daityas realized too late that she had neatly flanked them, and one of them disappeared in a puff of dust as she fired her first shot. The others took cover and fired back at her.
'Durga, wait!'
He felt Shiva tugging at his arm. 'Come on. She is buying us time. Let's get to Kalki.'
The two of them ran towards the stairs and then into the open elevator. From memory, Aaditya pressed the buttons he had seen Maya pressing. As the elevator climbed up, Aaditya clenched the vajra tightly in his hand, wondering what would greet them once the doors opened.
The doors slid opened and he sensed more than saw two figures outside. He was about to open fire when he saw who stood before him. Bloodied, bruised, and holding the long weapons the daityas brandished, were Leslie and Jim. They seemed just as surprised as he was at seeing them.
'Jesus, Aadi, it is you!'
'Jim, what's going on?'
Jim was about to answer when he suddenly brought his weapon up and took a step back. Shiva had just walked out of the elevator. Aaditya held the barrel of Jim's weapon and pressed it down.
'Relax, he's on our side.'
'Is he one of the Devas you talked about?'
Aaditya just nodded. Leslie quickly told him, 'About an hour ago, all hell broke loose. The daityas were really on edge, and we heard there was an attack of some sort. We had no way of knowing what time it was, but we put two and two together and figured out that today was D-Day. So we thought we'd help out.'
Jim tensed as he heard some movement around the corner and then continued, 'We had spread the word, and everyone knew what was going down. So we fought back. While you were flying around up there, we were taking down their pilots and destroying their planes down here. Some of us were trained to fight, but everyone joined in. Lots of them didn't make it.'
Aaditya saw a look of admiration on Shiva's face.
'That explains why more of their vimanas did not join the fight.'
Aaditya wondered what it must have taken for unarmed civilians to take on daityas. At that moment, he realized what Kalki had never really understood. As messed up as our world was, and as messed up as humans sometimes seemed to be, there still were a lot of good people out there. People who would sacrifice themselves to help others; people who would give of themselves without asking anything in return; people for whom love and loyalty meant more than power or money. They were people whom Kalki could subjugate and defeat, but never really conquer. People like Leslie, Jim and the other humans who had given their lives today. People like his father.
The thought gave him a renewed resolve as he rushed into the corridor.
'Shiva, Kalki's room is just around the corner, up some stairs!'
He ran towards the corner, only to be slammed against the wall by Jim, just as two beams of light passed, almost grazing his shoulder.
'There are two demons there. They're behind good cover, and we couldn't get past them. Going in there is suicide.'
With less than fifteen minutes left, Aaditya struggled to break out of Jim's grip. Shiva sat down on his haunches next to them, and told Jim and Leslie that Kalki's plan was about to be set into motion. The only way to stop Kalki was to get through the two daityas in the corridor.
Jim and Leslie exchanged a quick glance. Then Jim slapped Aaditya on the shoulder.
'You're a good kid. Your dad would have been real proud.'
And then he and Leslie were gone.
The stepped into the corridor, firing their weapons. None of their shots hit the daityas, who were concealed behind two large barrels. The daityas leaned out and fired. Leslie spiraled in mid stride and fell. Jim ran straight at the daityas, shouting and firing. Then he too went down. Then Aaditya was in the corridor, his vajra held before him. Both daityas had exposed themselves in shooting down Jim and Leslie. Aaditya fired a burst, hitting one of them. Shiva leaped across the corridor and cut him down the other with his trident.
Aaditya entered the command centre. Kalki was there, with no cloak to cover him. His red body was mottled with scars and growths, his wings were spread open behind him, his eyes were ablaze.
He took one look at Aaditya and spat, his spittle sparks of flame that landed just short of Aaditya. Kalki stood up straight, towering over him.
'You are too late.'
SEVENTEEN
'Shiva, my friend, it has been ages since our paths crossed.'
Shiva just leaped towards Kalki, bringing his trident up in a killing blow. Aaditya watched in astonishment as Kalki parried the blow with apparent ease and used one of his wings to literally swat Shiva away. Shiva came up rolling in a crouch, as Kalki advanced on him.
'I did not think I would have the pleasure of crushing you with my own hands. This is indeed a bonus.'
Shiva stood up straight, a blade in his hand. Even his muscled mass was dwarfed by Kalki's fearsome apparition. He gave a quick glance towards Aaditya, and nodded. That was all he had time for before Kalki swung with a curved blade. Shiva stepped out of the way, bringing his own blade up, a blow that Kalki blocked with ease, and their struggle continued. Shiva's signal had been clear enough-he would try and hold Kalki, but now it was up to Aaditya to figure out how to stop Kalki's plan.
Aaditya looked around in panic. What could he do? How could he possibly stop Kalki's plan? The display over his wrist showed that he had now less than five minutes to go before the charges detonated. For an instant, he wondered if Kalki had already detonated the charges, and their assault had been in vain, but then he spotted a bank of monitors in a corner showing feeds from several news channels. Kalki must have tuned into them to see the reaction to the havoc he planned to wreak. None of them mentioned anything about quakes or tsunamis. So he still had time. He sat down in the large chair in the middle of the room and looked at a display on its armrest. It was counting down. A light below it glowed green. Aaditya tried to calm his mind, which was almost impossible to do, with the rising panic and the sounds of the life and death struggle between Shiva and Kalki behind him. He wondered if Kalki's systems worked like those of the Devas, which was a safe bet since he essentially had been one of them.
'Send up the sphere and open it for incoming craft.'
He watched with relief as he got an acknowledgement. Now the other Devas and the Ganas could come in. All he needed to do now was to terminate the explosions that Kalki had planned.
'What is the status of the charges?'
A holographic screen appeared over his right armrest. It had a simple message. 'All charges armed. Four minutes to detonation.'
'Abort. Repeat, abort.'
The message just stayed the way it was.
'Cancel. Terminate.'
He kept trying, but nothing seemed to work.
Aaditya was now on the verge of tears. Tears of panic and sheer terror. He could not have come so far only to watch helplessly as the world was destroyed before his eyes. He felt strong arms grab him from behind and lift him in the air. He struggled in vain as he was turned around like a doll and found himself face to face with Kalki.
He looked around. Shiva lay slumped in a corner of the room. Kalki brought his face close and Aaditya recoiled at the stench. It was the smell of death and decay-of dead mice, rotten food, of the fate that Kalki had in mind for all of mankind.
'I have waited thousands of years for this moment. Who are you to stop me? A mere boy? A cripple. You
