The corporal was sprawled on his back. One eye was shut, the other was half-open. Prementine's left arm was lying across his chest, the right was twisted beneath him. But his radio seemed intact. Removing it from the pouch, Rodgers turned toward the valley wall. As he walked toward the cliff, the general switched the radio on. The red light on the top right corner glowed. At least something else in this goddamn valley was still alive, Rodgers thought bitterly.

The general raised the radio to his lips. He pressed "speak."

And he hoped the Indian army was not monitoring this frequency.

CHAPTER FORTY.

The Great Himalaya Range Thursday, 5:41 p. m.

Brett August and William Musicant had begun moving southward along the plateau. A fierce, cold wind was blowing toward them as the air cooled and the thermal currents stopped rising. The men had to put their goggles back on to keep their eyes from tearing as they worked their way toward the ledge some four hundred meters ahead. According to the NRO, that was the northern artery of the same ledge the Pakistani cell was traveling on.

The colonel halted when the TAC-SAT beeped. He crouched and picked up the receiver. It was Bob Herbert.

The intelligence chief instructed the men to wait where they were.

"What's going on?" August asked.

"There's a chance the cell may have divided," Herbert informed him.

"The group that's coming toward you may be bait to draw the Indian soldiers to the northwest." "That would make sense," August said.

"Yes, but we don't want you to be caught in the middle of that," Herbert said.

"There's also a chance that there may have been a struggle of some kind.

We just don't know. We want you to proceed to a forward point that you can defend and then wait there." "Understood," August said. The point where the plateau narrowed would be ideal for that.

"Paul has asked Stephen Viens to have a look around the area northeast of the plateau," Herbert went on.

"We have reason to believe the rest of the cell may be headed that way."

"That's where Mike went down," August said.

"I know," Herbert said.

"Paul's thinking is if we can locate Mike he can help us find the branch cell-" A firm, low, intermittent beep began to sound in a pocket of August's equipment vest.

"Bob, hold on!" August interrupted.

"I've got an incoming point-to-point radio transmission."

"Careful, Brett." Herbert said.

The colonel set the phone down. He plucked his radio from the equipment vest and punched it on. He would not let himself hope that it was a Striker. More likely it was someone who'd found one of the radios or an Indian army communications officer cutting into their frequency.

"Atom," August said. That was the code name he had selected. It was derived from the first initial of his last name.