False Horizon - Alex Archer [104]
Garin steered their questions away but Annja wasn’t worried. She knew that he could field all their concerns and keep everyone quiet about anything he wanted to. And she felt better that he was in the room with her.
“I’m going to sleep now,” she said quietly.
39
Annja opened her eyes to bright sunshine flooding her hospital room. One of the windows overlooked a courtyard and the scent of flowers hung in the air. She smiled and rose to take a shower.
She’d stayed in the hospital for just over a week, happy to take it easy for once. The doctors told her it would take a few more weeks for things to heal completely, but they had also told her she was strong enough to go home.
Annja’s single bag lay on the bed and she rummaged through it, looking at the variety of clothes Garin had purchased to replace what she’d lost early on in the trip. She settled on jeans and a turtleneck sweater.
As she carefully pulled on the clothes and then brushed her hair, a knock sounded at the door.
Before she could respond Garin’s face appeared around the corner. “Are you indecent?” he asked. He frowned when he saw she was already dressed. “Damn, I was hoping to time it better.”
Annja smiled. “Really? You’re resorting to a quick game of peekaboo? Is it that thrilling?”
“Depends on the woman,” Garin said. “With you, peekaboo would definitely be a highlight.”
“Keep dreaming, then,” Annja said.
“I shall.” Garin nodded at the bag. “Just about finished?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the clothes.”
“Least I could do. After you nearly died on this adventure. I figured clothes shopping might not be high on the old priority list. Plus, there was the incredibly beautiful salesgirl—”
“Garin.”
He held up his hands. “Sorry, just kidding. You know I have to reinforce my reputation any chance I get.”
“Well, give it a rest, would you? It wears on me lately.”
Garin sat by the window and watched her.
Annja finished packing her bag. “You know, there’s one thing that’s been bothering me about this whole thing.”
“What’s that?” Garin turned to peer out of the window.
“You.”
He glanced at Annja. “Me? What about me?”
“Well, you hired Tuk to watch over me. But why? I mean, if you were so concerned about my safety, then why on earth didn’t you just come here yourself and take care of the danger?”
“It’s not always that easy, Annja.”
“Baloney. I’ve never known you to back away from a fight. And now all of a sudden you start? It doesn’t make sense.”
Garin smiled. “I wasn’t backing away from anything. But at the same time, I needed a low profile.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t know who was after you until Tuk started relaying information to me. And even then, it took me a while to piece things together. When he told me about Hsu Xiao, I had to go back and search through my databases and ones I’m not supposed to have access to. Even then I was playing catch-up the entire way.”
“I guess.”
Garin stood in front of her. “Believe me, Annja, if there’d been a way for me to take this off of you, I would have. But I couldn’t risk it without having concrete proof, and by then things were so far in motion already, I couldn’t get to you in time. I had to rely on Tuk. And thank God he turned out to be as formidable as he was.”
Annja looked at him. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me everything?”
Garin sighed. “You’re so damned intuitive it drives me crazy. And honestly, I forget who I’m dealing with sometimes. You’re not just a pretty face, are you?”
“I’m not a pretty face, right now,” Annja said, smiling.
“I couldn’t be here in Katmandu because I’m too well known. As it was, I took a great chance coming to hire Tuk.”
“Who knows you?”
Garin shrugged. “The better question might be who doesn’t know me?”
“Tsing?”
Garin nodded. “We did some work together a while back. He knew me very well and…let’s just say that it didn’t end well.”
“In what way?”
“Let’s suppose he told me that if I ever showed my face in Katmandu again, he’d have me drawn and quartered.”
Annja smiled. “Sounds about right.”
“When Tuk told me that