‘Your
impressive haul is only surpassed by your impressive and growing resume,’
Nadira enthused as she hugged her student. ‘A Silkworm at any age is something
to be proud of but from one so young, truly outstanding.’
‘I have a
very good teacher,’ Sharon answered. ‘Did you manage to find any?’
‘I’ve added
a couple of bookcases to the collection, your contribution should just about
fill those.’
‘How did you
find so many, so fast?’
‘Age mostly.
I’ve had many more years to acquire contacts, people from all areas who can
help me, and I never stop adding to them. I’ve shared your name with them and
will give you a list, so you can make your own introductions. This is a part of our profession that is
vital my dear, I cannot stress it enough to you. Make as many contacts as you can, but make
them selectively, use the talents you’ve been taught but more importantly the
talents you especially already have, you’re an excellent judge of people, use
that to its full advantage. Remember some of these people may to junior in
their department, but one day if you chose right they will be heading that
department or even more,’ Nadira explained.
‘You’re
talking about something beyond a strictly business relationship I think,’
Sharon asked already knowing the answer.
‘You see,
there’s that talent I just mentioned. Yes and no, but yes makes the bond
stronger, but you must like maybe even love the people you chose, the intimacy
builds the bonds, but only if its genuine and both parties understand one
another’s role,’ Nadira stated. ‘I will warn you this could and usually does
lead to certain, how shall I put this, of the grid assignments to help each
other out.
How you approach and manage these is your business, but just like
any game of skill, it is always best to think many moves ahead. If I do this, what do I gain, what do they
gain, how is this beneficial to both of us or just one of us.’
Sharon
absorbed it all just as she absorbed the new books and manuscripts, adding
skills and talents to her repertoire. It
wasn’t just yoga in the books, dance, movement, motion, dress even make up was
included in the form of commentaries from the authors. Sharon found all thrilling.
The young
agent was soon of again, this time to College Street in Kolkata, a street
famous for book sellers. It was dusty,
dirty work in some places, searching on hands and knees in boxes and backrooms
that probably hadn’t seen a visitor in years, maybe decades. Sharon was not sure the meager haul she got
was worth the effort of the dust and bugs she’d had to battle but consoled
herself that a shower at the end of the day was always waiting for her.
Day after
day she returned, methodically working her way along one side of the street,
from seller to seller. She knew her tenaciousness would pay off but also her
presence. Being western woman in such a place,
off the tourist beat, she did not go unnoticed, curious, even dismissive at
first, she had a hard time getting access to the behind the scenes books, but
as she returned each day attitudes and word of the money she paid, she didn’t
negotiate on price, spread and commerce won out over all objections.
Sharon
dutifully sent what she found back right away.
She did not want to run the risk of having them fall into DOOM or
Silkworm hands, her failing into their clutches was another story. Having
killed a Silkworm she knew she was a target and in their mind a vulnerable one,
given her age and experience, something they had in spades over her.
She had just about finished with the Appa Balwant Chowk, in Pune,
when she came across a book, very old, not about yoga or dance or seduction but
a diary of a group of women of wealth who met every week to talk business and
discuss interests, both personal and of the day and times. It encompassed 50 years, but more than that
Sharon just from small snippets of reading had a sense it was more than that.
She purchased it and left. Nothing in Bengaluru or Chennai had excited so much
as this book.
Sharon decided to treat herself to a meal at Malaka Spice, a
popular but wonderful restaurant. She
sat at a table in the corner under a spreading palm having beaten the dinner
crowd by about 15 minutes. She ordered a
gin and tonic and watched the place fill up as a line started to queue up. She took a sip just as a waiter approached.
‘I’m very sorry miss but would you mind sharing a table with
a single gentleman. I can assure you he
his of a very high standard,’ and made his eyes dart toward the queue of people
so Sharon could see for herself.
She was not offended by the request, it was quite common,
and she certainly wasn’t offended by the man, she gave her approval.
‘Thank you so much. Taj Acharya. A pleasure to meet you,’ he
said offering his hand and Sharon took it.
He was tall, well built, very handsome, well dressed, polite
and elegant in movement as he sat down.
He also turned out to an excellent dinner companion and the
meal stretched longer than normal. He would in the Department of the Interior and
a little in Finance as his MBA was in that area.
‘Yes, I’m hoping to move to New Delhi to a more senior
position once I have enough experience at the state level,’ he explained.
Sharon told him about her MBA and they just seemed to go
from there, talking and having a wonderful time until a slight commotion broke
out as some vacant tables were cleared and taken away and a new one for two
replaced it, a couple, a blonde and her much older companion taking it.
Sharon noticed Taj’s face change a little, a
frown coming onto it. She put a hand up and turned it back to her.
‘You look better with a smile,’ she said and removed her
hand, he flushing slightly. ‘What has
you so agitated?’
‘Lord and Lady Jennings. They were in the office today. They still think it’s the days of The Raj,
ordering people about here and there while they try and do deals with less than
honest politicians and various appointed fools.’
‘Deals for what?’ Sharon asked not missing a chance for
Intel.
‘He wants to buy land for a development, but he really wants
is to by influence for other deals. Land in the mountains for mining, but with
minimal inference and by that, I mean regulations. He has the money and the pull having several
people already in his pockets, but while that is going on, I think they are
missing the bigger picture.’
‘I take it by that you’re referring to Lady Jennings?’
Sharon inquired.
‘Yes,’ he said, surprised as he looked at her, a look that
soon changed to admiration.
‘Her grandfather, Sir Henry Lewis, was archeologist during
The Raj and right up to Independence.
Rather than enrich culture he seems to have rather vastly enriched himself
and consequently his family by stealing, jewels, books, manuscripts anything of
value. So much so that he was able to by
himself a peerage and with it, respectability, well at least in England, others
know better. I think she as they say is
cut from the same cloth, she has cold calculating eyes.’
How do you know that,’ Sharon asked.
‘She was asking today about access, exclusive access to Rajgad Fort, Shanivar Wada and Pataleshwar Temple,
says she wanted to finish notes her grandfather left unfinished when he was
forced to flee. Surprised her could walk
at all with everything he stole from us,’ Taj added with disgust.
At this Sharon became very concerned! The conversation was now serious, and Sharon
turned her young eyes to Lady Jennings scanning everything she could then back
to Taj.
‘She didn’t get it did she,’ Sharon said sounding causal.
‘No, not today, but she made a stink and I’m sure it will be
granted sooner rather than later.
Probably looking to remove things her grandfather didn’t have time to
take,’ he said.
‘Or find,’ Sharon added and looked at him concerned as he
looked back in surprise. ‘We need to go and talk in another place.’
He agreed, she paid,
they left, getting a cab she took him to her hotel and her suite. She could see he was nervous, and she knew
once she told him things, he’d be even more so, but she also knew she had just
the tonic to relax them both.
She methodically laid out everything, blowing her cover,
what she was up to, what she had, she offered to give the originals, she just
wanted copies and what she thought Lady Jennings was up to with the request and
who possibly she was either one, employed by or two working for. Taj was dumbfounded during her recitation,
but he took it all in.
‘All I wanted was a place to eat dinner and then go
home. I thought, incredible, things like
this never happen, a beautiful and as it turns out smart woman and a wonderful
meal with her and then all this. I guess its true, no good deed goes
unpunished,’ he said.
‘Do you really think I’m beautiful,’ Sharon added as she
scooped up his hands in hers and pulled him from a chair opposite hers, she
guiding his hands around her waist as she snaked her arms up and around his
neck.
Their first kiss was soft and tentative, maybe a few seconds,
the second, right after it was longer and perfect, like they had known each
other for a time.
‘You’re not escaping my punishment tonight,’ she smiled and
took him by the hand into the bedroom.
***
They enjoyed a wonderful night together, Sharon ensured the
hotel cleaned and pressed his clothes for the morning, so he could go back to
work and implement the plan they had come up with while she put her part into
action.
It did not take long for her plan to come into play,
speaking the language made a huge difference, people trusted her right away.
Taj had recommended a lawyer friend of his and Sharon could tell instantly he
was trustworthy. They got the legal ball rolling so to speak, but in India,
that ball could be made to roll very slowly and that’s just what she had in
mind.
***
‘All the documents have been filed, so now its just a
waiting game on that end. I suspect my attorney will be contacting me in a few
days time, no doubt about meeting Lord Jennings about the properties in
mention. How did you make out?’ she asked Taj as they walked about a park near
his work.
The paperwork for Lady Jennings visit was submitted this
morning, but I suspect it will come back, one or two sections seemed to have
not been filled out correctly or at all. Of course, once those are fixed, they
will be submitted again, but perhaps at that point, maybe a page goes missing,
so you have at least three days to get in and get what you want before she can
be granted access,’ Taj said, and Sharon smiled.
‘Then there’s no time to waste, I’ll start tonight with Rajgad
Fort.’
***
Sharon drove the 54 km to the base of the Fort that
night. She needed to be alone out of the
way of prying tourist or officials’ eyes.
She parked the jeep in a depression in the road and out. A flip of the hatch at the back and she had
her equipment for the trek up the mountain side path, a headlamp and a belt she
clipped around her hips that carried various items so may need, her final
accessory was her snakeskin black body glove to mask her movements in the
night.
Sharon began her trek up the path, her eyes and ears alert for any
sound out of the ordinary. Her suit was bite proof, so poisonous snakes were
not a worry, the constrictive variety were another story, but that chance was
remote. She paced herself as the well
used path sloped upward toward her goal. A few more twists and turns and she
was within the confines of the fort, the wall between two turrets coming into
view, her goal. She reached he base and rested on a small wall as she gathered
her thoughts and looked at the guide, she’d written for herself as to where the
prize she was looking for was located. The clues from several books pointed the
way forward and she moved on.
Rajgad Fort was built with the treasure found on the
adjacent Torna Fort. This was one of the favourite forts of Shivaji Maharaj and
the resting place of his wife, his queen, Saibai, it was she that Sharon was
interested in, not her grave, but a favourite place of hers, a hiding place,
where she hid her dairy, an account of her public life but more importantly to
Sharon, her private one.
The spy entered the
turret on her right and picked her way over the stones from the collapsed third
floor. She knew the riddle off by heart:
Half you seek is all and all , knowledge comes
from what is small.
Push back the night,
then the day.
The book you seek is
on display.
Sharon cleared a few stones to make several straight paths
within the rotunda, then pulled a tape measure from her belt and took
measurements along the paths noting them in on a small pad of paper she also
had brought along.
She had pondered this puzzle for a while when she it upon what
she was sure the riddle was asking, gravity.
The Indian Mathematician Bhaskaracharya had theorized gravity 1200 years
before Newton. Since knowledge comes
from what is small, gravity force that can be counteracted with small
adjustments to building, such as in a cantilever, she was sure she had to
calculate the centre of gravity for a semi circle, the half part of the first
line of the riddle.
‘But exactly what half of the room?’ she asked herself.
Since in theory there could be infinite points to start from
in a circle. Sharon worked on the 12
lunar cycles of the Indian Calendar, meaning she needed to make twelve separate
calculations at 30 degree intervals then take the smallest point along the axis
as her fixed point for the next step in the puzzle.
She got to work on the math.
.
It took about an hour, but she soon had the exact, she
hoped, point she needed. The next part
required a compass from her belt and a laser pointer.
‘I hope this was all worth it,’ she said as she walked over
to wall facing the west and looked up.
She smiled and placed her hands against the only stone that the beam
split exactly in half with the light and pushed it inward, her heart jumped in
excitement, she had been right. She
repeated the task on the east wall and a few seconds later a stone fell to the
floor and the prize was hers.
Sharon replaced everything but added her own special calling
card, she knew it would be found, she wanted it to be.
‘The games bigger than just these books now,’ she said on
her way out.
***
The book was safely transported to Nadira for translation
and then into safe keeping in the Indian national Archive where it would be conveniently
never seen again, an arrangement made through one of Nadira’s many contacts.
Sharon’s next target was Shaniwar Wada a fort built by Baji
Rao. The north facing fort was an
indication of his ambitions against the Mughal Empire. The immensely strong
gate of massive doors through which even elephants could pass. To prevent
elephants from charging the gates, each pane of the gate consists of sharp
steel spikes arranged in a grid at an approximate height of the forehead of an
adult elephant.
It was these spikes that held the key to the next book, in
fact one written and illustrated by Rao’s wife, Mastani, said be a highly
skilled dancer she was very active in helping her husband govern his territory.
Several other texts alluded to more than that, but Rao
seemed to have had a knack of weeding out his enemies and potential enemies
before they could manage to unseat him from power, he also managed to have
extraordinary anticipatory skill in battle, always defeating his enemies,
seemingly knowing what they would do before they did it.
‘Behind every good woman,’ Sharon said as she prepared for
her nighttime visit.
The spy raised one leg up and parallel to her body up the
wall placing her foot on one of the orbs. Her hands now reached for the first
row of spikes and grasp them, they then moved forward to the second row and so
on, her arms spreading wider as she elongated her body, her muscles kicking her
to keep her firm, her supple body allowing her to replicate the move while her yoga
focused her mind.
Sharon’s form
displayed the body glove to perfection, her sinuous form mesmerizing as her
muscles danced. She worked to the spikes she wanted, her form at full stretch
and turned them until she heard a satisfying click. Sharon moved to the next step, her body
arrayed against the net of spikes as she worked. For the final position she
arched over herself, her incredible strength, determination and flexibility
defying gravity as she pulled up, over and back upon herself and turned the
last two to a satisfying click and the sound of metal sliding against itself as
an orb just above her head opened.
Sharon hung on with one hand while the other reached inside and closed
around her prize.
She worked her way to the ground the concealed door having
closed again as she turned the spikes back. The spy undid the bun she’d tied
her hair in letting the tresses of her chestnut hair cascade about her
shoulders with a shake.
‘Number two,’ she smiled.
***
Pataleshwar Temple was her last stop, again a night time
encounter. Sharon stole into the shades against a pillar, the moonlight an artificial
light mixing. She slunk into the caves,
away from the entrance and switched on her headlamp, adjusted to the setting
she wanted and began scanning. She found
the outline within minutes.
Sharon took off her belt, unzipped her body glove, placed
the lamp between her breasts on and stepped up the column base looking over her
shoulder as she adjusted her body then evenly pressed against the rock and
gently pushed and adjusted until she felt it give a little and swing open, then
a little more until she slipped inside and the stone snapped back into place.
The spy switched on her light and scanned.
A steep narrow staircase led down, Sharon, facing forward cautiously
descended.
The light searched about as she made her way down to what
appeared to be a small room with an inset shelf holding an ornate box made of
sandalwood. The spy opened it and
smiled. She reached into her body glove
and pulled out a gift and left it behind has she ascended the steps and exited
the temple.
‘A rewarding night and its still young,’ she smiled
knowingly as she came back to her hotel room.
‘Quite a get up,’ Taj said as he saw the houndstooth skirt
and white top she’d thrown on in the car to not cause alarm in the hotel lobby.
His arms when around her waist, a thrill enveloped Sharon as
they kissed, he deftly releasing the catch on her skirt and unzipping it slowly
as they squirmed in each others’ arms. Next came the buttons on the shirt and
it was gone. They stood looking at each
other before Taj reached into her hair and undid her bun, he caressing her hair
as it fell shaping it into place.
‘All the work for nothing,’ she said completely aroused.
‘We’re just going mess it up anyway.’
They kissed again as Sharon undid his belt and pants then
his shirt, his smooth hard chest feeling the searing burn of her lips as she
kissed about, he attacking the back of her neck as she gasped in delight
swimming in the fact, she did not have to keep control like on a mission, all
the passion, hunger and desire unleashed.
Taj maneuvered her about, she kissing him over her shoulder
as he took the micro zipper of her body glove and slowly pulled it down, the
sound ringing in Sharon’s ears as each tooth freed more of her until it stopped
just above her paradise and Taj’s warm hand slipped inside and stroked her,
Sharon dancing to the rhythm of his touch.
‘Oh yes,’ she moaned. ‘Mmmm, you are so going to feel my,
my, ooooohhhh,’ she moaned unable to complete the sentence as she climaxed, Taj
wonderfully keeping it going longer than she expected, but enjoyed.
He removed her arms and pulled the suit down her back
kissing all the way, Sharon dared hoping what would happen next and then having
it.
His tongue worked inside her as the body glove was
discarded, the moments distraction all he needed to penetrate her. Sharon
caressed his hair as he worked, her breathing becoming shallower as she moaned
and twisted her hips, his tongue swathing her clitoris in magic, the orgasm
crash against her intensely, her body convulsing and writhing as she moaned and
screamed in delight, lights exploding in her head as she gasped for air and
heat flooded her figure. Her legs,
smooth and sexy and delightful slipped around him as she lowered herself to the
floor Taj’s strong arms supporting her all the way as his tongue deliver the
most scrumptious aftershocks, she had every had. She tried to pulled him up but could not as
his tongue found her sex again as she snapped her body about in in other climax
that went on and on before he released her, she ravenously pulled him to her
and they couple, her exceptional manhood, hard and quivering as she pulled him
in tight. It only took three undulations of her hips to release him in glory,
his long and passionate thrusting telling her all she needed to know, her
skills prolonging his pleasure.
‘Oh no,’ Sharon smiled, as she rolled them over putting her
on top. ‘You’re going nowhere, I still owe you,’ she honeyed and began slowly
rocking him back to full alertness. ‘There that’s more like it,’ she cooed as
he hardened, she gripped him in a new position as they moved together both
having wonderful orgasm before they
rested and kissed and caressed each other.
The shower accommodated them both, the water caressing them
as they clung to each other, an unhurried passion that when it happened was
deep and moving for both. Two final
wonderful exploring joining’s in bed and they fell asleep in each others’ arms.
***
They had breakfast and each other in bed before discussing
her triumph and what lay ahead.
‘Lady Jennings will get her approval on Monday,’ Taj said as
he brushed her hair while Sharon sat at her vanity.
‘She’s in for a big surprise then and not the happy kind. I suspect I have not seen the last of her or
Lord Jennings, in fact I expect to be invited to meet them regarding his
business, but I want that to happen after Lady Jennings has had the opportunity
to be disappointed. That should make
things more interesting.’
