The Serpent of Mumbai - Part 9

Posted by Al Starchaser

Tracking down an elderly widow is hardly my idea of job satisfaction, but Mrs Rhegin clearly had information about the case. At least, Verity thought she did and she is usually right about these things, even if her characterization of me as a 'cold-hearted bastard' was completely unfair.

When I got to the hotel Verity had given me, the old lady had already checked out of her room. The next hour or so I was on the phone to my contacts at the local ports and spacehubs. No-one had seen the woman, so I decided she was probably still in Mumbai. But it was evening by then. She had to have found somewhere else to sleep. Perhaps she was running from the Clan. Perhaps I was wrong - and she had left Mumbai some other way - on the train, in a land car, in a rickshaw - anything, to avoid notice. I retraced the steps I had taken whilst tracking down the Clan. Nothing.

It was a dead end. Exhausted, I stumbled into a bar and ordered a pint. As soon as I took the first sip I felt guilty. Verity was probably working hard on her lead. She had probably already broken him. What a trooper she is. I picked up my phone.
"LYRA, what is Verity up to?" I asked.
A second later, an error message popped up. LYRA is offline. Please try again later. That was strange. I took another draught of beer, and considered calling Drake, but thought better of it. Firstly, she was supposed to be tailing Juanita, and secondly, I just don't like her.

I was about half way through my pint when my phone beeped. The message said: "I hear you are looking for me. I have news. Come to the Viceroy Hotel immediately. Make sure you are not followed." I ran a quick search on the phone number, but the web turned up nothing. I went to the bathroom and rechecked the shotgun.

Mumbai was now bathed in brick-red light from a setting sun, and the evening rush hour was well underway. The trolleys were packed, the roads were full of street vendors selling pomegranate juice, scooters darted this way and that, and the sky above was full of air cars blaring their horns and filling the air with hot vapour. It was very easy to get lost in the crowds, to double back, to be impossible to tail. When I arrived at the Viceroy Hotel, I was sure that no-one could have followed me.

The place was now clean. Apart from the bullet holes in the sofa and the walls, there was no sign that two men had died here only hours before. The dust on the ridiculous King Cobra in a fez was beginning to settle again. Everything else was the same. I took out my shotgun and chambered a round.
"Anyone there?" I asked.
"Over here, Mr Starchaser," said a quiet woman's voice.
"Mrs Rhegin?" I asked.
The old woman Verity had shown me a photo of emerged from the shadows. "It's Ms Hart again now, Mr Starchaser. Or Jane, if you are really daring."
"Fair enough. And you can call me Al."
"How droll." She walked up to me, and stood about half an inch inside my personal space. She was vaping, or possibly smoking.
"You are a hard woman to find," I said.
"And you are absurdly easy to. I do hope you were a little more careful coming here."
"Don't worry. I wasn't followed. But if you are so worried about being found by the Clan, why come here?"
"I would have thought it was obvious. This is where they would least expect to find me."
"I think you said you had some information for me?"
"I don't know if I should trust you or not. There appears to be a large gun between us."
"I'm a careful man."
"Are you afraid of me, Al?" She smiled and lowered her voice, leaning a little closer. "Put it away, young man."
I obeyed, reluctantly. She took another draw on her cigarette.
"Your sister didn't take my advice. She was careless. She is currently in the custody of a man called Sidney, who is as high up in the Sicarii as anyone I know of. She has only a few hours before he kills her. Perhaps only minutes."
"She was with me less than three hours ago. How the hell did you find out about this so quickly?"
"Does it matter? She's your damn sister!"
I hesitated. Okay, so perhaps I was a cold-hearted bastard after all. I took the cigarette from her hand, threw it on the floor and crushed it underfoot. She recoiled from me. "The truth, Mrs Rhegin. Now."
"The truth? My husband was not just an academic, you know. He was a Sicarii. He'd been part of their organisation for decades. And the idiot thought I didn't know. I have been working contacts in the local cell for years now. Nothing happens in that nest of snakes that I don't know about. Now do you want to know where your sister is or not?"
"I have a feeling you are going to tell me, Mrs Rhegin. Get it over with."
"I have a price, Mr Starchaser."
I took a deep breath. "The rest of this conversation can go very, very badly for you. Think very carefully about what you say next."
She handed me an old leather bound notebook. It was dogeared and ragged, and was held together by an elastic band. "This is my husband's notebook. He spent the last five years of his life looking for the Serpent of Mumbai. I want you to rescue your sister, Mr Starchaser. Then I want you both to find it."
"Disappointed that your husband failed to bring home a golden nest egg?"
"You misunderstand me, Mr Starchaser. I was loyal to my husband, and I intend to make sure that his final wishes are carried out. When you find the Serpent, I want you to destroy it. Do we have a deal?"
I looked at her. She was definitely lying about something, but I got the gut wrenching feeling that her information about Verity was spot on. I took her hand. She gave me the location Verity was being held at, and I started to leave.
"One more thing," I asked. "What has the Clan done with Lee?"
"On that, Mr Starchaser, I'm afraid I have no idea," she replied, and once again I knew that she was telling me the truth.