a night to rest and play. Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., it was back to work.

 

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The next morning Arjun’s van appeared right on schedule. Arjun had waited until he had a chance to see the law enforcement response to last night’s killings in the Tibetan shop. His assistant drove down the road part way to Birganj and reported no checkpoints. The van proceeded south down the winding mountain road to Birganj, a thriving Nepalese border town. After dropping Kathy and Jack at the Hotel Makalia, Arjun and Bernadette left for India late in the afternoon. Jack and Kathy would have to retrace their illegal border crossing after dark to rendezvous with Arjun and Bernadette along the border road on the Indian side.

Both Arjun and Jack felt avoiding air travel at this point was a good practice. Once across the border, they would drive all night to New Delhi and check back into the rooms Jack was holding in the Oberoi Hotel. Arjun didn’t think the Delhi police would want to see them, but if they did, the story was that after Bahadur put them ashore, it had taken a long time to find their own way back to Raxaul Bazaar where they’d paid a series of drivers to take them to New Delhi. They didn’t know the license numbers or names of the drivers and did not want to press charges against Bahadur. They were going back to the States just as soon as they recovered from their ordeal.

It seemed to Jack that time really dragged. He wanted to get across the border into India. Finally Arjun’s assistant, in a rented car, arrived to pick them up. Fifteen minutes later he dropped them on the dirt road running west along the border from Birganj. Jack sat up front with the driver and told him where to stop. He didn’t have Anita’s memory for terrain and direction, but he could get them across the border. Kathy had made incredible strides. She was now a true warrior. You could see the change in the way she moved and carried herself. Peter Brandon and Frank would be proud of her.

Jack took the lead, as his night vision and hearing were better than Kathy’s. He almost subconsciously retraced the cross border route while being hypersensitive to any sounds in the deep dust. Anita had told him to open his mind and to trust his instincts, to focus but not force the concentration. It was pretty simple to cover the distance between the towns with the lights in Birganj to guide by. At the midpoint of the crossing, he found the short flight of cement block steps Bahadur had used. He thought not bad, a pretty good piece of dead reckoning. Anita must still be with them.

Once, when he heard some faint clinking sounds in the distant dark, he halted the group until the sounds faded away. He thought some sergeant in the police or army needs to get his men with clanking gear squared away. In the still darkness, he almost stumbled into the embankment of the raised road. They climbed the steep embankment and, following Arjun’s instructions, began to walk east toward Raxaul Bazaar. He reckoned they had only moved about a hundred meters when the outline of a vehicle appeared, and Kathy saw the distant flare of a match. Arjun and Bernadette were waiting beside the van for them. Arjun hurried them inside. He wanted to move away from the border zone before a patrol car came along.

When she took her seat in the van, Kathy told Arjun the plan had worked beautifully. If he tired of the detective business, he could always be a smuggler. Arjun laughed and said, “No thanks, I’ve been on the side of the good guys too long. It’s a long trip to New Delhi, but I’d rather not have any paper trail from staying in a hotel between here and there. If you can, try to get some sleep. I will need someone to relieve me in three or four hours. After it gets light, we can stop for breakfast and buy a tank of petrol with cash.”

Kathy volunteered to take over when Arjun needed a break. She also had an idea she wanted to try on them. While the van rolled along the Grand Trunk Road, Kathy outlined her idea. They discussed it for nearly an hour before Kathy asked Arjun if he thought it would work. Arjun said he and his people could carry off their part of the plan, but they would have to get it done in the next 24 hours.

Kathy, sitting up front with Arjun, asked if good radio reception was in this area. Arjun thought they could hear a few of the more powerful stations. He reached over and tuned in a Hindi broadcast from Lucknow.

They had all read the English language Nepali and Indian newspapers covering the shotgun massacre in Kathmandu as a front-page story. The fact al-Qaeda was involved gave the story legs. After fiddling with the dial, Arjun was satisfied the reception was as good as it was going to get. He said he would translate any news about the killings in Kathmandu. For ten minutes or so, Arjun listened intently and provided a running commentary of the important points. The Nepalese police are looking hard for the three westerners who were with Bahadur Thapa. They now have all their names except Bernadette’s, but can find no record any had ever been in Kathmandu. The identities of some of the victims have been released. Of the six men and two women found shot, only four have been identified. Three were Arabs and some were on a terrorist watch list. The one woman identified was a Nepali, named Angela Pandey, a notorious terrorist assassin, who was wanted by the police of several countries. The other woman is unidentified. She may have been one of the attackers, a woman warrior with the Bahadur Thapa Battalion. The owner of the rug shop and his night guard are being held for questioning.

Jack said, “They will never figure out the identity of the woman warrior. Anita carried no I.D, no jewelry, and all her clothes were local, including her boots, and she wore a Maoist headband. She had no significant western dental work or other medical identifiers.”

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Jack thought about what these men and their followers had done to his family and the others that Yuri’s network had killed. There was no end to the evil these people were capable of inflicting on an innocent public. He looked around the room as he crammed reloads into the magazine and yelled “cease fire!” Anita was coolly reloading when she heard a handgun begin to fire. Jack yelled, “Look out! Shooter under the table! I have no shot!”

At the same time, Anita went down with the impact of two 9mm hits in her right calf and thigh. She rolled quickly toward the table and saw a blood-soaked Angela trying to get a clear shot at Jack. Anita drew her knife from her boot sheath, and using her left leg and powerful arms propelled herself under the table and on top of Angela. Angela got off one more shot striking Anita in the chest, but not before Anita, with a warrior’s scream, plunged her knife into Angela’s throat.

Jack moved toward the shooting and yelled, “Anita, are you hit?” He heard her softly call his name. Kneeling on the floor, he saw her with a pumping chest wound. Jack pulled her out of the bloody mess of bodies and held her in his arms.

Anita looked up and said, “Jack, we both know I’m done. Get out of here! Take care of my sister in Greensburg. Her daughter is mine.”

Anita died in Jack’s arms. He laid her down gently and began a quick search of the room. He left the casings and shotguns, as there were no fingerprints on them. The weapons were untraceable. A quick check showed Abdul Ali Fahad and Hakim Al-Lami among the dead.

Jack took the message Arjun and Bernadette had written from his pocket. The message said the Maoists and in particular the Bahadur Thapa Battalion had declared war on the Muslim Arabs who were using their country for drug profits. Arjun had assured Kathy the message could not be traced to anyone in this group. Jack carried the folded letter in a piece of cloth that he held over the table and shook the message free to fall on the small area of the table top not running with blood.

He noticed two blood-splattered briefcases under the table and scooped them up. Jack didn’t remember hurrying down the narrow stairs. He noticed he was taking deep breaths and crying as he spilled out of the shop into crashing thunder and a heavy downpour. No one was on the street. No signs the police were on their way. He jumped in the car, and the driver moved away from the curb. Ten minutes later they parked in Bernadette’s driveway. No one said anything on the trip back to the bungalow.

Kathy ran out to the driveway as they pulled in. As soon as she saw Jack’s anguished look, she knew something terrible had happened. He held her and said, “Anita is gone. She died in my arms. There was no chance. Two terrible wounds. One severed her femur artery and the other a killing wound in the chest. I could do nothing. She made me promise to leave her. Just asked me to take care of her sister.

“Angela killed her. I was as shocked to see her as she was to see us. She reacted faster than any of the men. She started to slide under the table as soon as we burst through the door. She had a Browning 9mm in her hand. I shot her, but although I hit her hard, she didn’t die. As Anita and I were finishing up, Angela started shooting from under the table. She hit Anita in the leg and was trying to get a shot at me. Anita scrambled under the table and killed her with her boot knife, but not before Angela shot her again in the chest. She gave her life for me.”

With tears running down her cheeks, Kathy hugged Jack and led him inside where she told Bernadette and Arjun Anita was dead. Bernadette put her arms around Jack and Kathy, held them tight, and said, “Anita was a true warrior. I’m sure she was proud to give her life for yours on the field of battle. You would have done the same for her. Come, we’ll drink to her life, and then Arjun can get us out of here. Anita would want us to tend to business. We don’t have time to mourn now.”

While Bernadette and Arjun cleaned up the forensic mess, Jack showered and turned over his bloody clothes to Bernadette. Kathy examined the briefcases Jack carried out from the kill zone. Neither one was locked. Inside the first one was an address book, a cell phone, several maps and drawings that looked like casing reports. All writing was in Arabic and beyond Kathy’s ability to translate. The second briefcase contained a cell phone, a 9mm handgun, bundles of British pound notes, diagrams showing communication addresses and schedules, and an envelope containing three by five photos of Peter Brandon and Jack, along with photos of the Brandon house before it was attacked and burned.

Kathy called Arjun, who was leaning on the kitchen counter talking with Bernadette. She showed the pictures to them and said, “The speculation is over. Al-Qaeda now knows who their enemies are. Just maybe these are the only copies, but I think that is wishful thinking. Let’s wrap up the papers and take them with us.”

Jack joined them and said, “Arjun, please take the handguns, cell phones and the British pounds. And please carry the papers across the border for us.”

After another hour of planning and what ifs, Arjun said, “I must take my leave. The van will be here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Don’t bring anything you don’t absolutely need.”

Bernadette gave Arjun a goodnight hug Kathy thought would last him at least a few days. Kathy was holding on to Jack’s arm so tightly, he said, “Hey, kid, don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere you aren’t until you throw me out.”

“No danger, lover. I am your woman whether it is legal or not. Come on, you need to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow may be a hard day.”

Later, lying in her lover’s arms with the sweat drying on her body, Kathy made a vow she was never going to leave this man no matter what. She had never known before how good it was to make love to a man who loved her in return. Anita was right. If he throws me out, I’ll sneak back. Not a bad philosophy for keeping a love affair going. I’ve learned so much from Anita, about life, love and fighting with an uncluttered mind. I’ll never forget her. Without her, Jack would be dead. Angela, damn bitch, I should have killed her in the riverside camp. Never again will I trust anyone without a lot of checking.

 
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Later in the afternoon Arjun’s car arrived with a large box. One of the items in the box was a prized possession of Arjun’s, a small but powerful Japanese two-way radio with a level of encryption. It was one of three he possessed. Arjun said he would call as soon as Fahad and Hakim left their quarters presumably for a meeting site, hopefully in the same Tibetan craft shop.

At 8:30 p.m. the radio came to life with a three-word message in Nepali. Anita translated for the others, telling them Hakim had left the bungalow in Kalamati. Bernadette and Kathy dressed in Nepali police uniforms under their long light coats and, armed with the Webleys taken from Bahadur and Chitra, left in Bernadette’s car to meet with Arjun. The meeting place was two blocks from Hakim’s bungalow. Up close Kathy’s and Bernadette’s disguise wasn’t expected to pass inspection, but at night, in a group of people dressed similarly to the local police, it passed the good-enough principle.

Fifteen minutes later, the radio alerted Anita the meeting site had been found and that transportation was on the way. A few minutes later Jack saw a car with parking lights on come in the driveway. Faces and hands darkened and wearing the peasant clothing of the Maoists with bandanas around their heads, they climbed in the car carrying shotguns. The driver was accompanied by Arjun’s deputy; who told them that the meeting was upstairs in the Tibetan craft shop where Ali Fahad and Hakim Al-Lami met last evening. The driver and Arjun’s assistant were wearing police uniforms.

Traffic was light. It was a weekday night and a light rain had started shortly after dusk. Practically no one was on the streets or in the market place. The suburban area, where Kathy and Bernadette were waiting with Arjun, was even quieter. Arjun’s assistant told him the team was in place outside the Tibetan craft Shop and ready to go in. Arjun told his deputy to wait two minutes and go in. Arjun turned to face his team and motioned to them to follow him up to the gate.

Arjun, dressed in a police officer’s uniform, banged his night stick on the gate. The guard came running up, and Arjun ordered him to open the gate immediately. When the guard hesitated, Arjun drew his police revolver. The gate swung open. The first man through the gate took the guard down and quickly bound, blindfolded, and gagged him. The other three men in police uniforms and Kathy and Bernadette, disguised as police women, surged through the gate and ran toward the front door. One of the men continued around to the back of the bungalow, while the rest of them charged up on the porch to the front door. The door was locked. Again Arjun knocked loudly on the door. A servant came to the door, saw the armed police and quickly opened the door.

One of Arjun’s men grabbed the servant and asked him in Nepali who was in the house. The servant said Mr. Al-Lami was out. No one else was in the house. He was quickly blindfolded, tied and gagged. Pulling on gloves, Arjun, Kathy and Bernadette rushed to their previously assigned search areas, while the rest of Arjun’s men secured the house and property. A few minutes later Kathy ran down from the upstairs bedroom and motioned for the others to come with her. The upstairs bedroom also served as Hakim’s office. A locked metal two-drawer filing cabinet was in the closet behind a cloth curtain. While Arjun worked on the lock, Kathy and Bernadette searched the rest of the room. Beyond finding an accounting ledger in a desk drawer and an airline ticket, nothing else was of interest. Arjun opened the file cabinet and Kathy began filling a large canvas shopping bag with the contents. Kathy looked at Arjun and said, “I’m through here. Let’s go.” By the time they were back in the car, a total of 11 minutes had passed.

Bernadette said with a sigh, “I am getting too old for this stuff. My adrenalin rush has already disappeared, and now I need a drink.”

Arjun laughed and said, “In ten minutes we will be back at your bungalow, and I will play bartender for everyone.”

Kathy asked Arjun if his man had reported in from the other team yet. Arjun told her whatever they did would be over by now, but they were still in a radio silence mode.

Waiting for the two minutes to pass seemed to Jack like the longest two minutes in history. Weapons were loaded using gloves and they were ready. These people had killed his father, his Vietnamese friends and shot his dog. He looked out the window. It was raining harder with the rumble of an approaching thunderstorm. Arjun’s deputy said, “Now,” got out of the car, and in ten strides was at the door to the Tibetan craft shop. The door was locked, but he could see someone smoking inside. He tapped on the door with his night stick. The door opened a crack and he threw his shoulder against the door and drove inside, knocking the man back onto a stack of Tibetan rugs. A blow to his head with a night stick kept him there.

Jack and Anita charged inside. They went up the staircase in a silent rush. Looking up the staircase, Jack could see a crack of light showing under the door. He hit the door with all of his upper body strength and built up momentum. It crashed open. Jack moved inside to the right of the door. Anita went left. Six men and a woman, sitting around a table covered with bottles and papers, stared at them. One man moved to get up. Anita shot him. The woman, a cleaned up Angela Pandey, dove under the table. Jack said, “Goodbye, Angela” and shot her in the back and left side.

They picked their targets by the threat each presented. Anyone who moved was hit first, and then anyone whose hands couldn’t be seen, followed by shouters or talkers. In seconds both shotgun magazines were empty. At that range the shotguns firing ten rounds of double 00 buck turned the room into an instant slaughterhouse. The noise was deafening.

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. 

An hour later Jack asked everyone to come sit around the dining room table. Once they were all seated, he said, “I really don’t like half measures. If we take the records from Hakim Al-Lami’s house, it will stir up an al-Qaeda hornet’s nest. In other words, we are taking a major risk for what will probably be a marginal gain. The people who will be at the meeting are very evil people. They have killed a number of Americans with their money, including my father. They will do more. We cannot expect to counter their every move in the U.S. My father once told me when you find a nest of poisonous snakes threatening your family, you don’t kill a few of them. You kill them all.

“I hate these people. Thinking about my father being gunned down by those thugs and their shooting Shadow puts me in a rage,” Jack said as he slammed his fist down on the porch railing. “I would sooner get them all than try to steal documents. I also think it would be safer for us. My gut feeling is we need to get out of here soon. Do you think we can do them all?”

Bernadette said, “Yes, we can hit two places at once! Being the ruthless aggressor and taking advantage of the element of surprise is always a good approach. It leaves very few loose ends and nobody immediately on scene to figure out what happened. We’ll need Arjun’s help, and that will require some convincing and a lot more money. That’s my IRA experience showing through. I thought it was gone forever.”

Jack looked around the table and said, “Okay, let’s do it!”

Singh arrived just before lunch. He said he had no new information concerning Abdul Ali Fahad or Al-Lami, but he did have some information on the young woman Mr. Brandon asked about. Miss Angela Pandey was not at the Soaltee Hotel. She is wanted by both the Nepalese and Indian police. Four years ago she graduated from a terrorist camp in Afghanistan. Since then she has become a highly skilled and sought after assassin. Most of her work seems to be for al-Qaeda. One of the middle to top leaders is believed to be her sponsor and lover.

Kathy looked over at Jack and said, “How did you get so damn smart? If you hadn’t insisted she be tied up every night, she might have killed all of us. You know, that is a blow to my ego. I have to admit the poor, little abused bitch manipulated me from the first time she saw me. I was even thinking about bringing her here. Thank God for the wisdom of one Jack Brandon. I wonder if she knows our names. She must know the general vicinity of this house. If her al-Qaeda friends show her any pictures, she could easily I.D. Jack. I don’t like that at all. We ought to do our business, and get out of this wretched valley yesterday.”

Jack asked Arjun if he thought they should do anything to improve security. Arjun replied, “It has been my experience, these people do not move without careful planning. It is almost a religion with them. I do believe they will find this house, but I do not think they will mount an attack until they have done extensive casing. Making changes to our security will delay their getting a plan put together. Our best security is to close down this house and get you all out of here in the next few days. I believe we have that long, but just to be sure I will add a few more guards and put up a few dummy cameras. They won’t know they are not active, but it will compound their planning process. Now, let me say a few words about our Arab friends.”

Arjun stated so far his people had not found any more Arabs staying in hotels. Hakim Al-Lami hadn’t left his bungalow today. Jack asked Arjun to stay for lunch. They had some proposals for him. Some of them needed major assistance from him. Two hours later a tense Arjun left Bernadette’s compound. It had taken Jack’s offer to invest $250,000 into Arjun’s agency, plus a yearly guaranteed level of business of $50,000 for three years from the Brandon group to get Arjun’s agreement to provide the support they needed and to sell 40 percent of his business to a Brandon holding company. Arjun told them he could not be ready before 8:00 tonight.
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. 

When Arjun left, Jack said, “That man earns his money. He works like a dedicated professional, or am I reading him wrong?”

Kathy laughed and said, “No, you are right. Our Arjun is one dedicated, effective piece of work. Note he is a Sikh but has no beard and doesn’t always wear a turban. I haven’t asked him, but I’ll bet he wants flexibility in using different guises while working with different clients.”

Jack paced around the room. The rest kept silent. When he stopped, he said, “I believe Arjun might be right. We have nothing to give to the police. The reason we are all here is this meeting tonight or maybe tomorrow. We can’t make a plan until we know what we want to accomplish. In Recon we would say, what is the mission?

“We know Yuri, alias Vladimir Petrov, was in the terrorist business for money, and he probably was getting money from Fahad, the export/importer from New Delhi and Iraq. Almost certainly that money wasn’t from Ali Fahad’s pocket. He’s getting it from an al-Qaeda banker. Without Yuri’s network, which the U.S. cops should have finished rolling up by now, Fahad has no way of selling terrorist acts for money in the United States. Whether or not he knows it, he is in trouble. He can’t deliver for al-Qaeda, and I don’t believe they are very forgiving.

“That is one set of assumptions. The other has to do with his part, if any, in the running of drugs through Bahadur. If we are right in our belief the Maoists physically move the drugs through Nepal into India, then does Fahad play a role in that? I bet he does. Tibetan crafts and antiquities travel through Nepal to India, some legal, others not. Fahad deals in Tibetan products.

“He exports stuff abroad. Is he an important part of the narco/terrorism equation? I don’t know, and I don’t think we have the time to find out. We are all on borrowed time here. My suggestion is we narrow the mission to taking out Fahad and as much of the al-Qaeda cell as we can and then getting out of here.”

“What you said makes sense, but I’d like to muddy the water a bit,” Kathy said. “While your proposal simplifies the mission, it leaves us with nothing positive and a very suspicious al-Qaeda. Let’s add Hakim Al-Lami to the take-out list. I also want a chance to search his house and make off with his records. I believe he is keeping records at his bungalow, because I believe Al-Lami is either the al-Qaeda operative in charge of directing Ali Fahad or he is the finance guy, or both. He’s got to have some records. Besides these bastards killed my brother, and I want to hurt them as much as we can.”

Bernadette added, “Back in my days with the IRA, unless you were sending a purely political message, it was good to sow discord and confusion. For example, if al-Qaeda thought something happened between Al-Lami and Fahad, they wouldn’t know whom to blame. Confusion among enemies is always good.”

Jack asked Anita if she had anything to add.

Anita said, “I’m more comfortable on the operations side. For example, how many people are in the bungalow? Are they armed? Are guards on the perimeter or just outside the perimeter? Is the bungalow alarmed? Are the records booby trapped? I know we can’t answer those questions, and we don’t have the time to try to get the information. We have to plan for the unknown, including what we do if someone gets badly hurt or killed. It’s not as if we have a lot of support here. I believe Arjun can take care of his own, but he can’t take care of us. To me we only have one answer. If any of us get incapacitated or killed, they must be left behind. I know that is hard to face, but it must be done. We can’t provide serious medical help, and we can’t carry dead bodies with us. The wounded or dead cannot be allowed to compromise the mission. Nobody carries I.D. on black operations. We have to operate under these rules.”

Jack said, “Anita is right. Those have to be our rules. If we kill a half-dozen people, getting captured by the authorities is not a good option. So, people, don’t make mistakes and don’t hesitate to shoot. If our plans go to hell and we have to separate, do not come back here. I’ll get Arjun to provide a short-term safe haven for us to re-group. Anita, please go over an entry plan.”

As Anita started going over the items of concern to an entry operation, they heard a car pull into the driveway. Jack looked out the window and told the others it looked as if Arjun’s courier has arrived with the photos of the bungalow and the surrounding area. Jack sent a note back with the courier asking Arjun to come as soon as he was free.

Kathy spread the pictures on the table saying, “Hey! This photographer did a great job. Good shots of the bungalow. Looks like almost a panoramic of the surrounding area. And if the label is correct, here is Hakim Al-Lami.”

Anita said, “I’ve been by this place on my bike. Some quite large houses are on this street, many with private gardens, high walls and gated driveways. I would like another look at this place.”

Kathy called to Jack, who was staring out of the window on the other side of the room. When she had his attention, she said, “Do you think you can get this group of people to come up with some kind of a plan before Arjun comes back, so we know what we need from him?”

Jack told Anita to work up daylight and night entry plans that would give them control of the house. He asked Kathy to put together a search plan of the house and grounds with each member of the entry team assigned responsibility for a search area. Jack asked Bernadette to work on confusing al-Qaeda.

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.