Shiva

by Simon Sloane

  Diana watched the angry young men clustering around the gate that shielded the Singh compound from the urban mob. She didn’t need a doctorate in crowd psychology to diagnose how little time they had left. With a shudder, she remembered how they had almost raped her after the helicopter crash. Raj Rao and his family had felt their wrath in New Delhi, his severed head being paraded through the streets.

  “Prepare the chopper,” Diana said. “Either we hurry up, or…” Her hand cut across her neck.

  Chapter 107

  Messenger

  Saturday, 1:15pm CET (4:45pm Indian time)

  Hugo closed his eyes as another dose of pain medication spread through his veins. His nostrils soaked up the scent of the incense, making him relax.

  The doctor who had administered the injection stood up and left the temple.

  Maya and her love breathed new meaning into his life. For the first time in more than a year, Hugo had spent an hour without thinking of the one he had lost. His attraction to Maya was so great that she even made him stop thinking of Shiva.

  They still had so much to explore together. Maybe he shouldn’t resist Shiva’s genetic cure, which would conserve their youth for centuries. Wasn’t it foolish to fight the inevitable? One might well argue that the human race could only survive when it transformed, just as homo sapiens itself had evolved from earlier humanoids.

  And yet Hugo felt irked by what he had missed. Shiva had diverted from the timeline he had calculated with Diana on MECCA, and Hugo wanted to know where he had erred. “May I borrow your phone for a moment?” he asked Maya. When something bothered him, he had to get to the bottom of it.

  “Say hi to Diana,” Maya said as she gave him her device. She gave him a suspicious glance. It was eerie how she was able to read his thoughts.

  “What do you think about her?” he asked. Maya should have no more reason to feel jealous about the former ATF agent.

  “Diana’s not an actor on our stage,” Maya replied. “She’s a messenger, a carrier. Her task was to bring you to me. And that’s what she did.”

  Hugo received a response on Maya’s phone. It was a photo of a single line branching in two. Apparently, Diana had rearranged the sequence of Shiva’s actions, separating the Syngentiq announcements from Shiva’s acts of violence.

  To Hugo, it didn’t make sense. Syngenetiq’s newfound genetic capabilities cut both ways. The entire world might feel their destructive power soon.

  “What is she writing?” Maya asked. Clearly, she still felt awkward about Diana.

  “It’s nothing.” Hugo looked up at the temple ceiling to avoid eye contact with Maya, to deprive her of her insight into his mind. The wrought-iron chandelier and its seventy-two candles bestowed a majestic glow on the iron bars beneath the cupola. The structure appealed to Hugo’s aesthetic sensibilities, because the curved beams bisected each other according to the golden ratio. Also known as phi, the ratio was equal to one half of one plus the square root of five—an irrational number that approximated 1.61.

  “Mother said I’d my find true love early in life.” Maya eyes sparkled with passion. She moved in to kiss Hugo in an attempt to distract him. “And she was right.”

  “She was a wise woman. I’d have loved to meet her.”

  “But you have!” Maya looked deep into his eyes.

  It took a few moments until it dawned on him. “Akasha ….”

  “Yes,” Maya said. “Although her body was cremated, her spirit remains with us.”

  “Akasha,” Hugo repeated, gasping at the terrifying conclusion.

  It wasn’t Sorokan Singh whose ambitions drove the AI from within.

  Shiva was Akasha.

  Akasha was Shiva.

  Chapter 108

  Embrace

  Saturday, 1:30pm CET (5:00pm Indian time)

  “How could he escape?” Charenton shouted. He grabbed his visitor’s tie, pulling him close. “La Santé is the safest prison of Paris, for heaven’s sake!”

  “We’ve issued an arrest warrant,” the head of the secret service said. “Not just for Khaled Sharkhor but also for our very own Agent Leclerc. Apparently, he’s a disgruntled Tanguy loyalist who’s gone rogue.”

  Charenton squinted. “Why would one of your agents do something like that? Tanguy is about to lose! Is Leclerc stupid or what?”

  The head of the SSI shrugged as he stood behind one of the sofas in the Salon D’Argent. “We can’t say for sure until we catch Leclerc. His laptop was lost as well. The agent failed to report to the office after his second interrogation of the suspect. He picked the precise moment between two jail shifts.”

  “You better catch both of them! And not a word to the press!”

  “Aren’t we supposed to warn the population about a terrorist at large?” Zoë asked with a concerned expression. “This Khaled’s a dangerous fellow.”

  Charenton had only just noticed her return to the Salon D’Argent, but what did it matter now? If he couldn’t trust Zoë, he was finished. He pointed at the television screen above the marble mantelpiece. Les Actualités illustrated Syngenetiq’s virus-based genetic cure with a three-dimensional animation of the double helix. “Voters are in a good mood. Let’s not scare them one day before the election.”

  “I see no reason for euphoria,” the slant-eyed SSI bureaucrat said as he paced Charenton’s favourite salon. “Imagine what might happen if Syngenetiq’s virus delivered malicious genes instead of good ones! Al-Antqam’s dreams would come true at once. One could genetically target all non-Arabs and kill them off in one stroke!”

  “You’re such a glass-half-empty kind of chap,” Charenton growled, pointing at the TV. “All I’m asking for is to keep our voters happy for just one more day. Then you can do whatever you want. Bring in the Syngenetiq CEO for questioning, if you like.”

  “Maybe we can arrange for you to meet him,” Zoë suggested, checking her watch. “How about an early dinner at the Elysée Palace tonight? Celebrate Syngenetiq’s success with the eyes of the world on you. It would be perfect for prime-time news.”

  Charenton beamed. “Tanguy would stomp his feet if he saw me restoring France to the forefront of technology!” He spoke in a staccato rhythm and stabbed the air with his forefinger, mocking his rival’s annoying rhetorical style.

  The spy chief gnashed his yellow teeth. “We have no idea what Syngenetiq has in store for us. Our analysts raised concerns about its opaque ownership structure. We don’t even know who calls the shots there. This CEO you mentioned might be nothing but a puppet of foreign investors—maybe even Arab ones.”

  “They must be doing this for tax reasons,” Zoë said. “We shouldn’t panic—”

  “And what gives you the competence to discuss matters of strategy?” The head of the secret service kicked the coffee table in frustration. “Have you ever served in the military, mademoiselle? Or in the secret service?”

  Charenton shook his head. This madness had to stop. “I listen to all viewpoints based on their merits. Even peasants from the Poitiers or a fishermen from Finisterre have something of value to say. So, please!” He gestured at Zoë to continue.

  “Let’s wait for proof that Syngenetiq can actually deliver. Ask them to show us a cured cancer patient or something like that. It could be a great photo opportunity. Before that I wouldn’t make a big song and dance about this.”

  Charenton nodded. “Exactly! Syngenetiq is about to hand us the election on a platter. Let’s not waste this opportunity. The cure is made in France, after all.”

  “What if it goes wrong?” The agency head threw up his arms in frustration. “Even the Brits agree that Syngenetiq is part of a shady global network of more than a hundred quantum computers. The whole thing could be out of control already.”

  “Such party poopers, those Limeys!” Charenton snarled. “I bet they wouldn’t make a fuss if that thing had been invented in London.”

  Zoë seconded with a charming laugh.

  “I see,” the head of the inte
lligence service responded with a nod, but Charenton could tell he didn’t agree with his orders. The officer’s left fist was clenched as he saluted the acting president with his right hand.

  Then he turned and left.

  Chapter 109

  Akasha

  Saturday, 1:45pm CET (5:15pm Indian time)

  Hugo still couldn’t believe that Maya’s mother was the soul of Shiva. Suddenly, the AI’s words to Jyran carried a new meaning.

  I’m not your father ….

  Shiva hadn’t taken it kindly when Jyran had mistaken her for Sorokan.

  “Akasha loves you, Hugo,” Maya said, caressing the scars on his chest. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have spoken to you. Before you came, she never talked to anyone but me.”

  Hugo’s knees were still weak from the morphine. He realised Maya’s connection with her mother through Shiva mirrored his experience with Sibyl. Maybe Shiva had even saved Hugo’s life, revealing to Maya where to find him when Yogi had held him at gunpoint in the Room of the Three Gods. Maya had come just in time to shoot Yogi before he would have killed Hugo.

  “Mother and I have always been close. For me, she never really went away. I guess that’s what you must have felt with your lover from Paris as well.”

  Hugo pondered whether to share more about his loss. “I’ve had to let go of someone close to my heart,” he said without offering any more detail.

  “I can tell. But now there’s no more need for you to be sad. It was our destiny to find each other. You’re meant to be mine. And I’ll always be yours.”

  Hugo thought of Diana’s arrival and the destruction of his quantum computer in Dubai. Had Shiva targeted Hugo specifically to bring him to Mumbai? It was through Shiva that Akasha had sent the sheik video to be found in Hyde’s AI. The ATF had picked up the signal and forced him out of isolation, destroying his sole link to the young Frenchwoman. Hugo was free for a new love—Akasha’s daughter.

  Anticipating him to be the first to uncover Shiva’s location, Akasha had lured Hugo to Mumbai, rescuing Maya from an unhappy marriage. Jyran had locked her in a golden cage, abusing his sister in the most revolting manner. With either Pratiman or Yogi as her husband, she would have been trapped forever by Jyran’s cruelty.

  There was one thing Hugo didn’t understand: if Shiva wasn’t powered by Sorokan’s mind, why did the AI follow the patriarch’s ideology to the letter?

  His apocalyptic fantasies had not been cremated along with Sorokan. Nietzsche, Darwin and Hitler were more than portraits on the wall of the Room of the Three Gods. Their philosophies guided Shiva in its quest to dramatically reduce the world population before making a chosen few immortal. And while the idea of being among the lucky recipients of Shiva’s genetic upgrade appealed to Hugo’s vanity, he still didn’t know why Maya had selected him to live forever by her side. Eternal bliss was just one of the things that were too good to be true.

  “Just tell me one thing,” Hugo said while caressing Maya’s glowing cheeks. He hoped she hadn’t noticed when he set her phone to recording mode, offering Diana a window into the Shiva temple.

  “What is it?” Maya looked at him with the dark, sad eyes of a young woman who had been forced to grow up too soon.

  “How exactly … did your mother pass away?”

  Chapter 110

  Kali

  Saturday, 2:00pm CET (5:30pm Indian time)

  Maya would never get used to the shocking images. She brought them back on her screens in the Shiva temple only be because she trusted Hugo.

  The man of her life deserved to know.

  “So, you stole Alexander’s security footage,” he said.

  Maya laughed, although she didn’t feel amused. “I watched the recording again and again, but I knew it would never be sufficient to convict Yogi. He might have blamed the electric discharge on a technical malfunction.”

  Hugo’s face was pale from the sight of Maya’s unconscious mother on the aluminium platform in the operating theatre on the thirty-fifth floor. He gasped when Yogi placed the electrodes on her forehead. The sight of the flying sparks jolted him as if he had been electrocuted instead of Akasha. He sobbed when the flames scorched her sumptuous body, which had barely changed since Brush of Desire.

  Maya saw Hugo’s hands tremble with anger as he watched the figure brooding near the door. He seemed shocked when he saw that Jyran had witnessed his mother’s gruesome death, but he hadn’t done anything to stop Yogi.

  “Do you understand now what troubled me for so long?” Maya asked, glancing at the Shiva statue beneath the screens. She lit a candle at Shiva’s feet, replacing the one that had burnt out while they had watched Akasha being ripped out of her life.

  “I do.” Hugo inhaled the scent emanating from the chandelier. His glance fell on Maya’s orange sari. She had left it on the pillows, where they had made love.

  At last Maya had unveiled the birth of Shiva. Her soul was unburdened, having shared her secret with the man she loved. Hugo had to know how much she trusted him. She caressed his bruised body, trying to imagine the cruelty he had endured.

  “Alexander was aware of how I created Sibyl last year,” Hugo said. “In a weak moment, he must have told Yogi about the mind of a dying person as a crucial element of Sibyl’s design. Then Yogi must have decided to build Shiva in the same manner.”

  Maya remained silent, her eyes downcast. “Don’t blame yourself, Hugo! My mother’s luck had run out. Yogi could have chosen anyone for his … experiment.” Maya’s hatred of the bastard knew no boundaries. She felt satisfied that Yogi had paid for his crime, only to be reborn as a particularly pungent cockroach.

  If anyone in the world understood the pain of Maya’s loss, it was the man who had designed Sibyl. Maybe Hugo still thought she had chosen him for his intellectual brilliance when in fact it was his compassion that had swayed her. Maya saw her suffering reflected in the tormented gaze of his black eyes. She felt soothed by the timbre of his voice when he spoke about his feelings that mirrored hers.

  “Why did Yogi do that?” Hugo asked with flickering eyes, pointing at the screen. “Wasn’t he afraid that Sorokan would find out about the murder of his wife?”

  Maya cast down her gaze. “It was on my eighteenth birthday when Yogi learned that my father had promised me to Pratiman Rao.”

  “Ah! Sorokan’s choice of your husband meant Yogi could no longer have the love of his life. Yes, he loved you, Maya—”

  “I know.” Maya shivered in disgust.

  “So, Yogi decided that Sorokan had to lose the love of his life as well. Yogi killed Akasha in the operating theatre while her husband was away, calling the hospital.”

  Maya nodded. “It was Yogi’s revenge for having been passed over as my suitor.”

  Hugo looked as if he was brooding about something. “He used your mother to bring the spark of life to Shiva, the great project of your father’s final years.”

  Maya stared at the screens that showed the operating theatre deserted only a few minutes after Akasha’s death. “My sole consolation is that mother is still with me. Every day, every moment, she is there for me. I can feel her in every breath I take.”

  “What I fail to grasp though is why didn’t Jyran do anything?” Hugo rewound the recording and pointed at the still image of the slender figure skulking in the corner while Akasha was hit by thousands of volts of electric current.

  “Don’t you see?” Maya asked, pointing at her sneering brother. “Mother would never have allowed Jyran to have his way with me. And father would have castrated him, had he found out during his lifetime.”

  Hugo gasped. “So it started only recently then?” His pupils bounced as his brilliant mind was trying to piece the puzzle together.

  “He became the head of the family the moment father was buried. I was forced to obey his every command. Whom should I have told about my plight? Yogi?”

  Hugo shook his head in agony. He perused Maya’s phone again, responding to a message from Diana. The
Englishwoman seemed like an addiction, but Maya refused to stand in her shadow. Hugo would be hers forever—and only hers!

  “Who’s that?” He turned the phone for Maya to see.

  “That’s Kali, one of the avatars of Parvati.”

  “And who’s Parvati?”

  Maya laughed. “Shiva’s wife.” She was surprised when Diana sent Hugo the artistic expression of the deity that Maya had shown her during Diana’s first visit to the temple. Kali, goddess of doom, with her necklace of seventy-two skulls, her skirt of arms, her lolling tongue, brandishing a knife dripping with blood….

  “All this time I was focused on Shiva and Sorokan.” Hugo shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t waste a thought on their wives—Kali and Akasha.”

  Maya gave him a knowing smile. “Men often fall into that trap. They pay a price for it, of course. But you’re different, Hugo. You’re not like Sorokan… or Jyran.”

  “So, you kept quiet,” Hugo said, his voice quavering, “about your father’s guilt.”

  Once again, Maya felt in awe of Hugo’s logical reasoning. At last he must have figured out why Sorokan had passed on so quickly after Akasha.

  “Your father wasn’t just in on your mother’s murder,” Hugo said. “He ordered it.”

  Chapter 111

  Mistake

  Saturday, 2:15pm CET (5:45pm Indian time)

  Hugo smiled even when Maya looked aghast. “I found out from a single careless sentence from Alexander.” Maya’s mobile was still transmitting to Diana, and it could only be a question of time until Maya noticed.

  “What did he say?” Maya’s glance shifting uncomfortably between Hugo and the Shiva statue on the wall.