Kabir shook his head again. ‘On the contrary, I can assure you that my plan is not to resume the search for the great lost treasure of the Indus Valley People.’
‘No?’ Amal said in his indistinct voice. He poured another cup of water and put it to his lips.
‘No, brother,’ Kabir said. He paused. Then a glow came into his expression and he couldn’t repress a grin that quickly spread all over his face and chased away the dark shadows from around his eyes.
And he added, ‘Because I already found it.’
Amal coughed up the gulp of water he’d been in the process of swallowing. Ben said nothing. The two of them stared at Kabir. Amal managed to splutter, ‘You what? When?’
Kabir grinned even more widely. ‘You see, I knew soon after we landed in the river valley that day that there was a problem with Trafford’s map. I’d been so sure of myself at first. The coordinates were spot on, but the topography of the landscape didn’t fit perfectly with what he’d drawn in his journal. There were hills that shouldn’t have been there, and other minor discrepancies that made me start to doubt that we were in the right place. My guess was that Trafford must have been slightly out in his nav calculations. I hadn’t factored in any margin for error when I converted his original figures into GPS data. Which was a mistake on my part. Potentially a disastrous one, if pure chance hadn’t intervened.’
‘What pure chance?’ Amal spluttered. He was so incredulous that even his damaged eye was able to open wide.
‘I told you I crawled a long, long way after I fell down the hillside escaping those men,’ Kabir said. ‘For two, three days I was totally lost, bleeding, dying of thirst, delirious and sick. But I’ve been studying that map so long it’s imprinted on my brain. So when I found the second river valley, I knew for certain this time that I was in the right place.’
‘There’s a second river valley?’
‘About a mile from the first,’ Kabir said. ‘And trust me, it’s the one on the map. Every detail fits perfectly, down to the last rock and stone, allowing for a hundred and eighty years’ worth of landslides and wind erosion. Which confirmed my suspicions that Trafford had got his geographic coordinates slightly wrong all those years ago. I can’t blame him. The technology they had at their disposal in those days was still pretty crude.’
‘So you’re saying you think you know where the treasure is,’ Ben said.
Kabir shook his head a third time, more emphatically. ‘You’re not hearing me. I said I found it. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And I have a good idea how to get back to it from here. I’ve thought of little else since I woke up.’
Amal swallowed hard. ‘What’s it like?’
Kabir replied, ‘It blew my mind. It’s absolutely amazing. Like nothing anyone could have expected.’
But something else unexpected was just around the corner. Literally. Because at that moment, Pihu and Ganika appeared in the doorway and took a step inside the room. From the rigid looks on their faces, Ben knew instantly that something was wrong. Very wrong indeed. Another second later, he understood why.
Takshak appeared in the doorway behind them, pointing a pistol to the two women’s backs. He shoved them hard into the room. Ganika stumbled and hit the little table with her hip, knocking over the jug. It fell and smashed. The medical first-aid box fell with it and burst open, spilling rolls of bandage and surgical tape and implements all over the floor.
Takshak took another step. He was smiling a wide, satisfied, victorious smile.
‘Sorry for interrupting your conversation there, boys. Sounded like it was getting so interesting.’
Chapter 66
For a moment that seemed frozen in time, nobody moved. Ben saw the expression of pure hatred on Amal’s face and was suddenly scared that he was going to fly at Takshak and get himself shot. He gave Amal a warning look, as clear as if he’d said the words out loud. Don’t even think about it.
Takshak’s triumphant gaze circled the room and landed on Kabir. ‘Well, well. If it isn’t the one who got away. Looks like I get a second chance with you, huh, Professor?’ He gave a self-contented laugh and then turned his eye on Ben. ‘And you. I can’t seem to get rid of you, can I? You’re like a disease that keeps coming back. Like syphilis.’
‘I suppose you’d know all about that,’ Ben said. ‘Didn’t your mother tell you not to mess around with goats?’
Takshak waved the gun in his direction. The diameter of the bore was nine millimetres across. The hammer was cocked, his finger was on the trigger and there was no doubt in Ben’s mind that there was a round nestling in the chamber just waiting to be touched off. Takshak was standing eight feet from where Ben was sitting on the bunk. So near, and yet so far. The fastest and most highly-trained man alive wouldn’t have stood the slightest chance of crossing that distance and disarming him. Especially from a sitting position, and with no boots on. Not good. Takshak was holding all the aces and all Ben could do was let the game unfold.
Takshak said, ‘Let’s see. Should I kill you right now, or can you be of any use to me? It’s thanks to you I’ve lost most of my crew. Seems only right that you should take their place. Loading all that gold on the truck is more work than I feel like doing myself.’ He thought about it for a moment longer, then swivelled the gun back to point at the two women. ‘Your lucky day. Now let’s all go for a ride. The professor’s gonna show us the way.’
Ben motioned towards Amal. ‘You don’t need him. Let him stay behind.’
Takshak smiled. ‘Right. So he can run to the cops.’
‘He’s not running anywhere,’ Ben said. ‘He’s hurt.’
‘How about I break his other arm, and both his legs?’ Takshak said. ‘Then he can stay behind. Deal?’
Ben said nothing.
Kabir said, ‘You want the treasure? Fine, I’ll take you to it. Right now. All yours.’
‘There’s a reasonable man,’ Takshak said.
‘But it’s only fair to warn you, you’ll have trouble fitting it in a truck. There’s so much of it, you wouldn’t be able to transport more than a fraction.’
‘Sounds good enough for a start,’ Takshak said. ‘We can go back for the rest later. Let’s go, boys, I’m getting impatient.’
Ben pointed at his feet. ‘Can I put my boots on first?’
Takshak wagged the gun at him to say, ‘Hurry it up.’
Ben reached out and slid his boots over from the bottom of the bunk. Kabir stepped between him and Takshak to help Amal stand up. Takshak shoved him hard out of the way. ‘The little rat can stand up on his own.’
‘I’m okay,’ Amal said. Ben slipped on his right boot, then the left, and did up the laces.
Takshak marched his prisoners out of the narrow doorway in single file, like a little procession. The women first, then Amal, then Kabir, then Ben. It was hot outside. The afternoon sun was beating down hard on the village and most folks would have normally chosen to stay in the shade. But that wasn’t the case, because it seemed as though the whole village, maybe sixty men, women and children, stood gathered in a small crowd outside the adobe hut, all wide-eyed and cowed and too terrified to speak. What was so frightening to them was plain to see. To one side of the crowd was the seven-foot giant, armed with the SLR rifle Ben had left in the truck the night before. To the other side stood the shorter, more compact guy Ben had guessed was Takshak’s second in command, pointing Jabbar Dada’s INSAS light machine gun at the crowd and looking as though he would love nothing more than to mow them all down.
Ben had just learned two facts. First, that Dada was dead, for sure. Second, that Takshak, the giant and the compact guy were the only surviving members of the crew. From sixteen down to three. But three was still plenty dangerous.
Takshak grinned at his men. ‘Hey, Samunder, Hashim! Didn’t I tell you we’d find these sisterfuckers? And look what I found.’ He prodded Kabir hard in the side with his pistol muzzle, where his wound was. Kabir cried out in pain. Takshak said, ‘The professor h
ere says he found what we’re looking for. He’s gonna take us right to it. Happy days.’
‘Sounds too good to be true,’ said Hashim, the compact one with the INSAS.
‘The professor’s got more sense than to lie to us. Don’t you, Professor? He knows that if he’s just jerking our chain, I’ll take his rat brother apart piece by piece right in front of him before he gets it next.’
‘What about that one?’ Samunder said. He pointed a finger the size of a banana at Ben.
‘Saving him until last,’ Takshak said. ‘He’s going to make himself useful first.’
‘You’re going to kill us all anyway,’ Amal said.
Takshak leered at him. ‘Oh, sure I am. But once I get the treasure I’ll be a happy guy, and happy guys are naturally generous. And so I’ll be only too willing to make it quick and easy for you all. But if you make me unhappy …’ He shook his head and whistled through his teeth. ‘That’s bad, bad news for you. And for all the rest of these nice people, when I come back to take out my crappy mood on them.’
‘You know this doesn’t get to happen the way you think it does,’ Ben said to him. ‘It never does, with guys like you.’
‘Oh yeah? And why’s that?’
‘Because of guys like me.’
‘You think you’re good enough to stop me?’
‘More than that,’ Ben replied. ‘I’m going to make it like you never even existed.’
Takshak laughed. ‘Check this guy out. You’ve got some balls, that’s for sure. Like the hero in the white hat, huh? Looks like I’d better watch my step around you. Tell you what. You’re such a good guy, you won’t want any harm to come to innocent hostages. Samunder, grab a couple of those women. We’ll bring them along for the ride. Our hero here tries anything, he can watch while we cut their stupid heads off.’
Samunder slung his rifle over a massively muscled shoulder and waded in among the cowering villagers. He stood more than head and shoulders above the tallest of them. Reaching out with both enormous hands he grabbed two women at random. There were cries and gasps of fear from the crowd. One of his choices was an old lady, the other barely more than a girl, maybe sixteen and so frightened she looked about to faint. A brave little man with a moustache, presumably her father, protested and tried to grab her back from Samunder’s grip, but he might as well have been trying to free her from the mechanical jaws of a concrete crusher. Hashim stepped up and smacked him brutally to the ground with his machine gun butt. Nobody else protested after that. Pihu and Ganika were hugging one another in tears.
Takshak was enjoying the show. He said, ‘Hashim, why don’t you go and bring in the truck?’
Hashim looked as if he’d rather finish off beating the little fellow’s brains out with his gun butt. He responded with a surly nod and went off at a trot. A few moments later Ben heard the growl of the diesel, and then the truck came rolling into the heart of the village. By the light of day the black scorch marks and bullet holes were clearly visible all over its olive-green bodywork. It had taken a good few dents in the chase, too. But still functional. Hashim jumped down from the cab and went round to open the tailgate.
‘You first,’ Takshak said, pointing his pistol at Ben. There was nothing much Ben could do except comply. He clambered into the truck. Then Amal was herded aboard, and finally the two female hostages. The young girl was crying inconsolably. The old lady appeared quite unmoved by what was happening. Either she was some kind of sage possessed of infinite stoicism and selfless disinterest, or she’d simply lost her marbles long ago.
Turning to Kabir Takshak said, ‘Professor, you ride up front with me and show the way.’
Takshak jumped up and took the wheel. Hashim jostled Kabir into the cab from the other side and shoved him into the middle of the three-seat bench, with the gear stick between his knees. Then Hashim climbed in after him, watching him like a mongoose eyeing a snake. Samunder hauled his monster bulk into the back of the truck and closed up the tailgate. The giant didn’t look like the Brain of India, by any means. But he wasn’t as stupid as all that. There wasn’t a moment when his SLR wasn’t pointing in Ben’s direction.
Then they were off. The truck rumbled away, leaving behind the crowd of villagers all weeping and moaning and consoling one another. Ben saw Ganika wave, a forlorn gesture of apology and good luck. He didn’t know if he’d see her again.
Chapter 67
The drive from the village was long, dusty and uncomfortable. Kabir guided Takshak back along the same dirt road that Ben had walked with Amal. Before they reached the place where they’d met the goat herder, the truck turned off and cut eastwards across a landscape that was yet more of the same rough, arid, hilly terrain of which the entire region seemed to consist.
Ben sat quietly in the back of the truck, just biding his time while watching his travelling companions. Amal was slumped next to him, apparently lost in some very dark and brooding thoughts. Maybe he was thinking about Brooke. Whatever was on his mind, Ben was pretty sure the painkillers would be wearing off by now, and there was a good deal of suffering in Amal’s immediate future.
The young girl had stopped crying. Ben wanted to catch her eye and make some gesture to let her know that everything would be okay. The old woman looked just as calmly dispassionate, gazing into space with no expression on her wrinkly nut-brown face, allowing her small wiry body to rock freely with the side to side motion of the truck over the uneven ground. Her thin, bony hands were folded in her lap. Wisps of white hair poking out from under her sari headscarf streamed in the wind as they rode along.
But mostly Ben was watching big Samunder. The hulk remained standing near the tailgate the whole way, his huge legs flexing with the bumps like a surfer’s, one catcher’s glove of a hand clutching the metal canopy frame and the other keeping hold of the pistol grip of his SLR, loosely pointed at the prisoners. Ben was still wondering how many bullets it would take to bring him down, if it came to it. The main problem being that Ben didn’t have any.
Ben glanced forward at where Kabir sat wedged between Takshak and Hashim in the front cab. It struck him as odd that Kabir had agreed so readily to take them straight to the treasure. Something was up, but Ben had no idea what.
More than an hour of lurching, crashing, jolting journey had gone by when, at last, the truck rolled to a halt.
Ben took in the scene around him. If anything, the terrain was even worse here, though not by much. Everywhere looked the same. Rocks, dust, dirt, more rocks, a few thorny bushes and withered, puny trees, more rocks, and seemingly not a drop of moisture for a thousand miles in any direction. Though that clearly had once been far from the case. Way back in ancient history this whole region had been crisscrossed with sparkling blue rivers. He was looking at the sad remains of another of them, snaking and curving through the empty wilderness like a gigantic ploughed furrow in a dead field. In the distance beyond the dried-up river stood a series of sun-baked hills, arranged exactly as on Trafford’s map. Kabir had been right.
The only question now was: what had Kabir found here?
Kabir said, ‘Okay. This is about as close as we can get by truck.’
‘You’d better be sure it’s the right place this time,’ Takshak said.
‘I’m sure. Trust me, I know the map better than I know my own face.’
‘I hope so, for your sake. Because you won’t have a face left otherwise.’ Takshak squinted at the barren landscape, as though he expected to see mounds of gold sitting there beckoning to him. ‘So where’s the mother lode?’
‘Not far,’ Kabir said. He pointed. ‘You see that long, low escarpment to the south-east? Now, see those three big rocks, next to the old dead rohida tree split in half by lightning?’
Takshak reached under the truck seat and came out with a battered pair of binoculars. He spent a few moments focusing and scanning left and right, up and down, then said, ‘I see them.’
‘Now trace a line down from the middle of the three rocks, about thirt
y metres. See the vertical crack in the base of the escarpment directly below?’
‘I see a split. Looks like ice made it.’
‘You could be right. See the marking next to it?’
‘I see some kind of graffiti some idiot put there.’
‘No, you see an ancient archaeological relic of immense value in itself,’ Kabir told him. ‘An Indus Valley glyph. A symbol from a language that’s so old and so secret, nobody understands it any more. Carved into the rock thousands of years ago to mark the location of something infinitely more valuable.’
‘Is that where it is?’ Takshak asked. He couldn’t hide the trace of schoolboy excitement in his voice. His eyes were glowing behind the binocs, as though he were already counting the gold coins in his mind.
Kabir nodded. ‘That’s where it is.’
Takshak lowered the binocs, scowling. ‘But we can’t get the truck down there. The ground’s too rough.’
‘I know,’ Kabir replied. ‘That’s why we need to walk it from here.’
‘Glad we won’t be shifting the stuff,’ Hashim said, and jerked his thumb at Ben.
Kabir said to Takshak, ‘Please, let my brother stay in the truck. He’s in bad shape.’
‘No chance,’ Takshak said flatly. ‘How do I know he won’t drive off and leave us stranded in this shithole?’
‘With only one arm?’
‘No chance.’
Ben could have told Kabir to save his breath. He also would have liked to ask him a question or two. Such as what he was up to. There was something going on behind Kabir’s eyes. Some private joke he seemed to be enjoying. Kabir had an agenda.
The three people from the front of the truck got out, and the five from the back got out, and they quickly arranged themselves into another single-file procession tracking across in the direction of the escarpment’s base where Kabir had pointed out their route. A route to where, was still a mystery to all but him. He led the way with Takshak at his back, pistol in hand; behind Takshak, the young girl, ashen and miserable, and the old woman, who had yet to show a flicker of anything. The female hostages were followed by Amal, then Ben, then Samunder and Hashim riding shotgun. The late afternoon sun was still burning fiercely down on them. Amal was bent over like a man three times his age, clutching his arm and groaning in pain at every step over the rough, rocky ground. He stumbled, nearly fell, and stumbled again. Hashim pushed past Ben muttering a curse and was about to grab Amal by his broken arm when Ben blocked his way and dug two fingers into a nerve pressure point at the base of Hashim’s neck. Not hard enough to cause serious debility, just a warning. I don’t need a gun to hurt you.
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