The Sacred Vault

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 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?’