The vehicle exploded into a giant fireball as a bolt of light slammed into it. The two trucks behind it careened to the side of the road, some of the men firing at the flying vehicle they now saw in the sky.
'Sorry but there was no more time. Let me do this.'
Another truck exploded before the men in the third truck realized that they were sitting ducks and began jumping out to take up positions behind rocks. One rocket snaked up towards the vimana. A bolt of light intercepted it, and the rocket exploded while it was still far away. Kartik was now hunting individual targets, streaks of light reaching out and hitting men hiding behind the rocks with the precision of a sniper rifle. The last man threw down his guns and raced away into the mountains, perhaps to tell his comrades of the incredible new weapon the Americans had unleashed on them.
Suddenly Indra's voice boomed into their ears.
'Come back, we're done here.'
Kartik took the vimana back to the scene of the main battle and set it down a few feet away from the nearest jeep. All three Asura vimanas were still there. Indra placed a glowing orb in each and stepped back. They imploded and disappeared into puffs of dust. There was no sign of the daityas, but the dust swirling in the wind told Aaditya what their fate must have been. It looked like the Asuras had not been the only ones to suffer losses, as three Ganas were also missing.
Kartik opened the cockpit, and the first thing that hit Aaditya was the stench. A smell like badly burnt meat. He controlled himself from gagging but when he disembarked and came closer, he doubled over and retched loudly. Spread out before him were the charred remains of the Al Qaeda men. He felt a hand touch his shoulder softly. It was Indra.
'That's why we try and avoid bloodshed, Aadi. War sounds glorious, but it is an ugly thing to behold.'
Aaditya retched again, and his eyes watering, walked weakly towards the Devas, who had gathered near Shiva. He could hear Shiva talking, anger and frustration evident in his voice.
'Maya and one daitya got away, and they have the nuclear weapon with them.'
'They couldn't have gotten far, Father. Should we hunt them from the sky?'
Indra shook his head.
'No Kartik, by now lots of people would be on their way. The Americans would have seen the smoke and Asura reinforcements are no doubt on the way to pick up Maya. Plus, we succeeded in preventing them from carrying out their plan. Let's go back.'
Aaditya's eyes were blurred with the smoke and his own tears. His throat was burning from the two times he had thrown up. He felt weak, like a coward. He had asked to fight, asked to be sent out to avenge his father, but then had behaved like a scared child. He turned to his right, away from the smoke, to clear his eyes, and also to not have to face the Devas. A movement behind some rocks in the distance caught his eye. A dark shape emerged from the shadows. It was a daitya with a long weapon at his shoulders. He was aiming at the Devas. Aaditya saw him shift his aim slightly. His eyes followed the daitya's aim, and realized he was aiming at Shiva.
Even before he could think, Aaditya was running towards Shiva. The Devas turned towards him, shouting, asking him what was wrong. He ran past Kartik and jumped at Shiva, using all his strength to push the Deva out of the way. A bolt of light streaked towards them, missing Shiva by inches. Aaditya fell to the ground, a terrible pain shooting through his left arm. It felt as if his entire arm was on fire and he screamed in agony. As he rolled on the ground and came up, the Devas had already exploded into action. Shiva and Kartik were sprinting towards the rocks where the shot had come from. Shiva leapt out of the way of another blast while Kartik, firing his vajra on the run, went forward. The daitya must have fled for they jumped over the rocks and disappeared from view in hot pursuit.
Aaditya felt a blast of hot air as Indra's vimana took off. His headset came alive.
'Aadi, stay here. I'll watch from the sky to ensure there are no more surprises.'
Aaditya crawled towards Kartik's vimana, and leaned against it. He took a look at his left arm. It seemed to have been burnt from the elbow down, and was a bleeding, black mess. Wincing at the pain, he lay back, his eyes closed, as he waited for the Devas to return. He heard some movement nearby and opened his eyes. He found himself staring into the terrifying snake eyes of Maya.
He reached out for the vajra lying near his right hand, but Maya stomped down on his hand with his foot, making Aaditya shout in pain. Maya reached closer, holding a curved blade next to Aaditya's neck.
'I would love to cut your throat from ear to ear, but my master has a message for you. Take this plug and put it in your ear to hear what he has to say and you may learn what really happened to your father and not the lies the Devas have fed you.'
Then Maya straightened and hesitated for a second, perhaps tempted at the prospect of flying back in one of the Deva vimanas, but a shout from Shiva sent him scampering into the rocks.
Aaditya lay there wordlessly as Shiva lifted him up and carried him into his vimana. One of the Ganas began to tend to his wounds, and Aaditya felt his eyes closing from the pain and the fatigue and the morphine that had just been injected into him. His last thought before he slipped under was,
EIGHT
When Aaditya opened his eyes, Tanya was standing over him. He wanted to ask what had happened, but before he could say anything, she smothered him in kisses.
'If I'm dead, this is a pretty good heaven to go to.'
Tanya smiled and hugged him. 'Why the hell did you have to go and be a hero?'
Aaditya didn't know what to say to that, so he just lay back on the pillows that were propping him up. His left arm was heavily bandaged, and he still felt a bit dizzy from all the medication that must have been pumped into him from the IV drip that was attached.
'Tanya, I'd like a word with this hero of yours.'
Shiva sat down next to Aaditya and Tanya excused herself, walking out of the room.
'Aadi, do you know why I asked to take you along on this mission?'
Aaditya just looked at Shiva's blue eyes that were looking straight at him.
'So I could rid you of what I thought were your foolish notions about going into battle. So you would see that battle and death are ugly things that you don't have the stomach for.'
Aaditya thought back to how he had reacted on seeing the dead bodies and wondered if Shiva was in fact right. Then Shiva surprised him. 'But you proved me wrong. It takes a far braver man to risk his own life to save someone than to just take someone's life. Thank you.'
Shiva left the room, just as Kartik walked in. The younger Deva looked happy, with a smile on his face, and was whistling a tune.
'Aadi, you are making a habit of rescuing Devas in trouble, aren't you?'
Aaditya motioned for him to sit down and asked if they had got Maya.
'No, he got away. But here's a secret, next time one of us looks like we're in danger, if there are other Devas around, don't worry too much.'
'Why's that?'
'We're a bit harder to kill than humans,' said Kartik with a grin.
'If you really have been around for 15,000 years, I'd say you live a fair bit longer than us.'
Kartik laughed and answered, 'The bodies you see are just shells. We created these shells to better fit into the environment we are in. Our true form is more energy than a physical body. So, even if our physical body is destroyed, we can create a new one.'
'So I wasted a perfectly good chance to escape by coming back with you.'
Kartik's expression became more sombre.
'No, my friend, you did save my life. If our body is destroyed, we have but a couple of hours to transfer to a new shell. So I do owe you a debt, and I fully intend to repay it.'
