The Sacred Vault

by Andy McDermott

  ‘You’ll get it when I get Nina. That was the deal. Now bring her in.’

  Khoil made a brief phone call, then leaned back and watched the action on the pitch. ‘Sport has never been of much interest to me,’ he said, almost conversationally, ‘but my father was a great fan of cricket, so it has a certain nostalgic appeal. But even it’ - he indicated the cheerleaders - ‘has become debased. A sign of these corrupt times.’

  ‘They can get rid of the cricket and just leave the dancing girls, far as I’m concerned,’ said Eddie, more concerned with whether or not the other man was armed. He couldn’t see the telltale bulge of a gun under his close-fitting clothing, but that didn’t mean he lacked a weapon.

  Khoil shook his head patronisingly. ‘Yes, I thought you might think so. You are predictably lowbrow, a symbol of this age.’

  ‘You don’t know me, mate.’

  ‘I know you better than you can imagine. Your Qexia search results tell me a lot; I have seen them. So has your wife. She was not pleased.’

  Eddie winced inwardly. ‘That settles it. We’re switching back to Google.’

  Mac’s voice in his ear struggled to be heard over the noise of the crowd as the batsman scored a four. ‘Eddie, Nina’s here. One man with her, your left.’

  He looked. The guy with the filed teeth was escorting her down to the front row. She seemed unharmed, but was dishevelled and anxious. Even when she reached him, the look of relief couldn’t mask her worry. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

  ‘More or less,’ she replied.

  He saw a dressing covering the bottom of her right ear. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Vanita almost gave me the Van Gogh treatment.’

  Eddie rounded on Khoil. ‘You fucking—’

  ‘Enough,’ Khoil said coldly. ‘I have brought your wife, as agreed. Now, bring me the Codex.’

  Eddie bit back an angry remark and was about to signal to Kit when Nina spoke. ‘Eddie, you can’t give it to him. Even for me.’

  ‘I’d swap the bloody Crown Jewels for you,’ he replied - but he was surprised by the degree of insistence in her voice. She was concerned about much more than her own safety. ‘Why’s it so important he doesn’t get it?’

  ‘Because he thinks it’ll help him start the Hindu version of the apocalypse.’

  Eddie raised his eyebrows. ‘Okay, that’s important. How?’

  ‘I don’t know. But that’s what he told me, and I don’t see him rushing to issue any denials.’

  ‘The end of the Kali Yuga is inevitable, Dr Wilde,’ said Khoil. ‘As I explained, it will be better for it to happen sooner rather than later. For the good of all humanity.’

  ‘You see?’ Nina said scathingly. ‘He’s another nut with too much money and delusions of godhood. Am I a magnet for these people, or something?’

  Eddie regarded the Indian dubiously. ‘Can he do anything like that? I mean, the guy owns a search engine, not a nuclear bomb factory. What’s he going to do, put up a link saying “Click here to play global thermonuclear war”?’

  Khoil smiled faintly. ‘If you do not believe I pose a threat, then you have no reason not to hand over the Codex.’ His expression hardened. ‘I have brought your wife. Give it to me. Now.’

  Eddie cast the briefest of sidelong glances at Tandon to make sure he was within striking distance before responding. ‘You know what? I think I’m going to listen to my wife.’

  ‘It would be very unwise to go back on our deal.’

  ‘What’re you going to do about it?’ He indicated the cheering crowd behind them. ‘It’s not like you can just kill us in front of all these people.’

  ‘All these people,’ said Khoil, a sudden rising smugness turning his plump face almost toad-like, ‘are my people. They work for me.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ said Eddie. ‘I only told you where to meet an hour and a half ago.’

  ‘My company is a major sponsor,’ he indicated an advertisement hoarding emblazoned with the Qexia logo, ‘which gives me a certain amount of influence here, and after I received your call I announced a surprise treat for three hundred of my most cricket-loving employees - a trip to today’s exhibition match. Any member of the public who had already paid for one of the seats in this block was told there had been a booking error and given a complimentary upgrade and free entry to another match of their choosing. As you said,’ a small, cold smile, ‘I can afford the tickets.’

  Eddie and Nina exchanged worried looks. ‘Mac,’ said Eddie, trying to pick the Scot out through the waving banners as another run was scored, ‘trouble.’

  ‘Colonel McCrimmon will not be able to help you.’ Eddie whirled on Khoil in shock at his use of the name. ‘Yes, I know who he is - and where he is sitting. He cannot interfere. Qexia provided a list of your friends, and it was a simple matter to cross-check with Indian immigration files - my company wrote the software, so we planted back doors in the code - to see if any of them had recently arrived in the country.’

  ‘Mac!’ Eddie shouted. Through the earpiece he heard the grunts of a scuffle.

  ‘Some of my larger employees are making sure he does not leave his seat,’ said Khoil. ‘And as for your friend Mr Jindal from Interpol . . .’

  Eddie jumped up and twisted to give Kit the signal to run. Kit stood - and immediately slumped back into his seat as the huge bearded figure of Mahajan, directly behind him, smashed a fist down on his neck like a hammer. A crack as a ball was hit for a four, and the stadium erupted in cheers, drowning out his cry of pain.

  Adrenalin surged through Eddie’s body. Two immediate threats: the man in black and the guy with the teeth, who had just grabbed Nina from behind. But they would have no choice but to back down if their boss was in danger.

  He whipped out his gun, shoving the Wildey’s long barrel into Khoil’s face—

  But Tandon was faster, one hand jabbing with blinding speed. His knuckles hit Eddie on the side of his neck - and the Englishman dropped as if his bones had turned to jelly, collapsing at Khoil’s feet. He tried to move, but all he could do was twitch, nerves blazing where Tandon’s attack had struck a pressure point and induced instant paralysis. The gun clunked to the concrete. He heard Nina scream his name, but couldn’t even turn his head to look.

  Khoil’s expression was far from its usual state of bland neutrality, though; it was now one of wide-eyed fright. He staggered back, almost falling over his seat. The spectators behind him hurriedly helped their boss back upright.

  ‘What’re you doing?’ Nina screamed at them. ‘Help us!’

  No one did. ‘Get - get them out of here,’ said Khoil, shakily straightening his glasses. ‘Quickly!’ As Tandon recovered Eddie’s gun, Mahajan arrived, bearing Kit’s bag. Greed replacing shock, Khoil looked at it. ‘Is the Codex inside?’ Mahajan nodded.

  ‘Excellent.’ He followed Singh and the shrieking and struggling Nina up the steps. Mahajan gave the bag to Tandon, then effortlessly picked up Eddie in a fireman’s lift and strode after them.

  The eyes of everyone in the grandstand remained firmly fixed on the game.

  Mac had been shoved back down by the two big men in the neighbouring seats when he tried to respond to Eddie’s urgent call. He managed to strike one a painful blow to the chest with his elbow - only for the other to press a sharp knife against his abdomen.

  He could do nothing but watch helplessly as Eddie was knocked down, then hoisted like a sack of potatoes. What had happened to Kit, he had no idea - his view of the Interpol officer’s seat was blocked by one of his hulking captors.

  ‘Bastards!’ he snarled, struggling to break free, only to feel the knife tip pierce his skin. Blood swelled on his shirt.

  Khoil, his servants and his prisoners were now all out of sight. He had to get after them - but first he needed to deal with his captors . . .

  Another crack from the pitch as a ball was hit clean over the boundary for a six. The crowd’s reaction was even wilder than the previous shot - frenzied roars and cheers filled the
stadium as thousands of excited fans leapt to their feet.

  Jostling Mac’s attackers.

  The knife was knocked away, just for a second—

  Mac wrenched himself from their grip. He whipped up his elbow again, smashing it into one man’s nose with an explosive snap of crushed cartilage and a burst of blood.

  The knifeman struck at him as he twisted and kicked—

  The blade stabbed deep into his left leg below the knee with a dull thud. Expecting a shriek of pain, the knifeman froze in confusion - and took a savage chop of the Scotsman’s hand to his throat. Tongue bulging from his gaping mouth, he let out a strangled shriek of his own as Mac yanked the knife out of the prosthesis and stabbed it down through the Indian’s hand, pinning it to his thigh.

  Mac jumped up, punching the broken-nosed man out of the way as he pushed past. People in nearby seats responded in shock at the sudden flurry of violence, but he ignored them, looking for his friends. He spotted Kit slumped in his seat, but Eddie and Nina were gone.

  He hurried to Kit, who was groggily stirring, one hand clutching his aching neck. ‘Kit! Are you all right?’

  ‘Someone hit me from behind,’ Kit gasped. He felt beneath his seat - and realised the case was gone. ‘What happened?’ he demanded, rounding on the man next to him. ‘I had a bag - where is it?’

  ‘I saw nothing, I was watching the game,’ the man mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

  ‘What? How could you not—’

  ‘They’re all Khoil’s people,’ said Mac. ‘He told Eddie he bought three hundred tickets for his employees. Two of the larger ones were sitting beside me.’

  ‘What happened to them?’

  ‘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 . . .’

  18

  Kit 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 c
atastrophe, 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.