Empire of Bones (21 page)

He waited until Ir Yth had bustled off, then went in search of somewhere quiet and dark. He needed to review his re-sources, and he was reluctant to call attention to himself. There was a small, dusty alcove beneath the temple steps, which Sirru slipped into. He leaned against the grimy wall and closed his eyes, traveling inward. First, he visited the seed, which was now slightly smaller than the palm of his hand, and still quite flat. It had sent thin tendrils around his waist and was now nestling beneath the arch of his rib cage. But it was softer than it should have been. The seed was too warm.

Sirru left the alcove and glided along the covered walkway of the temple. He could see two of Jaya's team in a small room, hunched over electronic equipment, but the next room was empty. Sirru stepped inside. Boxes lined the walls and papers were scattered over a desk. Sirru could make no sense of them.

Moving on, he found himself in a third little room, barely more than another alcove. It smelled of food, of grease and spices. The room also contained two white boxes: one on the floor, and one on a ledge.

Sirru opened the door of the first box, and discovered it to be empty. Perhaps it was some kind of heating device? It had dials along the front. But when he opened the door of the sec-ond box, he was rewarded with a blast of icy air. The box con-tained a dish of leaves, some kind of fruit, and a row of brown bottles. Sirru smiled. At the top of the box was another com-partment behind a hatch. He had to wrench the hatch open, since the ice had crept around its edges and sealed it shut. Perfect. Carefully, Sirru detached the seed from his person and slid it into the compartment. The seed immediately re-acted, sending filaments out into the ice. The box would prob-ably not be cold enough when the seed grew larger, but it would do for now. Sirru closed the box, and slid back to the al-cove along the walkway.

Here, he reviewed the bony, flexible cells that lay between his ribs, checking each one for viral decomposition. Every-thing seemed to be intact. Not being a member of one of the Weapon Castes, he had not been equipped for destruction, but he checked for mutation in any case. Core knew that there had been enough accidents in the past. After some delibera-tion, he released a small amount of the relevant substance into his bloodstream. It began to take effect almost immediately, latching onto the yellow corpuscles and spiraling through his veins. He swallowed hard against sudden vertigo.

The virus took swift effect, and by the time Sirru rose and left the little chamber, he felt light-headed. He was anxious to begin the next phase of the project as soon as possible, but caution pulled him back. As he stood indecisively in the courtyard for a moment, something chattered overhead. He looked up to see a snarling face lined with a rim of dusty fur—
ahiroi
of some sort. That, Sirru thought, was serendipitous.

The guards clustered at the gate, but otherwise the courtyard was empty. Sirru climbed the steps that led up to the parapet of the temenos.

The
hiroi
were chattering amongst themselves, but as he approached, soft-footed, they fell silent and looked at him ap-prehensively. Sirru sent soothing expressives, not wanting to frighten them away. He crouched down on the warm stone and held out his hand. One of the
hiroi
, bolder than the rest, sidled forward and sniffed at his palm. Fast as thought, Sirru grabbed it by the scruff of the neck. The
hiroi
gave a sharp, yipping howl. It squirmed round, and its long yellow teeth met in Sirru's wrist. He gritted his teeth fast against the sud-den pain, thinking:
What I do for my job
. He noted with a trace of grim satisfaction, mingled with dismay, that the
kiwi's
mouth was full of sores.

His wrist was bloody from elbow to palm where the
hiroi
had savaged it. He let go of the
hiroi
and it bounded away, squealing with rage and fright. Jaya's hairy guard squinted up into the twilight, seeking the source of the commotion, and Sirru melted back against the wall. He hissed through his teeth, nursing his bloody wrist and flooding his system with endorphin analogs and biohealers.
This
, he thought through the fading haze of pain,
had better wor't
.

5. ixhaikurriye/ Kasasatra

The enforcer stepped back, clicking open the gate of the pen with a claw. Using its own chemical signatures to control the
irHazh
, it directed the creature through the grounds of the Core Marginals and out into the city.

Released, the
irHazh
soon picked up the trail. Mandibles whistling through the air, it locked onto the pheromonal traces that its handler had given it and set off through the un-derground water systems of the city. The red light glistened from its dark carapace as it surfaced occasionally for air, creeping swiftly through the vents on its numerous jointed legs. The pheromones had been doctored a little, but the
irHazh
didn't know this. It only knew that it was aroused, and that at the end of the trail would come mating.

The
irHazh
was not capable of thinking very far ahead, but it had mated before and the memories were still strong within it: the sense of yielding flesh, rubbery beneath its serrated mandibles, steaming gently as the eggs were implanted. Nothing short of death would stop the
irHazh
in its progress, and its very few natural predators had long since been eradi-cated. It headed through the city, drawn as if by a magnet to the old, dying temeni that lined Rhu Jher Canal, and the woman who was to serve as both mate and prey.

6. varanasi/ lemple 01 Durga

"What do you mean, you'll tell people you aren't there?" Jaya asked Sirru, via Ir Yth, the next morning. It sounded an in-sane thing to say, but at least Sirru had made no more noises about wandering off into the city. That had been a distraction mat Jaya could have well done without. She was already working out the final stages of a plan with Rakh, devising a journey north, to the mountain fastness that had been their home in the days of revolution. Once the aliens were safely away from the city and under her wing, she would breathe more easily. Then all they'd have to worry about would be the rest of the world.

Shiv had been informative on the subject. Half the U.S.

Navy had been diverted to the Bay of Bengal, though the gov-ernment of Bharat had so far resisted giving foreign jets per-mission to enter its airspace. That standoff wouldn't last long, according to the media. The United Nations was putting pres-sure on Bharat to treat the alien presence as a global issue; there was little doubt that the UN would have its way in the end.

Ir Yth fluttered her stumpy hands, interrupting Jaya's train of thought.

For the hundredth time, the mediator will explain to people that he is not present and so they will
not see him.

"I may be very stupid," Jaya said acidly, "but I still don't understand. And by the way—talking of seeing, what have you done to my eyes?"

The
raksasa
appeared momentarily embarrassed.

It was a matter of aesthetics. I decided to make them a more normal color. I thought this would
please you
. She hunched her shoulders in a kind of multijointed shrug, presumably indicat-ing her indifference as to whether it gratified Jaya or not.
If you do not comprehend Sirru's abilities, I suppose
we'll have to go to the trouble of showing you. Loo't at the mediator
.

Jaya did so. Sirru stood with his usual expression of mild bewilderment. His hands were folded in the long sleeves of his robe. But as she stared, a strange sensation stole over her: Sirru was ceasing to feel real. She felt that she was looking at a pro-jection, and after a moment, even that no longer impinged upon her. He had impressed her with his total irrelevancy.

Abruptly, the sensation stopped. Sirru was back, smiling at her patiently. Unnerved and excited (Could he sustain that over the course of a journey? Could Ir Yth herself?), Jaya said, "And that will work for everyone, will it? There are troops surrounding this complex. They're supposed to be here for our protection, but I don't want to take risks." She didn't trust Singh's assurances that Amir Anand was not out there wait-ing to put a bullet in her, for a start, and doubtless the CIA was working on an infiltration as well. She turned to Ir Yth. "What about you? Can you still see him?"

The
ra^sasa
struggled to explain.
It is a question of the nature of speech. Yes, I can still see him. If
you turned to another of your hind and said "I am not here," they would not believe you. But
be-cause you do have had a proper understanding of the levels by which meaning is
communicated, you must believe what you are told
.

Jaya considered this. She nodded. "It's a useful trick. Later, we'll think about how it might be used." But she also won-dered just what else Sirru might be able to make people do.

7 /Vlumbai

There was a smile on the face of Naran Tokai, but inside, the industrialist was filled with a curious mix of elation and rage. He turned to Amir Anand.

"She's back, it seems."

"I know." Anand's pale gaze held Tokai's, but eventually even the butcher-prince's confidence wavered in the face of Tokai's iron calm.

"Well, Anand, what do you propose to do about it?"

"Do I have a say in the matter?" Bitterly, Anand threw the newspaper onto the table and gestured. "I do your bidding and I fall from grace."

"You fell from grace, Anand, because you failed to do my bidding correctly. Had you captured Nihalani and the alien, we would not have a problem now."

"I told you—the alien was some kind of projection. It was just a trick." There was a trace of grim satisfaction on Anand's carved countenance; the thought evidently pleased him. Once again, Tokai noted that his subordinate did not welcome the thought of alien life, and he wondered just why this might be.

Fear? Or was Anand afraid for his status, as if the carefully racist lies on which he had built his life might be challenged by the presence of something extraterrestrial? The true aristo-crat, Tokai thought smugly, need have no such insecurities. If genetic superiority was innate, how could it be challenged? He said now, "It was not a trick, Anand. I have made exten-sive inquiries. And now Nihalani is back—with
two
aliens."

"How do you know this?"

"I have a lot of technology at my disposal, Anand. The temple is bugged, for instance."

"Nihalani will be expecting that," Anand said, grudgingly.

"Possibly so. But will she be able to do anything about it? We will wait until I judge the time is right, Anand, and tüen we will simply spirit Nihalani and the aliens away. Nihalani will be killed, and I will convince these people that their best interests lie with me."

Amir Anand gave a small snort.

"After all," Tokai said, after a pause, "that is no more than the truth."

Anand looked at him. "So how does it feel, Tokai, to be on the side of right for a change?"

Tokai frowned, puzzled. What weird train of thought was Anand pursuing now? Patiently, he said, "But I am always on the side of right, Anand. How could it be otherwise?" He was surprised, and not particularly pleased, to see Anand smile.

8. varanast

Silently, Sirru glided throughout the complex, seeking Jaya. He found her in a lamplit room on the second tier. She was with the tall person named Rakh, closeted over a sheet of pa-per that Sirru believed to be a map, with a small smoldering stick of some kind in her hand; he wished he could ask her what it was. She was busy making plans for their safety, she had earlier told Ir Yth; they would not be staying long in the temenos. Sirru watched her for a pensive moment from be-hind the door, then withdrew.

Privately, he shared her fears, though he was not too con-cerned about other
desqusai
—he was confident about being able to handle assassins, one way or another. No, his worry was over Ir Yth. So far, the
rafyasa
had acquiesced to proposed plans. She agreed that it would be dangerous to stay; she had already witnessed one attempt at her own capture, whilst still in her avatar's form, and like most

/(haithoi
, Ir Yth disliked personal inconvenience to the point of being a physical cow-ard. It made sense to go elsewhere, Ir Yth had said. It was what she planned to do when she got there that worried Sirru.

At present, without effective communications, both of them were stuck, but he was not sure what contingency measures Ir Yth might have up her capacious sleeve. At the moment, therefore, they were circling one another like wary
hiroi
.

Sirru had asked Jaya when they would be leaving. She had told him that they would be unable to move for another forty-eight hours, at most, just until certain necessary arrangements were made. Having received this assurance, Sirru decided to take matters into his own hands and inspect what he could of the colony in the time remaining to him.

He could, of course, simply slip away and leave Jaya to her own devices, but he dismissed this as a possibility. If a second depth ship appeared, it would begin transmissions on the same frequency as the last one, and Jaya had been modified to pick up anything incoming. If they wanted to be rescued, they'd best stick with her. Besides, administrative guidelines were clear that the relationship between colonial staff and lo-cal Receivers should be fostered during the early days, and there were dire warnings about departures from protocol.

But a few hours' leave wouldn't hurt, and if Jaya was wor-ried about him wandering about the place on his own, Sirru would spare her the concern and simply omit to tell her. Emitting denials of his presence, he headed for the gate.

As he reached it, a familiar form stepped from the shadows.

Where are you going
? Ir Yth inquired, warily.

"Out. I should like a change of scene."

Then lam coming with you.

"I'm sure you would find it more comfortable to remain here," Sirru said, more out of a wish to see her insist than be-cause he had any real hope of dissuading her.