Читать книгу Fury's Goddess - Alex Archer - Страница 15

Chapter 8

The residential complex was surrounded by an undulating open ground that dipped and leveled out every few feet. To Annja, it looked as if it had once been farmland that someone had sold to the developer. She stopped. She’d never even asked if Dunraj owned this place. But it seemed like a viable assumption. He seemed to own pretty much everything else in Hyderabad, and something like this would be right up his alley: a high-end complex for the ultrawealthy.

But that didn’t mean Dunraj had imported a tiger to stalk his residents. What would he get out of that? Annja shook her head and scanned the area with the FLIR again, but nothing showed up on the screen.

Moreover, she didn’t…feel anything. And usually right before anything bad happened, Annja would…sense something was up. But so far on this moonless night, she felt nothing out of the ordinary.

Good.

She glanced back at Frank, who took a step and promptly fell face-first into a puddle. He came up blubbering and clawing at his face.

“Be quiet!” Annja said. “There’s not much noise out here and sound carries farther at night.”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Frank wiped the greasy muck from his face.

“Make sure you don’t break that camera.” Annja kept moving forward, crossing a drainage ditch and a narrow culvert. She took it slow in case she happened across a lounging tiger. But the FLIR again proved its worth and showed no signs of life except for the ever-present mosquitoes.

Annja ignored Frank’s hushed grumbling and brought them within two hundred yards of the development. There, she squatted to study the layout.

The area ahead of them sloped upward out of the culvert to a fence. She initially thought it would be a problem getting through the fencing, but a quick glimpse down the wire told her it was still in the process of being installed and there were several areas where it was possible to step through.

The development itself comprised elaborate mansions in a grand style reflective of the Hindu culture. The landscaping gave them the appearance of being something out of an ancient kingdom.

A few of the homes were lit by a single light, but it was otherwise quite dark. There were streetlights, but they hadn’t been finished yet. By the look of things, several residents had moved in long before the complex was completed. Probably in a rush to get in there first for bragging rights.

On the way in, she’d studied the ground for any tracks. But like Pradesh had said, there seemed to be no sign of tigers.

There were an awful lot of footprints, however. Whether they’d been made by construction workers or by someone else, Annja couldn’t be sure.

Frank nudged her from behind. “What’s the holdup?”

“I’m trying to see what our choices are for gaining access.”

He pointed at a hole in the fence. “Seems like a good place to start right there.”

She held him back. “Hold on a second, would you? We haven’t seen or heard any of the police patrols yet.”

“Probably asleep.” He started to rise when Annja grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him back into the dirt. She’d heard the unmistakable sound of a car engine.

“Quiet!” she whispered. And then she ducked down as the first arc of light swept the area where Frank had just been standing.

The slow thrum of the motor told Annja that the police car was on a routine patrol. The light swept over them a few times before the engine cranked up and the car moved off.

But still she held Frank down. “Wait.”

“Why?”

“Trust me.”

She listened and heard the motor die suddenly. As if they’d turned a corner.

Time to move.

“Okay, Frank, let’s get to that hole in the fence and get through it quickly. Make sure you pick out a spot away from the fence to hide in. The darker, the better.”

Frank was up and moving even as Annja finished giving him instructions. As she made her way to the fence, she knew they were about to cross a line. Once on the other side, they’d officially be trespassing.

She wondered how Pradesh would feel about that.

Well, she thought, the trick would be to get in and get out without him ever knowing. She checked her watch. An hour on the inside just to get the lay of the land.

The chain links bit at her arms, but Annja ducked through and then hustled across the small road the police car had driven down. Across the way, Frank was huddled underneath an overhang by what looked like an administration building. He had a small piece of paper unfolded and was studying it with a red-lensed penlight.

“What’s that?”

Frank looked up. “Map I made of the layout of this place. I marked the crime scenes on here.”

Annja smiled. “Good move.”

Frank stabbed his finger at the paper, keeping his voice low. “We’re here. We need to head west and find the culvert running in that direction. That’s where they found that guy Gupta.”

“Hopefully, they don’t have another police patrol on the scene.”

“This late at night?”

Annja shrugged. “They might just be parked up to discourage curious trespassers like us.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll take point.” She held the FLIR ahead of her and got a bearing. Annja stuck close to the walls and fences of the community. She was impressed with the layout. The place had obviously been designed to grant the residents the feeling of status, but it was still homey.

She glanced behind her at Frank. He was no ninja, of course, but he might just turn out to be all right.

As much of a wannabe Casanova as he was, he seemed to realize this assignment could really help further his career. If he wasn’t so focused on scoring with the ladies, they might make this a compelling piece of television.

Annja approached a corner and paused. The area around it was wide-open and offered views in each direction. They could see a lot, but Annja and Frank could also be seen. If someone was looking.

Annja paused. She and Frank needed to head west, which would put them right in line with another corner of the complex. The question was, what was waiting down there that they couldn’t see? If the police were stationed there, they would see Annja and Frank.

She turned and gestured for Frank.

“What’s up?”

Annja pointed. “This corner exposes us. We’ve got no cover for at least a hundred yards, and if the cops surprise us, we’ll be caught in the open. I don’t like advancing unless I’ve got cover and concealment.”

Frank studied his map. “We’d have to go outside the fence to use the ground to conceal us.”

“We can’t backtrack now. We’ll waste too much time.” Annja looked at the map over Frank’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know. I got this off the computer. Figured we’d find out once we got here.”

She peered closer. It looked like an extra culvert running out of the complex, but not one that was easily accessible. So how did you get into it?

She looked at the road. And grinned. “A manhole.”

Frank frowned. “A manhole?”

“Yeah. You don’t happen to have any tools with you, do you?”

“Like what? Something to pry a lid off?”

“Preferably.”

Frank shook his head. “No. I don’t.”

Annja could use her sword, of course. But how would she explain that to Frank? She never wanted anyone at work to know her secret if she could possibly avoid it. That her life had been forever changed on the day she’d brought the broken shards of Joan of Arc’s sword together for the first time in hundreds of years. That the sword had become whole once again—right in front of her. That the sword of Joan of Arc had somehow chosen her and was now the sword of Annja Creed.

But they needed to get into the manhole.

Annja made a decision. “Can you go back down to the hole in the fence and see if there were any tools there?”

“What are you going to do?”

She pointed. “I’ll scout ahead and see if there’s anything I can use. Otherwise, I’ll sneak up and see if we can avoid the manhole trip.”

Annja watched him go and then moved out into the road, locating the manhole cover. It was bolted down. This was going to have to be quick.

She reached into the otherwhere and grasped the sword, which hung there, waiting for her. Holding it in her hands flooded her system with strength. The sword blade cast a grayish glow into the night, and Annja desperately hoped it wouldn’t attract anyone.

She shoved the point under the lip of the cover and then pried with all of her strength. She heard the bolts give one at a time, reluctantly at first, but then they came off fast.

Once they were out, she leaned into the sword and the cover came loose.

Annja slid it back slowly, hoping the grating sound on the asphalt wasn’t as loud as she thought it was.

She shoved the FLIR into the hole and scanned around. A few rats scurried for cover, splashing through the darkness.

But otherwise, it seemed deserted. Annja put the sword away and waited for Frank to return.

Another thirty seconds passed before he came hustling around the corner with a big screwdriver. He held it up like a trophy until he saw Annja squatting near the opening.

He dropped to all fours. “How the hell did you manage that?”

Annja frowned. “I found a pry bar farther up. But of course once I got the lid up, I dropped it down there somewhere. Probably never find it now.”

Frank shrugged. “At least you got it open.”

“Yeah.”

He looked into the hole. “We really have to go in there?”

“If we want to get to the crime scenes, yes.”

Frank blanched. “It stinks down there.”

“And it’s only going to get worse.”

Frank eyed her. “Does any of this stuff ever bother you?”

Annja nodded. “All of it. Now get going.”

He hesitated and then jumped. Annja heard him splash and then followed him. It was a short drop of only five feet. Annja stood and hauled the manhole cover into place. At least now they hadn’t left a calling card behind.

Frank’s voice cut through the darkness. “Flashlight coming on. Watch your eyes.”

Red light lit up the culvert. Annja looked ahead and then behind them. “Which way?”

Frank pointed. “There.”

“On we go.”