The Shiva Objective

FIVE

When she finally made it to the grounds of the Taj Mahal, the sun was setting over the rooftops of the sprawling city, out beyond the old Agra Fort where the Mogul emperors once held court. She turned her gaze ahead to the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal, even more incredible up close, where the pillars, the minarets and the onion-shaped dome seemed to be lit from within the very marble, presenting a reddish-pink glow at once soothing and inspiring.

The past seven hours were now only a blur. Her head ached, but she felt surprisingly good. Normally, whenever she suffered migraines, she liked to go shopping. It somehow soothed her. With the surprising amount of cash lifted from the dead hunters' wallets, she had indulged herself at a little black market dealer to the southeast. She had taken the last hunter's cell phone too, and just for fun she fired off a couple of mocking texts to recent numbers that had sent him updates.

She had confirmed that they were indeed tracking her with a microchip and were leading a well-coordinated process that was ultimately marred by a bunch of overexcited yahoos with guns — some of them drinking at the same time.

She had taken two out where they waited in a locked apartment building by tossing a homemade smoke bomb through the window and then picking them off as they came running out. After the smoke cleared, she went in and rounded up whatever ammunition and weapons were still usable, including another sniper rifle.

Three more she caught off guard by using the limitations of their tracking technology. The program could only tell where she was horizontally in relation to the user, but told them nothing about what altitude she was at. So she had climbed to the fourth floor of an adjacent building, perched on a fire escape with the sniper rifle, and as they wandered the alley, checking their phones and looking around various ground-level hiding places, she dropped them one by one.

Like fish in a barrel.

The last three had had been more difficult. She had used her sight to tell that their positions were in well fortified, highly visible public areas. So instead she lured them to her. After rigging the basement of an abandoned apartment home with trip wires and motion-sensing floodlights, she let them come for her, then got the drop on them after they triggered the lights. Momentarily blinded, they had no defense as she stepped out of hiding and shot all three, point-blank.

And now she casually walked the central courtyard of the Taj Mahal's gardens. Past luxurious fountains and meticulously-groomed bushes and spruces, she admired the scenery along with hundreds of other tourists, natives and pilgrims.

She glanced back, and then to her left and right — and saw them. Several men out of place, trying to appear as tourists, but too obvious. She spotted a Bluetooth device in one's ear and saw another one working his phone, probably relaying information on her position. If they wanted to stop her from entering the palace, they didn't seem to be in much of a hurry. She wasn't sure if the grounds themselves counted as sanctuary, but it was looking that way. Too many witnesses and such a sacred spot. She didn't think they'd risk the backlash.

So a few minutes later, she entered the great mausoleum, staring in awe at the decorative archways, the massive pillars, the dizzying heights seen from inside. And moments later, she was there, before the two golden cenotaphs. Shah Jahan and his beloved. She recalled the legends about how, during a typical power play, he had been imprisoned by his son in the Agra fortress and had spent the rest of his life supposedly gazing out the high window at the Taj Mahal, longing for his lost love.

Nina wanted to gag. It was probably all nonsense. If she had enough time and she felt like it, she might try to Remote-View what happened to him and see if any of that story was true, but right now she knelt along with some pilgrims before the gorgeously-inscribed coffins and closed her eyes.

Safe. And one hour to go. She had time to think.

And to plan.