Deep Sea One (13 page)

As they passed through Yalbang, the last village before being at the mercy of the wilderness, Sam saw an old man carving walking sticks like the one Jodh had. He approached the elder and hoped he could barter for a cane.

"Let's take a thirty-minute break, people," Jodh announced, "and fill up your canteens with water and take off your boots for a while. It helps to air out your feet before the cold gets too much."

Sam liked the staff that resembled a shepherd's stick. It had a strong shaft, solid and well-chiseled and at the top it bent into a bulbous head. The language barrier broke down when Sam smiled and offered the old man his half-full packet of cigarettes.

"You didn't!" Nina gasped next to him. "I thought you quit? Sam . . . that's your whole stash for the trip. I remember the value of those," she argued innocently and Sam chuckled at her urge to step in.

"Well, yes, I did try to quit, but with the level of exertion we are about to maintain, they are just going to impair my breathing, right?" Sam replied, and Nina was amazed at his uncharacteristic sense of responsibility for his health. Maybe he
had
changed after all.

The trade between Sam Cleave and the village elder went smoothly. The old man looked delighted at the gift of tobacco in exchange for one of his canes, and Sam fixed his camera on the man for a memento photo of the friendly father who was missing most of his teeth due to old age.

"I'll take a good picture. Stand so that the Himalayas fill the background," Nina said, and took the camera from Sam. As Sam and the elder decided how to pose she looked to the right and saw Calisto sitting under a small tree, chewing on a chicken leg she got from four women on the porch who sat cackling about the foreigners. Her face was serious, almost savage, as she ripped the meat off the bone, her eyes fixed on some distant area. Nina felt that same twinge of uncertainty she had when Calisto stopped earlier in the day and told her to press on.

What are you looking at?
Nina thought.

"Ready! Ready!" Sam called her to attention.

"Smile!" she said and clicked the silver button. This one must have been a personal camera of Sam's because usually she could not tell where to push the button on his gear when he had slapped it all together. Lenses and zoom adjusters, tripod clips and myriad switches always confused her. Sam allowed her to take a few pictures of the children playing in the dirt and had the women waving with smiles. Nina regretted not being able to capture the magnitude of the beautiful gigantic mountain ranges in one frame. Even their height was astonishing, too tall to fit into frame.

"Time to go, everyone!" they heard Purdue call, and with jovial courtesy they said goodbye to the villagers, having no clue what was captured on the picture of Sam and the village elder.

☼

Chapter 17

"You're awfully quiet," Nina told Calisto, as they panted their way up a steep narrow trail over a 500-meter high ridge. It was getting colder and the light was slowly fading from the shade of the mountain.

"Just don't feel well. I'll perk up soon, I promise," Calisto forced a smile. Nina knew there was more to it and she was fishing more to learn the strange behavior of the day than the current discomfort from the bodyguard.

"What is the matter, sergeant?" Purdue asked from the front of the line, without stopping.

"Nothing, sir. Dr. Gould is just being maternal, but there is no reason to worry," Calisto smiled and patted Nina's arm.

By eight o'clock in the evening the expedition party had set up three tents. One for Calisto and Nina, another for Sam and Jodh and the third for Purdue and Gary. Jodh had pointed them to a hub in the mountainside where pilgrims and tourists who dared take this wild trail pitched their tents against the assault of the wind chill and possible rain. In the center of their ring of tents they had a hearty fire going. Roti and boiled grain formed the base of a good meal of dal-bhat-tarkari, the preparation of which was child's play to a master such as Jodh. The lentil soup smelled divine, evoking a ravenous craving from the party while they waited. It reminded them just how famished they had become while concentrating on their trek.

"Fortunately the mountain face manages to block most of the direct wind. This is a good place," Gary said, as he surveyed their surroundings from his place near the fire.

Nina leaned closer to Calisto, accepting the bodyguard's offer of jelly beans. She seemed to have an endless supply and the sweets served to keep Nina's stomach occupied until the meal was served.

"Tomorrow we can pick some mangoes when we walk," Jodh told Nina and Calisto, as they wolfed down the candy. "They grow at the higher altitudes here."

The food was plain, but exquisite. It was extremely filling and tasty, made up mostly of a porridge of grains and lentils, which warmed their bodies sufficiently to brave the coming night's cold.

"We have a few more days ahead. I am keeping to the salt route as much as I can, Dr. Gould, but if we follow the well-known pathway, we will spend more days at it," Jodh said.

"As long as Mr. Purdue is fine with it, I don't see why it should be a problem," Nina replied, with a mouthful of roti.

"I am in a hurry," Purdue reminded them. "The sooner we get to this shrine, the better. Call me impatient, but I don't like wasting time on sightseeing when I am pursuing an exciting discovery," he bellowed with a wide grin and a gleam in his eye.

"Jodh, for interest's sake, what do you do for a living when you aren't dragging spoiled tourists around the Himalayas?" Sam asked, sating the unspoken curiosity of a few of the others on the subject.

"Oh, I am a postdoc at Durham University and I have a masters in communication," the guide smiled.

"What do you do at Durham?" Nina asked.

"Anthropology and languages," he replied.

Nina felt some concern for her expendability all of a sudden. She had no idea the guide was this educated and it only reminded her of her struggle to find her own place in the cruel world of academics. Matlock and his vindictive ways came to mind and she felt bile rise in her throat, gnashing her teeth inadvertently at the reminiscence of their confrontations. Suddenly she was as hasty as Purdue to find the Spear of Destiny, not for its power, but for the unquestionable ascension her achievement would bring in the ranks of academia. Her reputation would be redeemed and above all, her superior would be reduced to a whimpering heap of failure and forgotten in the wake of her success. Yes, they were taking far too much time, she decided, and the sooner they got to tomorrow the sooner they would find the shrine.

"I'm going to turn in. I am exhauster," Nina announced, and rose to her feet, gathering her scarf and tucking it into her jacket.

"That is a good idea. The trail is only getting tougher in the next days and we need to rest up properly," Purdue agreed. And so they dispersed one by one to their tents until only Calisto and Sam were left at the fire.

"You have not flirted with me all day. What the hell is wrong with you?" Sam teased. Calisto managed a smile.

"First off, you and Dr. Gould are . . ." she shrugged, ". . . and I have been doing my job today. I wish I was paid exuberant amounts to take pretty pictures."

"That's not nice, sergeant," Sam replied, picking up on her mild hostility.

"Did I hurt your feelings?" she asked with the same measure of indifference.

"Dr. Gould and I are colleagues and friends, at last. She spends a lot of time pissed off at me, I'll have you know, but finally we have managed to bury the hatchet," he explained.

"That's wonderful for you."

"What is the matter, Calisto?" he just came out and asked. One thing Sam Cleave had learned from Nina is that most women want you to ask. Just come out and ask. In the shadow of her hood she looked ravishingly beautiful. It was not Nina's kind of beauty, but a rugged and dangerous appeal. The fire reflected its blaze in her eyes and he could not discern if it was her own or that of the flames keeping them warm. The wind was slamming the shorter ends of her dark hair into her face and lips. Sam waited patiently for a reply, which he could see she was formulating in her mind.

"I think we are being followed, Mr. Cleave," she said evenly, as if she ordered a drink.

"Wait. What?"

"I think there are two men on our trail and I don't think they are interested in taking selfies with us to post on a Facebook page," she added.

"Do you think they are after the Spear too?" he asked. "All right, that was the dumbest question. Of course they are, but how would they know what we are up to?"

She cocked her head, taken aback that he could not figure that one out.

"Why, because we have a leak in our cauldron, Mr. Cleave. A big and greedy leak that is in on a big jackpot to deliver us. The good news is that I have not seen them since we left Yalbang, but I have not had time for pleasantries while keeping an eye out, see?" she told Sam.

"Why don't you tell Purdue?" Sam asked in urgency.

"Because then the rat will know that we know, Sam. Come now, use your head. Think with a little more paranoia and all will be revealed. Besides, Mr. Purdue is better off knowing nothing. Let him simmer in his expedition. Without distractions he functions better and we can get our shit done quickly. I will make sure they don't catch up too soon," Calisto reassured him and Sam believed her without question.

"If they get too close?" Sam asked, suddenly feeling a bout of fear-ridden insomnia take hold of him.

"Then we waste them."

"You can't just go around shooting people, Calisto," he whispered loudly, gasping with worry. Her large black eyes pinned his, hard, and she kept him in a dead stare. It did not frighten him, but Sam felt uncertain how far she would go before shooting someone.

"Mr. Cleave, you are aware that this expedition is not some celebrity outing or a call for wedding pictures, right? We are on the hunt for an item that is priceless, all-powerful and worth killing for without an ounce of reluctance by all those who seek it. This is Nazi business, Napoleonic, Czarist, da Vinci Code shit. This is a life-and-death game and we are better for it to have no reservations toward our survival. Do you understand?" she whispered, with precise meaning he could not dismiss. She was right. This was a dangerous sport, but he still hoped that she was wrong.

"I trust you will keep this to yourself? For now," she finally said, as she adjusted her hood.

"Of course," Sam replied, "but I will not be sleeping too well from now on."

"Good," she said, as she rose to her feet and dusted her pants off. "While Samson slept he lost his power and was utterly defeated. Sleep is for babes, Mr. Cleave."

"Samson was defeated because he trusted a woman," Sam retorted, as she disappeared into the faint light where the fire could not reach.

"That is also true. Good night, Mr. Cleave."

The storm was not too aggressive and lasted fewer than two hours, but the Purdue party slept through it all. They were exhausted. Walking the steep and rocky trails of the Himalayan cliffs were proving some challenge and, after getting accustomed to the sharp tugging at the tent fabric under the force of the angry winds switching direction around the corners of the protruding rocks, they dozed off in the din.

Nina woke in the dead of night, suffering an unrelenting bladder. She tried her best not to drink too much, as she felt uncomfortable with the call of nature out here with all the men and goats traversing the mountain, but now she found that she could no longer postpone it.

"Shit," she whispered in her frustration. She was terribly cold and her back hurt from the hardness of her stretcher, a cradle too tight for her to move freely. Calisto was fast asleep in her sleeping bag and Nina wondered what she and Sam had been discussing at the fire. Nina was not sure what to make of the bodyguard, who did not wish to share much with her, but somehow found Sam a better confidant. Then again, she shared her sweets with her and brought her food in the hotel, so maybe she was more considerate than Nina wanted to admit.

Nina unzipped the tent, gathering her strength for the sudden freezing gusts about to pelt her. She elected not to switch on her flashlight yet, because she did not want to unnecessarily rouse her colleagues. The cold impaired the movement of her fingers as she closed the tent behind her, light in one hand and clutching the toilet paper under her arm.

Nina looked up at the solemn and brooding mountain lurching over her in the darkness as the overcast sky lightened the area enough for her to discern the pathway into a near clump of trees. Her skin crawled from the sinister loneliness of the ancient rock faces and silent trees, but she had to pee. Creeping stealthily along the small path next to their campsite she found a shallow natural ditch just behind the first line of trees. Feeling awfully vulnerable, she dropped her pants and looked around continuously as she relieved herself.

"Oh, God, I hope this wind does not get me spraying all over my shoes," she spoke under her breath, conversing with herself to alleviate the feeling of impending danger one only felt when alone in a strange and dark place.