had set up the meet in a five-second call to Masters’ mobile phone thirty minutes earlier. ‘Have all your men arrived now? And you’ve sourced the weapons you need?’
‘Yes – everyone’s here. The assault rifles and pistols weren’t a problem, and we even found a sniper rifle. We’re ready,’ Masters replied.
Rodini nodded. ‘Good. Now, as I told you before, we can only take you as far as the territory just north of the Indian border. Obviously we can then suggest places where you can cross, but that whole area is under a heavy Indian military presence because of problems over the border – they’re worried about China as well as about us.’
‘So what do you suggest?’
‘Well, the safest option would have been for you all to have entered India legitimately, though obviously you couldn’t have done so carrying weapons.’
‘I’d have preferred to do that as well,’ Masters said, ‘but the timescale didn’t allow it.’
Rodini nodded. ‘Our only other choice is to get you across the border in one of the less well-patrolled sections. The biggest problem here lies in satisfying the Indian troops you’ll meet in the Nubra Valley area. I’ve done what I can to help with this, and I have got another idea I’m still working on.
‘As for transport I’ve got a pool of vehicles our troops seized while patrolling the border. I’ve picked out a couple of Indian-registered four-by-fours that you can use. The bonus is that they were both used for smuggling, so the false floors and other hidden compartments will conceal most of the weapons you’ve bought. I’m having those jeeps delivered to one of our forward bases down to the south-east of Hushe, in eastern Baltistan, which is only about ten miles from the Indian border. I can arrange to fly you and your men over there by helicopter, but before that happens I’ll need your passports. If you’re going to stand any chance of surviving scrutiny by Indian Army troops, you must have both India visas in your passports and Inner Line permits, which allow you to travel in the Nubra Valley and other areas close to the border.’
‘No problem,’ Masters said. ‘I’ll collect them as soon as I get back to the hotel.’
‘Then, once you’ve made it across the border, you can move around without any difficulty, as long as your passes are good enough and the Indian troops don’t realize you’re carrying weapons. The next problem is communications. I can provide you with a two-way radio, but it probably won’t work properly in that terrain because of the mountains, so a satellite phone is the better option. I can let you have two of those. I’ll also supply dashboard-mounted GPS units for the jeeps and a few hand-held ones as well.’
‘This is beginning to sound expensive,’ Masters remarked.
‘It will be, my friend, but never fear. I’m sure your boss – whoever he is – can afford it.’ A smile spread slowly across Rodini’s face.
‘Now, the final matter is the recovery operation. I know you won’t tell me what the object itself is, or where you’re hoping to find it, so I’ve had to make some assumptions myself. Presumably it’s buried in the ground or hidden in a cave?’
Masters nodded.
‘And I presume your plan is to recover it and load it into the back of one of your vehicles?’
‘If it will fit, yes. Ideally, we’d like to recover it, move it only as far as a safe helo landing site, and then air-lift it back to Islamabad and put it straight on to a transport bird heading for the States. We can organize the last part of the journey easily enough, but can you lay on a big helo – something like a Sikorsky or a CH-53? It’ll need to be a troop-carrier, big enough to carry the recovered object inside. I definitely don’t want the object swinging around on the end of a winch cable. And the chopper needs to be at Alert Sixty or better. We won’t have time to wait around for it.’
Rodini considered the request for a few moments, then nodded. In fact, he’d already earmarked a troop helicopter for the operation. He even knew which pilot he’d instruct to fly the mission, and had made sure he’d be in the chopper himself, once it was en route to the pick-up point.
He wanted to see the relic with his own eyes, because he didn’t believe for a second Masters’ claim that the object was of no value. No collector, no matter how wealthy, would mount an operation of the sort Masters was running to grab something that was worthless.
‘You were right. This is getting more expensive by the minute,’ Rodini said.
‘Ballpark?’ Masters asked.
Rodini checked his notes again, then gave Masters the figure he’d had in mind from the first. ‘One hundred thousand American,’ he said. ‘That includes the vehicles – you can keep them or dump them, as you wish – and the chopper on standby and at Alert Thirty with effect from nine tomorrow morning.’
‘That’s totally bloody extortionate, and you know it,’ Masters snapped. ‘I figured fifty grand, tops. It’s two jeeps, a couple of flights in a chopper, two sat-phones and a bit of forgery. How the hell did you come up with that figure?’
‘You know how. Because I can supply everything that you need and because I won’t ask you questions that you don’t want to answer. You’re very welcome to try to find somebody else if you think that’s too expensive. And it’s half now, as in right now.’
‘Meaning what, precisely?’
‘Meaning a transfer to my Swiss bank today, or the price goes up ten thousand. I’ll want the second half on completion of the operation.’
Masters knew Rodini had him over a barrel. He didn’t know any other high-ranking military officers in that part of Pakistan, and if he tried to use one of his other possible contacts Rodini might well hear about it and block him. And a junior officer couldn’t just snap his fingers and a helicopter would appear – yet Rodini could, and frequently did. And, Masters reflected, it wasn’t as if it was his money anyway.
‘OK, you blood-sucking bastard, it’s a deal,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell my principal to wire you the money. I can guarantee the instruction will be given within the hour, but I can’t be certain when the funds will arrive in Switzerland. That’s completely out of our hands.’
‘Your credit’s good with me,’ Rodini said. ‘As soon as the first fifty thousand gets to my account I’ll keep my side of the deal. But if it doesn’t arrive, you and your men will have a really long wait for the helicopter.’
49
A Dhruv – the utility helicopter built in India by the HAL company – came to a hover and then settled on to a concrete hardstanding at a small Indian Army base just outside Karu, on the east bank of the Indus and about thirty miles south of Leh.
The howl of the jet engines diminished as the pilot closed the throttles and lowered the collective, the parallel steel skids spreading slightly apart as the weight of the aircraft settled on to them. Safely on the ground, the pilot initiated the shut-down procedure, the engine noise dying away even further. The four-bladed main rotor slowed visibly, and eventually came to a stop, the blades dipping and weaving slightly in the wind blowing across the army base. Only then did the doors of the Dhruv open.
Two men emerged, one climbing out with the ease that came from long familiarity with the aircraft, the other man – a shorter and stockier figure in a set of faded green flying overalls – clearly having some difficulty. The pilot walked round the nose of the helicopter to assist him, then both men walked away towards an adjacent single- storey building, the shorter man carrying a bulky leather carry-on bag.
Just under an hour later, Father Michael Killian sat in a hard wooden chair in the briefing room and wondered yet again why the place wasn’t air conditioned. It wasn’t the clinging, muggy heat that had assaulted him when he’d stepped out of the aircraft at Delhi, but it was still hot enough inside the room to be uncomfortable, even in the relative cool of the early evening.
He had drunk two bottles of ice-cold water and pecked impatiently at a tray of snacks he’d found on the self-
