Fury's Goddess. Alex Archer

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       “I thought tigers stuck more to the countryside.”

       “We’re pretty country here, Frank.”

       “I guess.”

       They drove for several more minutes, the tires of the car bouncing over small potholes in the asphalt and dirt. And then Annja saw the glow of lights in the distance. “There. You think maybe that’s it?”

       Frank shrugged. “I’d guess it would have to be. Are those mountains behind the development?”

       Annja squinted. “Tough to see exactly, but the lights cast a glow out in that direction. We probably won’t know until the sun comes up tomorrow morning.”

       “You mean later today.”

       “What?”

       Frank pointed at the clock on the dashboard. “Good morning. Time for that continental-breakfast buffet downstairs.”

       Annja sighed. “All right, whatever. We’ve got bigger things to deal with right now.”

       “Like big, ferocious tigers. Or strange, mysterious beasts.”

       Annja frowned. “More like those two roving police patrols Pradesh mentioned while you were pretending to be asleep. Remember?”

       Frank groaned.

       “Let’s find a place to park the car and go on foot.” Annja peered out the window. “That probably means sneaking through drainage ditches and whatnot.”

       Frank slowed the car to a stop and then looked at Annja. “Uh, correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t places like that be exactly where a hungry tiger would creep while it’s looking for meaty things to eat?”

       “Absolutely.”

       The look on Frank’s face was precious. A mixture of fear and excitement.

       Annja patted him on the shoulder. “Well, we’re here now and I’m wide-awake, so it would be a waste not to use this chance to get a closer look.”

       Outside, the humid night air buzzed with mosquitoes, but Annja had gotten used to being ravaged by them enough over the years.

       Frank, however, promptly began smacking himself silly as the hordes attacked his pale skin.

       “Try to ignore them,” she said. “Otherwise, they’ll drive you right out of your mind.”

       “Easier said than done, Annja.” Frank smacked another one and left a smear of blood across his cheek.

       “Then think of it this way—that blood on your cheek can be smelled by a tiger, so it’s probably in your best interest to not kill the bugs that have just taken your precious fluid. Got it?”

       “Yeah.”

       Annja pointed to the trunk. “You brought the gear?”

       Frank walked back to the car and popped the lid. Inside, Annja saw his small backpack. “That’s it?”

       “What?” Frank reached into the bag and brought out what looked like a regular DSLR camera. He held it up. “This is a Canon Eos 5D Mark II. Shoots full high- definition video and does really well in low-light conditions. It’ll work just fine for tonight. And if the cops do catch us, they probably won’t even realize we were shooting video footage on this.”

       “How much room on the memory card?”

       “Plenty. Plus, I’ve got two extra memory cards with me. But I don’t think we’ll need them.”

       Frank rummaged through the bag and came up with something that looked like a handheld vacuum cleaner. “What the hell is that?”

       “A handheld FLIR—forward-looking infrared detector. It comes in handy on nights like this when you want to scan the immediate area and make sure you aren’t walking into the jaws of a hungry tiger. Or a scary monster, for that matter.”

       Frank switched the device on and a small LCD screen lit the night. He moved it around, aiming it into the darkness. Then he pointed at the screen. “The warmer the potential target is, the darker red it will be. The device takes an ambient-temperature reading of the air around us and then uses differences to designate heat signatures of animals and other living stuff that might be lurking in the night.”

       Annja smiled. “Now, that is a good piece of gear. I could have used something like this on a number of occasions.”

       Frank shut the trunk and handed Annja an extra flashlight. “I don’t recommend using the lights unless it’s absolutely necessary. Our night vision will go to hell if we switch them on.”

       Annja took the FLIR from Frank. “Would you prefer I take point on this excursion?”

       “Well, you are the host of the show, after all,” Frank said. “How would it look if the cameraman was suddenly leading these outings? I wouldn’t want your reputation to suffer.”

       “Oh, thank you for your concern. But you’re right. I’d probably look like I was scared, and we can’t have that, can we?” Annja moved the FLIR around to get used to scanning with it. “I can actually see the lay of the ground in front of us with this thing, too.”

       Frank nodded. “It’s very handy.”

       Annja studied him. “All right, are you ready to do this?”

       “If you mean potentially run into cops, get attacked by a man-eating tiger and run afoul of the nicest guy in Hyderabad, then absolutely.”

       Annja smiled. “How are your nerves?”

       Frank put a finger on his neck, felt for his pulse and then nodded. “Completely shot.”

       “That’s what I like to hear,” she said. “Try to stay close but not too close. Everything will be just fine. I promise.”

       “Really?”

       “No, but it sounded good when I said it, didn’t it?”

       “Yeah.”

       Annja studied the darkness, scanned it with the FLIR and then looked back at Frank. “We’re clear. Let’s go.”

      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.

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