picking up multiple targets, the unit's scopes and sensors had been programmed to emphasize anything that fit the human profile. It was left to those viewing the information to distinguish between night-loving monkeys and humans, a task that size comparison alone made relatively easy.
Next to him, Lieutenant Johar looked up from his own spinner. Half a dozen special police wearing night camouflage clustered not far behind them, while a pair of noise-negating stealth choppers hovered off to the west, above the nearest public housing. Each carried an additional complement of cops patiently awaiting orders for deployment.
Keshu was tired. Having covered many kilometers via chopper, he and his hastily assembled team had been tracking Chalmette ever since she had stepped off the commuter train at the end of its line. Fairly quickly they ascertained that she, in turn, was indeed following a pair of students. From a distance, the chief inspector had watched with grudging admiration as the foreign woman had used her own quarry to enable her to slip inside the restricted area of the preserve.
From then on it had been a matter of staying patient: tracking, tailing the foreigner as she trailed the field station 4x4 that had picked up the unknowing students. Not daring to risk losing her but still loath to pick her up without irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing on her part, he had reluctantly issued the order to start moving in when their target paused and turned away from the field station. But when she had surprisingly chosen to continue onward, paralleling the fence line instead of returning to the station, he had hastily countermanded his own order. Maybe, just maybe, an opportunity might yet present itself to catch her engaging in something prosecutable.
The process of tiresomely tracking her through the forest continued. Despite their hopes, he and Johar were starting to believe they were going to have to give up and decide whether or not to let the woman return to her apartment or pick her up on some pretext. That was when the three newcomers had put in their unexpected appearance. Their illegal entry into the preserve provided sufficient grounds for their arrest, but the thought of issuing the necessary order never entered Keshu's head. Especially not when the real object of his interest abandoned her trike and began to stalk the newly arrived trio.
He was not surprised. Her rapid and effortless switch from one set of potential prey to another fit the modus that the department psychs had put together for her. To a random killer unconcerned with the background or personalities of her quarry, one set of victims was as good as another. How cold she must be inside, he thought. How ethically bankrupt. He had dealt with, had helped to bring to justice, and had seen numerous murderers slain, but none quite like this implacable, unfathomable foreign woman.
Cheese, he thought absently as he studied the moving readout on his spinner, was a far more amenable French export.
From the moment she had pushed her trike into the bushes, there was no doubt to anyone observing her subsequent actions that her intent was to follow the trio of unanticipated forest visitors. Focused on his likely serial killer, Keshu wasted no mental capital trying to divine the newcomers' motivation. They might be researchers, or illegal lepidopterist collectors, or rare plant thieves. They might be friends out for an evening's excitement, or in the process of settling a bet. He doubted they were poachers because the starlight sensor on the drone
did not show them carrying anything that might be poaching equipment. They might constitute a bizarre menage a trois searching for a suitably exotic location in which to consummate their particular sexual needs.
It mattered to him only in the most cursory manner. Of the four ambulatory heat images visible on his spinner's readout, he had eyes only for one.
'Want me to signal some of the boys to move in more closely, sir?' Johar whispered even though they were well out of hearing range of both the naive trio and the deadly female shadow that was stalking them.
'No.' Keshu knew that the lieutenant was worried that if and when the foreign woman attacked, his people might be too far away to get there in time to put a halt to her intended mayhem. There was a risk, certainly, in continuing to keep their distance, but he felt it worth it to acquire the conclusive proof of guilt a court would demand. Even if they were seconds too late to intervene physically, each officer had been instructed that when given orders to move in, they were to make as much noise as possible. From experience, Keshu knew that might well be enough to halt the woman in her tracks.
But there was still an element of threat to the intended victims. He was helped in making his decision from the knowledge that by reason of their illegal entry they had already broken the law.
'We have to wait until the last possible moment,' he rumbled tersely. The look on the lieutenant's face was visible even in the dark ness. 'All right then-the moment
Johar nodded to show that he understood. What he did not show was how thankful he was that it was the chief inspector and not him who would have to decide how long to wait before giving the order to move in and save the three trespassers.
'How much longer, Taneer?' Depahli's feet were starting to hurt. It had been a long time since she had traded in bare feet for sandals, and then sandals for fancy shoes, and her feet were protesting the regression. At least, she thought, nothing had leaped out of the looming, dark jungle to confront them. Perhaps Taneer was right and it was perfectly safe after all. But no matter how much time passed without anything untoward happening, or how many times her beloved reassured her, she still could not entirely shake fears that had clung to her since childhood.
Sanjay was faring better. Trailing his employer and the beautiful girlfriend, he had almost convinced himself that he could pull off the requested impersonation. Taneer had assured him that the likelihood of any real trouble was very small because both sides wished for a speedy consummation of their agreement and terms had already been agreed upon. The shopkeeper had gone so far as to purchase not only an entirely new and alien outfit consisting of black pants, vest, and dark embroidered shirt, but shoes with built-in air lifts that made him appear five centimeters taller. His new, albeit artificial perspective on the world had further increased his confidence.
Some of it evaporated when they reached an open tank intended to supply water to roving animals. The facility had been built to resemble a natural watering hole. Both the well housing and supply pipe stood artfully concealed nearby. Waiting with obvious impatience by one side of the shimmering artificial pond was a large, neatly dressed European clad in walking shoes and expensive synthetic tropical silks. The ambient light from the beamer he held revealed him to be of exception ally pale complexion, as if he was unused to being exposed to the sun.
His companion was Indian and much bigger. He was, in fact, the biggest Indian Sanjay had ever encountered in person, though many members of the national basketball team were taller. An impressive mustache, curving upward at the tips, shadowed bulging cheeks. Though fully clothed, it was clear that his arms were larger in diam eter than the shopkeeper's legs.
Mindful of his responsibility, Sanjay tried to make himself appear even taller, adopted a grim, no-nonsense expression, and moved closer to the couple he was supposed to be 'protecting.'
Stepping forward, Taneer left Depahli behind with Sanjay and extended a hand. The European's palm was damp with sweat, as was his face. 'Mr. Karlovy?'
'Rotten climate, this.' It was a good thing the visitor was a respected businessman, because he was certainly no diplomat. 'Don't know how you people stand it. Don't know how my ancestors stood it.'
'It's easier to acclimate to a place when you are born there,' Taneer replied without rancor. 'As for the other thing, your ancestors stood it because there was money to be made here. Often, though not always, by stealing it.' He smiled in the darkness as an owl hooted softly somewhere in the trees. 'Which brings us to why we are both here now, tonight, suffering in the heat and humidity.'
Karlovy nodded appreciatively. 'A man of directness. As are most in your profession.' Turning slightly, he gestured behind and to one side. 'As agreed, I have brought one escort with me. This is Punjab.'
The bodyguard crossed thick arms over his equally massive chest, assumed the pose of a mighty one, and grinned. 'It is a nickname. My father was a connoisseur of old comic strips. I am actually from Nagpur. Not that either my name or my place of birth matter.' The smile went away, to be replaced by something very different. Bravely, Sanjay did his best to match it. 'I am here to make sure Mr. Karlovy is not robbed.'
'Nobody's here to rob anybody.' Taneer spoke soothingly to the big man, then turned his attention back to the European. 'Let's do what we came to do.'
Crouched low in the bushes nearby, Jena observed the byplay uncer tainly. It mattered to her not in the least what the two new gentlemen were doing out in the middle of the forest, nor why they were meeting with the three she had been following. What was important was that there were now five where a few moments ago there had
