All of those tiny snippets were making her feel more urgent. It was possibly the strangest sensation she’d ever known. She couldn’t stop herself.
“What do you do?” When he didn’t answer immediately, Lilith added, “I know you are a man of violence. This is why I asked for your help. You do not have to lie to me.”
“I wasn’t planning on it. What I do is complicated.”
“Why?”
He made a sound but it wasn’t humorous. “I work for governments. I track down bad people. Bad people whom people in government want to stop from doing more bad things.”
“An assassin.” She tried to keep the judgment from her voice, but based on the way he looked at her she knew she hadn’t.
“No. Not just an assassin. I don’t always kill.”
“But you have.”
“Yes,” he said. “Does that bother you? That I’m like your sister in that respect?”
“I have killed, too. You are like me in that respect.”
“You have killed for defense. It is different. But you should know that I am not like your sister.”
“I know. I would not have sought your help otherwise.”
“Are you going to tell me about her?”
He lifted his hand and slashed through a heavy leaf. She saw him push it away and then he stopped. His arm dropping heavily to his side.
“Is it a snake?”
“No. It’s a clear patch with a few strong surrounding trees. I think we should bunker down here. It’s getting darker and I don’t want to travel too much farther when I can’t see what I’m hacking.”
“But Echo,” Lilith protested.
“They’ll have to stop, too, Lilly. Look, we could be in front of her now for all we know. Or behind her. Or completely off course.”
“You said earlier, though…”
He nodded and sighed. “Yes, I know. We’re heading southwest as planned. That’s great. I’m just telling you our chances of bumping into her in the middle of this jungle are slim. We’ll do our best, but for now I’m not taking any more risks than we need to. This is a secluded spot. We’ll set up the torches and pitch a tent.”
“A tent.”
Tarak rolled the backpack off his shoulders and dropped it in the patch of mossy grass. He stomped over a large area, checking for snakes, and when he was satisfied he unzipped his pack.
“I told you I had everything we needed. I know how to travel in a jungle when I’m doing it on foot. Last night we could use the helicopter. Tonight we’ll use this.”
She watched as he pulled from the pack a neatly folded square that after a few unfolds sprang up into a small shelter.
For one person it would be comfortable. For two—tight. “I cannot sleep in that tent with you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
The question confused her. “Both. It would be too risky. The slightest movement and I could touch you without realizing it.”
Tarak nodded slowly. “I’ll improvise. In the meantime you can use this to make a campfire.”
He dug once more into his pack and tossed her a metal device with a long metal tube and a trigger. When she clicked it, fire came out of the nozzle. Fascinated, she clicked it a few more times. “It almost seems like cheating.”
Tarak laughed and she found herself smiling as a result of the sound. Together they went about their separate chores. Lilith made a central fire and set each torch to the east and west of the clearing. Tarak cut open the bottom of the tent, then laid out a tarp underneath it. With some sticks, he secured the newly expanded tent so that while it was more open to the elements it would provide shelter from the rain.
“There,” he said when he finished. “We’ll be safe enough under that.”
Still Lilith was skeptical. “I’ll sleep under the bottom tarp.”
“The bugs will eat you alive.”
“Better than me killing you.”
Since he obviously couldn’t argue with that they settled down into their makeshift camp. Having previously eaten, they simply finished the water and waited for time to pass before sleep claimed them.
Lilith stared up at the tent top and listened to the even breathing next to her. Just as it had been the previous night, she was reminded of the strange sensation that she felt whenever she was so close to him. She wondered if it would have been like this with any man who had come to her aid. Certainly she’d never felt such a thing for one of the villagers or the monks.
“I think it might be your face, as well,” she said softly, wondering if he would even understand that she was answering a question from the night before. “You are what some women in my village would call handsome. It’s pleasing.”
“Thank you. I think,” he added. “I imagine you are referring to your attraction to me. You shouldn’t let it worry you, Lilly. It’s a natural thing between men and women.”
“There is nothing natural about me.” It was a fact and not meant to sound as bitter as Lilith imagined it sounded.
“No, there isn’t.” She could feel him shift above the tarp. She tugged on it to make sure it didn’t pull away from her leaving any skin revealed. She still wore her silk material and the gloves but she knew there were patches of skin exposed. She knew that because the bugs had found them.
“You didn’t answer me earlier. Tell me about your sister.”
“I told you everything. We were experiments. We were made to have skills, but something must have gone wrong. At least with me. Surely no one would have intentionally made me this way.”
“Not unless someone was breeding a lethal assassin.”
Lilith shifted under the tarp. “Sadly, that is not unlikely given the nature of who my mother was.”
“And who is that exactly?”
“I knew her as Jackie Webb. A philanthropist. Then she died and a courier was sent telling me of her death and telling me of my past.”
Lilith thought it was enough information. She couldn’t say that she didn’t trust him with the rest. She was trusting him with her life. But instinct told her the less said about the files the better. She could tell herself it was for the same reason she hadn’t wanted to tell Sister Peter about the information she’d learned. Because she didn’t want him to be a potential target.
But that wasn’t true.
Tarak said he worked for governments. Many of the people in those files were government leaders. Men and women whom he’d probably served at some point, whom he might have to serve again in the future. He didn’t need to know how corruptible they were. No one should ever be that disillusioned.
She comforted herself that her omission of the truth was for his own good.
In the dark quiet she could feel his scrutiny. His head was propped up on his hand as he stared down into her face, seeing what, she wasn’t sure as the small fire gave off only flickers of light.
“You’re not a very clever liar.”
It was a fact. “It is because I do not do it very often.”
“Your mother gave you more than your past. More than a sister, as well.”
“What she gave me doesn’t matter. Stopping my sister does.”
“Stopping her from doing what?”
“You saw what she did to Sister Peter.”
She let her eyes drift to his face and saw him nod slowly. “I did. And it was ruthless. But she did it with a very specific intent. What’s in the necklace?”
“It was what my mother left me. I want it back.” Unclever liars did best by sticking to the truth.
“Fine,” he said, eventually rolling onto his back. “You don’t want to tell me what’s in the necklace. Let me tell you then. A woman named Jackie Webb somehow masterminded the biological engineering of at least two offspring. One has altered skin chemistry, the other can stop bullets. I know this because I’m a very good shot. Jackie’s dead, but she manages to get off a note to you along with a necklace and a computer. I saw the laptop you tried to foist off on sis—nice try, by the way.”
“It did not work.”
“Then Echo shows up in all her glorious madness. She burns your village and kills a nun, all for the family jewels. I don’t think so. You know what I do think?”
“You seem quite talkative this night,” Lilith snipped, irritated with his flawless logic. “I imagine you are going to tell me even if I do not want to hear it.”
“She stings and bites,” Tarak noted. “I think the secret to this genetic process is somehow in the necklace. Information like that…it’s scary to think what a woman like Echo would do with it.”
Lilith hadn’t considered that, but it was probably true. She hadn’t gone so deep into the files after quickly being disgusted by what she read, but she imagined there was more than blackmail. The idea of another child, an innocent being, suffering her fate doubled her determination to stop Echo.
“Now you understand why we must stop her.”
“I never doubted it. Mostly because I never doubted you. I just wanted you to tell me.”
“Why? If you already knew.”
“I needed to know that you trusted me. No, that’s not true. I already do know. I just wanted you to admit it.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s part of the tug. Here we are in the middle of the jungle. You told me that what Echo has is of great value. I could kill you and move faster on my own. Then take her out and have the necklace all to myself.”
Lilith shifted under the tarp. “But you won’t. I know that you won’t.”
“You’re right. But how do you know it?” he pressed. “You’ve only known me a handful of hours. I could be anyone.”
“I cannot say. I feel it inside.”
“Exactly. That’s what I wanted you to admit. You feel me. You trust me. It’s part of the tug. Do you understand?”
Lilith sighed and relaxed more now that she understood what he wanted from her. “Yes. I knew a man I called my father my whole life. I shared a home with him. I worked beside him. Every day. I never knew him.”
“It can happen that way. People can not know the person sleeping next to them after a lifetime. Or know intimately the person they just met. It’s what makes us so complex. I’m glad to know that I wasn’t alone in my feelings.”
“But these feelings are useless,” Lilith insisted, frustrated. “You know nothing can come of it. It’s impossible.”
“Impossible,” Tarak murmured as he settled on his back and tried to get as comfortable as he could. “I’m not a big believer in impossible. They told me it would be impossible to find the terrorists that blew up my father and my mother along with him. But I did. I found them and I killed them. Impossible is what makes me tick. Never doubt it.”
Lilith had no answer for that. But if she could have she would have reached out and touched his shoulder and offered him comfort. Because she couldn’t she turned on her side and hoped that the bugs would leave her some of her skin.
Spitefully she hoped they didn’t survive the feast.
Tarak sat up slowly, letting his body adjust to the position. It was at least an hour until dawn but the night was fading. It must have been the sounds of the jungle waking up that alerted him to the arrival of morning.
For a moment he took stock of the situation. Both torches were no more than red husks, and the fire, too, had dwindled to embers, but fortunately there were no predators around looking for an easy meal this morning.
He glanced down at his tent mate and saw the curve of her face as it was turned away slightly from him. So beautiful. And different, too, in this light. Her skin seemed milky, not quite as shiny. As if the sheen that could be so compelling had diminished overnight.
Overnight while she slept.
As the thought rattled around in his head, he watched as she stirred and slowly woke. As she sat up, the tarp fell from her shoulders. Glimpses of skin were exposed through the mock sari and he could see that those patches had also lost that strange luminescent quality.
Crawling out from under the tent, he rummaged around on the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“A test,” he said as he found a small, sharp rock. “Stand up.”
Lilith hesitated, but after he motioned to her, she followed his lead. She stood in front of him trying to adjust the silk strips around the exposed areas of her skin, but he held up a hand to stop her.
“No. Leave your right shoulder exposed.”
“If this is some kind of game…”
Tarak didn’t bother answering. He took a step back and flung the rock with little force in the direction of her shoulder. It bounced off and he saw her wince. Almost instantly her skin tone changed.
“What are you doing? Was there a bug?”
“Interesting.”
“Have you gone mad?” she snapped, rubbing the offended shoulder. “Is the strain of the journey affecting you?”
“I’ll explain on the way. Let’s break camp down. We need to keep moving if we hope to have a chance of finding our needle in the haystack.”
“We’ll find them. Just like we found the helicopter.”
Tarak snorted. “If only your friend had a tracking device built inside of her then sure…Oh shit. Of course. How could I have been so stupid? No wait, in my defense this is your fault. You should have told me about the damn necklace right from the start.”
“I do not understand.”
Tarak didn’t waste time explaining. He simply dug his GPS receiver out of his backpack and started making adjustments to look for other signals in the area. If he was right, in this area of Arunachal Pradesh so scarcely populated there wouldn’t be many. Maybe a few tour guides with cell phones. Which meant the odds he would find more than one signal moving in the direction they had already anticipated were less than slim.
He saw the beep flash on his screen and calculated that they were about three kilometers southwest of their target.
“Smile,” he murmured. “You’re on radar.”
Chapter 10
L ilith moved as close as she dared and watched a tiny beep in the lower half of the screen.
“You think that is Echo?”
“Pretty good bet, yes. She’s heading south along the path of the river, just as we figured she would.”
“But how?”
“The necklace. Given the information it contains I would have been more surprised if your mother hadn’t put a tracker inside it. My GPS receiver has been modified in a way that allows me to pick up anything giving off a signal. Given where we are, I’m about eighty percent certain that dot is your sister.”
“Please do not call her my sister. It bothers me.” It was a silly request, but she didn’t feel guilty for making it. That she was connected by blood to two women who were capable of such evil did not sit well with her. She knew from her teachings with the monks that children could not credit everything to their parents, nor could they assign all blame. A child eventually had to make his or her own way and be responsible for his or her own actions.
Those lessons had helped her to overcome the pain of being an unwanted child and helped her to put her father and his actions behind her. Now she would have to do the same with Jackie and with Echo.
It seemed unfair that one child should be cursed with such a family tree and more unfair that she would never have a chance to have her own family. A man who would love her. A child she would love. A chance to correct the mistakes that had been made by the generation before her in a way that would offer balance to the universe. An act of goodness for every evil that had been done.
It was how she would have tried to raise her children.
Sadness descended on her and she had to concentrate hard to shake it off. Now wasn’t the time to think about what she’d lost. No, she would never be able to make up for what Jackie had done by bringing good people into this world, but she could continue to do good work herself. She had an opportunity to stop Echo from doing more harm. If she succeeded then that would have to be her legacy.
Thanks to Tarak, they now knew where Echo was.
“We should go now.”
“Not so fast. We’re not that far behind her, believe it or not. Your idea of cutting through the jungle worked.”
“Then why are we waiting? We should hurry to reach her and…stop her.”
“And exactly how do you propose that we do that? I can’t shoot her. We need to think before we act.”
Lilith nodded. He was right. In her defense, she had no mind for strategy when it came to capturing an opponent. Everything that had happened to her since the moment the first helicopter had arrived was new territory. She was in the dark, but that was why she had brought Tarak with her. He was her torch.
“We’ll follow her at a distance,” he said. “Maybe find some way to lure her men away from her and take them down individually. Eventually, come nightfall, she’ll have to stop to make camp again. We’ll have a better chance of catching her unawares then.”
“Yes, that is logical,” Lilith conceded.
“This is what I do,” he reminded her.
Lilith nodded and then proceeded to roll up the tarp she had slept under. Together they worked quickly to break down the camp. The torches were spent and they had brought no extra supply of oil to keep them lit, so they were left behind. Tarak shouldered his backpack but kept the GPS receiver in his hand.
Lilith took his machete and led the way for a while, hacking through heavy leaves and bushes to create a path for them. They were close. She could feel it. And because they were she found her adrenaline easily giving her the strength she needed to move faster and work harder.
“You never told me why you threw that rock at me,” Lilith said after she made a slice through a heavy plant. “It hurt.”
“Sorry about that,” Tarak said from behind her. “I was conducting a little test.”
“A test? I do not understand.”
“Have you noticed that your skin changes at different times of the day?”
Lilith glanced down at her covered hand. She couldn’t see much of her skin ever because of the coverings she wore. At night when she was alone and comfortable enough to remove her robes and gloves it was always dark.
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