Fury's Goddess

by Alex Archer

  Yeah, right.

  She smirked. These men weren’t country bumpkins. They were hardened criminals and murderers. If they wanted Annja, there wasn’t much she was going to be able to do about it.

  Annja dragged herself through the opening and then felt herself run right into a rock.

  Dead end?

  She pushed against it, but it was solid. There was no way she would have been led down this path without there being some reason for its existence. It didn’t seem natural. This had been hewn out of the rock. The sides of the wall were all extremely sharp. If it had been the nature of the walls in her cell, she and Frank would have had no problem sawing their bindings off.

  Annja felt around the rock that barred her way. And then into the wall itself. On the third pass, she found the hidden trip switch.

  She pressed it.

  And the rock barring her path suddenly swung out of the way.

  Feeling pleased, Annja hauled herself through the opening, noting a sudden shift of air. The sword revealed she could once again stand at full height. She marveled at the room she’d come into.

  It was decorated exactly like an expensive condominium. Comfortable sofas and chairs furnished the room. And there were even windows that let in light.

  Annja frowned. She was in the mountain. How could windows be letting in light?

  They had to be fake, she realized. And then it made sense. Dunraj had asked his men to lay electricity cables to bring power to the mountain. But they had no idea why.

  Now she did.

  Dunraj had himself a nice comfortable home here. While the rest of his men lived in much more austere conditions in their caves, Dunraj lived like a king. Annja wondered just how devoted to Kali he truly was.

  It was tough maintaining that religious fervor when the life of luxury was so much easier to embrace.

  And enjoy.

  Annja studied one of the couches more closely in disdain. The cushions must have been handmade. She wondered exactly how Dunraj had managed to transport all of this stuff into the mountain without his men ever getting wise to it.

  Then again, she’d known religious zealots who were so blind they could barely see the tips of their noses.

  Annja put her sword away. The light from the fake windows was enough to see by, and Annja walked the entire layout, memorizing it. It reminded her of the building where Dunraj had hosted his welcome party. She wondered if he had a condo that looked like this on another floor back in Hyderabad.

  She entered the kitchen and found her way to the refrigerator. Opening it, she helped herself to a bottle of water and a hunk of cheese.

  And then she heard a noise.

  She quickly hid behind one of the chairs in the living room.

  Just in time.

  “I don’t care what it takes, make sure you find her.”

  Dunraj’s voice echoed across the condominium. Annja saw his boots as he came into the condo and stalked across the living-room floor. He collapsed into one of the sofas and then she heard the beep of a cell-phone call being disconnected.

  So he had cell-phone service, too?

  Interesting.

  I wonder what his men would think about their glorious leader using a cell phone to make calls. Come to think of it, I wonder what Kali would think of her most ardent supporter using such technology around sacred lands?

  Dunraj let out a sigh and then Annja heard him press the buttons to make another call. There was a pause before he started speaking again.

  “It’s me....No. No, they haven’t found her yet....Yes, I know. I’ve told them that. They know what must be done.” Another pause. “And what about on your end? Have you dealt with him?…Why not? The longer he stays alive the more likely he is to find out. He needs to die.”

  Annja held her breath. Dunraj was obviously in league with someone other than the men he led.

  But who?

  “Well, just get it done. It’s almost your turn, anyway.”

  Annja frowned. What the hell did that mean?

  Dunraj disconnected and then got up from the sofa. He stalked out of the room, and Annja heard a door open and close.

  Another way out?

  Maybe it was the network of extra tunnels Kormi had hinted at. Maybe Dunraj had direct access to them from this condominium. And if so, could Annja use them to rescue Frank?

  She had to try.

  Slowly, she rose from behind the chair and headed in the direction Dunraj had taken.

  A bedroom with a king-size bed loomed before her. He’d been in here. But where did he go?

  All she saw was a bathroom off to one side and a giant walk-in closet on the other.

  Two chances.

  Annja chose the closet.

  She walked in through the expensive suits hanging on the racks. Why would Dunraj need such finery for living inside a mountain? It didn’t make sense.

  Annja pressed deeper into the closet and then found herself facing a back wall.

  What were the odds this was a false door?

  She ran her hands along the edge of the wood. Up near the top where the piece met the ceiling, she found the splinter of wood and pressed it in. She heard a click and pressed the door open.

  And walked back into the rough interior of the mountain. Up ahead of her, about two hundred yards away, she saw Dunraj striding along a well-lit path.

  Annja ducked as soon as she came through the door. Fortunately, she had cover nearby.

  But Dunraj didn’t even look back, intent as he was on getting somewhere.

  Annja gave him ten more seconds and then rose from her hiding spot.

  If she could catch up with him, then she could force him to get Frank and bring him to her. And if he had a cell phone, Annja could use it to call Pradesh and his police to come to the rescue.

  That would work.

  By tomorrow morning, Annja could be back at the hotel, enjoying a nice long, hot bath.

  And then they could fly home. World’s Greatest Monster Mystery Solved.

  She hobbled faster down the path toward Dunraj. But he kept his pace brisk, and Annja found herself falling behind. The path was lit with overhead lightbulbs, and Annja wondered how much electricity this place must use.

  And who was paying the bills?

  Dunraj obviously had extensive connections, but what exactly was he involved with here? He’d set himself up to live like a king, complete with an army of criminals ready to kill in the name of a goddess they believed would protect them.

  But Annja doubted whether Kali ever would.

  Dunraj needed to be brought down.

  He turned suddenly, and Annja froze, halfway expecting him to see her in the corridor. If he did, she’d have precious few moments to make her move. She was too far away from him to present much of a threat, aside from shouting an insult at him. But Dunraj paid her no attention.

  And then he was gone.

  Annja frowned. Where had he disappeared?

  She rushed ahead, fighting off her aches. I need to see where he goes, she thought.

  But when she got to where Dunraj had turned, there was nothing there.

  Chapter 23

  Annja followed that part of the corridor around and found that it looped back on itself. This place has more hiding spots than any I’ve ever seen, she thought.

  Dunraj had gone somewhere, but where exactly, Annja couldn’t quite say. And she was rapidly tiring of chasing him. Besides, if Dunraj was still alive, that could mean Kormi was dead. Not something she was prepared to consider right now. She needed to get back into the mountain, find Frank and Kormi, and get the hell out of this godforsaken place.

  But that was easier said than done.

  Still, she studied each section of the wall, and on the third go-around she found another secret entrance.

  Annja stepped through into a different area of the mountain altogether. She heard the sounds of shovels and pickaxes and the clang of steel on rock. Somewhere far off, she thought she heard what sounde
d like a pneumatic hammer or some type of motorized excavation.

  And when she came around the corner, the sight that greeted her was the last she would have expected. A full-fledged dig was apparently happening right inside the mountain, far below where she huddled.

  But what were they digging for? She crouched behind a rock and studied the scene. There were at least ten workers engaged in hauling dirt and rock away from a central focal point.

  And Annja saw that there was a statue still partially covered by rock. The statue looked familiar.

  Kali.

  Was Dunraj digging for treasure in the mountain itself? If so, then how did the cult of Thuggee figure into things? Were these men criminals who sacrificed to cover up the fact that they were treasure hunters?

  She turned back to the statue. One of the arms appeared to be solid gold. And this incarnation of Kali had ten arms. It stood at least fifty feet high and twenty feet wide. Its sheer size and weight would mean that the gold alone would be worth millions. Jewel-encrusted headpieces adorned this statue, as well.

  Annja slumped back behind the rock. Dunraj was excavating artifacts from the mountain—from the very sacred land he pretended to protect with his gang of thugs.

  Did the rest of his men realize this? Did they know what he was up to? And if not, then how could Dunraj keep all of this concealed from them?

  Annja rose and watched the work for another five minutes. The workers were taking the dirt and stone out of the chamber that lay below. Annja had to find out where they were taking it.

  She snaked her way down a walkway that led closer to where the workers were digging out the statue.

  The workers themselves looked as though they were average diggers at any other site. They didn’t look like the Thuggee men that Annja had run into elsewhere in the mountain.

  How was it that the two sides didn’t know of each other’s presence?

  Surely they would have passed in the tunnels, wouldn’t they?

  Annja saw a conveyor carrying lots of boulders and dirt away from the main dig site. It vanished around a corner.

  I need to follow that, Annja thought.

  She waited for a worker to walk past her position and then snuck farther along the passageway. The conveyor belt trundled next to her, and she could see the rocks bouncing on the rubber belt.

  Then, around the next corner, it vanished into some type of feeder machine. Annja saw an even more spectacular operation happening here. Spray hoses wet the rocks entering the feed machine, and she could see pneumatic pumps jostling trays and separating the boulders and dirt from each other.

  But what were they looking for here?

  Hearing a number of voices close by, Annja huddled under one of the legs of the feeder machine, pressing herself deeper into the shadows.

  She needed the entire picture if she wanted to topple Dunraj’s plans.

  The men moved on, and Annja clambered out from under the feeder machine. She walked down and then saw a front loader busy loading a dump truck.

  Annja stopped.

  There were trucks in the mountain? How was that even possible? As far as she knew, there was no way to enter or exit the mountain in something even remotely as large as these trucks.

  So how in the world had they gotten them in here?

  She drew closer and the noise became deafening. The sound alone should have clued Dunraj’s Thuggee men in to the fact that their boss wasn’t exactly being as honest with them as he claimed to be.

  The more she saw, the more Annja suspected that Dunraj was using the Thuggee to accomplish his more secular goals. Certainly he wasn’t interested in the worship of Kali. Whatever he did to promote that ideal was one thing, but Dunraj was clearly focused on something much bigger.

  And much more lucrative.

  The excavation of the Kali statue would no doubt be worth many millions of dollars, but there was something else going on here, as well.

  Annja glanced back at the feeder machine and then at the various hoses that led out of it.

  She frowned.

  Minerals?

  Gold.

  Dunraj was mining the mountain from the inside out. And he was taking whatever he could get. It had obviously once been a refuge for the Thuggee and their various treasures. Dunraj would take those, as well.

  But his real goal was to strip the mountain.

  And why not? Doing it this way he didn’t have to apply for permits or licenses or even let the government know what he was up to.

  He could clean the mountain out and leave the shell behind, and no one would know any better.

  So, why employ the Thuggee? To scare the residents away? Or perhaps the residents themselves had heard noises they couldn’t explain. Maybe they were complaining and threatening to expose Dunraj’s operation.

  Something needed to be done, and the murders were it.

  So Dunraj goes and gets himself a band of religious zealots and starts up the blood worship of Kali again. The residents are terrified and can’t even think about asking questions about strange mechanical noises when it’s not even safe to walk around outside at night.

  Annja shook her head. Certainly not the most ingenious plan she’d ever heard of, but Dunraj seemed to know what he was doing. Although eating hearts? How had he managed to bring himself to that—and convince others to join him?

  The other question that remained disturbed her, too. How was he getting all this material excavated and out of the mountain?

  She heard a rumble of a big dump truck and turned to see one bearing down on her. Annja felt the first waves of panic. Had she been seen? Was it coming to run her over?

  Annja eased herself closer to the next outcropping of rock and waited. Apparently she was safe; she hadn’t been seen. And as the dump truck passed by, she grabbed the metal handle and swung herself up onto the back of the truck.

  She ducked down and kept herself as hidden as possible as the dump truck rumbled through the caverns. The air quality was good, too. Dust seemed almost nonexistent for some reason, but then Annja saw air blowers and extractor fans.

  Dunraj was looking out for his people. Annja frowned. Yeah, right. She doubted that’s why he’d had them installed. But the less complaints he received from this crew, the better they’d be able to work.

  The truck continued on, and then Annja saw something ahead of her that made her blink.

  An actual paved road sprawled ahead of the truck.

  He’s got a highway down here?

  And sure enough, the dump truck trundled onto the highway entrance and then started heading for an elaborate concrete tunnel. Signs in Hindi pointed out certain routes, and the truck appeared to be speeding up.

  This was her chance. Annja could ride the truck and see where it went, or she could stay behind and try to free Frank.

  She looked ahead as she felt the dump truck’s engine kick up a gear. There was no telling how far the truck would have to drive to dump its load. It might have to go all the way back to Hyderabad for all she knew.

  And if that happened, how would she find her way back to Frank?

  Annja made her decision and jumped off, tucking and rolling as the truck entered the tunnel.

  The impact with the paved road hurt a lot more than she’d thought it would, but Annja kept rolling until she’d absorbed the impact as much as possible.

  Then she got up and ran for the closest cover she could find: an electrical transformer that controlled the juice for this section of the excavation.

  Annja huddled there and tried to get her bearings. There were workers everywhere, and some of them seemed to be on break.

  She needed to find her way back to the cave where the Thuggee were. If she could lead them down here and prove that Dunraj was double-dealing with them, then they’d turn against him.

  She hoped.

  And what time was it now? It had to be well after sunset. Yet, the work continued down here. Clearly Dunraj was on some sort of schedule. He had shifts going
twenty-four hours a day.

  That was good for him, but problematic for Annja. Somehow she had to maneuver her way through all of these guys before she was discovered.

  She spotted what looked like a bathroom facility and one guy heading for it. She made her decision quickly and rose from her hiding place, striding across the ground.

  As long as she walked with purpose, most people wouldn’t stop her or question her right to be there.

  Ahead of her, the man entered the bathroom.

  Annja wrinkled her nose, already able to smell the stench of the place. But it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

  She knocked on the portable bathroom.

  Someone called out from inside.

  Annja quickly grasped the door handle and opened it.

  Stepping inside, she clocked the man from behind.

  As he fell, she caught him and dragged him out and behind the bathroom. Then she stripped off his work clothes and helmet and put them on. She stowed him back in the bathroom, and when she closed the door she broke the handle so it wouldn’t open.

  It wouldn’t buy her much time, but she hoped she could at least get back to the dig site without any interference.

  She hoped.

  As she walked, she passed other workers. She kept her head down and sped up, pretending she was late for some sort of appointment elsewhere on the site. A few people called out to her, but she ignored them and kept walking.

  She made it back to the feed-machine area and took a moment to catch her breath and wipe the sweat from her eyes.

  That’s when she saw people running toward the bathroom.

  Uh-oh.

  She turned and started to head back toward the dig site.

  And nearly bumped into someone.

  A harsh voice barked at her. Annja’s helmet came off and rolled away.

  She scrambled for it.

  Grabbed it and stood to replace it on her head.

  And came face-to-face with Dunraj.

  “You seem to turn up in the most unexpected places.”