Jani and the Greater Game (The Multiplicity Series Book 1) (19 page)

The overpowering reek of formaldehyde made Jani gag as the Mech-Man crunched relentlessly through shattered specimen bottles, scattering the larger stuffed animals aside as it went.

Volovich and Yezhov backed off, their faces masks of alarm. Jani struggled to free herself, wondering whether she had been saved from one fate only to succumb to another just as lethal. The Mech-Man was heading directly towards her, and surely she would be crushed by its pylon legs or its great swinging arms? She yanked at the ropes that bound her wrists, but succeeded only in tightening the knots.

Yezhov sprinted towards the bolted door, yelling across the chamber in Russian. Obviously it was an instruction, for Volovich bounded towards the autopsy table and took up a knife. At first Jani thought he intended to strike her dead in a sadistic
coup de grace
, but to her amazement he began cutting at the ropes tying her arms. So even now they had not given up hope of extracting information from her; they would take her with them as they fled the Mech-Man’s onslaught.

But not if she had any say in the matter.

Volovich cut through the rope encircling her ankles and instantly she kicked out, striking the fat Russian’s jaw. He yelled and swung the blade. Jani ducked and rolled off the table, landing on all fours and scuttling through a jumble of stuffed animal legs.

She glanced over her shoulder. The Mech-Man reached down, swung a great arm and batted Volovich aside like a rag doll. He cried out and sprawled across the floor, fetched up against the wall and lay motionless.

Jani scrambled through the ruck of tumbled animals, then started in alarm as something clutched her arm. She whirled, finding Yezhov’s bandaged face inches from hers. With his free hand he waved a scalpel at her and yelled, “If you resist, I’ll kill you!”

He yanked Jani to her feet and dragged her across the chamber towards the door, their way impeded by felled animals and strewn bricks and beams, the air dense with choking plaster dust. Jani could hear the crunching steps of the Mech-Man and the bass grumble of its grinding engine as it stomped through the wreckage. She stumbled over an antelope, its legs as stiff as those of an overturned table. Her headlong fall freed her from Yezhov’s grip, and on hands and knees she dived under the belly of the baby elephant. The Russian yelled and came after her, caught her by the elbow and swung her round. Facing him, his terrified face circumambulated by the bloody bandage, she gave a startled gasp and stared beyond her captor. Yezhov, seeing her alarm, turned and cried out.

The Mech-Man, towering over them, swung an arm like the boom of a crane. A great mechanical claw hung over Yezhov, then the pincer descended, plucked him with surprising delicacy by the collar of his surgeon’s gown and tossed him halfway across the chamber.

Jani cowered, staring up at the mechanical monstrosity as it loomed over her. The great girder-like arm swung towards her, the pincer descending. She wept in fright and felt the pincer grab the collar of her dress. The next second she was being lifted into the air, dangling like a child’s rag doll. She expected to be pitched aside just as the Russian had been, but as she was hoisted high into the air she was amazed to see the head and shoulders of the Mech-Man hinge open like a trapdoor to reveal the glittering chamber of its torso. Jani swung through the air, legs pedalling, and was dropped into the chamber. She landed with a thump, dazed, and sprawled behind what looked like a dentist’s chair which bobbed and sighed pneumatically. The Mech-Man’s head and shoulders, above her, clanged shut, plunging the chamber into an oily gloom relieved only by a constellation of flickering lights.

Then she was shaken this way and that as the Mech-Man straightened up and stamped through the debris, crunching bricks underfoot. She heard the deafening pounding of its footsteps, the grinding of its gears amplified as if the chamber were a sound box. She also heard, through the din, a high, thin voice crying out in delighted Hindi.

Dazed, hardly believing what was happening, she sat upright and collected her breath. Then cautiously, on her knees, she peered around the great bouncing padded chair and stared in amazement at the tiny figure ensconced there, hauling on levers and pulling gear-sticks and pumping pedals as if his life depended on it.

The Mech-Man’s operator turned and grinned at her, his teeth fluorescent in his brown face, his shock of jet hair even more haywire than usual.

A
NAND HAD NEVER
felt more elated in all his life. The rescue had gone better than he’d dared hope, when the first inkling of the plan came to him on the rooftop of the warehouse more than an hour ago.

He stared at Jani, pride bursting in his chest. This would show her another side of him – not the houseboy she knew of old, but an adventurer who could knock down walls and save victims from evil-doers.

“But the Russians?” she cried. “Are they coming after us?”

He laughed. “The Russians are unconscious, Jani-ji. They will bother you no more.” He hesitated. “But do you think we should return and arrest them?”

“No... No, the best thing is to be away from here.”

Even in distress, with her long hair dishevelled and her face covered in dust, Jani looked beautiful. “Do not be alarmed!” he said. “You look like a frightened rabbit, Jani-ji! But you are safe now. Come and sit beside me.”

She climbed up beside him as he steered the Mech-Man over the piled bricks of the erstwhile façade, grinning proudly at her. Jani was staring around her in wonder, and Anand saw the control cabin as if through new eyes. The chamber looked like the cockpit of an airship, with dials and verniers and levers and pedals which he pulled and pushed and pumped and adjusted with quick movements of his hands.

Directly before the seat, embedded in the chest of the Mech-Man, was a narrow view-plate through which he glanced from time to time as he guided the Mech-Man along the street.

“Mr Clockwork kindly taught me how to pilot Max,” Anand told her.

“Max?” Jani laughed.

“Max – the Mech-Man. He is the star of Mr Clockwork’s magnificent exhibition. There are only six of them in all the Empire – just think of that! And I am the only pilot in all India besides Mr Clockwork.”

She stared at him as he manhandled the levers. “But... but Anand, how did you know where I was? How did you find me?”

He glanced through the view-plate. They were passing down a narrow alley between the grey walls of ugly warehouses.

“When we dropped you in Old Delhi, Jani-ji, Mr Rai drove home. A little later came a loud knocking at the door. Mr Rai thought it was the press, come to stick their noses into our grief. But no!”

“Who was it?”

He glanced at her. “It was the military, come to arrest you.”

“Arrest me?” she said incredulously. “Surely not. But why...?”

“They did not say in so many words that they had come to arrest you, oh, no. But you see, the officer was Colonel Smethers. Now Smethers does the dirty work for internal security. Your father, bless his memory, hated Colonel Smethers. He said he was a thug and a bully who was responsible for the torture and deaths of many prisoners under his care. So you see, when Mr Rai saw Smethers, and he asked if you were at home, Mr Rai feared the worst. So he said that you were in Victoria Park, where you wanted to be alone with your thoughts at this sad time. Then Mr Rai told me to race to Old Delhi and find you, warn you that Smethers wanted to question you for some reason.” He peered at her in the gloom. “But why does he want to question you, Jani-ji?”

She shook her head, looking perplexed. “I don’t really know,” she said. “It’s a long story, and when we get out of here I will tell you.” She gazed through the screen. “So Mr Rai sent you to Old Delhi to find me, but how did you manage–?”

Grinning, Anand interrupted. “He told me that you would be at one of three places – places which you visited with your father as a child: Roopa’s Tea Rooms, Nazruddin’s, or the Gwalior Café. I tried Nazruddin’s first, because it was closest, but you were not there. Then I hurried across to Roopa’s and the waiter told me that you had fallen ill and that a kindly old man had taken you off in a taxi. So I hurried to the taxi rank and asked every driver there if it was they who had taken you. None had, Jani-ji, so I waited and asked every driver who returned to the rank, and finally one man, who demanded ten rupees, told me that he had driven you and a European gentleman to an address to the north of the city. I took a rickshaw to this address and tried to find where they had taken you, but there were no windows in the walls, so I climbed a drainpipe and looked through a skylight, and there you were, Jani-ji, crouching in a cage like an animal.”

She smiled. “I thought I saw the shape of a monkey up there, Anand.”

“Ah-cha! That was me, climbing across the rooftop!” He shook his head, frowning. “But what did they want with you, Jani-ji?”

“Anand, something happened when the airship crashed. Now is not the time to recount my adventures. In fact...” She shook her head. “In fact, I don’t know what I should do now for the best. Or rather...”

She appeared deep in thought.

“Jani-ji?”

“The British want to question me, and the Russians to torture me for something... I have only the clothes on my back, and a hundred rupees in my pocket.”

Anand’s heart skipped. He had an idea, and said tentatively, “Jani-ji, if I were you, with Colonel Smethers wishing to have words, and the Russians on your trail, I would get away from Delhi and hide for a while.”

She stared at him and said suddenly, “Anand, I need to get to Nepal.”

He looked at her, surprised. “
Nepal?
But Jani-ji...?”

“I know, I know... Nepal is a protected territory. But I need to make my way there, though first I must go to the hill station of Rishi Tal.”

He stared ahead, concentrating for a time on manipulating levers and adjusting verniers. “I have an idea, Jani-ji,” he said, bubbling with excitement.

“All your ideas have been capital so far, Anand.”

He felt himself blushing. “Mr Clockwork has given me the job of taking Max north to Dehrakesh. A place is booked aboard the Chandigar Mail at noon. At Dehrakesh Mr Clockwork has a warehouse and an exhibition centre. I am to deliver Max there, where he will go on show, and I am due to return to Delhi with the Amazing Mechanical Elephant. My idea is this. I will deliver Max to the Old Delhi station goods yard and see him aboard the train – with you inside. Then, when we get to Dehrakesh, you will be part of the way to Rishi Tal.” He hesitated. “But Jani-ji, getting into Nepal will be impossible!”

She asked, “How far from Dehrakesh is Rishi Tal, Anand?”

“Perhaps fifty miles. But why...?”

“I hope to meet someone there who will help me get into the protected territory, with a little luck.”

He nodded, and glanced across at Jani as she laid her head back against the cushion and closed her eyes, exhausted. He concentrated on the controls and steered the Mech-Man towards the railway station.

By the time they reached the iron gates of the goods yard, the mechanical man had attracted a crowd of curious onlookers, mainly young boys to whom the arrival of the Mech-Man would be the highlight of their week. Peering through the narrow view-plate as he brought the vehicle to a halt, Anand made out a hundred gawpers staring up in wonder; some appeared amazed, others frightened. Ash-covered sadhus moved among the crowd with begging bowls and snake-charmers took advantage of the impromptu gathering and mesmerised their cobras with high, trilling tunes.

A station worker unlocked the gates and pulled them back, and Anand eased the Mech-Man forward, leaving the crowd in its wake. The same worker waved the mechanical man through the goods yard, across snaking tracks which Anand negotiated in great strides, towards a long line of rolling stock at the head of which was an old steam engine.

He steered the Mech-Man up a ramp and onto a long, low flat-bed, then lowered the Mech-Man into a seated position, its great metal legs looming on either side of the viewplate.

He jumped from the seat and climbed a ladder, opening the Mech-Man’s head-and-shoulders lid. For the next ten minutes he shouted instructions to the porters, who were lashing guy ropes around Max and attaching them to lugs on the flat-bed. He glanced down at Jani as he shouted his commands, and her smile made him feel proud.

When Max was secure, he jumped down, closing the lid after him, and rejoined Jani on the seat.

“I have a cabin in the next compartment,” he told her. “Mr Clockwork paid for my first-class passage – and the cabin has a shower and two bunks. So when we leave Delhi, Jani-ji, you can join me in my cabin and you can shower and sleep.”

Jani reached out and clutched his hand. “Thank you,” she murmured. “Thank you, Anand, for saving my life, for everything.”

Embarrassed, he looked and turned away, his face burning.

He noticed movement through the viewscreen and stared out in alarm. A truck carrying six British soldiers pulled up beside the train, and three of the officers alighted and climbed a metal ladder into the adjacent carriage. The remaining three strolled towards where Max sat, tied down like Gulliver restrained by Lilliputians. They removed their peaked caps and scratched their heads, commenting to each other and laughing.

He saw Jani’s alarmed expression and said, “Don’t worry, Jani-ji. I will climb out and speak to these chaps. I will even ask them what all the hoo-hah is about.”