The Spark (White Gates Adventures Book 4)

by Trevor Stubbs

  “Hang on. Did you say ‘another planet’?”

  “Yes. Sorry, I know it’s confusing.”

  “Where?”

  “It’s called Planet Joh in the Daan system. It’s the same galaxy but many light years away… We are human, though.”

  Kakko sat up. She had made a connection. “Hey, Dev… Yeah, it’s me, Kakko… In India… Yeah, the Creator got us here. I’m afraid I bent Her ear rather… We’re in a place called—” Kakko looked up at James.

  “Agra.”

  “Agra. We’re in a busy street—”

  “Behind the Hotel Alleviate, near the Ambedkar Bridge,” explained James.

  “Outside a street café behind the Hotel Alleviate, near the Ambedkar Bridge… You know it…? Great.” Kakko continued to listen to Dev intently. Her face was full of expression – so much that even Tam couldn’t make out what kind of news she was hearing.

  “Wow, Dev. Congratulations…! You’ll be with us in less than two hours? That’s brilliant. OK, Dev… A guy called James… Just met him… OK, see you outside the hotel in two hours… Look forward to it.” Kakko passed the phone back to James who hung up. “So he’s with Zoe,” said Kakko delighted, “and, guess what, they’re getting married!”

  “Woah! That was quick,” said Tam. “Hey, we haven’t had a time warp, have we?”

  “No. He met her in the mountains and it seems things have gone really fast…”

  “That makes me feel… well… terrifically relieved.”

  “And so it should.”

  ***

  Two and a half hours later they were seated in the opulent surroundings of the Alleviate Hotel. Kakko felt scruffy but the others didn’t seem to be fazed by the swish air-conditioned interior. Tam had explained they weren’t staying there but Dev had swept them inside nonetheless and ordered soft drinks for all of them.

  Kakko was excited to see Zoe, who was just glowing. She had caught the sun in the mountains but that didn’t explain a lightness of spirit that Kakko had not seen before.

  “Congratulations, Zoe. That didn’t take you long.”

  “They don’t stand on ceremony in these parts – meet the family and you’re in.”

  “Are you sure…?”

  “Absolutely. I love this man. He’s… he’s so perfect. So polite, so attentive, so loving, so… everything.”

  “And he seems set on you.”

  “Yeah, amazing, ain’t it?”

  “You deserve him, Zoe.”

  “Thanks.”

  Dev was in conversation with James. “So, you say your friend Ruth ‘disappeared’ almost two weeks ago.”

  “Yes,” said James. “I wasn’t exciting enough for her.”

  “What do you know about these people she went with?”

  “Nothing. Neither did she. Three men and a girl in their twenties – from Europe I would guess… Said they were trekking across India and they were going to some amazing places nearby but off the tourist route… We had been to the Taj and the Red Fort… We had planned to move on to New Delhi… She left with them but she didn’t come back. I texted her and she told me she was having a great time and not to hang about for her.”

  “Did she say where they were going?”

  “No. That was it. A short text… I texted back and again the next day and she told me not to hound her. It sounded quite strong – even for her. I was upset and a bit scared. I tried to ring her but it wouldn’t go through, so I texted again with the flight details and told her not to miss the plane… I haven’t had any contact since. I hung around here – I haven’t been out of Agra in case she came back.”

  “We must look for her,” said Dev, taking charge. “She isn’t safe. There are some bad types who prey on vulnerable people. How old is she?”

  “Nineteen.”

  Kakko shuddered. Dev seemed so sure she was in trouble. All the girl wanted was a bit more excitement.

  Zoe looked up at Dev and asked, “Where do we start to look? What do we do?”

  “We put her picture on social media – all my local contacts. We get leaflets printed with her picture on. We make T-shirts and give them away…”

  “Wow! That sounds a bit over the top,” suggested Kakko.

  “No. We need to find her. We won’t unless we ‘pull out all the stops’, as you Westerners say.”

  “What about the police?” asked Zoe.

  “We tell them, too… but we don’t leave it to them.”

  “But this is going to cost money,” said James. “I—”

  “No problem. Leave that to my family,” stated Dev.

  “But your family don’t know us… and I… I have only just met your friends.”

  “If someone is in trouble in India, we don’t have to know her. It is our country, so that is down to us,” said Dev, speaking with authority. “Ruth needs to be found… We must find her.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I’m so grateful,” said James, and he began, to his surprise, to fill up and then sob. “Sorry…”

  “You’ve done well without a friend,” said Kakko. “Now you have some good ones.”

  “Yeah…”

  “What about her folks?” asked Zoe.

  James explained. Dev was already on his mobile.

  “Well, I think you have to tell them,” said Zoe. “Tell them everything. Tell them you and Dev’s family are looking for her… This is not your fault.”

  “I promised I would look after her,” drawled James, “and I haven’t.”

  “You are – right now. Short of tying her up, you couldn’t have done any more than you have,” said Kakko, decisively. She knew how this girl might have felt. It was easy for a free spirit to get taken in.

  “Thanks.”

  “OK,” said Dev. “We need to report to the police here in Agra, and then get back to my parents’ place straightaway and put our operation in hand.”

  ***

  It was approaching midnight when they arrived at Dev’s parents’ large middle-class Indian home. Dev busied himself scanning the picture from Ruth’s passport and preparing a picture of her from one on James’s phone suitable for a poster and a T-shirt. The guests were treated kindly and shown to guest rooms. James shared with Tam, while Kakko doubled up with Zoe in a room that was set out like a room in a palace – including a bowl of fresh fruit on a low table in the centre.

  James called his sister. She agreed Ruth’s family should be told. To his great relief, she volunteered to talk to the parents. She said it was better to call round rather than talk on the phone and, anyway, it was only five thirty in the morning in Queensland, and James should get some sleep. He didn’t argue. She would go round to Ruth’s family’s place at first light.

  19

  The morning sun shone on the roofs of the houses and gardens of Mathura and the night-time trill of the cicadas was replaced with birdsong… loud birdsong. Dev was already up when Kakko surfaced. He was ready to go to the local printers.

  Two hours later, he reappeared with a box of papers bearing Ruth’s picture and the words: Missing. Have you seen this girl? in both English and Hindi.

  “The T-shirts will be ready by midday, then we start work,” said Dev with authority.

  “That’s fast. How did you manage it?”

  “My father is a businessman. He knows everyone around here. They are already looking.” He showed them Ruth’s face on his mobile phone. “All our friends are posting this on to all their friends… This will go all over northern India, perhaps further.”

  “Wow. That’s great,” said James. He had slept deeply – he had been so tired. Now things were happening, he was hoping it was only a matter of time before someone found Ruth.

  “But there are many ordinary people on the streets who will not see her picture on the phones.” Dev spoke with urgency. “This is where we must work. We need to hand out these flyers and distribute the T-shirts.”

  James’s phone rang. It was Ruth’s father. Mandy had done a good job. He s
eemed pleased that James had galvanised so much support and didn’t appear to blame James as much as he thought he would.

  “I reckon he wasn’t surprised that she went off,” he said quietly.

  “I guess he knows his daughter,” offered Tam.

  “It happened so… so quickly. It didn’t cross my mind at the time that they might have been up to no good, or I would have made a bigger scene.”

  “The ‘if onlys’ won’t help,” said Zoe. “All of us can think of things we would have done differently after the event.”

  “Too right,” said James ruefully. “If I had thought more with my brain than my heart, I would have been more discerning, and I would never have allowed Ruth to persuade me into coming here with her in the first place.”

  It occurred to Kakko that Tam may have behaved exactly like James if he had been the boy and she the insistent girl – she had always recognised the power she had over him. Kakko thought she knew what it might have been like for Ruth buoyed up by her sense of power over her boyfriend. That would have been the time she was most vulnerable. Con artists preyed on those who weren’t suspicious. That didn’t mean they were weak or stupid, just innocent or inexperienced. The thought stiffened Kakko’s resolve to find this girl – perhaps she had just been a bit too exuberant, too much of a free spirit who had been too confident of her own powers…

  Meanwhile, Dev’s family were secretly worried that they might be far too late – but for James’s sake they didn’t show it. They smiled kindly and encouragingly as they ate a delicious lunch based on salad vegetables, naan dips and sweet cakes. Dev’s father called two of his workers from the office to assist with the distribution of the leaflets and T-shirts.

  By the end of the day, 2,000 flyers and 100 T-shirts had been distributed around the streets and markets of Agra. Now all they could do was wait.

  “Tonight is a full moon,” said Dev. “This is exactly the right time to see the Taj. Let us take a rickshaw to the gates. It is open tonight on the full moon.”

  “The Taj? You mean the Taj Mahal? The actual place – the real Taj Mahal?” exclaimed Zoe.

  “Yes. The real one, of course.”

  The Taj Mahal by moonlight is one of Planet Earth’s most wonderful sights. It was commissioned by a man, designed by a man and built by many thousands of men, yet it shone in the moonlight like something God might have created.

  “What is it? I mean, what was it built for?” asked Kakko.

  “It was built by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife, Mumtaz.”

  “A tomb. That must be the world’s biggest tomb ever,” marvelled Zoe.

  “He loved her very much. He wanted nothing but the best for her.”

  “And she is buried underneath it?”

  “Yes. Alongside Shah Jahan himself. He had not planned for himself to be buried here – but his sons put him with his wife.”

  “So, it’s a kind of monument to love?” said Kakko.

  “That is an excellent way of looking at it,” answered Dev.

  They walked down the water garden and up the steps. The huge dome sparkled above them.

  “It’s as if the moon was made especially to shine on these buildings,” marvelled Tam.

  “I wish Ruth had seen this by moonlight,” sighed James. “It might have made her think again… about being with me, I mean… You know, beautiful as it is, there is a sadness about this place. Shah Jahan built it because he had lost his beloved.”

  “Yes. It is a gift to the one whom he mourned,” agreed Dev. “But we are praying that you will find your Ruth in this world, not in the next.”

  They were just hailing a rickshaw to take them back to the station, when Dev’s phone rang. It was his father. Dev listened with a concentrated expression.

  He looked up and reported what his father was telling him. “A man has rung from the Kinari Bazaar. He says he saw Ruth with three white men and an Indian ten days ago. He remembers her because they brought her to buy a sari. It was unusual to have so many men around and no women. He says they were talking of going to Varanasi.”

  Dev told his father that they were on their way back to the station. They could call round to see the man. His father gave them the details.

  Apparently the man had been measuring someone for a suit when the five people came into the shop. He assumed they wanted the men’s section – there being four men. But instead they engaged the female assistant. While she was attending to the girl, he overheard the men discussing plans to move on to Varanasi as soon as they could get a vehicle. They said something about it being easier when the girl was dressed as an Indian. He remembered them specifically saying the girl rather than her name, which struck him as odd. The woman assistant remembered them, too.

  It wasn’t too difficult to find the shop. It was crowded with dummies dressed in saris and suits, with shirts and bolts of cloth and boxes of all colours and sizes lining the walls. Joss sticks burned on counters which also displayed buttons and a plethora of trinkets and accessories that glittered in the bright electric lights. Kakko and Zoe were fascinated and began examining the colourful material as they waited for an assistant to be free. It was amazing how busy this little shop was so late in the evening. A man looked up as a client left, and Dev approached him and introduced himself.

  After talking to him, James was sure it had been Ruth the man had seen. But ten days ago. That was an age. “Where’s Varanasi?” he asked.

  “East. On the Ganges. About 600 kilometres. It’s a place of religious pilgrimage… and a tourist mecca.”

  “Six hundred kilometres!” breathed James, alarmed. “That’s almost, like, from Brisbane to Sydney! How do we get there?”

  “The easiest way would be to fly. I’ll ask my father.”

  20

  The following morning they were in Agra airport in the queue to board for the one-and-a-half-hour flight to Varanasi.

  “This is costing your family a mint,” protested James.

  “When Dad gets into something, he stops at nothing. We have a lead and we should follow it up… Besides, my family is not short of a few rupees.”

  “I was given the impression that India was a place with much poverty,” said Kakko. “But I see attractive shops, magnificent buildings and a modern airport.”

  “We have our poor people,” answered Dev. “India has a massive population. But we are also making progress rapidly. My father owns a business that makes a lot of money but he is a good employer and does not pay poverty wages… Sadly, there are some who do.”

  “Most people here are not Christians. I thought I heard my brother Bandi saying they are Hin… something.”

  “Hindus. Yes, that is the chief religion. It is the ancient religion of India.”

  “Are you Hindu?”

  “My parents used to be but they became Christians. My sister and I have been brought up as Christians.”

  “Is that hard… being a Christian when everyone else is Hindu?”

  “Not everyone else. Our church is full; it is not so bad for Christians. India has many religions. There are Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims – the Muslims can have a hard time of it… The Taj is a Muslim building.”

  “I was going to ask that,” said Tam. “The inscriptions around it are not in the Indian script I have seen elsewhere. I have seen a lot of that but the writing on the Taj is different.”

  “It’s Arabic. They are quotations from the Quran.”

  “Can you read them?”

  “No. I cannot read Arabic. But I know what it says above the gate: ‘O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you.’”

  “That’s beautiful. Shah Jahan really loved Mumtaz. Were they married long?” asked Zoe.

  “She died giving birth to her fourteenth child.” Dev smiled.

  “Ah… That’s a lot…” Zoe was lost for words. She began to wonder what Dev’s family expected of her. But Dev was just one of three siblings – so that wasn’t quite so bad.
She wouldn’t mind having three children.

  They touched down at Varanasi and Dev ordered a taxi to take them straight to the address of a printer who had already been sent the file to print more flyers and T-shirts. The generous printer had everything waiting for them and declined any payment.

  “People need to know that we in India do not tolerate this sort of crime,” he said firmly.

  “What sort of crime?” Kakko asked Zoe.

  “I’m not sure. But I think Dev’s family are hoping that these men have kept her alive. She has no value to them dead.”

  “That bad!” Kakko shuddered. She had been denying the truth to herself and had gone along with Dev’s family’s positive approach. “Yuk. What sort of value?”

  “Oh, Kakko. Use your imagination… And drugs will come into it too, probably.”

  “At least she will be alive…”

  “She may not want to be,” said Zoe calmly.

  “Oh, Zoe…”

  The print shop owner had taken them to his reception room and they were all being plied with tea and sweet treats.

  “I have asked two of my apprentices to accompany you. I recommend the young ladies stay here… at least until we know more.”

  “I—” uttered Kakko. But Tam got in first.

  “I think they can look after themselves very well. In fact, I know they can… They are trained,” he added.

  “Ah. I see.”

  “They will stay with us. If… When we find Ruth, we may need them.”

  “I see your reasoning.”

  No further objections to the presence of the ladies was made. Tam caught Zoe’s eye and squeezed Kakko’s hand.