Ahead, the man slipped behind a low pile of rocks that had been created to obscure the entrance to the arch and provide a defensive position if it became necessary.

She approached slowly, eyes widening as she tried to penetrate the gloom and pick out the man she was pursuing. There was no way, though. The area behind the wall was so dark, it looked like a gateway to a dead universe.

Heart pounding uncomfortably in her chest, she let her assault rifle hang from its strap and pulled a silenced pistol from the holster on her hip. Stepping behind the wall was like going blind and she tried futilely to pick up a hint of the man she knew was only a meter or so away.

“Adeela,” he said quietly. “Are you—”

His eyes were obviously better adjusted and he lunged, but the motion was what Randi needed to pinpoint him. Before he could get hold of her, she had a silencer pressed up under his chin.

“Be calm,” she said in Pashto. “I’m not with those men and I had nothing to do with what happened to your village.”

“Then who are you?”

“Randi Russell.”

She felt him nod through the motion of the gun barrel. “The woman from the CIA.”

“That’s right. Farhad Wahidi’s friend,” she said, naming the elder she’d had occasional dealings with.

He let out a bitter laugh that sounded alarmingly loud in the silence. “He did not call you a friend.”

“Okay,” she said, searching for the correct words to get her thought across. “Occasional convenient acquaintances. Who are you?”

“Zahid. What do you want?”

“I want to know what happened in Sarabat.”

“Why should I tell you?”

It was a good question. Her eyes had adapted enough to see his rough outline and she took a step back, lowering the pistol as an act of good faith. “Why shouldn’t you?”

He stood there for what seemed like a long time before speaking again. “The men below were with the ones who attacked my village. They killed not only the men but the women and children.”

He was in no position to climb onto that particular piece of moral high ground, but she decided that now probably wasn’t the time to point this out. “So?”

“I have no weapon. It’s why I ran. So I could live to find them. To find them and kill them. Now God has delivered you to me.”

“I don’t think God had anything to do with this meeting.”

“I disagree. He has created an opportunity for both of us to get what we want.”

Randi frowned in the darkness. More likely, God was playing one of the cruel jokes he seemed so fond of. The risks of engaging the men below were high even by her standards, but Zahid didn’t care. In fact, he likely wanted nothing more than to join his friends in paradise soaked with the blood of men who had killed them. She, on the other hand, just wanted to satisfy her curiosity and retreat to base for a cocktail or ten.