Ash Mistry and the World of Darkness

Calm? He was so scared he wanted to puke.

He should tell Parvati. Why hadn’t he? He should have told her the instant he’d realised. Was it because he was afraid she’d think less of him for being ‘merely’ human? Was it pride?

He had to tell her. And he would.

When the time was right.

Ash spun the tap closed, dried and slipped on fresh clothes. Barefoot, he re-entered the main room and sat down on the sofa, facing Elaine and Parvati at the dining table. He ached everywhere.

Parvati looked up from her tea, frowning. “You all right?”

Ash forced a casual smile. “Fine.”

Elaine had her laptop open and a bundle of papers waiting for him on the dining table. She patted them. “All the information I could get on your boy.” She gazed at the screen. “Lord Alexander Savage. Multi-millionaire. Philanthropist. One of life’s good guys. And very easy on the eye.”

Ash looked at the photo. It was Savage with the US president, collecting some humanitarian award. The man was tall, handsome, with that floppy blonde hair common among dashing aristocrats, and wearing a white suit designed in Savile Row and sunglasses, like a Hollywood superstar. Even though the other guy in the photo was the most powerful man on the planet, there was something about Savage that just overshadowed all else. The president looked small and insignificant next to him.

Elaine had been working since December on finding out all she could, and they had built a timeline out of what they knew. Elaine was an occultist, a woman Ash had known in his own world, the only person they could go to who would believe them. The three of them had holed up in her apartment for the last month, scouring through the web, newspapers and Elaine’s own private library, digging up and assembling the pieces of the jigsaw. They didn’t have it all, but a picture was emerging.

“Savage came on to the scene ten years ago,” said Elaine. “He bought the old maharajah’s palace down from Varanasi and immediately started excavating the local area.”

“He was looking for the Kali-aastra,” said Ash. “It had been buried there.”

That’s where all the trouble had started, back in Ash’s timeline. Ash and his sister Lucky had been exploring the excavations. Ash had tumbled down a pit and ended up finding the golden arrowhead of Kali, the Kali-aastra, instead of Savage, a bit of Kali’s arrowhead embedding itself in his thumb.

Now that Savage could move through time it made sense that he’d have gone back into the past and made sure that he found the Kali-aastra first.

How can you defeat a guy who can travel in time? In Ash’s world Savage had been defeated, all but destroyed. Now he was the most important man on the planet.

Elaine nodded. “Reckon he found it pretty quick as the works didn’t last more than a month. He knew exactly where to look. It was at that point that he hired your uncle to oversee the dig, there and in Rajasthan.”

Parvati grimaced as she looked through the photos of a vast archaeological dig in the desert. “Where Ravana was imprisoned. Savage knew where he was, and now he had the means to free him.”

Elaine gave a low whistle. “Imagine – freeing the demon king himself. Savage plays for the highest stakes, doesn’t he?” She turned to Ash. “And in your timeline, you destroyed him?”

Ash nodded. “In my timeline it was me who found the arrow of Kali, not Savage. The one weapon in the universe that could kill the demon king. And it did.”

Parvati frowned. “But that was in your timeline. What do you think happened here?”

Ash continued. “Savage told me he never intended to allow Ravana to live. He just wanted to free him long enough to be granted immortality. Judging by the more recent photos, it looks as if he got his wish. Then I think he used the Kali-aastra to kill Ravana himself. Savage could not stand to have a rival.”

“Then what?” asked Parvati.

Elaine opened up the top folder. “Then Savage goes shopping. He’s spent the last decade turning the Savage Foundation into the biggest provider of medical and humanitarian aid in the world. It’s more or less wiped out childhood diseases. The rich countries pay for the medicines and Savage gives them to the poor ones for free. He’s got hospitals everywhere, even in the war zones no one else would dare enter. He could be the richest man in the world, but chooses to spend most of it on his charities. The Church wants to make him a saint, the Muslims consider him the Mahdi, the Buddhists say he’s a bodhisattva and the Hindus think he’s an avatar, a reincarnation of Vishnu. I think I’ve got a photo somewhere of him blessing the Pope. Or was it the Dalai Lama?”

“What’s Savage planning?” asked Ash.

“To make the world a better place?” suggested Elaine.

Parvati scoffed. “That’s what they all say. Every tyrant, every dictator in the world. Throughout history. They all promise a better world, but their utopias are always built with bones.” She drummed her fingertips and her long green nails clicked upon the wood. “I’ve seen men perish building the Great Wall. Watched children crushed under the marble they used to clad Rome. Slaves working in the Russian gulags, digging for diamonds in Africa, gold in the Americas. It’s all paid for in blood, Elaine. Every bit of it.”

“Your family, I mean Ashoka’s family, seem to have done pretty well out of it.” Elaine handed over a collection of cuttings. “Your uncle heads up the Savage Foundation’s Archaeological Institute, and your father’s business is booming, thanks to construction contracts from Savage. Why?”

Ash had thought long and hard about that. Savage had been like a fairy godfather to Ashoka’s family for the last decade. “He wanted them close. What better way to keep an eye on them? He must be worried Ashoka might somehow become the Eternal Warrior. He probably never expected me to turn up here.”

“It all changed on 12th December,” said Parvati. “That was the day Savage, in our universe, cast the Time Spell. It sent him back ten years to change the past. And Ash and I woke up in a different timeline – we just jumped sideways. I’d felt … something was happening a few days before. So I came straight over from India to here. I was on my way to Ash’s house when the Time Spell was cast. By the time I reached West Dulwich station the past had changed. I felt it happen.”

“Savage must have felt it too. He must have sensed our presence,” said Ash, “which is why he didn’t make a move against Ashoka and his family any earlier – because we hadn’t arrived yet. It’s only since we turned up on 12th December that he feels threatened.”

“So he sets his rakshasas on Ashoka to draw you out of hiding?” said Elaine.

“Exactly.”

“If the rest of this world changed, then why not you two?”

Parvati answered. “I had my father’s scrolls on sorcery for many centuries. I have studied some, though none to any great depth. I think, subconsciously, I knew enough about the magic of Time to make myself immune to the change. Ash is the Kali-aastra; Kali is the goddess of death and destruction, and Time. I believe she protected him.”

Ash shifted in his seat. “It’s only a theory.” He picked through the newspaper cuttings, trying to work out what changes Savage had made in the last ten years. Governments were different, the prime minister was an old friend of Savage’s, a board director at the Savage Foundation. He owed his entire career to Savage. No one would say a bad word against the aristocrat. Why should they? He had done only good.

But Ash knew Savage. There had to be more. “What’s he planning?”

The scale of his organisation was vast, global. The business papers joked about it.

The Savage Empire.

But Ash didn’t find it funny. “They think he’s the Messiah.”

Parvati sat down beside him. “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.”

Elaine turned the laptop around to face them. “I found this clip on YouTube. It’s Savage being interviewed by Letterman last year.”

The frozen image had captured Savage close up. Eyes hidden behind his shades, he was smiling, the easy smile of a man who knew it all. His skin shone with an inhuman purity, too perfect to be real, as if he was shining from within. He relaxed into an armchair, left heel of his boot up on his right knee, dressed immaculately, of course. The interviewer leaned over his desk, captivated.

Ash pressed play.

“So, Lord Savage—”

“Please, David, it’s Alex. I know how you Americans feel about us aristocrats.”

“We love you Brits!”

The audience cheered and clapped.

Savage smiled. “You weren’t so keen on us in 1776.”

The interviewer shook his head. “Alex, if you’d have been in charge, maybe we wouldn’t have been so desperate to rebel.”

Ash noticed the change as Savage’s radiant smile darkened for just a second, then switched back. “Well, you can’t fix the past.”

“But you can fix the future, right? Is that what you’re about?”

Savage nodded solemnly. “I’ve seen the future, David. It’s not good. Unless someone does something, then we’re on the path to destruction. Mankind has all these gifts and we don’t know how to use them. If it’s not war, it’ll be pollution, overpopulation. No one country is to blame. You’re all at it. Grabbing what you can without caring what you leave. Expecting your children, their children, to sort out your mess.”

“Alex Savage, saving the world. All by yourself?”

Savage’s smile broadened. “No. I’ve got some friends on their way.”

Ash shivered.

“You’ve come a long way in a short time, Alex. You’re the number-one pharmaceutical company in the world and your donations to charities run into the billions. What’s the secret of your success?”

Savage laughed. “I learned from my past mistakes.”

“Come on, there must be more. Your vaccines will save millions of lives. Some say your genetically modified crops that can grow in barren deserts will end global hunger. And you’ve done this all for free. Why?”

“I own the Savage Foundation. I have a lot of money. How rich does one man need to be?” said Savage.

“So, any ambitions still left unfulfilled?”

Savage smiled. “Oh, just one.”

The interviewer leaned closer. “And what’s that?”

“I want it to be a surprise.”

The audience howled with disappointment, and the clip ended.

“You can’t argue with the facts,” said Elaine. “Savage has helped improve the lives of millions of people.”

“He wants to keep the sheep happy,” said Parvati. “It makes them easier to handle when you take them to the slaughterhouse.”

“Maybe he’s changed.” Elaine put a cigarette between her lips. “People do that, y’know.”

Ash took it out of her mouth and squashed it. “But for most, old habits die hard.”

He stared at the frozen image of Savage on the small screen. His ruthless smile, his casual air of superiority. It was all there, but no one else seemed to see it. Savage hadn’t changed. He was planning something and Ash had no doubt it was something terrible and on a massive scale.

But what?

Chapter Five

When Ash awoke the next morning, the others were already up and in the kitchen having breakfast. Elaine was keeping herself busy while Parvati was trying to talk to Ashoka about something.

Ash pulled up a chair and looked at the boy sitting opposite him. Ashoka had his arms crossed in front of him and a look of disbelief on his face.

“I don’t get it,” said Ashoka.

Ash and Parvati looked at each other. Parvati shrugged. Ash met Ashoka’s gaze. “What don’t you get?”

“Like, how are you the Kali-aastra?”

Ash took a deep breath. “Last summer I went to India with my sister, Lucky. We were visiting Uncle Vik and Aunt Anita in Varanasi.”

“And that’s when you found the golden arrowhead of Kali, right?”

“That’s right, and a sliver of it entered my thumb. What I didn’t realise at the time was this meant I became the Kali-aastra.”

“A superhero then.”

“I wouldn’t go quite that far.”

“But you have superpowers, right?”

Ash frowned.

“A superhero. With or without the cape.” Ashoka was clearly smirking. “What does being the Kali-aastra allow you to do? Heat vision? A spot of leaping tall buildings?”

“Depends,” Ash said, ignoring the smirk. Don’t rise to it. He’s trying to wind you up. “When a person dies, I absorb some of their life force. When I killed Ravana—”

“Ravana, as in the demon king?” The smirk widened.

“Yes. Him. When I killed him I gained superhuman strength, speed, endless endurance, all of that.”

“OK,” said Ashoka. “I don’t want you to take this as an insult or anything, but you three are clearly insane. You’ve obviously escaped from some loony bin, and that Jackie is another escapee from the asylum, and she was after you, not me. You all have major issues that need resolving, either in group therapy or with medication. My family have got mixed up in all your craziness and you need to call whoever has them right now and tell them to free them. Whatever drama you have going on is none of my business.”

“I give up,” said Ash. He’d tried to be reasonable, but now it was time to hand it over. “All yours, Parvati.”

Ashoka smirked. “What is this? The good-cop, bad-cop routine?”

Ash picked up his tea. It was cold. Typical. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Parvati smiled. “So, you’ve got it all sorted, have you, Ashoka? No such things as rakshasas?”

Ashoka nodded. “No. Such. Thing. Fairy tales.”

Parvati took off her sunglasses and leaned towards Ashoka so they were nose to nose. “Then these must be some … genetic defect?” Her eyes were pure serpent; green with a pair of black slits for pupils.

Ashoka leaped out of his seat. “Bloody hell!”

Parvati had him flat against the wall. Ashoka’s face had turned sheet white. Ash almost felt sorry for him.

Almost. Actually, he didn’t feel sorry at all. He was enjoying this. Maybe it was bad of him, not warning Ashoka about Parvati in advance. But he’d had enough of that smirk. Ash leaned back and watched, smiling to himself. How can you explain a girl like Parvati? She might look like a teenager, but she was more than four and a half thousand years old. Her mother had been a human princess and her father was Ravana, the demon king. Her early years had not been particularly stable. She had a deep psychotic streak and was a one-girl weapon of mass destruction.

But when she laughed, nothing else seemed to matter.

Ashoka tried to slide sideways towards the door, but Parvati extended her fangs, pausing a few centimetres from his throat. Sweat ran down his pallid face. “And this must just be poor dental work.” Each one was slick with venom. She shivered, and scales, shiny green scales, rose through her skin, clustering like a collar around her neck at first, then extending to her jaw, her cheekbones. Her hair sank into the skull as it widened, swelling either side into a cobra’s hood. “And this? Do you think some dermatologist might be able to fix this?”

Ashoka’s breath had deteriorated into short, desperate pants.

Ash was impressed. He’d thought Ashoka would wet his pants. Still, Parvati’s shock tactics seemed to have done the job.

“Enough, Parvati,” said Ash. He didn’t want Ashoka having a heart attack.

She dropped on to the table and the transformation was complete. A cobra now rose up before the terrified Ashoka. Its tongue flickered, it hissed, and Ash could tell Parvati was laughing.

Ashoka stared. Jaw moved. No words came out.

“I said enough,” said Ash. “You’ve made your point.”

The snake curled up, wound itself together and then unfurled back into a young woman. Scales still covered her like armour, taking a moment or two to recede back under her skin. She winked at Ash, took up her sunglasses and left the room.

Ash smiled and looked back at his doppelgänger. “Are you all right?”

Ashoka stared after her. “Rakshasas, they’re for real?”

“Very. But she’s on our side.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Ashoka replied, his voice still quivering. He picked up a glass of water and tried to hold it steady enough to drink. Eventually he gulped it down. “My God.”

“Well, what do you think?” Maybe they’d overdone it. They’d just planned to frighten him, not break his fragile little mind.

Ashoka huffed. “A rakshasa.” Then he smiled. He grinned. “That is bloody awesome.”

“Do we have any leads yet?” asked Ashoka, looking anxiously at the clock. “We’re running out of time. You said you’d rescue my family and it’s already five. They’ll be expecting our call soon, and then what?”

“Pacing up and down will not help,” said Parvati. “Just sit.”

Elaine was still on the phone, as she had been all day. The woman knew almost everyone. Ash wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d heard her speaking to an archbishop earlier. She was in the hallway, turning an unlit cigarette in her fingers.

Ashoka hurled himself back into the sofa. “This is hopeless.”

“That’s the attitude,” snapped Ash.

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”

“Don’t forget who saved your life.”

“Yeah, only to get my family killed instead.”

Ash sprang up, tossing the chair aside. That was it. He grabbed Ashoka’s shirt, hauled him off the sofa and stared hard into the boy’s eyes. “You have no idea—”

Elaine cleared her throat. “Finished?”

Reluctantly, most reluctantly, Ash let Ashoka go. “Please tell me you have something.”

Elaine flicked through her notepad. “Your dad drives a Range Rover? Licence plate M1STRY 1?”

Ashoka straightened his shirt, smoothed down his crumpled collar. “Yes. It’s grey.”

“Well, a friend of mine in the police has just found it. Abandoned in Docklands, Jardin Street. Just around the corner from—”

“East India Dock,” interrupted Ashoka.

“You know it?” asked Ash.

Ashoka nodded. “Savage owns a house there. Actually a converted warehouse, overlooking the dock. The dock itself is where he moors his yacht whenever he’s in town. Place was done from top to bottom. Dad was the project director, at Savage’s request. The guy had the works: new floors, windows, upgraded the IT systems, the security, the whole audio-visual thing, home cinema. Major, major money was spent.”

“When was this?” Ash asked.

“About a year ago.”

“This security, what’s it like?” asked Parvati.

“Top notch. Presence detectors on the roof. Thermal and motion sensors on all floors. Six-digit PIN on entry. CCTV as standard with remote recording. Alarms hard-wired to both the local police station and a private security firm with a two-minute response-time guarantee.”

Ash looked at Parvati. “What do you think?”

Parvati frowned. “Thermals I could bypass. My body temperature is the local ambient.”

Of course Parvati, like all reptiles, was cold-blooded. “And the rest?”

“If there was a vent or drain, I could get in without worrying about the door alarm system.”

“I’ve a suggestion,” said Ashoka.

“Yeah, in a minute,” replied Ash. “So the problem’s the motion sensors, right?”

“Ahem,” said Ashoka.

“In a minute. But they would be deactivated if the house was occupied. Stands to reason.”

Parvati shook her head. “The building would be zoned. All the unoccupied spaces would still be alarmed. If Savage has any sense.”

“Look, I’ve an idea—”

Ash turned around. “Will you just be quiet and let the grown-ups talk?”

“So you don’t want to hear how I can bypass the security system?” Ashoka shrugged. “Fine. Carry on. Ignore me.”

“What? Seriously?” said Ash, trying his best to hold back his irritation. “Why didn’t you just say? Oh, never mind. How?”

Ashoka looked at Elaine. “Your laptop still on?”

“All yours.”

Ashoka took the chair. A few seconds later the screen went to the webpage of Mistry and Partners.

“Dad runs his own company?” said Ash.

“Yours doesn’t?”

“No way. He’s not even an assistant director.”

“All perks of being on the Savage payroll,” said Ashoka. “Anyway, Dad designed the security system. And, like all software, it needs upgrading on a regular basis.” He skimmed over another page and logged in. “You’d think Dad would have a better password than—”

“AshandLucky?” said Ash.

“AshokaandLucky,” corrected Ashoka. “And … open sesame.”

A 3D wire diagram of a large four-storey townhouse appeared. Ashoka spun it around using the mouse so they could see the outline of every room. It was drawn in immense detail. Zooming in, Ash could inspect the doors, the windows and even the chimneys which were, sadly, blocked. “That’s pretty cool.”

“I helped design it,” said Ashoka. “The model, that is. Got me the science prize at school last year.”

“All very lovely,” said Parvati, “but what about the security?”

Ashoka scrolled down to a series of reference numbers. “These are temporary PINs. If we needed to upgrade the system, we’d need to disable it first. These numbers here give us access. Then the PIN returns to whatever code Savage has been using. It’s just a manufacturer’s reset really, like on most electronic items. A security system’s not much different.”

Parvati grinned at them both. “Then what are we waiting for?”

While Ashoka went to get ready, Ash and Parvati stacked the plates and bowls in the kitchen sink. Ash got the tap running and the sink filling with steaming water. He glanced over his shoulder. “Ashoka is such a smart-arse.”

“Ha!” replied Parvati as she passed him dirty cutlery.

“What do you mean, ‘ha’?”

“He’s so like you it’s just bizarre.”

Ash frowned. “I am nothing like Ashoka. His mouth is on constant overdrive and he thinks he knows everything.”

“Sooo different from you.”

“Y’know, Parvati, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”

Parvati glanced slyly sideways at him. “What was that you said about being a smart-arse?”

The mobile on the table rang. Ashoka must have left it. Where was he? Ash picked it up. Then he saw the name on the display.

Gemma.

“Ashoka?” Ash heard Gemma’s voice coming from the phone. He hadn’t even realised he’d answered it.

“… Yes?”

“It’s me, Gemma.”

Ash could only listen. In his timeline Gemma had died in his arms. Just a few months ago he’d watched her eyes fade and heard her last sigh.

Ash had been friends with Gemma since primary school. They had played together every day as kids, but had gone their separate ways at secondary school. Gemma had gone off to join the cool kids while he’d become a founding member of the Nerd Herd. It was only after he’d become the Kali-aastra and defeated Ravana that he had found the courage to ask her out. Funny that he wasn’t afraid of a demon king, but was terrified to ask a girl out on a date.

He hadn’t realised that when he came back from India his troubles would follow him to his front door and the people he cared about would suffer, would die, because of him.

He’d wanted things to get back to normal. But they would never be normal again.

This was a second chance. His heart quickened. In this timeline Gemma was alive! Like Savage’s, his mistakes had been fixed.

“Say something, Ashoka.”

“It’s good to hear your voice again, Gemma.” She had no idea how good.

“You weren’t at school today. What’s up?”

“Family emergency. Sorry.”

“Oh … all right. Everything OK?” asked Gemma, sounding concerned.

“Fine, fine,” said Ash, wishing it was.

“Anyway …” she paused, “… last night was great, wasn’t it?”

The world was too weird. In this timeline Gemma hung out with Ashoka! Unbelievable.

Parvati was looking at him with a funny expression that Ash couldn’t read. But it could have been her ‘Are you totally and utterly mental?’ face. He turned away and tried to ignore her.