Jani and the Greater Game (The Multiplicity Series Book 1) (28 page)

He was about to make his way back to town when he saw something glinting on the ground.

He picked up the bunch of keys, approached the door, and dropped the keys on the ground where they would be found in the morning.

Then he turned and made his way back to the guest house.

A
NAND CRIED OUT
in delight, his laughter loud in the confines of Max’s belly. He thought back to the expression on the face of the tall, thin officer as he plucked him off his feet and dropped him into the mechanical scarab. What a sight! The coward was wetting himself in fright! It was a pity he hadn’t been able to find the second, dumpy little Britisher who’d scurried off up the hillside and concealed himself in the undergrowth.

What an adventure, Anand thought as he marched Max up the road and out of the town. It was like something from the most fantastical book he’d ever read – chased across the country by the damned British, the bloody Russians, and the gods knew who else! And all, he reflected with a warm glow in his heart, accompanied by the most wonderful girl in all the world. He felt a little guilty that he was having such a good time, so soon after the passing of papa-ji, but only a little... Papa-ji would be pleased that he, orphan houseboy Anand Doshi, was looking after his daughter so well.

As he clanked through the darkness and out of town, he thought back to something he’d told Jani-ji back in Delhi. He’d told her that he had a sweetheart at Mr Clockwork’s factory, little Vashi who was as sweet as burfi; now, he wondered why he’d made up this story. Perhaps he’d wanted to impress Jani-ji, make her think of him not as the small playmate of old, but as someone old enough now to have a relationship with a girl...

But it was a mistake, he realised now. If Jani-ji thought he had a sweetheart, then she might never think of him as someone who... He felt himself reddening at the very thought, and considered what Mr Rai had told him yesterday:
“She is Brahmin, Anand, and half-English, and as is the modern way with women, she is educated also. You are a Dalit, boy, and you must know your place.”

He sighed. Mr Rai was right. Jani-ji would never fall in love with him, no matter how long they were together. He was Anand, her houseboy playmate from childhood; a friend and nothing more.

But... but he was more than a houseboy now; he had proved himself. He had saved her life – she had said so herself – and in time her attitude towards him might change.

He would accompany her to the ends of the earth, and protect her from every evil that came her way, and in time he would tell her his true feelings, and maybe these feelings would be returned...

Heartened, he steered Max off the road and through the jungle.

Now he would impress Jani-ji again with his story of how he had bested the British officers – and then he would show her how he could make the mechanical elephant move so much faster.

His laughter echoed in the confines of Max’s belly as he crashed through the foliage.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Anand returns in triumph –

On the way to Rishi Tal – Memories of a galloping horse –

“For the ultimate benefit of your planet...”

J
ANI CURLED ON
a chesterfield inside the mechanical elephant and waited for Anand to return.

She marvelled at the sumptuousness of the accommodation – what Anand had called ‘the living quarters’. It was as if she were inside a great chocolate Easter egg, an oval chamber constructed from polished mahogany and brass fittings. A woven rug lay on the floor and tapestries hung from the walls. Beside the chesterfield was a small bookcase containing classics of English and Indian literature. There was even a small pot-bellied stove, for cold winter nights. Mr Clockwork had thought of everything. “The room is on a gimbal, Jani-ji,” Anand had explained, “so that when Mel is in motion it is rock-steady down here.”

Jani tried not to look ahead, but to take each day as it came. It was worrying that the British had followed her so far, but at least she had foiled their attempt at capturing her. She wondered at the wisdom of allowing Anand to return for Max, and had tried to persuade him to remain – but he was young, and stubborn, and would not be deterred.

She tried to read. She plucked a volume of poetry by Tagore from the shelf and read a page or two, but her mind would not settle. She set the volume aside, climbed the steps from the belly of the elephant and opened the trapdoor above her head. She climbed out and sat on the creature’s broad back.

The jungle was still; she heard the distant call of bullfrogs, the chirrup of insects close by. A full moon rode through the treetops high above. Anand had estimated that, if all went well, they would reach Rishi Tal in a day. With luck, Jelch would be awaiting her there. She wondered why he wanted her to journey on to Nepal.

The night was warm, scented with the perfume of a hundred flowers. She lay on her back, her head pillowed on her laced fingers, and stared up through the jungle canopy at the pulsing stars. She made out Orion, and the bright star of Mintaka on the warrior’s belt, and she was considering Jelch again when she heard a sudden sound.

She sat up quickly and listened.

She heard the sound of an engine, and then the crack of splintered wood. She stared through the jungle towards the road and made out the multicoloured constellation of the Mech-Man’s chest panel.

Max stamped through the jungle towards her, the noise of its engine drowning out the insect noises and the calls of the frogs. The giant approached the elephant, its great domed head on a level with where Jani squatted, and a sudden silence fell as Anand stilled the motors. The head and shoulders tipped back and the boy popped out.

He stared at Jani with huge eyes. “Almost a disaster, Jani-ji. The British were waiting for me.”

“But how did you get away?”

Anand laughed. “There were only two of them in the warehouse. I powered up Max and dealt with the first officer. I locked him up and chased the second officer away from the warehouse!”

“And did you catch him?”

“The coward hid himself, so I hurried away and came straight back here.”

“And you’re sure that they didn’t follow you?”

“Tip-top sure, Jani-ji!”

“But now they know we have Max, and will be searching for him,” Jani said. “Anand, it would be better if we left Max and travelled on Mel.”

He was grinning at her. “But why do you think I went to get Max?”

“Stop your games. So that we could travel faster in him, of course. But as I said, they will be looking for Max...”

“Not ‘of course’, Jani-ji. Move aside and watch.”

Confused, Jani scrambled to the rear of the elephant as instructed and watched as Anand closed the head and shoulders of the mechanical man and powered him up again.

The girder-like arms reached out and gripped the back of the elephant. Then the huge legs moved, finding footholds on the pachyderm’s flank. The elephant swayed as it took the weight of the Mech-Man, and the latter hauled itself up.

A minute later Max straddled the elephant’s broad back, and Jani stared in amazement as the mechanical man reached forward and opened a second trapdoor – this one closer to the elephant’s domed head. Then she blinked, as if at an optical illusion, as Max eased itself forward, legs first, and seemed to slide – with a loud meshing of gears and scrape of metal on metal – through the opening of the trapdoor and
into
the mechanical elephant. The trapdoor clanged shut and Max, the Mech-Man, vanished.

She heard the grumble of Max’s engine, muffled, and a great series of internal clankings, whirrings, and assorted mechanical clangs and bangs.

She opened the trapdoor to the living quarters and tapped down the steps. Towards the front of the chamber she made out the broad back of the Mech-Man. As she watched, a hatch in his back swung open and Anand slipped out.

“Now Mel is powered by Max,” he announced. “You see, Mr Clockwork conceived Max and Mel as one – he said that Max is Mel’s mahout!”

Jani laughed and clapped her hands. “I see the method in your madness now, Anand.”

The boy jumped back through the door into Max’s torso control room, and Jani followed and sat beside him on the padded seat.

For the next ten minutes they pored over a map of Uttarakhand and the border of Nepal, plotting a route to Rishi Tal through the hills that avoided all the major towns and villages. They were fortunate that this was a sparsely populated area, covered by forest and jungle that would provide ample cover.

“I suggest we travel by night only,” Jani said. “The British will be looking principally for Max, but of course they will question Mr Gopal, and when they find out that you were due to return to Delhi with Mel, then they will be searching for him also. We must be very careful.”

“Careful will be my watchword!” Anand said, and reached out for the controls. He pulled a series of levers, thumped studs and turned a great wheel. The engine in Max powered up with a mounting drone and Anand cried out, “Hold on, Jani-ji!”

The view-plate in Max’s torso corresponded with an identical horizontal observation port in the forehead of the mechanical elephant, and Jani made out the jungle illuminated by the beam of a searchlight set into Mel’s forehead.

The control room lurched as Anand pushed a lever. The elephant took a great stride forward, then another. Jani heard the sound of rending and tearing as trees parted before the onslaught. They lurched along at speed, Anand laughing uproariously, Jani holding onto the padded arm of the chair as she swayed right and left.

She glanced at the boy. He was purse-lipped, wide-eyed, as he pulled and yanked at levers, adjusted slides and spun the wheel to control the pachyderm’s headlong rush.

They marched up a wooded hillside, gained the peak and ploughed down the far side, guided by a vast compass set in a brass binnacle. The ride was far from smooth, and Jani was thankful for the thick padding of the control chair.

At one point, an hour into their journey, Anand said, “You must be tired. Go and rest on the chesterfield.”

“I am not in the slightest bit tired, Anand. I will sleep when we stop for the day, ah-cha.”

He grinned at her. “You remind me of your father, Jani-ji.”

“In what way?”

“In many ways. He would not be told what to do. Mrs Chandra, our dragon of a housekeeper, she was always telling your father that he read too long into the night and should get to bed early. She even quoted Gandhi at him – ‘early to bed, early to rise.’” He laughed. “But your father was having none of it! He called her ‘that woman!’ and read into the early hours anyway. You are stubborn, just like your father.”

She smiled. “I hope he would approve of what I am doing.”

“I think he would. He was so proud of you. He was always telling everyone about how you were doing so well in England. And when you gained a place at Cambridge, he never stopped talking about it.”

“But what we are doing, Anand, defying the British...” She hesitated. “He was always on the side of the little man, Anand, the down-trodden and the oppressed. Although he was the Minister for Security, and responsible for the safety of the nation, I think he was fair and just.”