Contracts, Matt Rogers [phonics reading books TXT] 📗

burned the buildings to the ground, raped the women, and beheaded the men.’

‘Christ…’

‘I guess Mukta became a Naxalite out of necessity. Then, after nearly a decade of waging war as a communist insurgent, he realised you can’t get anything done without money. So he came here, put together some resources, and started hitting the special risks insurers fast and hard. Because you don’t hike to Everest unless you’ve got money to burn, and he found that a whole lot of hikers had all-inclusive insurance packages. None of it got reported, and he got rich beyond his wildest dreams.’

‘But he also got greedy.’

Perry shrugged. ‘Can you blame him? He thought he was doing it for a righteous cause.’

‘Yes,’ King said, thinking of Raya’s soul leaving her body. ‘I can blame him.’

Perry paused, then said, ‘Probably a poor choice of words.’

He cradled the laptop like it was made of twenty-four carat gold. It hadn’t suffered so much as a nick or scratch during its time in transit — clearly, Mukta had recognised its importance and assigned great care to its protection.

King exhaled his misery and said, ‘Right, so what’s the plan? Get to Lukla, figure out if we’re still being hunted, and then rendezvous with Aidan in Kathmandu?’

‘Seems like our best bet,’ Perry said.

‘What altitude is Lukla?’ Slater mumbled from the front seat.

‘Under three thousand metres,’ the pilot said.

‘Thank fuck.’

‘You’ll be feeling better in no time,’ King said.

‘I sure hope so.’

‘What happened down in Gokyo?’

‘They came for me.’

‘Did you hide?’

‘Sort of.’

King realised Slater was being vague because of plausible deniability. He pointed to the pilot and said, ‘I don’t think this guy’s going to say a word. You can talk.’

‘I’m Drew,’ the man said.

‘Jason.’

‘It’s a pleasure, mate.’

Slater said, ‘No, I didn’t hide. I killed half a dozen of them.’ Then he turned to Drew and added, ‘In self-defence.’

‘Oh,’ Drew said, ‘of course.’

‘They’ll have men in Kathmandu,’ Perry cut in.

He’d been deep in thought.

King said, ‘But now they’re leaderless. It’ll all fall apart soon enough. They’ll realise their boss is dead and they’ll scatter.’

‘But not yet,’ Perry said. ‘Right now his corpse is still in that cave. If they have men in Lukla…’

‘There’s no alternative,’ Drew said. ‘Your friend here’s in terrible shape, and you need the lower altitude. And Lukla’s got the only airport for dozens of miles in any direction. It’s your only chance for a clean getaway.’

King paused, taking it in, then said, ‘Drew, how do you know we’re doing the right thing?’

‘Just a hunch, mate.’

‘I wouldn’t base it solely off that.’

‘Well, I don’t have time to do anything else.’

Silence.

Drew said, ‘Are you doing the right thing, lads?’

‘Yes,’ King said.

‘There we go. That’s good enough for me.’

‘You been in a situation like this before?’ King said.

‘I’m ex-SAS.’

‘Ah.’

No wonder you’re so calm.

‘How far’s Lukla?’ King said.

‘Ten minutes,’ Drew said. ‘I’ll drop you three in the heli landing zone and then take off again. As soon as you’re out, scatter. I can’t be bothered explaining myself to anyone who looks half-official. Not until this has all blown over.’

Slater said, ‘Do you think there’ll be insurgents in Lukla?’

‘This is uncharted territory,’ Drew said. ‘I’ve never known them to show their faces in front of foreign trekkers, ever. You three must have royally pissed them off.’

‘We have,’ King admitted.

‘They’ll be watching the airport, then. Planes are the only way to get anywhere undetected, because they’re keeping tabs on the helicopters. That schedule isn’t exactly private information. You’re lucky you ran into me.’

‘I assume you’re not going to report this,’ Slater said.

‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’

King said, ‘Slater, how much carnage did you leave back in Gokyo?’

‘My fair share.’

‘Enough to close Lukla’s airport down?’

‘No,’ Drew said. ‘Not yet. They don’t know I was there. As far as any investigation is aware, the only way for the culprits to get out of Gokyo is on foot.’

Outside, the ground swept up to meet them. They spotted Lukla resting on the hillside, its airport visible from the sky. King noticed the runway — it was possibly the shortest he’d ever seen. Nothing but a small strip of tarmac rolling toward a sheer cliff-face and then dropping away into nothingness. He couldn’t believe planes were even capable of taking off in such a limited window.

He said, ‘Is that the airport?’

Drew said, ‘Most dangerous in the world.’

‘Great.’ King paused for thought, and then said, ‘Wait, why were you in Gokyo?’

‘I made a friend,’ Slater said. ‘The teahouse owner called it in.’

Drew said, ‘See? Most of us can tell you guys are doing the right thing.’

‘But if he called it in,’ King said, ‘it’ll show up on the schedule. And you said the insurgents are watching the schedule.’

Halfway through descending to a flat grassy field on the outskirts of Lukla, Drew said, ‘Shit.’

They craned their necks to look down at the landing zone.

Trying to see if anything was awry.

There was activity all over the field. Workers in high-visibility vests wearing hard hats lugged slabs of soda, gallon jugs of water, and crates of foodstuffs from aircraft to building. There were two choppers parked on the dusty dirt — one had just touched down, its rotors still spinning, and the other lay dormant. Everyone seemed to be bustling to and fro. No one was loitering.

It was impossible to tell if anyone was anticipating their arrival.

‘They won’t know you’re coming here,’ Drew said. ‘So you probably have a narrow window to take advantage of.’

‘Then we need to move,’ King said. ‘Slater, how’s the body?’

‘Not good.’

King grimaced, then inched forward to speak to Drew. ‘How long will it take him to get back to normal?’

‘Depends. He might have exhausted himself. If he’s too depleted, he’ll take days to recover.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Slater said through gritted teeth.

‘You might not be,’ King said.

Drew touched down. The mangled landing skids thumped into the dirt and a couple of workers in high-vis vests ran over to greet them. Their hands were bare, and they seemed unassuming enough.

But there was no way to know for sure.

King’s head spun. There was