Jani and the Greater Game (The Multiplicity Series Book 1) (42 page)

Alfie said, “We can’t leave them out in the open like this. Help me conceal them in the bushes, would you, Anand?”

Between them they heaved the bodies into the undergrowth, and Alfie arranged branches and ferns to conceal their presence. He dusted his hands, sick to the stomach as he relived the sensation of running the light-beam through the colonel’s torso.

The girl smiled through her tears. “Thank you, sir.”

“Lieutenant Alfie Littlebody,” he said, saluting.

She pulled on the skullcap, and hugged Anand to her in farewell. Then she activated the controls on the chin-strap and vanished.

Alfie watched the depressions in the grass march down the hillside.

He gestured towards the city and, as he and the boy set off, said, “Perhaps you might be able to explain a few things to me, Anand. First of all, what happened to the Russians?”

A
NAND HURRIED ALONG
beside the English officer, stunned by the deaths he’d just witnessed and wondering what the future might hold. Even if they did manage to secure an airship, how might they evade the reach of the British?

He recalled the lieutenant’s question and said, “The Russians were evil spies, sir. They tortured Janisha and put a metal mesh on her face in order to read her thoughts.”

“By God, they did, did they? What on earth did they want to know?”

Anand shrugged. “Janisha told me that they wanted something from her – something that is vital to the safety of the world.”

The officer stared at him. “This gets more mysterious by the second. But what happened to the Russians? The last I heard, the pair had kidnapped you and Janisha.”

“Ah-cha,” Anand said, nodding. “They did, but Jelch boarded the airship and broke the neck of one Russian and shot the other in the head.”

“Good God. Death, death everywhere...”

Anand looked up at the officer. “And then Janisha and I opened a trapdoor in the floor of the airship and rolled the Russians out.”

The officer winced. “Well, I suppose they had it coming.” He sounded far from convinced. “A couple of sadists, by all accounts.” He thought for a while, then said, “But this Jelch character... I must admit I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Anand shook his head, recalling how Jelch had saved his life and Janisha’s... and now the creature lay dead on the hillside above them.

Anand said, “Sir, I heard this in Jelch’s own words. You see, he told Janisha where he came from.”

“And where the deuce was it, Anand?”

Anand shook his head. “I hardly believe it myself, sir. He said he came from far away, in a vast ship. And later, Janisha told me that Jelch was an alien.”

“An alien?” The officer stared at him, clearly incredulous.

Anand nodded. “Ah-cha. He came from another world, sir. Another star.”

“Good God!” the lieutenant said, mopping his brow.

They came to the outskirts of the city and hurried along a street packed with pedestrians and cars. The officer glanced at Anand and cleared his throat. “I must admit, I’ve never met a young woman quite like Janisha.”

Anand grinned. “She is very special and also very beautiful, no?”

“I’ll say.” The officer took Anand’s shoulder and steered him through the crowds. Ahead, above the skyline of imposing buildings, Anand made out a hundred ’ships approaching and leaving the airyard.

“Do you know,” the officer asked, “if she has anyone special, back in England?”

“Special?” Anand asked, knowing very well what the Englishman meant, but wondering at the reason for his question.

“I mean, does she have a sweetheart back in the Old Country?”

Anand sighed. “She is in love with a rich young man, sir. She told me so herself. At least... she thinks she is in love. But you never know...”

He grinned up at the officer, who laughed in return and clapped Anand on the shoulder.

“And here we are,” said the lieutenant, staring through the great wrought-iron gates of the airyard. Anand gaped at the bobbing vessels as some left their docking rigs and others came in to land. The yard was a hive of activity, and the noise of the engines was deafening.

The officer squared his shoulders. “Right-o. I think it might be best if you kick your heels out here for the time being. I’ll be right back as soon as I’ve secured a ’ship.”

“And then, sir?”

“And then we’ll get the merry hell away from here, Anand, and with luck rendezvous with Janisha. Here goes.”

With that, the dumpy little Englishman hurried into the airyard. Anand watched him until he was lost to sight amidst a crowd of bustling porters, pilots and passengers.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

Invisible in Annapurnabad –

Inside the Vantissar ship – An amazing audience –

“From India you will return to London...”

J
ANI WALKED LIKE
a ghost through the streets of Annapurnabad, Jelch’s death weighing on her soul along with the pain of her father’s recent demise.

At first she had felt self-conscious as she passed amongst the crowds. Like someone forced to divest their clothing and walk naked through busy streets, she had expected to be noticed and was amazed to find that her presence attracted not the slightest attention. The invisibility helmet really worked. As the minutes passed, she became more confident. She no longer crept along the street, but strode – careful at all times to avoid collisions, and looking ahead at the pedestrians and vehicles in order to foresee likely problems: people hurrying or running, citizens merging with the flow of pedestrians at right angles from buildings and side-streets. From time to time she looked over her shoulder for oblivious pedestrians coming up behind her. She was very aware of the possibility of discovery, or even injury.

As she walked through the city, she wondered if this was what it felt like to
belong
... No one looked at her; she was invisible. In London she had attracted many a glance and the occasional comment, and even in India she felt marked out by her dual heritage and English upbringing. No one had known that, of course, but it had had the effect in her mind of making her feel different, apart. Now she was unseen, unnoticed, and the experience was oddly novel.

At street level, no longer looking down on the city or the monstrous alien craft, she could imagine she was in any city on the subcontinent. The same noisy chaos prevailed; the same garish colours contrasted with the grey peeling buildings; the same heady scents of cooking food, wood smoke, petrol fumes, dung, incense and rosewater... The only difference she could discern was the marked absence of children. There was no-one under the age of sixteen playing cricket in the streets, flying kites or running with the inner tubes of car tyres, and there were no buses or caged rickshaws packed with schoolchildren. This was a city devoted to one thing, the extraction of technology from the alien vessel. Everyone here, she reminded herself as she passed along the bustling main boulevard towards the ship a mile away, had been brought in by the British to facilitate the ongoing supremacy of the Empire, from the most humble chai-wallah to the highest serving British officer. She wondered what the Indians and Nepalese around her had been told about the vessel; that it was a British factory, perhaps – certainly they would never have been vouchsafed the truth.

Another difference she noticed, belatedly, was the number of British on the streets, both uniformed soldiers and civilians. She wondered at the function of the latter; there would undoubtedly be a call for civil servants and administrators up here, but she suspected that a number of the well-dressed, middle-aged men in evidence were security officers on the lookout for foreign infiltrators. She wondered if they could ever conceive that among them was an Indian citizen scheming to enter the alien ship using the very technology the British themselves had taken from it.

She considered the recent turn of events, the despair of being discovered by Smethers and Littlebody, and then the surprise at Littlebody’s subsequent actions. She thought of Jelch, and brought down a portcullis in her mind on that painful memory. If anything, now, she was determined more than ever to succeed in her mission within the ship. She would do it for Jelch, so that his death would not have been for nothing.

For the first time, from street level, she had a view of the distant ship. Its maw loomed over the buildings, dark and shadowy; deep within its throat she made out tiny glowing points of light. She found it hard to conceive, even now, that very soon, if all went well, she would be boarding a vessel that had made its way from the stars, fleeing merciless invaders.

She wondered if she should feel terror at what Jelch had told her about the Zhell. The odd thing was that, despite the graphic detail of his account, the idea of ravaging, invading aliens was too abstract to be truly frightening. She was still trying to come to terms with the notion that other entities existed beyond the bounds of Earth. It was like asking an innocent child, who had only just discovered the fact of playground bullies, to comprehend the existence of mass murderers.

She walked across a vast, grassed roundabout – fashioned after the centrepiece of Connaught Circus – and paused at the far side before crossing the ring road. She should not hurry, she told herself, and so increase the risk of discovery. She had all day in which to get into the ship and out again.

She crossed the ring road and took a radial road on her right. After two minutes she came to a wide road along which rumbled trucks laden with tarpaulined goods, each one escorted by a khaki-daubed military vehicle. The road ran from the maw of the alien vessel towards the distant airyard. She wondered if the hidden treasures were en route to Delhi, or beyond, to the capital city of the Empire, London.

She turned and hurried along the road towards the ship. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was hot, tempered by a breeze off the mountains. She thought of Anand and Littlebody, heading to the airyard to commandeer an airship. Was it too much to hope that, once she was away from the alien ship, all would be plain sailing?

And then? She had promised Jelch that she would continue his mission – but how might she make her way to London undetected?

She brought her mental portcullis into play again and concentrated on the task ahead.

Only when she was within two hundred yards of the ship’s great opening did she fully appreciate its gargantuan dimensions. She had seen the de Havilland hangar at the London airyard – big enough to accommodate three of the world’s largest cargo freighters, Sebastian had told her – but the alien ship was fully ten times its size. She stopped in her tracks and stared up, wondering at the beings who had manufactured this colossus. She saw that scaffolding had been erected within the ship as well as without; the interior was floodlit, and the tiny figures of engineers and workmen scurried about in there like ants. Directly before the opening was a vast clearing yard, milling with vehicles and people. Around the perimeter ran a barbed-wire fence, six feet high, with a centrally positioned entry and exit gate, the barrier raised to allow the passage of a dozen military trucks.

Jani approached the gate, slipped past a grumbling truck, and hurried across the clearing yard towards the ship. As she went, she was assailed by the thought of what might be awaiting her. Jelch had told her that she would be met by an apparition, a recording, a – what had he called it? – a
subroutine
that he had installed. The only word she had understood was ‘apparition’ – but what had he meant by that? A ghost? A spectre of the Vantissar who had brought this ship to Earth and perished half a century ago?