But of course, they weren’t.
THE NEXT MORNING, THEY drove back into the city. They directed the driver to find a library under the guise of conducting research. They just had to hope it would be in a good spot.
The driver took them to the Kathmandu public library. It was in a newer part of the city, away from the tourist spots. It was much the same as every other city, with a busy highway full of traffic, square industrial-looking buildings, and scant trees and shrubbery to liven it up. Perfect.
“Ah, shoot,” Rocky said as the driver stopped the car. “We don’t have any cash. Can’t rent library books without money, right?”
Even though that was categorically false, the driver grumbled and pulled a few Nepalese rupees out of his pocket and gave them to Rocky.
It was a warm day, the sun beaming down from a cloudless sky. Sweat began to roll down James’s back as soon as he stepped out of the car. They thanked the driver and watched as he pulled away to park farther down the street.
“Shall we?” Rocky said.
James nodded, and they stepped toward the library. As they walked, he glanced up and down the street but saw no signs of SIA agents. Good. They just had to hope their driver would be distracted. When they returned to the car yesterday, the man had been reading a newspaper, boredom clear on his face. He hadn’t even bothered to ask where they’d been. They were counting on a similar level of disinterest today—because when they reached the library door, they casually turned and walked around the corner of the building, out of sight of the car.
James felt foolish, but Rocky had made a good point when they were planning it out. “How often do you actually watch someone walk through a door?” he had said. “Walk up to it, sure, but who has the attention span to see someone all the way through? As long as we don’t make a huge commotion that catches the eye, we should be good.”
So far, it seemed he was right. They pressed themselves against the side of the building, waiting, listening for the noise of a car engine springing to life or a door slamming shut and the pattering of running feet. But there was nothing. James let out his breath.
After ensuring the driver wasn’t chasing them, they set off down the alley next to the library. It turned several times, eventually depositing them on a different street. It only took a few minutes to locate what they were looking for: a bus stop.
They stood under a small awning, shaded from the hot sun, and waited. This was the part James had been most apprehensive about. As they waited for the bus, they were out in the open, easily spotted among the Nepali people. His heart pounded as the minutes ticked by. Finally, a bus came around the corner. They stepped on and Rocky used the few rupees he’d taken from the driver to pay the fare.
It was crowded and hot on the bus, but for every minute that passed, James felt more relaxed. He repeatedly glanced out the window, checking for cars following them, but none stood out. He wasn’t ready to say they’d done it, but relief began to bubble in his stomach.
They stayed on the bus for a long time, determined to get as far away from the original spot as possible. Kathmandu was a huge, sprawling city, and if they got far enough away, there would be no chance of being found again.
They used the faded route map above their seats as reference as the bus traveled deeper into the city, periodically stopping to let people off and others on. With each stop, their escape seemed more in reach. It could be hours before their driver grew concerned and checked the library. At that point, they would be across the city, and the SIA had much less power and reach here than they had in America. Roche, it seemed, had underestimated them. Now the SIA boss was left empty-handed.
Finally, they reached the last stop on the route and stepped off the bus. It felt even hotter here, the afternoon heat simmering over the cobblestone roads. They were in a more residential part of the city, with wider roads flanked by hotels and shops. Perfect. If they were going to find a way to travel to Tibet, it seemed here would be the place to start.
“Pretty easy, yeah?” Rocky wiped sweat from his forehead.
“That might’ve been the dumbest escape plan of all time,” James said. “It amounted to fake-walking into a building and finding a bus.”
“But it worked!” Rocky said cheerily. “How about we stop in one of these hotels? They might have travel info.”
James agreed, and they stepped into the lobby of the nearest hotel, enjoying the coolness of the air-conditioning. The steward at the desk was happy to help and gave them a pamphlet for a bussing company that could take them all the way to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It was a twenty-four-hour trip, with many stops on the way. The next bus, they found, left in two hours.
“Two hours to kill,” Rocky said as they stepped back onto the street. “How about some food?”
James agreed, but he felt uneasy. Two hours was a long time, plenty of time for Roche to start scouring the city. But Kathmandu was massive. James figured over a million people lived here. Roche had perhaps one hundred agents with him, based on what James had seen at the hotel. It could take them days to search the whole city.
Still, when he sat down at an outdoor café with Rocky, James couldn’t help but glance up and down the street, his leg bouncing nervously.
“Would you stop that?” Rocky said, his mouth full of food. “You look like a crazy person. The
