He cocked an eyebrow. The two women waited.

“You’ve seen a bracelet, no doubt. You took it off the body of a poor sod named Kavi Balan. Jana was the one who blew him up—the old exploding cell phone ploy. Understand she damn near got you with the laptop.”

“So she was the one at Cap D’Antibes.”

“That’s right. The bracelet has a certain significance, a meaning, if you will. The elephant, the spray of water—”

“The moon,” Tesla said.

“Quite.”

“Tell me what the moon means.”

Barrett-Bone cocked an eyebrow. “And you’ll . . . ?”

“I’ll consider your request to speak with Colonel Middleton more mindfully.”

He sighed. “You’re a tough one, miss.”

“The moon. Tell me.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve realized it has nothing to do with Islam. Sikari being Hindu and all.”

“Go on.”

“The crescent moon as a symbol predates Islam, actually. Byzantium chose it long before Mohammed ever came upon the scene, as it were. It represented the goddess Diana. She was a huntress—stop me if you know the story—but she was also a protector of the weak and vulnerable. A heavenly light in the darkness, oh my.” He fluttered his hand, a music hall wave. “Sometimes you see her as a torchbearer, lighting the way for others. She was regal, proud, majestic, driving her chariot through the wilderness.”

“What does that have to do with Sikari?”

He shook his head. “The question you should be asking is: What does it have to do with Jana?”

“Well?”

“She’s looking for the Scorpion. Everyone’s looking for the Scorpion.”

“Sikari too, I assume.

“What if I were to tell you that Sikari’s dead?”

Tesla struggled to conceal her shock. The man who was the center of the Volunteers’ mission—dead!

Barrett-Bone continued, “And killed by his own son, it seems. But Jana’s still a loose cannon.”

“Looking for the Scorpion.”

“And maybe that’s not all.”

“Go on,” Tesla snapped. “Tell us.”

“Look, one more hint, then I’m finished. Have you heard about the Baglihar hydroelectric dam?”

Despite herself, Charley Middleton stiffened. Wiki had been hacking and cracking nearly round-the-clock the past few days, trying to break through encryption codes and fending off countermeasures—Trojan Horses, root kits, backdoors, key loggers, bots, zombie attacks—in an attempt to determine what Sikari’s next move would be. That effort had revealed the existence of the Scorpion—though no details about him—as well as turning up mentions of the Baglihar dam.

Tesla shrugged. “It’s a dam being built in India.”

“Kashmir,” Barrett-Bone corrected. “More precisely the Jammu region of India-administered Kashmir.”

“The area Sikari comes from.”

“Quite.”

“What about it?”

“You know there’s a bloody serious dispute over the thing.”