“Where are Bhandari and Johar?” he yelled at Riley.
“They went through the jaws of hell a few seconds ago,” Riley said, pointing the rampuri at the viewing platform door.
They ran to the door and were met by a terrible sight — Bhandari was dead. His skull had been shattered and he was lying in a pool of his own blood. Johar had been trying to revive him but now he pushed away from the corpse with a look of rage on his face. “This is Kaleka’s work. Killing Bhandari has pushed this way over the line,” he said.
It was then Riley heard the sound of helicopter rotors booming above compound. “Where’s Madan?” he asked.
“He’s gone,” Johar said. “He and the others have fled with their army. They’re already on their way to Shambhala.”
“And Madan’s still got the buggering journal!” Riley said.
“Sure,” said Decker. “But we’ve got Selena and Diana and they know more than any damned journal.”
Johar looked at his dead friend. “I must avenge him, Captain Decker.”
Decker nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get back to the Avalon.”
27
Decker had put the Avalon down in some tight spaces, but landing on the Yadong River was pushing things even for him. Deep in the valley now, the ridges of the snow-capped mountains on both sides were high above the vintage floatplane. The windows gave a view of high altitude firs, birches and kharsu oaks flashing past them as they roared down the narrow valley toward the river.
Judging a water landing wasn’t easy. Most runways he used for his cargo flights used VASI, or a visual approach slope indicator. This was a simple setup of lights at the side of the runway. These lights were designed to appear red or white depending on the angle at which the pilot was seeing them. This helped the pilot judge if he was on the correct glide slope, or angle needed to touch down on the right part of the runway. Too many white lights and you were too high and about to sail right over the airfield. Too many red lights and you were on a crash course with the ground — to many reds and you’re dead, as the saying went — but two whites over two red and you’re bang on target.
There was none of that when landing on water, which could be a problem when the landing site was a rushing torrent filled with rocks. Decker wiped the sweat from his brow and replaced his hand on the yoke. Absent-mindedly, he licked his lips and blinked as he refocused his gaze on the river below.
This was the roof of the world, where China, India and Bhutan came together in a mess of disputed, tangled borders and the wildest mountain ranges on Earth.
In the movies, the plane just slipped on down and the actors powered on to the final act, but this wasn’t the movies. This was a real life, and he was really flying twelve tons of wood, steel and chrome down nature’s idea of a bowling alley at just over one hundred miles an hour. A momentary lapse of concentration meant turning the Avalon into a raging fireball, killing all his friends and letting Madan complete his psychotic plan to destroy civilization.
Not an option.
He gently pulled back the throttle a fraction of an inch and reduced power. The faithful old aircraft lost more altitude as he steered against a strong crosswind whistling through the narrow valley. The others looked on in silence as he made another power reduction. The river below was racing up to meet them at a staggering speed now, and Selena pushed back into her seat instinctively.
The former US Marine casually feathered the propeller to reduce the drag and adjusted the trim tab one last time. Pulling the throttle back to idle now, the engines responded instantly and they all heard the revs drop away and a second later they were down,
“We’re on the water, everyone,” Decker said almost to himself. He steered the aircraft gently to the riverbank on their starboard side and breathed out with relief as he patted the instrument panel as if it were a loyal Labrador.
“Not a bad job,” Selena said tying her hair up. “I can see that with a little practice you’d be very good at this flying lark.”
Decker opened his mouth to reply to the Englishwoman, but shut it right back up again. There was no talking to someone like that.
Bringing the aircraft to a stop at the side of the river, they unbuckled their belts and after gathering the equipment they needed, and some weapons from the plane’s armory, they climbed out of the starboard hatch and stepped out into the small town.
The people of Yadong didn’t quite know what to make of a 1940s flying boat splashing down in their quiet part of the world, and they slowly gathered in number as the Avalon crew assembled at the side of the river.
“Looks kinda neat,” said Riley.
“Looks like the sort of place that’s great to turn around in,” Decker said with a frown. “Come with me.”
Riley followed Decker back inside the Avalon and they reappeared a few moments later heaving a large object between the two of them. It was wrapped in a tarp which was lashed down with old seat belts from the plane.
Selena raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”
Decker just looked at her. “You want to go up the river, right? I mean, you’re not planning on swimming to the coordinates, right?”
“Ah — a boat!”
“You are one smart lady,” he said with a sarcastic wink. “An RIB as a matter of fact — a Rigid Inflatable Boat.”
While Decker and Riley constructed the boat, Diana quelled the increasingly perplexed crowd of townsfolk with a few quiet words of garbled Chinese.
After a few moments they were ready to go, and they climbed into the inflatable boat as Decker yanked the start cord. It took a second attempt before the fifteen horsepower two-stroke fired up, puffing a small cloud of blue smoke into the air. He lowered the propeller into the rushing water of the Yadong River and turned the tiller, steering the boat out into the middle of the icy water and starting their journey up the Yadong River.
The sun flashed on the powerhead of the motor as its gentle hum filled the air. Decker lowered his aviator shades from his forehead until his eyes were covered, and leaned back on his elbow. For a moment he, he almost relaxed.
“No tourists up here,” Riley said, scanning the scree and fir covered slopes either side of the river. “Too far for the fat bastards to waddle.”
Selena rolled her eyes. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
Their journey up the winding, exotic river had whisked each one of them away from the individual problems of their lives, and for an hour or so they had forgotten the danger they were in. The white water rushed past their boat and Decker calmly steered them through the obstacle course of razor-sharp rocks and shallow banks as they continued their way north.
Nearing the coordinates, the conversation turned to back to business, but not for long. After spending a few seconds talking through their tactics, the peace of the wild river was shattered by the crack of a gunshot and the sharp, metallic ping of a bullet ricocheting off the front of their boat.
Diana gasped and Selena shot a glance at Decker back on the tiller. “What the hell was that?”
Like the others, Riley Carr crouched down into the boat and desperately scanned the area for the sniper. “We’re under fire!”
Decker’s eyes crawled over the mass of trees and rocks lining the two steep mountain sides either side of the valley.
“Rocks!” Johar yelled.
Decker spun the wheel and steered the boat around a pile of rocks racing toward their boat. The raging rapids sucked them deeper into the gorge and now the craggy canyon loomed above them until only the slimmest slit of gray sky was visible.
“Where the hell is he?” Riley yelled, desperately scanning the edge of the gorge cliffs high above for any sign of the shooter.