Читать книгу Perilous Cargo - Don Pendleton - Страница 13

CHAPTER SIX

Both Bolan and Nischal were awake and waiting for first light before it even kissed the horizon with streaks of predawn gray. Their clothing was finally dry and they dressed in silence, then surveyed their pitifully small inventory. They quickly packed what little they had left and stepped out of the shelter of the cave into the cold, sharp wind of early morning. To Bolan’s eye, the landscape was no more welcoming in daylight than it had been at night. He unfolded the map Nischal had managed to save and studied it once again, trying to get a bearing on about where they were, given the chaos of the jump the night before.

“At least it’s stopped snowing,” he said, looking up at the sky. “For now.”

“Tibet is a beautiful country, but it’s not a very forgiving place this time of year,” Nischal said. “That snow can return quickly and with much more force. This is not a place to be without supplies.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” He held up the map and traced a route with his finger. “I figure if we follow the lake south, we’ll come out of this bowl in that narrow valley. Hopefully, between here and there, we’ll find where the plane went down.”

“You know, it’s not too late,” she said. “It’s not wildly illogical to just head for the monastery and get some help. It’s not like we’re loaded down with supplies, and like I said, the weather can shifts on a dime this time of year.”

He shook his head. “No. We need that plane.” She started to say something else, but Bolan wasn’t in the mood to keep arguing, so he turned and began to follow the shoreline. His hopes that the crate containing their supplies was either floating in the lake or washed up on the jagged rocks were rapidly dashed. Nischal must have decided to take the hint because she trudged silently in his wake. They trekked south, doing their best to avoid the worst of the brutal landscape. From the map, assuming he had their position right, they were in a bowl-shaped area that bordered the north side of the mountain range between Nepal and Tibet. There were no villages marked on the map, and given what he’d seen so far, it wouldn’t be surprising if no one really lived here.