The lieutenant stared at it. “I didn’t mean that I…” he began, staring at the cone with a troubled expression, then he stuffed it in his pocket and began to climb.

When they reached the camp at the Talons rock formation, Jaya was alone, watching over a kettle of soup. There was no sign of Lhakpa or his four-legged niece. Ko’s words still nagged Shan. It’s all about the goat.

Jaya greeted Shan and eyed Zhu uncertainly. “You brought the army!” she accused Shan after a moment.

“Why would you think that?” Zhu asked.

She pointed to his military boots.

“Maybe I got them at the Shoe Factory,” Zhu suggested.

Jaya bent over the pack he had dropped by the fire and brushed away the grime, revealing the small insignia of the People’s Liberation Army. She glared at Zhu.

Shan stepped between them. “Yes, Zhu is a soldier. He’s been helping me unmask Metok’s killers. He went to Hong Kong and found proof that the case against Metok was fabricated. Now he is going to help you with Public Security.”

Jaya winced at the announcement.

“Help distract Public Security,” Zhu explained.

“Don’t be a fool!” Jaya shot back. “They have already arrested over a dozen herders, men and women who knew nothing about what was going on here. No one can defeat them. We just run and hide. And now they have placed those devices on the trails, like they use along the border to detect people crossing over into Nepal.”

“Sound and motion detectors?” Zhu asked. “Excellent. Just like we use, only the army has more advanced hardware.” He lifted a small laptop computer out of his pack, then quickly set up a small collapsible solar panel and an antenna then began tapping the keyboard. “Just another field exercise,” he murmured as he watched the screen. “Confuse the enemy force. Improvise and evade. I’ve never been beaten.” After a few moments he motioned to several blinking lights on what Shan recognized as a map of the surrounding landscape. “Six devices, all within a mile of here. When they pick up sounds or repetitive movement, they will send a team to investigate.”

“And then we will have to leave the mountain,” Jaya said, despair in her voice.

“Except they don’t expect Shan and me,” Zhu said with a grin and dumped out the remaining contents of his pack. As Jaya saw the small devices, her eyes went round. She knelt and began examining the little black boxes, firing excited questions at Zhu.

Neither the lieutenant nor Jaya noticed as Shan backed away. He watched the shadows around the camp, and seeing no sign of a watcher, slipped through the felt flaps in front of the rock face.