'Out,' Apu replied.
'She runs errands.'
'I see. Do you mind if we look around?' Nazir asked.
'May I ask what you are looking for?' the farmer asked.
'I don't know,' Nazir admitted.
'Well, go ahead,' Apu said.
'But be careful of my chickens.
You've already frightened them once with your machine.'
He made a disdainful gesture toward the helicopter.
Nazir nodded and turned. Friday hesitated.
'What's wrong?' Nazir asked the American.
Friday continued to look at the farmer.
'Your granddaughter is one of them, isn't she?'
Apu did not move. He did not say, 'My granddaughter is one of who?' He said nothing. That told Friday a lot.
Friday approached the farmer. Apu started backing away.
Friday held up his hands, knuckles out. The derringer was in his right palm where the farmer could not see it. Friday watched both the farmer and the farmhouse door and window behind him. He could not be absolutely certain no was one inside or that Apu would not try to get a gun or ax or some other weapon just inside.
'Mr. Kumar, everything is all right,' Friday said slowly, softty.
'I'm not going to do anything to you. Nothing at all.'
Apu slowed then stopped. Friday stopped as well.
'Good,' Friday said. He lowered his hands and put them back in his pockets. The derringer was pointed at Apu.
'I want to ask you a question but it's an important one. All right?'
Apu nodded once.
'I need to know if you do not want to talk to us because you and your granddaughter support the terrorists or because they are holding her hostage,' Friday said to him.
Apu hesitated.
'Mr. Kumar, people were killed yesterday when a bomb exploded in Srinagar,' Captain Nazir said.
'Police officers, pilgrims on the way to Pahalgam, and worshipers in a temple.
Did your granddaughter have a hand in that or did she not?'
'No!' Apu half-shouted, half-wept.
'We do not support them. They forced her to go with them! They left yesterday.
I was told to be silent or they said they would kill her. How is she?
How is my granddaughter?' 'We don't know,' Nazir told him.
'But we want to find her and help her. Have they been back here since the explosion?' Nazir asked.
'No,' Apu said.
'One man stayed behind when the others left. He called and claimed responsibility for an attack. I heard him. But then he left suddenly at around five o'clock.' 'Suddenly?' Nazir asked.
'He seemed very upset after talking to someone else on the telephone,' Apu told him.
'As if something had gone wrong?' Friday asked. That would certainly confirm what Op-Center was thinking.
'I don't know,' Apu said.
'He was usually very calm. I even heard him make jokes sometimes. But not then. Maybe something did happen.'
'If you came to Srinagar with us, would you be able to tell us what these people look like?' Nazir asked.
Apu nodded.
Friday touched Nazir's arm.
'We may not have time for that,' the NSA operative said. Whatever is happening seems to be happening very quickly.
'Mr. Kumar, were your visitors Pakistani?'
'Yes.'
'How many of them were there and how long did they stay with you?' Friday asked.
