LITMIR.BIZ

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drama you have going on is none of my business.”

      “I give up,” said Ash. He’d tried to be reasonable, but now it was time to hand it over. “All yours, Parvati.”

      Ashoka smirked. “What is this? The good-cop, bad-cop routine?”

      Ash picked up his tea. It was cold. Typical. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

      Parvati smiled. “So, you’ve got it all sorted, have you, Ashoka? No such things as rakshasas?”

      Ashoka nodded. “No. Such. Thing. Fairy tales.”

      Parvati took off her sunglasses and leaned towards Ashoka so they were nose to nose. “Then these must be some … genetic defect?” Her eyes were pure serpent; green with a pair of black slits for pupils.

      Ashoka leaped out of his seat. “Bloody hell!”

      Parvati had him flat against the wall. Ashoka’s face had turned sheet white. Ash almost felt sorry for him.

      Almost. Actually, he didn’t feel sorry at all. He was enjoying this. Maybe it was bad of him, not warning Ashoka about Parvati in advance. But he’d had enough of that smirk. Ash leaned back and watched, smiling to himself. How can you explain a girl like Parvati? She might look like a teenager, but she was more than four and a half thousand years old. Her mother had been a human princess and her father was Ravana, the demon king. Her early years had not been particularly stable. She had a deep psychotic streak and was a one-girl weapon of mass destruction.

      But when she laughed, nothing else seemed to matter.

      Ashoka tried to slide sideways towards the door, but Parvati extended her fangs, pausing a few centimetres from his throat. Sweat ran down his pallid face. “And this must just be poor dental work.” Each one was slick with venom. She shivered, and scales, shiny green scales, rose through her skin, clustering like a collar around her neck at first, then extending to her jaw, her cheekbones. Her hair sank into the skull as it widened, swelling either side into a cobra’s hood. “And this? Do you think some dermatologist might be able to fix this?”

      Ashoka’s breath had deteriorated into short, desperate pants.

      Ash was impressed. He’d thought Ashoka would wet his pants. Still, Parvati’s shock tactics seemed to have done the job.

      “Enough, Parvati,” said Ash. He didn’t want Ashoka having a heart attack.

      She dropped on to the table and the transformation was complete. A cobra now rose up before the terrified Ashoka. Its tongue flickered, it hissed, and Ash could tell Parvati was laughing.

      Ashoka stared. Jaw moved. No words came out.

      “I said enough,” said Ash. “You’ve made your point.”

      The snake curled up, wound itself together and then unfurled back into a young woman. Scales still covered her like armour, taking a moment or two to recede back under her skin. She winked at Ash, took up her sunglasses and left the room.

      Ash smiled and looked back at his doppelgänger. “Are you all right?”

      Ashoka stared after her. “Rakshasas, they’re for real?”

      “Very. But she’s on our side.”

      “I’m glad to hear it,” Ashoka replied, his voice still quivering. He picked up a glass of water and tried to hold it steady enough to drink. Eventually he gulped it down. “My God.”

      “Well, what do you think?” Maybe they’d overdone it. They’d just planned to frighten him, not break his fragile little mind.

      Ashoka huffed. “A rakshasa.” Then he smiled. He grinned. “That is bloody awesome.”

      “Do we have any leads yet?” asked Ashoka, looking anxiously at the clock. “We’re running out of time. You said you’d rescue my family and it’s already five. They’ll be expecting our call soon, and then what?”

      “Pacing up and down will not help,” said Parvati. “Just sit.”

      Elaine was still on the phone, as she had been all day. The woman knew almost everyone. Ash wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d heard her speaking to an archbishop earlier. She was in the hallway, turning an unlit cigarette in her fingers.

      Ashoka hurled himself back into the sofa. “This is hopeless.”

      “That’s the attitude,” snapped Ash.

      “We wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”

      “Don’t forget who saved your life.”

      “Yeah, only to get my family killed instead.”

      Ash sprang up, tossing the chair aside. That was it. He grabbed Ashoka’s shirt, hauled him off the sofa and stared hard into the boy’s eyes. “You have no idea—”

      Elaine cleared her throat. “Finished?”

      Reluctantly, most reluctantly, Ash let Ashoka go. “Please tell me you have something.”

      Elaine flicked through her notepad. “Your dad drives a Range Rover? Licence plate M1STRY 1?”

      Ashoka straightened his shirt, smoothed down his crumpled collar. “Yes. It’s grey.”

      “Well, a friend of mine in the police has just found it. Abandoned in Docklands, Jardin Street. Just around the corner from—”

      “East India Dock,” interrupted Ashoka.

      “You know it?” asked Ash.

      Ashoka nodded. “Savage owns a house there. Actually a converted warehouse, overlooking the dock. The dock itself is where he moors his yacht whenever he’s in town. Place was done from top to bottom. Dad was the project director, at Savage’s request. The guy had the works: new floors, windows, upgraded the IT systems, the security, the whole audio-visual thing, home cinema. Major, major money was spent.”

      “When was this?” Ash asked.

      “About a year ago.”

      “This security, what’s it like?” asked Parvati.

      “Top notch. Presence detectors on the roof. Thermal and motion sensors on all floors. Six-digit PIN on entry. CCTV as standard with remote recording. Alarms hard-wired to both the local police station and a private security firm with a two-minute response-time guarantee.”

      Ash looked at Parvati. “What do you think?”

      Parvati frowned. “Thermals I could bypass. My body temperature is the local ambient.”

      Of course Parvati, like all reptiles, was cold-blooded. “And the rest?”

      “If there was a vent or drain, I could get in without worrying about the door alarm system.”

      “I’ve a suggestion,” said Ashoka.

      “Yeah, in a minute,” replied Ash. “So the problem’s the motion sensors, right?”

      “Ahem,” said Ashoka.

      “In a minute. But they would be deactivated if the house was occupied. Stands to reason.”

      Parvati shook her head. “The building would be zoned. All the unoccupied spaces would still be alarmed. If Savage has any sense.”

      “Look, I’ve an idea—”

      Ash turned around. “Will you just be quiet and let the grown-ups talk?”

      “So you don’t want to hear how I can bypass the security system?” Ashoka shrugged. “Fine. Carry on. Ignore me.”

      “What? Seriously?” said Ash, trying his best to hold back his irritation. “Why didn’t you just say? Oh, never mind. How?”

      Ashoka looked at Elaine. “Your laptop still on?”

      “All yours.”

      Ashoka

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