Page 15 of What is Lost

“Yeah,” he said, dryly, thinking of the night he and Roni had watchedThe Lovely Bones.She’d said the doughnut thing, too. When his therapist firstspouted the same thing at Brighter Days, it was all John could do not to sock the guy in the mouth. “I believe I’ve heard that one.”

“What I’m saying is that Hank’s not going to throw us into a lion’s den.”

“Let’s hope not. A mob of very angry, very large cats is nothing to trifle with, my friend.”

Davila didn’t laugh. “Our cover story is we’re your average thrill-seekers from Australia looking for a good hike in the Pamir Mountains.”

“Uh-huh.” He had done his homework. Even in August, daytime temps never got much higher than sixty degrees. Waking up to frost wasn’t uncommon. “And just how are we going to sell that? Say things likemateandshrimp on the barbiea lot?” When he saw the corner of Davila’s mouth quirk, John said, “Ah, the Sphinx has a sense of humor.”

Davila rearranged his face. “Don’t push your luck.”

“Too late. I can’t unsee that almost-smirk.” He paused. “So why are we hiking the Pamirs in October? I’ll be lucky not to freeze off highly personal and important parts of my anatomy.”

“Yeah, but it’s spring in Australia. We just got our seasons confused.”

“That’s like saying I came to Casablanca for the waters, but I was misinformed.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” John chewed his lower lip. “What do we do once we land in Tajikistan?”

“Look for someone holding up a sign with the right names.”

Which wereChildandKing.John got the references. You couldn’t even get out of a grocery store without seeing those guys’ books in a display rack. “What if the operation’s been compromised?”

“Hank trusts the people running operational security.”

“Who are nameless.” He didn’t like it; this sounded like code forspooks. “What about the Russians? They used to own Tajikistan.”

“Yes, but they’re not in control anymore.”

This was partially true. John had done his homework. As soon as the Russians left, the various Tajik tribes went after each other. Everything eventually calmed down, but only after ten really bad years. Russian was still one of the country’s two official languages, and vodka was both easy to get and probably safer than the water.

“The Russians might not be calling the shots,” he said, “but they still maintain a presence at the border with Afghanistan.”

“True, but they’re not going to be a factor. We’ll be met at the airport where we get visas, an ID, gear, and a fair amount of cash in both Tajik somonis and Afghan afghanis.”

“Why the cash?”

“I don’t think we’re going to find too many places that are gonna take a credit card.”

“Good point. But that sounds like an awful lot of walking-around money.”

“We need money to get across the various borders.”

“Bribes?” When Davila nodded, John asked, “And after that?”

“To be determined.”

“Meaning...?”

“Meaning we will be met by persons who remain nameless, andtheyknow where we need to go.”

“Which is a fancy way of saying, gee, I don’t know.”

John watched Davila think about that a second. “Okay, that’s fair.”

“You’re killing me here,” John said. “You really don’t know who we’re meeting and how we’re getting to Kabul?”

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