Jani and the Greater Game (The Multiplicity Series Book 1) (41 page)

“Perhaps the Chatterjee gal and the Ruskies are all in it together – and the Russian pair
rescued
the gel from the Hindu earlier.”

Alfie shook his head. Try as he might, he couldn’t see the young woman he shared tea with in Dehrakesh as part of a Russian conspiracy. “I don’t think so, Colonel. I don’t have Chatterjee down as a communist sympathiser–”

“Put a sock in it, old boy. Here they come.”

Alfie tensed and stared up the slope.

Through the trees he made out a flash of crimson cloth – the girl’s shalwar kameez. Beside her was the boy in shorts and a white shirt. They were walking down the hillside, and Alfie guessed they would pass within ten yards of where he and Smethers were concealed. They were accompanied by a third figure, garbed in an ill-fitting British army uniform.

Alfie murmured, “I don’t see the Russians.”

Smethers said, “Who the hell is that?”

The third figure was tall, and almost human – but some configuration of its legs, jointed higher up than was normal, and the attenuated length of its torso reminded him of an animal.

“Christ,” Smethers exclaimed under his breath, “it’s the Morn.”

“The what?” Alfie asked, feeling dizzy. “And where are the Russians?”

“Shut it!” Smethers snapped, fumbling with the controls on the chin-strap of the skullcap. “Stay put and don’t move a muscle, Littlebody, and that’s an order.” And with that, he vanished.

Alfie heard a rustle beside him and sensed that Smethers was no longer squatting in the undergrowth. Peering out, he saw the grass before him flatten as it was trampled by Smethers’ passage, and charted the colonel’s progress away from the stand of ferns and up the hillside.

The trio was perhaps thirty yards away. Alfie stared at the tell-tale disturbance in the grass as Smethers approached the trio. He heard a click as Smethers cocked the hammer of his revolver.

Then he heard Smethers’ voice call out, “If you value your lives, then stay very still and raise your hands.”

The creature, Janisha Chatterjee and the boy turned to face the sound of the voice. The strange creature’s flattened, corpse-pale face remained expressionless.

“I said raise your hands!” Smethers cried.

They froze, staring around the clearing in search of the invisible Smethers. Alfie watched as the creature noticed the twin depressions in the grass, its eyes fixing on the area as it said, “Who are you, and what do you want?”

Alfie could imagine Smethers’ expression as he sneered, “Don’t play silly games with me, you animal. Hands in the air!”

Slowly, the creature raised its long arms high above its head.

“Very good,” Smethers said. “Now, I’m going to give you a pair of handcuffs, Chatterjee. I want you to take them and manacle the Morn. I’ll give you ten seconds, and if you don’t do as I say I’ll shoot the boy. Do you understand?”

The creature said, “Leave the boy out of this, sir. He has done nothing to warrant your threat.”

“Then give yourself up and the boy will live,” Smethers said.

The boy stood, hands in the air, an expression of pride and courage on his face.

Alfie felt in his pocket for the light-beam. He should do it now, he resolved, before Smethers in his lunacy became trigger happy...

Something rattled, and Alfie saw a glint of silver sail through the air and land at Janisha Chatterjee’s feet. “Now take the cuffs and lock up the animal,” Smethers snapped.

The creature leapt. One second he was crouching, arms raised, five paces from where Smethers stood, and the next he was flying through the air, a blur of khaki streaking towards the colonel.

Alfie winced as Smethers fired. The creature cried out and hit the ground. It rolled, grasping its bloodied thigh.

The depressions in the grass moved towards the stricken creature, which lay on its back and clutched its upper leg as blood pumped out between its elongated fingers. Janisha Chatterjee cried out, hurried across to the creature and dropped to her knees, taking its head in her lap and looking around wildly for Smethers.

The colonel made himself visible, appearing as if from nowhere a few paces from the girl and the creature. He held both his own revolver and Alfie’s in his outstretched hands, aiming unwaveringly at the creature’s chest.

“Take the cuffs,” Smethers said, “and manacle the animal!”

Janisha Chatterjee fumbled for the handcuffs lying on the grass, tears tracking down her cheeks.

Anand ran at Smethers and leapt. Smethers lashed out with his left hand, catching the boy a solid blow with the revolver on the side of his head. Anand cried out and went sprawling, knocked senseless.

Smethers took one step forward, aiming at the creature’s heaving chest with both weapons. “Hurry!” he said to the girl.

Alfie remained in the undergrowth, frozen with indecision. Something told him to turn and run, to get away from here and never look back. He was in Allahabad again, quaking with fear and revulsion. He wanted to run, he wanted nothing more than to absent himself from the proceedings, but knew that if he did so, this time, then he would forever regret his cowardice.

Finally he moved. He pulled the light-beam from his pocket and twisted its base. A lance of bright white light sprang forth, dazzling him. He rushed from his hiding place and sprinted up behind Smethers.

The girl had the cuffs in shaking fingers and was attempting to manacle the creature’s wrists.

“I said hurry!” Smethers cried. “And when you’ve done, that, stand up and move over to the boy.”

“Oh, please...!” the girl began.

“Do it!” Smethers cocked both revolvers, his face made ugly with hatred. “Or if you’d rather I finish off the animal...?”

Alfie halted two yards from the colonel, his heart beating wildly. Quaking, he cried, “If you shoot the creature, Smethers, I swear I’ll kill you!”

Smethers swung round, his expression of surprise turning to one of overweening arrogance. He backed off so that he had both the prostrate Morn and Alfie in his sight.

“I might have known,” he sneered. “You’re a traitor and a coward, Littlebody! You’re a disgrace to the uniform!”

The Morn moved. Despite the wound to his thigh – despite the gout of flesh gouged from his leg – the creature surged to its feet and dived at Smethers. The colonel cried out, swung back towards the Morn and discharged both revolvers into the charging creature’s chest. The Morn staggered backwards, howling in agony as its ribcage was shredded, and Alfie expected it to fall to the ground, dead.

The Morn did fall, but only to its knees. Smethers stepped forward, his face twisted into a mask of revulsion and sadistic delight. He raised his revolvers once again as the creature launched itself at the colonel.

Smethers stepped backwards, took aim and laid down a volley of deafening fire. Alfie stared, appalled, as half a dozen shots ripped into the body of the flying Morn, ejecting gobbets of flesh and a spray of blood in all directions. Yelling, the creature hit the ground at the colonel’s feet with a resounding thud.

But even then, its ribcage shattered, the Morn did not capitulate. Alfie stepped back, startled, as the creature hauled itself to its feet and reached out for Smethers.

The girl screamed as the colonel fired a further three shots into the Morn’s stomach. The creature staggered and fell onto its back.

A sudden, terrible silence filled the clearing.

Smiling, Smethers swung his revolver and aimed at Alfie’s chest.

“Now be a good fellow and get the boy, Littlebody.”

Alfie stared at him. “What?”

“I said get the boy before he runs off.”

Alfie moved. Before he knew what he was doing, he stepped forward and ran the lance of light into Smethers’ stomach and up through the ribcage, slicing flesh and bone as if it were butter. With a gasp he withdrew the weapon and stared in shock at the dying man.

He would never forget the smile on Smethers’ face. “Always... always had you down as a traitor, Littlebody.” He coughed blood and Alfie stepped backwards, revulsion rendering him silent.

Smethers fell to his knees and slumped forward, hitting the ground face first.

The girl was kneeling over the Morn, sobbing. Miraculously, despite its mangled chest, the creature was still alive, its face a rictus of pain.

Alfie found himself saying, “I’m sorry... I’m so sorry.”

Janisha Chatterjee looked up, staring at him. Recognition lit her eyes. “You?”

Alfie shook his head. “I’m sorry, Miss Chatterjee... There was nothing I could do. I tried to...” He gestured to Smethers. “I wanted no part of this. I was... I was sent after you, yes, but I wanted no part of the killing.”

She stared at him. “You’ve got to help me!”

In her arms, the dying creature choked on its blood.

Alfie shook his head. “How?” He flicked a glance at Smethers’ corpse. “Why did he want to arrest you...?”

“Please, trust me. I’m no enemy. I’m... I’m working for the safety of everyone, everyone on the planet! You must believe me.”

Alfie found himself choking back a sob. “I... I honestly don’t know what to believe.”

She took a deep breath. “You must help me board the ship, you must!”

“The ship? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Something moved to his right. He turned, thinking Anand had recovered and picked himself up. He stared in disbelief as a creature identical to the dying Morn manifested itself in the air, gradually gaining substance. It even wore the same tattered British army uniform as the Morn and, Alfie saw with horror, its chest was a shattered mess of blood and bone.

“You must believe what Janisha is saying,” said the creature.

“What... what are you?” Alfie said, backing away.

The girl was staring up at the apparition, a desperate smile shining through her grief. “Please believe him, sir! Please! We are working for the good of everyone!”

The creature gestured. “Please, sit down and listen to what I have to say.”

Alfie slumped to the ground and the apparition squatted beside him, its thin lips drawn into the semblance of a smile as it began. “It is imperative, for the well-being of every citizen on the planet, that Janisha is allowed to enter the city of Annapurnabad and the ship that resides there. Believe me when I stress that we work for no one side in this conflict – not the Russians, nor the Chinese, nor the British... I have come from afar to help you, the human race, and I will not have died in vain if I know that you will help Janisha complete what I set out to do.”

Alfie looked from the apparition before him to its wounded double, the blood still pumping from its chest, its breathing becoming ever more shallow. He looked from the creature to Janisha Chatterjee’s tear-streaked, beseeching face, and then across to where the boy Anand was kneeling, his grief-stricken expression imploring Alfie to believe the words of the enigmatic apparition.

He murmured, “But what can I do?”

The apparition smiled, or rather its lips stretched a little wider as it said, its voice fading, “Give Janisha the VCA, show her how it functions, and then be ready to take her and Anand away from here when she has done what she has to do aboard the Vantissar ship.”

Alfie nodded, glancing at the girl. “Yes. Yes, I can do that.”

“And then.... and then, to the best of your ability, help her get away...”

The apparition turned to the girl. “Janisha... My plan was to make my way to London, to... to warn...” His voice grew weak. “Janisha, for me – for your own people – please attempt to...”

The girl was on her knees, staring at the ghostly Morn. “I promise... I’ll do whatever I can, I promise!”

“Janisha...” the apparition said, its voice a whisper.

It smiled, then faded from view, and Janisha Chatterjee wept as the creature in her arms gave a final, stuttering breath and lay very still.

Alfie climbed to his feet, numbed. He stared down at Smethers’ corpse, still unable to accept that he had killed the man. He saw the light-beam where he had dropped it, scorching a line in the grass. He reached down, picked it up and twisted the base. The lance of light vanished.

He held it out to the girl. “You might need this, as well as the skullcap,” he said.

She smiled through her tears. “The weapon will not be necessary, thank you. Jelch... Jelch provided me with a light-beam.”

He turned to Anand. “Then perhaps you’d better keep this,” he said, passing the light-beam to the boy; he could not have it in his possession a second longer.

He knelt down beside Smethers’ corpse and, doing his best not to look into the dead man’s staring eyes, unbuckled the skullcap and passed it to the girl.

He showed her how to operate the VCA. “I’ll take Anand with me. We’ll cross the city to the airyard and hire a ’ship.” He looked up the slope. “We’ll meet you in the next valley, when you have conducted your business aboard the ship.”

He looked at the bodies of Smethers and the Morn. The girl arranged the arms of the creature – Jelch, she had called it – by its side, murmuring a few tearful words as she stared down at its frozen face.