THE HUNT FOR KOHINOOR BOOK 2 OF THE THRILLER SERIES FEATURING MEHRUNISA by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar Read Free Book Online

to alert the nurse and doctor of her impending absence, and then the tiny matter of clothes and her personal belongings. ‘First I haven’t said yes. And even if I agree, I need time to get personal stuff sorted.’
    Raghav exhaled loudly before saying, ‘You will have to trust me on this Mehrunisa. We are sitting on something big – bigger than last time.’
    ‘What?’ What could possibly be bigger than the attempt to destroy the nation’s world-famous monument? ‘Anyway,’ she shrugged, ‘are there even daily flights to Srinagar?’ Despite its legendary beauty, thanks to the terror industry, the city was not exactly overflowing with tourists. Besides, it was the month of December, way past the tourist season of summer.
    ‘No commercial flight, Mehrunisa. There is a man waiting in the Director General’s office–’
    ‘ Aria fritta, ’ she muttered. ‘What–’
    ‘To escort you to a plane waiting for you. See you in Srinagar.’
     
     

 
    Srinagar, India
    Monday 9:59 a.m.
    In the Badami Bagh cantonment of Srinagar stands a two-storey bungalow built in the colonial English style with sloping roof, casement windows, whitewashed exterior walls and a sweeping red brick staircase. From the sky, the green tile roof of the idyllic bungalow mingles with the lush greenery of the surrounding chinar trees that are native to Kashmir. Thus the 92 Base Army Hospital stands adequately camouflaged, and appropriately so. Located in the operational area of the Indian army, it is flooded with patients year-round, army and paramilitary soldiers injured in fighting an insurgency and the influx of foreign jihadis. The state-of-the-art infrastructure provides access to the country’s best physicians via satellite.
    Notwithstanding its ultra hi-tech character, there exists in the hospital one particular room where more elemental items are stacked: iron rods, metal shards, keys, pebbles, even a two kilogram stone. These have been extracted from the bodies of the injured.
    To that showcase had been added the several scraps of metal extricated by the operating surgeon from Harry’s body. The injured spy was recovering in a room at one end of the corridor. That area had been completely secured. Its sole window was barred and fixed in place. The adjoining rooms were vacant on explicit orders. In one such ‘vacant’ room sat a person with headphones on, his eyes glued to a monitor. Harry’s room had been bugged with strategically located microchips. A posse of security guards – paramilitary officers – guarded the entrance to the room and also the window if, miraculously, escape were possible from there. Inside the room, the Director, Pakistan Desk was facing a man who had been told that he had led a half-life for the past seventeen years, time in which he had earned the honorific of Snow Leopard.
    Snow leopards are found in Central Asia, in a region where the borders of several countries are disputed. Harry had spent his life navigating the treacherous Indo-Pak-Afghan region and demonstrated exemplary skill and stealth in doing so. A s now leopard prefers steep, broken terrain of cliffs, rocky outcrops, and ravines. This type of habitat provides it with good cover and clear views to help it sneak up on its prey. An undercover spy does something very similar.
    Harry’s legendary spying skills had preceded the honorific but at some point the agent had begun identifying with the cat. Time spent navigating the Hindu Kush-Himalaya terrain had brought him several encounters with the snow leopard. A wildlife conservation team had even availed of Harry’s expertise on an expedition to study the animal – data on the elusive cat was slim, owing to their limited numbers and inhospitable habitat.
    Now, caught in the unblinking gaze of the prone man on the hospital bed, Jag Mishra recalled a story Harry had recounted. Two poachers, having failed in their attempt to capture a snow leopard, were following the blood trail of the wounded