The Sacred Vault (23 page)

‘They’re still there. I doubt they’ll be getting up for some time.’

Kit saw that Eddie’s seat, and those around it, were empty. ‘Eddie and Nina! Where are they?’

Mac’s face was grim. ‘He’s got them - and I don’t know if Eddie was alive or dead. Where would he be taking them?’

Kit shakily got to his feet. ‘He’s got an estate to the east of the city.’

‘Then we’ve got to follow them. Come on.’

‘And do what? I told you I wouldn’t be able to get much support from the local police without proof, and none of these fools will testify against Khoil.’ He waved an angry hand at the crowd. ‘And the Khoils have a lot of security.
Armed
security.’

‘We’ll worry about that when we get there.’ Mac started up the steps, limping on his artificial leg where it had been loosened during the struggle. Cricking his neck, Kit followed.

 

By the time Eddie could move again, he and Nina were on their way to Khoil’s estate. They were in the back of a Range Rover, Mahajan driving and Tandon covering them with Eddie’s own gun. Khoil was in an identical 4x4 ahead, chauffeured by Singh. Nina helped her husband sit upright. ‘Are you okay?’

‘No, I feel fucking terrible.’ He squinted at Tandon. ‘What the hell did you do to me?’

‘I hit one of your
snayu marma
pressure points, paralysing the nerves,’ said Tandon. ‘I could have killed you, but Mr Khoil wants to do that somewhere more private.’

‘So we’ve got something to look forward to, eh?’ He eyed the gun, wondering if he could move fast enough to grab it.

Tandon smiled thinly and drew the Wildey back a little, knowing what he was thinking. ‘I wouldn’t try it. It will take about twenty minutes before you’re fully recovered. And by then we’ll be at the palace.’

From the painful stiffness in his muscles, Eddie realised he was right. He slumped back, leaning against Nina for support. ‘Palace? Your boss thinks he’s a king, does he?’

‘I think it’s more like Vanita fancies herself as a queen,’ said Nina.

The gun jabbed towards her. ‘Do not speak against the Khoils,’ Tandon said, scowling. ‘They are great people.’

‘Oh, yeah, they’re lovely from what I’ve seen of ’em,’ said Eddie.

The little convoy eventually turned off the road, passing through a guarded gate in a high wall. Beyond, a lengthy drive ran parallel to the runway. The two Range Rovers stopped at the far end. The Khoils’ private jet was still parked on the tarmac; Nina saw that the odd little aircraft she had seen earlier was being loaded, wings folded, into a shipping container, a forklift standing by to lift it on to a truck.

Vanita Khoil waited for them, accompanied by a pair of armed guards. She glared at Nina and Eddie as they were taken from the second 4x4, before rounding on her husband. ‘Do you have the Codex?’

‘Yes, I do,’ he replied, signalling to another man nearby. ‘Take the Codex to the infotarium. I want the impression of the key scanned and fed into the prototyper immediately.’ Singh gave the man the bag, and he boarded a golf cart and drove away towards the palace.

‘Then why are they still alive?’ Vanita demanded impatiently.

‘I could hardly kill them in full view of the crowd. Even my employees might have found that too much to keep to themselves. Besides, I had a better idea.’ He whispered to her; Vanita’s face lit up with a malevolent smile.

‘That may be the best idea of your life,’ she purred, clicking her fingers. Mahajan shoved Nina and Eddie forward, Tandon keeping them covered with the Wildey. ‘I’d like you to invite you to dinner.’ She looked to the nearby tiger compound, smile widening. ‘With three very special friends of mine . . .’

K
it stopped the car on the roadside verge. ‘That’s it.’

Mac looked through his binoculars at the security barrier a hundred yards down the road. ‘Two men outside, another one in the hut. All armed.’ He lowered the binoculars. ‘I thought India had strict gun-control laws?’

‘It does. But it’s possible to get a licence under special circumstances - such as protecting one of the country’s most prominent businessmen.’

‘And I imagine said businessman’s money helped him get it.’ He surveyed the long wall surrounding Khoil’s property. ‘How big is this place?’

‘Over three square kilometres. They have their own airstrip - even a wildlife preserve. Their own little private world.’

‘Too private. They can do anything they want to Eddie and Nina, and nobody would know.’ Mac turned his attention back to the gate. ‘Could you use your police credentials to get us in?’

Kit shook his head. ‘They’d demand a warrant, and getting one will be very difficult, especially at short notice. The local magistrates are like the local police - it would take a great deal of persuasion for any of them to risk their careers by acting against people as powerful as the Khoils.’

‘So what can we do? We have to get them out of there.’

‘Unless we can find a way in without being seen, which I don’t think we could until dark, there’s nothing we can do unless they get some kind of signal to us. Then I could claim probable cause for entry and demand police backup, but without something definite . . .’

‘Sod it!’ Mac banged a fist down on his thigh in frustration. There was nothing he could do to help his friends.

 

At gunpoint, Nina and Eddie were marched through an underground passage to one of the observation bunkers. ‘Who the hell owns
tigers
?’ Eddie said in disbelief after Nina explained the sanctuary’s purpose. ‘I thought they were computer nerds, not the Indian Siegfried and fucking Roy!’

‘Did the SAS teach you anything about dealing with wild animals?’ Nina asked hopefully.

‘Yeah - stay away from them!’

‘I was hoping for something more specific. And speaking of staying away, why the hell did you come to India? I told you not to give them the Codex!’

Eddie shook his head in disbelief. ‘You’re still going on about that? I know you’re bloody mad for old junk, but you can’t seriously think that I’d put some book above your life!’

‘It’s not just “some book”, Eddie,’ said Nina, exasperated despite the danger. ‘It’s a vital part of whatever the Khoils are planning. They want to start a war, some kind of global catastrophe, I don’t know what - but before they can, they need the Codex so they can find the Vault of Shiva and take the Shiva-Vedas. ’

‘What do they need them for? If they’ve got the power to start a war, then I don’t see how some ten-thousand-year-old stone tablet’s going to make a difference.’

‘It’s eleven thousand years, at least—’

‘Yeah, because getting the dates right is really important right now.’

‘
And
,’ she went on, irritated by his sarcasm, ‘Pramesh thinks that without them, the plan won’t work. He’s trying to bring the world into the next stage of the Hindu cycle of existence, or some warped version of it, at least - but if he doesn’t have the Vedas, Shiva’s own pure teachings, he’s convinced that everything will fall back into chaos and corruption.’

‘So,’ Eddie said as they approached the end of the passage, ‘the Khoils want to start World War Three . . . for the good of humanity?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘Christ.’ He shook his head again. ‘We know how to pick ’em, don’t we?’

They entered the bunker, one of the guards pointing at the elevator platform. Eddie quickly surveyed the surroundings as they stepped on to it. The bunker was octagonal, with a rectangular extension opposite the entrance to accommodate the elevator. Raised metal walkways led up to the windows, which looked out slightly above ground level. A desk was home to a computer and a telephone, a map of the tiger sanctuary and its tunnels on the wall beside it. He took in as much information from the map as he could before a guard operated a control, and the platform rose with a hydraulic whine.

They emerged into sunlight, surrounded by a cage. Nina recognised the clearing where she had watched a tiger be tranquillised a few days earlier. ‘There are cameras all over the place,’ she warned, pointing out a stout metal pole nearby. A black sphere at its top turned to observe their arrival. ‘They’re watching us.’

‘Indeed we are, Dr Wilde,’ said a voice, startling them. Khoil. But not in person; his tone was tinny, coming through a small loudspeaker on the triangular aerial drone. It descended into the clearing, camera pointed at them.

‘I wouldn’t miss this for the world,’ Vanita added.

Khoil spoke again. ‘You may have noticed a new addition to my
vimana
.’

‘Yeah, I see it,’ said Nina. Where the dart gun had been before, a larger and more deadly weapon was now mounted beneath the compact aircraft’s body: Eddie’s Wildey. She glowered at her husband. ‘You
would
have to buy another of those stupid things . . .’

‘As you saw with the dart gun, I am a good shot. But Vanita only wants me to use the gun as a last resort. Her tigers prefer live prey.’ The cage lowered into the ground, leaving them standing in the open. The drone pivoted as if gesturing into the surrounding trees. ‘The nearest tiger is forty metres in that direction. Move towards it.’ The gun swung back.

They reluctantly stepped off the platform. ‘What do we do?’ Nina whispered, looking round fearfully.

‘First thing, don’t get eaten,’ Eddie replied, trying to mask his own worry. Without a weapon, they had almost no chance of surviving a tiger attack. ‘Second, bring down that drone and get my gun. Did he say it had a dart gun on it before?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then he’s in for a fucking surprise if he fires it. Okay, stay close and follow my lead.’ They entered the trees, the drone descending under the overhanging branches to follow them.

Eddie peered into the vegetation. Forty metres; about a hundred and thirty feet. If the predator was hunting, they wouldn’t see it until it was almost upon them. With a light breeze blowing through the foliage, the visual confusion of the undergrowth and the dappled sunlight cutting into the shadows made it almost impossible to pick out movement.

He looked back at the drone. It was about ten feet behind, slightly above head height. He needed something heavy enough to knock it off balance . . .

A chunk of broken branch on the ground, mouldering amongst the decomposing leaves. He pretended to stumble, scooping it up as he caught his fall. ‘Stop,’ he whispered. ‘Get ready to run.’

‘Which way?’

‘Any way that isn’t at the tiger!’ Eddie half turned towards the drone, concealing the hunk of wood behind his body. Nina looked nervously into the trees for any telltale flashes of orange.

The drone came to a hover, eight feet away. ‘Keep moving,’ ordered Khoil.

‘Think I’d rather stay here,’ said Eddie. ‘Anyway, how do you even know where the tigers are?’

‘The tigers are all tagged with a GPS—’

Eddie suddenly hurled the piece of wood at the drone, knocking the little aircraft back. ‘
Run!
’

He grabbed Nina’s hand, and they turned and charged through the undergrowth, swatting low branches aside. The drone recovered and almost angrily spun to follow. The firing mechanism attached to the gun’s trigger pulled back—

The Wildey fired with a colossal boom, the bullet narrowly missing Nina to blast a fist-sized chunk of bark out of a tree - but the effect of the gun’s recoil on the drone itself was nearly as damaging. It was thrown backwards, spinning wildly into another tree trunk. If its rotor blades had not been shrouded inside impact-resistant plastic its flight would have ended there; as it was, it bounced off and wobbled drunkenly back into a hover.

‘If you’re talking, you’re not reacting,’ Eddie said by way of terse explanation as he and Nina crashed through the bushes. Any animals nearby would certainly be able to hear them, but he hoped the tiger had reacted like the birds that had burst in fright from the trees and fled from the sound of the shot.

‘Where are we going?’ Nina panted.

‘Outer wall - I saw where we were on that map. There might be a way out.’

They emerged from the trees. Ahead was a twenty-foot grey concrete wall: the preserve’s boundary. About sixty feet distant Nina saw a ladder attached to the wall - but its lower section had been raised like that of a fire escape, the lowest rung almost twelve feet up. ‘Eddie, over there.’

‘If I give you a leg up, you can pull it down—’

A rifle cracked above them, the bullet kicking up a small explosion of earth at their feet. Two men with guns ran along the top of the wall, a third aiming another shot. Nina and Eddie bolted as a second round slammed into the dirt.

More gunfire spat from the wall as they ran. ‘Back into the trees!’ Eddie yelled.

‘That’s where the tiger is,’ Nina protested.

‘Tigers don’t have guns!’ He vaulted a fallen log back into the shadows, Nina just behind. The firing stopped. Eddie slowed, getting his bearings - and hunting for any nearby movement. The immediate area seemed tiger-free. ‘Okay, so the wall’s out - we need to get to another one of those bunkers. Next one was, er . . . this way.’

He pointed in what seemed to Nina to be a completely random direction. ‘You sure?’

‘Sure-ish.’ He set off. Nina looked round nervously in case anything striped and clawed was watching from the bushes, then scurried after him.

‘What do we do when we get to the bunker?’ she asked in a near-whisper. ‘We can’t lower the elevator from outside.’

‘If we nobble that drone and get my gun back, I can shoot out a window. There was a phone in that first bunker - if the others’re the same, we can call Mac or Kit. We just have to steer clear of Hobbes and his mates.’

A faint whine caught Nina’s attention. She looked up into the trees, but saw nothing. It had to be close, though; Khoil had boasted that the drone’s rotors were inaudible past six metres. ‘I can hear the plane.’

Eddie stopped. ‘Where?’

‘Up there somewhere.’ She pointed.

‘I can’t hear it.’ He stared intently into the foliage, seeing nothing.

The noise grew louder. ‘It’s definitely there,’ Nina hissed. ‘There, there!’

‘Wait, I hear it—’ Eddie began, only to stop as the drone dropped down through a gap in the branches and hovered ten feet away. It turned slightly, pointing the gun at him . . .

But it didn’t fire.

‘What’s it waiting for?’ he wondered out loud.

Nina tugged frantically at his arm. He turned his head - and saw a bush, no more than fifteen feet away, lazily lean over with a faint crackle of bending branches as something pressed against it.

Something large.

‘Uh . . . tiger,’ Nina whispered. ‘There’s a goddamn
tiger
behind that bush!’

Eddie was already looking elsewhere. ‘That tree,’ he said, nudging her. Off to one side was a broad saman tree, its thick trunk forking a few feet above the ground, providing a step. ‘Move towards it, slowly.’

He put himself between Nina and the predator, then they sidled towards the tree. The bush became still. ‘I can see it,’ Nina whispered, voice tremulous. A shape had taken on form amongst the slashes of sunlight and shadow, crouching low behind the bent branches. Black lines over white and orange converged around a pair of intense yellow eyes, watching them unblinkingly. She remembered that tigers were lone hunters, silent stalkers that observed their prey carefully before springing into a sudden, deadly strike . . . as this one was doing. Fear squeezed at her chest. ‘Oh, shit, Eddie, I can
see
it.’

‘Me too.’ Only more five feet to the tree - but the tiger could cover the gap in a single leap. It slowly raised its head, then lowered it almost down to the ground. Judging the distance.

Preparing its attack.

‘Go behind the tree so it can’t get straight to you,’ he told her. ‘Then start climbing.’

‘What about you?’

‘I’ll be up there like a fucking rocket, don’t you worry!’ They reached the saman. Nina ducked below a branch and circled it. ‘Okay, get ready . . .’

The tiger slowly drew back on its powerful legs, ready to leap. It clearly knew that its prey had seen it . . . and was utterly unconcerned, thinking they posed no threat - and had no chance of escape.

‘Climb!’ Eddie hissed.

Nina pulled herself up, kicking off the forked trunk as she scrambled higher. Eyes fixed on the tiger, Eddie grabbed the overhanging branch and started to climb.

The animal drew back its lips to reveal a pair of three-inch-long fangs. It pounced—

And skidded to a stop, its head snapping round. The drone had moved closer for a better view - and the tiger heard the whine of its engines. A sound associated with pain, capture. It reared back and roared. The drone hurriedly retreated, but by then Eddie and Nina were both over ten feet up the tree and desperately climbing higher.

Eddie saw the tiger glare at them. ‘Can tigers climb trees?’

The answer came a moment later as it jumped on to the fork and scrabbled after Nina, claws ripping into the bark.

‘Fuck off, Tigger!’ Eddie yelled, kicking at it. He hurriedly pulled back his leg as the tiger swatted at him, slashing a chunk from his boot’s sole. It growled and clambered across to the other side of the fork after him.

The bough Nina was climbing shook as the animal jumped off it. A smaller branch she was using as a handhold snapped; she swung, clutching at the broken stub with a stifled shriek. Half hanging off the swaying limb as it bent under her weight, she saw the branch of another tree not far away. She moved further along the bough, reaching out. ‘Eddie! Over here! The tiger’ll be too heavy to get across!’