by Alex Archer
Frank shrugged. “Like I said, we didn’t come here to make friends. We’ve got a story to chase down.”
“Friends,” Annja said, “are one of the most important things in the world. And I, for one, do not want to make Pradesh feel like we were taking advantage of him. Or his mother.”
“So tell him you couldn’t sleep and you dragged me out of bed to come to this place. He’ll believe you… I think he likes you.”
“What?” Annja looked at Frank. “And just how did you arrive at that particular theory?”
“How he looks at you. The way he smiles. It’s obvious if you’re paying attention.”
Annja sniffed. “Frank, the only thing you pay attention to are creatures with breasts.”
“Well, I had time tonight when I wasn’t being mobbed by my more rabid admirers.”
“Any voice mails waiting for you?”
“No,” he said. “Maybe they have rules over here like they do in the States. Y’know, don’t call for a day or so afterward so you don’t seem too eager. Stuff like that.”
“Those women were there for one thing tonight—Dunraj. The only reason they mobbed you was because Dunraj told them to. And since they’ll do anything to please Dunraj, that meant they were going crazy over you.”
Frank was quiet for a moment. “So, what you’re really saying is that I missed my chance.”
“Frank!” Annja elbowed him. “Save your fantasies. I don’t want to hear about them.”
“Fine.”
Frank wheeled off the highway after another ten minutes. He frowned. “Okay, so this is where it will probably be tougher to navigate. Google was a little sketchy on details about this place.” He peered out of the windshield and pointed at a sign. “Does that say Road Closed?”
Annja studied it. “Frank, that’s written in Hindi script. I have no idea what it says. Hindi is not one of the languages I understand. Do you?”
“Uh, no.” Frank sighed. “Okay, we’ll just have to wing it.”
“Are you still thinking this was such a good idea?”
“Of course. We’re on the outskirts of the city. All we have to do is look for a modern residential dwelling. That shouldn’t be too hard to find.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Now, once I got off the highway, the map said to take a left and drive for a mile.”
Annja sighed. “I could be back in my hotel room sound asleep. I could be getting the rest I need to make sure this assignment is handled properly and professionally. Instead, I’m driving around a foreign city with a guy who has no idea where he’s going. Spectacular ending to a weird night.”
Frank pointed a finger at her. “Hey, it’s not actually the city right here. These are the outskirts, so that’s not the right terminology. But I know exactly where I’m going, Annja. I just like having you think I don’t.”
“Really?”
Frank bit his lip. “Kinda.”
Annja exhaled a breath and then forced herself to suck in another quickly. “Just shut up and find the place already, would you?”
For the next fifteen minutes, Frank maneuvered his way down back roads. It was incredibly dark. She spotted smaller homes with what looked like fenced-in areas for animals. Tall, spindly trees broke up the majority of the flat landscape. Wadis and canals dotted the rural area.
“Wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine a rogue tiger roaming around here looking for something to eat,” she said. “We’re only a few miles away from the heart of Hyderabad, but just outside that it’s so rural.”
“I thought tigers stuck more to the countryside.”
“We’re pretty country here, Frank.”
“I guess.”
They drove for several more minutes, the tires of the car bouncing over small potholes in the asphalt and dirt. And then Annja saw the glow of lights in the distance. “There. You think maybe that’s it?”
Frank shrugged. “I’d guess it would have to be. Are those mountains behind the development?”
Annja squinted. “Tough to see exactly, but the lights cast a glow out in that direction. We probably won’t know until the sun comes up tomorrow morning.”
“You mean later today.”
“What?”
Frank pointed at the clock on the dashboard. “Good morning. Time for that continental-breakfast buffet downstairs.”
Annja sighed. “All right, whatever. We’ve got bigger things to deal with right now.”
“Like big, ferocious tigers. Or strange, mysterious beasts.”
Annja frowned. “More like those two roving police patrols Pradesh mentioned while you were pretending to be asleep. Remember?”
Frank groaned.
“Let’s find a place to park the car and go on foot.” Annja peered out the window. “That probably means sneaking through drainage ditches and whatnot.”
Frank slowed the car to a stop and then looked at Annja. “Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t places like that be exactly where a hungry tiger would creep while it’s looking for meaty things to eat?”
“Absolutely.”
The look on Frank’s face was precious. A mixture of fear and excitement.
Annja patted him on the shoulder. “Well, we’re here now and I’m wide-awake, so it would be a waste not to use this chance to get a closer look.”
Outside, the humid night air buzzed with mosquitoes, but Annja had gotten used to being ravaged by them enough over the years.
Frank, however, promptly began smacking himself silly as the hordes attacked his pale skin.
“Try to ignore them,” she said. “Otherwise, they’ll drive you right out of your mind.”
“Easier said than done, Annja.” Frank smacked another one and left a smear of blood across his cheek.
“Then think of it this way—that blood on your cheek can be smelled by a tiger, so it’s probably in your best interest to not kill the bugs that have just taken your precious fluid. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
Annja pointed to the trunk. “You brought the gear?”
Frank walked back to the car and popped the lid. Inside, Annja saw his small backpack. “That’s it?”
“What?” Frank reached into the bag and brought out what looked like a regular DSLR camera. He held it up. “This is a Canon Eos 5D Mark II. Shoots full high- definition video and does really well in low-light conditions. It’ll work just fine for tonight. And if the cops do catch us, they probably won’t even realize we were shooting video footage on this.”
“How much room on the memory card?”
“Plenty. Plus, I’ve got two extra memory cards with me. But I don’t think we’ll need them.”
Frank rummaged through the bag and came up with something that looked like a handheld vacuum cleaner. “What the hell is that?”
“A handheld FLIR—forward-looking infrared detector. It comes in handy on nights like this when you want to scan the immediate area and make sure you aren’t walking into the jaws of a hungry tiger. Or a scary monster, for that matter.”
Frank switched the device on and a small LCD screen lit the night. He moved it around, aiming it into the darkness. Then he pointed at the screen. “The warmer the potential target is, the darker red it will be. The device takes an ambient-temperature reading of the air around us and then uses differences to designate heat signatures of animals and other living stuff that might be lurking in the night.”
Annja smiled. “Now, that is a good piece of gear. I could have used something like this on a number of occasions.”
Frank shut the trunk and handed Annja an extra flashlight. “I don’t recommend using the lights unless it’s absolutely necessary. Our night vision will go to hell if we switch them on.”
Annja took the FLIR from Frank. “Would you prefer I take point on this excursion?”
“Well, you are the host of the show, after all,” Frank said. “How would it look if the cameraman was suddenly leading these outings? I wouldn’t want your reputation to suffer.”
&n
bsp; “Oh, thank you for your concern. But you’re right. I’d probably look like I was scared, and we can’t have that, can we?” Annja moved the FLIR around to get used to scanning with it. “I can actually see the lay of the ground in front of us with this thing, too.”
Frank nodded. “It’s very handy.”
Annja studied him. “All right, are you ready to do this?”
“If you mean potentially run into cops, get attacked by a man-eating tiger and run afoul of the nicest guy in Hyderabad, then absolutely.”
Annja smiled. “How are your nerves?”
Frank put a finger on his neck, felt for his pulse and then nodded. “Completely shot.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” she said. “Try to stay close but not too close. Everything will be just fine. I promise.”
“Really?”
“No, but it sounded good when I said it, didn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Annja studied the darkness, scanned it with the FLIR and then looked back at Frank. “We’re clear. Let’s go.”
Chapter 8
The residential complex was surrounded by an undulating open ground that dipped and leveled out every few feet. To Annja, it looked as if it had once been farmland that someone had sold to the developer. She stopped. She’d never even asked if Dunraj owned this place. But it seemed like a viable assumption. He seemed to own pretty much everything else in Hyderabad, and something like this would be right up his alley: a high-end complex for the ultrawealthy.
But that didn’t mean Dunraj had imported a tiger to stalk his residents. What would he get out of that? Annja shook her head and scanned the area with the FLIR again, but nothing showed up on the screen.
Moreover, she didn’t…feel anything. And usually right before anything bad happened, Annja would…sense something was up. But so far on this moonless night, she felt nothing out of the ordinary.
Good.
She glanced back at Frank, who took a step and promptly fell face-first into a puddle. He came up blubbering and clawing at his face.
“Be quiet!” Annja said. “There’s not much noise out here and sound carries farther at night.”
“I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Frank wiped the greasy muck from his face.
“Make sure you don’t break that camera.” Annja kept moving forward, crossing a drainage ditch and a narrow culvert. She took it slow in case she happened across a lounging tiger. But the FLIR again proved its worth and showed no signs of life except for the ever-present mosquitoes.
Annja ignored Frank’s hushed grumbling and brought them within two hundred yards of the development. There, she squatted to study the layout.
The area ahead of them sloped upward out of the culvert to a fence. She initially thought it would be a problem getting through the fencing, but a quick glimpse down the wire told her it was still in the process of being installed and there were several areas where it was possible to step through.
The development itself comprised elaborate mansions in a grand style reflective of the Hindu culture. The landscaping gave them the appearance of being something out of an ancient kingdom.
A few of the homes were lit by a single light, but it was otherwise quite dark. There were streetlights, but they hadn’t been finished yet. By the look of things, several residents had moved in long before the complex was completed. Probably in a rush to get in there first for bragging rights.
On the way in, she’d studied the ground for any tracks. But like Pradesh had said, there seemed to be no sign of tigers.
There were an awful lot of footprints, however. Whether they’d been made by construction workers or by someone else, Annja couldn’t be sure.
Frank nudged her from behind. “What’s the holdup?”
“I’m trying to see what our choices are for gaining access.”
He pointed at a hole in the fence. “Seems like a good place to start right there.”
She held him back. “Hold on a second, would you? We haven’t seen or heard any of the police patrols yet.”
“Probably asleep.” He started to rise when Annja grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him back into the dirt. She’d heard the unmistakable sound of a car engine.
“Quiet!” she whispered. And then she ducked down as the first arc of light swept the area where Frank had just been standing.
The slow thrum of the motor told Annja that the police car was on a routine patrol. The light swept over them a few times before the engine cranked up and the car moved off.
But still she held Frank down. “Wait.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
She listened and heard the motor die suddenly. As if they’d turned a corner.
Time to move.
“Okay, Frank, let’s get to that hole in the fence and get through it quickly. Make sure you pick out a spot away from the fence to hide in. The darker, the better.”
Frank was up and moving even as Annja finished giving him instructions. As she made her way to the fence, she knew they were about to cross a line. Once on the other side, they’d officially be trespassing.
She wondered how Pradesh would feel about that.
Well, she thought, the trick would be to get in and get out without him ever knowing. She checked her watch. An hour on the inside just to get the lay of the land.
The chain links bit at her arms, but Annja ducked through and then hustled across the small road the police car had driven down. Across the way, Frank was huddled underneath an overhang by what looked like an administration building. He had a small piece of paper unfolded and was studying it with a red-lensed penlight.
“What’s that?”
Frank looked up. “Map I made of the layout of this place. I marked the crime scenes on here.”
Annja smiled. “Good move.”
Frank stabbed his finger at the paper, keeping his voice low. “We’re here. We need to head west and find the culvert running in that direction. That’s where they found that guy Gupta.”
“Hopefully, they don’t have another police patrol on the scene.”
“This late at night?”
Annja shrugged. “They might just be parked up to discourage curious trespassers like us.”
“Ah.”
“I’ll take point.” She held the FLIR ahead of her and got a bearing. Annja stuck close to the walls and fences of the community. She was impressed with the layout. The place had obviously been designed to grant the residents the feeling of status, but it was still homey.
She glanced behind her at Frank. He was no ninja, of course, but he might just turn out to be all right.
As much of a wannabe Casanova as he was, he seemed to realize this assignment could really help further his career. If he wasn’t so focused on scoring with the ladies, they might make this a compelling piece of television.
Annja approached a corner and paused. The area around it was wide-open and offered views in each direction. They could see a lot, but Annja and Frank could also be seen. If someone was looking.
Annja paused. She and Frank needed to head west, which would put them right in line with another corner of the complex. The question was, what was waiting down there that they couldn’t see? If the police were stationed there, they would see Annja and Frank.
She turned and gestured for Frank.
“What’s up?”
Annja pointed. “This corner exposes us. We’ve got no cover for at least a hundred yards, and if the cops surprise us, we’ll be caught in the open. I don’t like advancing unless I’ve got cover and concealment.”
Frank studied his map. “We’d have to go outside the fence to use the ground to conceal us.”
“We can’t backtrack now. We’ll waste too much time.” Annja looked at the map over Frank’s shoulder. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know. I got this off the computer. Figured we’d find out once we got here.”
She peered closer. It looked like an extra culvert running out of the c
omplex, but not one that was easily accessible. So how did you get into it?
She looked at the road. And grinned. “A manhole.”
Frank frowned. “A manhole?”
“Yeah. You don’t happen to have any tools with you, do you?”
“Like what? Something to pry a lid off?”
“Preferably.”
Frank shook his head. “No. I don’t.”
Annja could use her sword, of course. But how would she explain that to Frank? She never wanted anyone at work to know her secret if she could possibly avoid it. That her life had been forever changed on the day she’d brought the broken shards of Joan of Arc’s sword together for the first time in hundreds of years. That the sword had become whole once again—right in front of her. That the sword of Joan of Arc had somehow chosen her and was now the sword of Annja Creed.
But they needed to get into the manhole.
Annja made a decision. “Can you go back down to the hole in the fence and see if there were any tools there?”
“What are you going to do?”
She pointed. “I’ll scout ahead and see if there’s anything I can use. Otherwise, I’ll sneak up and see if we can avoid the manhole trip.”
Annja watched him go and then moved out into the road, locating the manhole cover. It was bolted down. This was going to have to be quick.
She reached into the otherwhere and grasped the sword, which hung there, waiting for her. Holding it in her hands flooded her system with strength. The sword blade cast a grayish glow into the night, and Annja desperately hoped it wouldn’t attract anyone.
She shoved the point under the lip of the cover and then pried with all of her strength. She heard the bolts give one at a time, reluctantly at first, but then they came off fast.
Once they were out, she leaned into the sword and the cover came loose.
Annja slid it back slowly, hoping the grating sound on the asphalt wasn’t as loud as she thought it was.
She shoved the FLIR into the hole and scanned around. A few rats scurried for cover, splashing through the darkness.
But otherwise, it seemed deserted. Annja put the sword away and waited for Frank to return.
