Nine: Vengeance of the Warrior (34 page)

‘As the army prepared to pour earth into the crevice, Akash emerged from the gaping hole, pulling Tara and Zubin out from the bowels of the earth. It took every ounce of stamina and strength that they possessed. It was a powerful moment. They fell upon the land in exhaustion, still gripping each other’s hands.

‘The Kalingan spirit was finally laid to rest. Long live the great King Ashoka! Long live the Nine!’

Acknowledgements

A debt of gratitude to my family. They have always been my source of strength and encouragement.

I am indebted to my editors at Penguin, Vaishali Mathur and Arpita Basu, for their valuable suggestions and insights.

A special thanks to the legend of the Nine unknown men. I don’t know if they exist amongst us, but I know that there are many silent unsung heroes who have faced and overcome obstacles. These men and women are intuitive and perceptive of others and their troubles. They have the innate ability to inspire, transform and help people on to a better path in life.

From the same author

NINE: CURSE OF THE KALINGAN
(BOOK ONE)

261
BC

After his bloody battle with Kalinga, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, overcome with remorse, swore never to wage another war. And to make sure no one else did. His Navratnas—the NINE—zealously guarded their powers and knowledge, handing them down through millennia and generations to ensure lasting peace.

EXCEPT THAT IT WAS NOT TO BE!

From the corpses of the Kalingan warriors rose an angry spirit bent upon avenging the Kalinga empire, destroying the NINE and using their hidden knowledge to rule the world and change its destiny.

PRESENT TIME

The bloodthirsty warrior has possessed the body of a young man, making him hunt down and kill the NINE one by one. It is now up to the chosen Trinity—nurse Tara, DJ Akash and forensic expert Zubin—to stop him.

This first book in a trilogy of fantasy thrillers churns up an astonishing tale from the depths of ancient times!

Penguin Metro Reads
Fiction/PB

Read more in Penguin

THE DEAD DON’T CONFESS

Monabi Mitra

The dashing grey-eyed policeman, poster boy of the Crime Branch, DSP Bikram Chatterjee, has landed a case that refuses to solve itself out.

The police are fumbling with the murder of smalltime film producer Piloo Adhikary, found dead along with his two dogs on Diwali night. Assumed to be a simple crime of passion, the so-called wife being the prime suspect, the case grows murkier when her body is found floating in a pond.

The clues point to a larger racket of money laundering, shady business pacts and illegal arms deals, the involvement of Gaur Mohan, a wheeler-dealer of some clout in the film industry, and Murari Koyal, the owner of a fishing trawler.

Will Bikram be able to expose the dark side of the city’s most affluent and influential?

Penguin Metro Reads
Fiction/PB

Read more in Penguin

THE TERRORIST

Juggi Bhasin

When you are trained to endure the harshest of climates, the most hostile of situations, to survive where no ordinary man can—there’s little difference between you and the terrorist you are trying to kill. Little, except which side you are on.

Suvir and Murad—both victims of circumstances, both numb with the pain of having lost their loved ones—choose to do things differently. While one crosses the border and becomes the most dreaded of terrorists, the other joins the Special Forces. Their face-off is a fight to death as one is out to carry out a major terrorist operation in Delhi and the other has been specially called in to foil the attack …

Moving breathlessly, through rugged terrain, this edgy thriller will not let you rest till the very last page!

Penguin Metro Reads
Fiction/PB

Read more in Penguin

THE AVENGER

Juggi Bhasin

Sometimes the destiny of a nation cannot be separated from the pain of an individual

A plane full of college-going girls is blown up at the Delhi airport by Sikandar Khan, a Pakistani terrorist. The girls were en route to Gstaad to celebrate Richa Jindal’s eighteenth birthday.

Frustrated by the government’s weak approach, Suresh Jindal, Richa’s father and India’s biggest industrialist, calls upon former Special Forces officer Suvir Suri to avenge his daughter’s death. Meanwhile, Sikandar Khan resurfaces to launch the mother of all terrorist attacks that can send India and Pakistan to war and cause incalculable loss of human life.

Suvir must put aside his personal pain to set things right.

The Avenger
is the story of one man’s mission for lasting peace.

Penguin Metro Reads
Fiction/PB

THE BEGINNING

Let the conversation begin...

Follow the Penguin
Twitter.com@PenguinIndia

Keep up-to-date with all our stories
YouTube.com/PenguinIndia

Like ‘Penguin Books’ on
Facebook.com/PenguinIndia

Find out more about the author and
discover more stories like this at
penguinbooksindia.com

PENGUIN METRO READS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 7th Floor, Infinity Tower C, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon – 122 002, Haryana, India
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (adivision of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

www.penguinbooksindia.com

First published in Penguin Metro Reads by Penguin Books India 2014

Copyright © Shobha Nihalani 2014

Cover photographs © Getty Images & Wikimedia Commons

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-143-41883-2

This digital edition published in 2014.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18712-7