As soon as the runners touched the ground, the side doors flew open and out jumped four of Archer’s men—men who had only recently served his father. Each was armed with a Mini Uzi obtained from a diverted shipment meant for the Sri Lankan army. They were all Hindi, but had had plenty of practice under Sikari on how to pretend to be Muslim.

Archer waited an additional 30 seconds, then he moved into the doorway and stepped down onto the grass.

Per instructions, two of his men moved over to walk just behind him, while the other two stayed near the helicopter, pretending to cover his flank.

It was a show, of course, all aimed at Sanam. Now, more than ever, Archer wanted to reinforce with the Pakistani just how powerful he was.

“As-Sal mu ‘Alaykum,” Archer said, stopping two feet from Sanam.

“wa ‘Alaykum As-Salaam,” Sanam said. His eyes strayed to the gunmen standing behind Archer. “You face no threat from me.”

“Of course not. It is not you I am worried about. But we are in territory controlled by our enemy. And if they knew I was here, they would do everything they could to stop me.”

Sanam bowed his head in concession.

“You are alone?” Archer asked.

“Those were your instructions.”

“Good,” Archer said, then he smiled broadly. “Shall we walk?”

They headed across the field in no particular direction. Archer could sense Sanam reluctant to start the conversation, so he took the lead.

“Your message mentioned a problem,” Archer said.

“Yes,” Sanam said.

“Well?”

“The remote controls for the detonators. We’ve tested them, but the thickness of the dam prevents them from working.”

Of course they didn’t work. But he now raised his voice in indignation. “Are you saying I gave you faulty equipment?”

“No, I am not saying that. The remotes under normal conditions work fine. But the radio signal is unable to penetrate the concrete.”

“Perhaps you don’t have them rigged properly,” Archer said. He was enjoying toying with this man who thought of him as an ally.

“They are rigged exactly per the instructions.”

Archer grew silent, acting as if he were in deep thought. “Somehow the security services must have added special masking material in the dam,” he said. “But we cannot miss this opportunity.”

“I agree. We are hoping you can get replacements that will work in time?”

“I will try. But the window is short and I fear they may not make it.”

“But if they don’t, we will be forced to abort.”

Archer paused for effect, then leaned toward the Pakistani.

“Actually, that’s not entirely true.”

Sanam played Archer’s words over and over in his mind on the drive back to the hut where he would be spending the night. Archer had promised to do all he could to get the new remotes, but Sanam knew the probability of this was very low.