And then, Howard employs the kind of euphemistic language that she eschews in her book: "I had a bit of a concern with one of my guides who became too familiar," she says, with understatement. She wasn't raped, she says: "I had a situation, and I got through it.
"My biggest mistake -- if I were to do that trip over, I would change guides every three days," she says, as opposed to hiring her escorts for her entire three-and-a-half-week journey. "But there were situations I was able to use in the book. That incident gave me a sense of what oppression is like, just a little."
Her husband says, "That was more intense than any of us had bargained for. It was scary, but at the same time, it sort of underscored that she was on to something."
"I am hardly a Lara Croft; I will tell you that up front," she says. "If I tried to be a Lara Croft, I would've been killed. But I had to be smart; I had to know my place. I had to do what Muslim women do, which is to acquiesce. And at the same time, move forward and keep this person in a professional mode."
Howard also visited a drug lord and an open-air arms bazaar.
"I bought pen guns, which shoot a single 9-millimeter bullet, for three bucks each -- I should've haggled more," she reports. She was forced to relinquish them at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
"I called my CIA operative, and I didn't even say what they were; I just started, `Can I bring ...' and he said, `Do not bring those here. Leave them there!'" she recalls. Her laugh belies the fact that she's discussing an illegal arms deal, although admittedly a pretty puny one.
"I left them in a paper sack on the TV in my room" -- which would seem to be one of the more interesting tips left behind for one's maids.
"I hope they didn't try to write with them," she says.
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