45. Edgar

About an hour later, they met next to the helicopters. Edgar surveyed the ropes that Gabi and the other ladies had procured, ensuring they were long enough for what was needed. They had also brought pulleys and other equipment that he was surprised could even be found in the tiny town.

The place had only one general store, and since most tourists here were pilgrims who came to walk around their holy mountain, he hadn"t expected the store to have climbing and rappelling equipment.

"You"ve got exceptional loot," he complimented Gabi and her helpers.

"We did, didn"t we?" She grinned. "I was surprised, but the store owner explained that he tries to always have stock on hand for the crazy tourists who get confused and think that this is where Mount Everest is."

Edgar lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun"s glare. "I doubt anyone could mistake Mount Kailash for Mount Everest or think that they could climb the holy mountain. As far as I know, it"s forbidden."

"It is," Margo said. "I think the guy was joking. He was flirting with Gabi and trying to be funny."

Gabi shrugged. "I might have flirted a little back. Whatever works, right?" She winked. "The owner is in his mid-sixties, so I don"t think Aru would mind."

"How old is Aru?" Julian said. "Even if he"s young, he"s probably older than sixty."

"As long as he doesn"t look it." Gabi grabbed one of the boxes that Julian had brought and carried it to the helicopter.

Julian"s medical gear was stored in boxes marked simply as equipment. It was important that the other pilot and whoever was watching them load things into the choppers didn"t realize they were transporting medical equipment.

They were supposed to be a geological research team, so ropes and pulleys for climbing and ferrying soil samples could be easily explained, but not what Julian had in those boxes. Come to think of it, the stasis chambers would need to be shrouded when they got them to the town and then well hidden.

Once everything was loaded on the two helicopters, Julian kissed his mate goodbye and hopped inside.

Edgar explained to the other pilot the need to circumvent the military base, and they were off.

The flight to the coordinates Aru had provided was tense, with Edgar carefully navigating around the base and ensuring he didn"t fly into restricted airspace, even though there had been nothing about it in the instructions he"d gotten along with the permit. Well, it wasn"t as if he could read Chinese, but Aru had translated the permit for him, and there had been no mention of restricted areas.

As they neared the mountaintop, Edgar saw Jasmine and Negal. She was sitting on a flat boulder and stretching her injured leg out in front of her, while Negal was standing at the edge of the precipice, which didn"t look like much from the air, not even when Edgar got closer.

They both looked up as he got within range, and Jasmine waved at him enthusiastically, with a big smile spreading over her face.

Something eased within him upon seeing her welcome. Even though her prince might be down in that pod, Jasmine was still his, and she was happy to see him.

As Edgar brought the helicopter down in a small clearing a short distance away from the chasm, the downdraft from the rotors whipped the grass into a frenzy and sent small stones skittering across the ground.

A few moments later, Norbu landed on the other side of the clearing, causing the same disturbance.

After Edgar killed the engine, he and Julian jumped out and waited for Norbu. When the other pilot approached them, Edgar thralled him again to refrain from communicating with anyone until he said it was okay. Norbu had a cell phone and a radio transmitter in the helicopter. He couldn"t be allowed to tell anyone about the location of the pod or about the things that they were about to pull up.

Negal walked toward them. "Need help offloading?"

"We can use an extra set of hands," Julian said. "We brought a lot of equipment."

Once everything was offloaded and stacked near the boulders that anchored the ropes, Edgar walked over to Jasmine and crouched in front of her. "How are you doing, beautiful?"

Chuckling, she smoothed her hand over her messy hair. "I"ve been better, but I"m so happy that we found the pod that it doesn"t matter."

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lightly on the lips. "You are gorgeous even with messy hair."

"You are so sweet." She kissed him back just as lightly.

It was okay. He hadn"t expected a passionate kiss in front of an audience, who were watching them and waiting impatiently for Edgar to be done so he could assist them.

With one last peck on Jasmine"s forehead, Edgar rose and walked over.

"Do I need to get down there with Julian?" he asked Negal.

Negal shook his head. "I just need you to watch over the ropes for now and, if anything happens, to pull. Can you do that?"

"Of course."

With the three of them going down, he would be left alone with Jasmine and Norbu, which suited him just fine. Getting rid of the other pilot was as easy as planting a thought in his mind to take a nap.