The Goddess Legacy

Chapter 44

Allie dropped from the window and landed hard on the grass below. Drake lowered himself in a flash and tucked and rolled when he hit the ground, and then they were both on their feet and running as fast as they could. They rounded the corner of the building and made for the dorms as lights flickered on in the residence, and reached the ground floor of the dormitory before they heard yells from the swami’s building.

“What do you want to do?” Drake whispered.

“Think he got a good look at us?”

“Don’t know. But how are we going to explain grass stains on our outfits?”

“Doesn’t leave many options. Let’s see if there’s a way to get over the wall.”

“Or through the gate.”

Allie shook her head. “I doubt that will happen.”

“What about a rear exit?”

“I’m game.”

They ran along the back side of the dorm to the wall that ringed the grounds, and Drake had an overpowering sense of déjà vu — could it really have been only two nights before when he’d been searching for a way off the hotel grounds with Spencer?

“Drake, what is it?” Allie asked.

“Nothing. Come on.”

They stuck close to the wall, its white paint camouflaging their outfits, moving quickly, keeping down. Drake held out his arm to stop Allie when they reached one of the corners, and pointed at a barred service entrance — which was unguarded.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Let’s see if it opens from the inside. If so, we’re outta here.”

“What about our stuff?”

She shrugged. “Couple of backpacks and some ratty clothes. Big deal.”

“But your phone and passport.”

“The local cell’s dust, and I locked my passport in the suitcase. No sweat.”

“What about the claim ticket?”

“I’ve got it and the suitcase key in my phone case. Are we going to try the door, or do you want to wait for them to catch us?”

Drake trotted to the wrought-iron barrier with Allie and tried the lock, but it didn’t budge. He cursed and turned to her with a dark look.

“What’s plan B?” she asked.

He eyed the metal bars. “Climb it. It’s our best shot.” Allie nodded and moved to the gate, limping slightly.

“Are you okay?” Drake asked.

“Fine.” Allie began to pull herself up the ironwork, and when she was at the top, she called down to him, “Don’t look now, but you have about ten seconds before they see us.”

He scrambled up the gate in record time as she lowered herself down the other side, and he dropped next to her with a grunt. Two beggars who were sleeping on a piece of cardboard on the muddy back road looked up at them with half-closed lids. Drake grabbed Allie’s hand and pulled her after him, and they sprinted for the low string of cinder-block dwellings as an alarm sounded from the ashram, wailing over the sounds of shouts from the complex.

They ran into the tangle of buildings and rushed headlong down a dirt alley barely wide enough to accommodate them both, garbage scattered far and wide by scavenging animals searching for scraps. Only a few lights flickered in the surrounding homes. At an intersection of a mud track, they veered left. A motor scooter turned onto the road ahead of them and buzzed in their direction, three passengers on the small bike straining its motor to the limits, and they pressed to the side of the alley till it passed.

They jogged two more long blocks, and when they reached a larger street well away from the ashram, they slowed and considered their plight.

“We need to get in touch with Spencer and let him know what happened,” Allie said.

“How did the picture turn out?”

“I… let’s take a look.” Allie scrolled to her photo album and selected the last image.

Kali’s twisted features glowered at them, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and her ruby eyes staring blindly into space. The image was crisp enough, but murky, the auto-focus having compensated for the darkness as well as it could, which was to say, just barely. Drake pointed at the base of the statue.

“Can you zoom in there?” Allie did so, and they studied the base for a long moment. “Is that the same Sanskrit script?” Drake asked.

“Looks like it. But it wraps around the bottom, so I only got the front.”

“Damn. Well, better than nothing. Maybe there’s enough to put it all together.”

“Which means we need to get back to Delhi and have Divya translate it for us.”

“How? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I still have four hundred bucks.”

“So… taxi?” Drake asked.

“What else?”

“We should try to find the train station. At this hour, that will be the only place where we’d find a cab.”

Allie pointed to a building in the near distance. “Or maybe a big hotel?”

Drake swiveled and saw blinking letters below the roof of a ten-story building. “That should do.”

“Then all we have to do is avoid muggers, beggars, the swami’s goons, and the cops, and we’re golden.”

“Put like that, it’s a cinch.”

They began walking, and Drake drew closer to Allie. “What about Spencer?”

“I can chance a call from my U.S. cell. It’s got service.”

“You remember his number?”

“I wrote it down,” she said, and pulled her money and the claim ticket out of her phone case. A scrap of paper peeked from the pocket, and she withdrew it and dialed the number. When Spencer answered, she could barely hear him over the background noise.

“Spencer!”

“I tried to call you. Nothing.”

“That phone’s history. But listen — we found the idol, and I got a picture. It’s only partially complete, but—”

“That’s great. Your British friend showed up and tried to kill me at the temple.” Spencer told her about his encounter, and she looked at Drake with an alarmed expression as she listened.

“Are you okay?” she asked when he’d finished.

“Got a gash in my head and a bump, but I’ll make it.”

“Where are you?”

“On the road back to Delhi. I have Helms’s car, but I’m going to ditch it on the outskirts and take a cab. I can’t afford to get pulled over, for obvious reasons.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Let’s rendezvous at the Delhi Junction Railway Station, okay? Just tell any driver — it’s up by Old Delhi.”

“When will you be there?”

“Probably a couple of hours.” She summarized their plight in a few terse sentences. “So just hang out till we arrive. I’ll call you once we’re outside.”

“Will do. Good luck.”

“Spencer?”

“Yeah.”

“How did the shots of the mosaic turn out?”

“Call me Ansel Adams.”

“Really?”

“Haven’t lied to you yet. See you when I see you.”