the other, as would normally be the case. The human heat signature had simply materialized as if out of nowhere. Adding to the confusion was that the largest of the original heat signatures had stopped moving and was beginning to fade slightly.
As an officer with long experience in interpreting such readouts, he did not need someone to explain to him what it meant when a human's infrared signature began to pale. It meant that the body in question was growing colder, and in this particular instance clearly not from exposure to the sultry night air of the jungle. As if the situation was not already complicated enough, the baffling appearance of a new figure was more problematical. Once again, experience supplied a realistic explanation.
'Inspector…?' Johar prompted him. Looking baffled, the lieu tenant was fixated on his own readout. 'Pardon my English, but-what the hell?'
'The downed individual has been shot, or otherwise severely impacted,' Keshu explained. 'Probably, but we cannot be certain as yet, by this intruder. As for the newcomer, I would guess he arrived draped in a camo suit of some kind. Possibly illicit ex-military. It would mask not only his heat signature but his shape. A little light-bending goes a long way at night.'
'Yes, sir,' Johar agreed, visibly impressed that his superior was not impressed. 'But what does it mean?'
'It means,' Keshu told him, taking a long breath, 'that our neat little plan of action and follow-up has taken on an unexpected dimension. One that I just as soon could have done without.'
The lieutenant held his spinner up to his mouth, and waited. 'Orders, Chief Inspector?'
Desire and knowledge wrestling within him, Keshu's lips tightened as he tried to fabricate the right response. Unable to conjure one, he stalled. No matter what sort of confrontation they had accidentally stumbled into, no matter its consequences, he had no choice but to remain focused on the reason for his presence here in the first place: the foreign woman Chalmette. As for the rest of it, whatever 'it' turned out to be, like so much unexpected rubbish it could be cleaned up later.
For the second time that night, he decided to wait.
Ignoring the shocked starlit stares of the four individuals still standing, Chal Schneemann pushed back the hood of his camo suit as he walked up to the body of Punjab and deliberately kicked the prone man hard in the back of his head, above the spot where a tiny trans parent dart now protruded from his neck. No sound emanated from the motionless figure. Always one to be sure, Chal moved around to the front of the body and kicked again, breaking the nose. Frozen to the spot next to Taneer, Depahli made a small whining noise as she looked on, wide-eyed.
Blood appeared, flowing freely from the bodyguard's face. Still no reaction. Satisfied, Chal shifted the muzzle of the small hand weapon he held in his right hand until it was aimed in the general direction of both the visiting businessman and the Indian scientist. Noting the direction of their stares, he gestured slightly with the gun. 'This uses highly compressed gas to fire syringets containing a powerful concentrated neurotoxin derived from the venom of the banded sea krait. It paralyzes muscles almost instantly. It freezes hearts.' He indicated the large and rapidly chilling corpse off to his left. 'I dislike having to kill a colleague, but there is simply too much at stake here to take chances.' Shifting his gaze, he locked onto Taneer's face.
'I'm supposed to bring you back with me, alive.' His eyes shifted imperceptibly to his left. 'I assure you that's going to happen. Whether your lady friend comes with us or not is up to you.'
Quaking in his air shoes, a frightened Sanjay wondered why, if this terrifying person wished to take no chances, he himself had not already also gone the way of the dead bodyguard. Then it occurred to him that the masquerade that had deceived the European businessman and his associate had not for an instant fooled this person. Whoever he was, he had straightaway seen the sham for what it was.
Whether he would still kill the poor shopkeeper or not was some thing that could not be predicted, nor inferred from the executioner's manner. Sanjay would not wait to find out. Silently, he began reciting his own final prayers. He would be sorry to die only because it meant he would not be able to see Chakra and the children again.
Somehow, he knew that trying to use them to appeal to this person would carry less weight with the tall, stolid-faced killer than a dead leaf falling from a tree.
Gun held in one level, perfectly steady hand, the other extended outward, palm up, Chal approached the wide-eyed Karlovy. 'In addition to this gentleman, I am required to return with the two items you presently hold in your right hand. Please pass them over to me while you are still capable of doing so. I assure you I have no compunction about picking them up off the ground, should they happen to drop along with you.'
Swallowing, Taneer took a step forward despite a terrified Depahli's best efforts to hold him back. He held out the security case. 'Take this. I'll open it for you. There's a lot of money inside. Millions more than you're being paid to do this, I'm sure.' He raised his voice slightly. 'Go on-take it!'
Barely glancing in the scientist's direction, Chal's gaze briefly flicked over the case. Its presence and contents were confirmation that the esteemed Mushtaq's sources had once again come through.
'You want to know the difference between an employee and a whore? An employee has one kind of reputation, a whore another. I value my reputation, Mr. Buthlahee. Besides, even if I were to take you up on your offer, others of my chosen profession would then be hired to look for me in turn. Not to mention that I would have to kill you-all of you-simply to buy a little time.' He smiled pleasantly. 'For a man of logic and reason, I don't think you've thought through your offer very thoroughly.'
Taneer's lips tightened. 'If they get me back, the company will forcibly extract the information they want from me. Then they may kill me anyway, or they may not.'
The tracker pursed his lips slightly. 'Not my concern.'
Sanjay could not keep from blurting, 'You will excuse me, please, but I must ask: what happens to the money?'
Smile widening, Chal studied the shopkeeper and whispered some thing under his breath. It might have been 'peasant,' or it might have been something even less flattering. Sanjay could not tell, nor did he really care.
'I suppose this gentleman'-and he indicated Karlovy-'will return it to his superiors. He'd better, or they're liable to hire someone like me to find him.' Shifting his attention from Taneer and Sanjay, he inquired curiously of the frightened businessman, 'I don't imagine they're going to be very pleased when you have to report the details of your failure here.'
To his credit and despite his evident fear, Karlovy did not cower beneath the tracker's stare. 'I shall plead extenuating circumstances.'
To everyone's surprise, but not relief, Schneemann laughed. 'I've been around long enough to hear myself described a great many ways, in a great many languages, but as 'extenuating circumstances'? That is a first.' An auditory vapor, the laugh went away, fleeing into the night. Chal gestured anew with his upturned palm. 'The items, please. Before I lose my sense of humor.'
Keshu wanted to shake the spinner, to threaten it. He was going to have to make a decision, and soon, very soon, without the right kind of information he needed to make it.
'Chief Inspector, what's going on out there?' With a nod, Johar gestured in front of them, toward the trees that blocked contact and a proper view of what was transpiring deeper in the forest.
'I don't know.' Keshu squinted at his readout. 'None of them seem to be moving. Since they're not likely to be spending all this time in prayerful communion, I expect they must be talking to one another.' As he had been doing all night, he kept switching rapidly back and forth between the overhead drone's infrared and magnified-starlight views. One was little more instructive than the other. 'Without audio or daylight vision, I can't tell what's going on. Are they arguing? Are they old friends meeting up for a night's illegal campout?'
Johar looked over at his superior. There was sympathy in his voice. 'We're going to have to do something soon, Chief Inspector.' He indicated his own readout. 'It looks like the suspect is on the move again.'
Keshu's attention shot back to his own spinner. Damn! The foreign woman was showing signs of moving, all right-away from the others. Pick her up, or let it go. It was the same thorny choice he had been faced with all night.
He was tired. It wasn't fair. All the careful trailing and observation, the expensive surveillance, the number of personnel on site and holding as backup; everything added up to a considerable expenditure of time and money. If he called it off, he'd be asked in no uncertain terms to explain the decision. If he gave the order to pick up the woman Chalmette, he might have no case-and no chance to prosecute again in the future.
Why had all these other people decided to pick the same night and place to convene for their mysterious little gathering? Why couldn't they have done so a kilometer farther north, or south, or at a sensorium tea shop
