Temple looked down at his passion fruit and said, “I’ll save it till later, thanks.”
“What did you find out?” Nash asked Thura as he took the knife from him and cut into the mango.
“I was told they are from Pakistan. Here on holiday, two brothers, their sister, and their mother, who is quite old and not very mobile. The receptionist said she could not do the stairs, but took the lift instead.”
“How long are they booked in for?” asked Nash.
“Three nights. Paid in cash.”
“Names?” asked Temple.
“Your money did not get me a peek at their passports.”
“You think they’re really from Pakistan?” asked Nash.
“I went up to their floor and actually passed them in the hallway. Many languages are spoken in Pakistan. I am passable in Pashto and Urdu, but the fact is they were speaking in English, which many Pakistanis do.”
“What did they say?” asked Nash.
“Something about people on a plane not being on the plane. So I suppose they were talking about you two.”
“Thura, do you have your passport?”
Thura touched his shirt pocket. “Always. You never know, man, when you need tojump.”
Temple glanced at Nash. “So what do we do now? They’ve probably already told Steers that we were no-shows.”
“There could be lots of reasons for that,” pointed out Nash. “We could have been killed, or arrested. She won’t necessarily conclude that we willingly did not get on the plane.”
“But she won’t necessarily conclude that we didn’t, either.”
Thura said, “So what do we do now?”
“We keep eyes on the hotel and wait,” said Nash. “Those men have a mission coming up. And they’re going to do it, regardless of whether we’re there or not.”
“Do you know when this mission will take place?” asked Thura.
Nash said, “Actually, we have the day and time, but not thelocation. For that, we’ll need to followthem. But I want eyes on the place to see who else they might meet here.”
Temple shot him another glance. “You think she—?”
“I don’t know. That’s why we have to keep watch.”
“This is getting really dicey,” noted Temple.
“It’s beendiceyever since we got on that plane for Hong Kong,” countered Nash.
“Who is thissheyou keep talking about?” asked Thura.
Nash glanced at Temple, who said, “Trust me, Thura, if you never meet her in your life, that will be a great thing. For you.”
CHAPTER
22
THEY LEFT TEMPLE AT THEhotel to keep watch, and Nash and Thura drove off in the Jeep.
Nash said, “I’m going to need some more things, Thura.”