Chapter 6

I simply looked at the Priestess rather calmly. “You heard what I said inside, did you not? She is working with me. In fact, she even carries my child within her womb, which you as a Priestess of Sati should approve of.”

That caused the Priestess of Sati to sit back suddenly in her seat. “How is that possible? Our former Prince stated that the Guardians were his mortal enemies, the enemies of his god, Shiva!”

“Did you not witness for yourself that my own powers are greater than those of your former Prince? Did you not stand at the end of the hall and witness my defeat of his chosen ones? Did you not witness, again, a demonstration of my power?” My voice had gotten a little louder as I continued talking.

“Yes, My Lord, I did do all those things. Forgive me, My Lord. I have not the room to do so now, but I shall abase myself before you when I do.”

I shook my head. “That is not needed, Asis Phogat, Priestess of Sati. You are allowed to err, as you did not know any better. Simply never make the mistake of underestimating me and my decisions, for I have a reason for everything I do.”

Helen said, “Namaste, Asis Phogat,” and made the proper position with her hands. Her pronunciation was pretty good. She surprised me when she slowly said, in Hindi, “My name is Helen Awarai. It is a pleasure to meet a sister Priestess.”

I could tell that Phogat was taken aback by this. But what she’d seen, as well as what I’d said and the way Helen acted, caused her to sigh slightly, then bring her palms together. “Namaste, Helen Awarai. I apologize if my words have caused offense to another follower of our Lord.”

I could tell that Helen was a little lost at the last, so I said, “We don’t have time to fully discuss things now, as we are at the barracks. I presume that the men inside will listen to you, Pashtar, and Khalah.”

“Yes, my Lord.” I opened the door and stepped out, holding my hand out for her.

“Everyone else remain in the car, please. This shouldn’t take long. And ... no cavalry, please, even if you do hear a shot or two from inside.”

“Have fun, Cal,” Chuck said.

I could tell that Lieutenant Singh wasn’t very happy with me walking into the buildings with only the three former followers of Randhawa. But he held the machine gun such that it wasn’t pointed directly at the building, even though it was pretty obvious that there were several men inside with weapons pointing at him.

I let Pashtar take the lead. He simply walked up to the door, which opened before he got to it. Once the four of us were inside, it only took about five minutes ... and my killing one guard with a thrown rock. He was getting ready to spray all of us with a machine gun. Everyone else decided that following me now was in their own best interests. I only had to levitate a little, too, for the intimidation factor.

The leader of this group, Sundeep Jatrana, said that he’d had a phone call from Gazda, at the main estate, warning him that an impostor to the throne of the principality would be going to the temple and to be prepared to stop him. “Obviously, Gazda is completely wrong, as you are no impostor, my Lord!”

“No, I’m not. What are your thoughts regarding Dodi?”

“He was our former master’s chief of security, my direct superior. He is a good man.” Then he realized what I was asking. “We can work with him, and he can do a good job of running your estates here. All of them.”

“Very good. Thank you. Continue with your normal duties then, keeping in mind that I am normally rather benevolent and would rather not be seen as a tyrant; but I can be strict if need be, as Gazda is about to find out. Were you in the military, before?”

“Yes, my Lord. Most of us have served.”

“Again, very good. Carry on, and consider yourselves as my military. Especially as the Punjab decides if it is in our own best interest to separate from Pakistan and India.”

That made all of them cheer. With that, we went back out to the vehicles. “Back to the estate. I wouldn’t want to keep Gazda waiting.”

Singh saw the expression on my face when I said that, and smiled.

A few minutes later, our small caravan pulled back into the parking lot. There were more trucks and soldiers present, having arrived from the Air Force base. I got out of the car, then started off for the entrance to the Temple that was my new home in India. The only one following me was Pashtar. Khalah stopped and turned, facing the vehicles.

He said, “No. This is for our master, alone,” in fairly decent English.

Gazda and Dodi had noticed us pull in, and stepped outside. When Dodi saw me walking up with Pashtar one step behind me, he stopped walking. I saw him nod at some signal from Pashtar, then walk backwards to the entrance to the Temple and close the doors. Gazda was smiling and didn’t realize until I was only about ten feet from him that he was alone.

He turned and began running for the Temple. I kept walking, casually. I could see him fumbling in his robes for something, so I stopped and held my hand out. Pashtar slapped the hilt of his sword into it. I began walking forward. Gazda finally pulled out the pistol, an old Webley Mark IV,... 38 caliber. I simply held the sword at the ready. He fired, at least in my general direction. While that round was in no danger of hitting me, it might hit someone behind me, so I swung the sword, knocking the round down.

He began firing the pistol as quickly as he could, quickly emptying the remaining five rounds in the cylinder. The sword I held flashed almost faster than could be seen, as I cut each round down before it could get anywhere, continuing to walk forward. He was only a few feet from me, his jaw slack. He brought the gun up to his own head, and pulled the trigger. It clicked on an empty chamber.

The sword flicked forward, taking his gun hand off at the wrist. He reached over to grab his bloody stump with his other hand, and I took that hand off as well. “I am the master of this estate. You have lied to me, and to others. I am the Prince of this region. I am the ultimate authority here. You purposely sacrificed one of my subjects in an attempt to gain the favor of the gods. As far as you are concerned, I am Shiva the Destroyer.”

The sword shot out again, this time slicing through his robes at his crotch. His penis and scrotum fell to the ground. He fell forward to his knees, screaming in pain, trying to stem the flow of blood from his wrists by jamming them into his sides. I brought the sword in again, this time flat. It severed his head completely, which went flying through the air. Before it could land, I hit it, hard, yet precisely, with the sword cutting the top of his skull off. The two parts landed off to the side, his brains spilling out.

I made a flicking motion with my wrist, getting the majority of the blood off the blade. His corpse had fallen sideways. By cutting his hands off first, then emasculating him, I’d already drained enough blood from his body that not much actually pumped out his neck. I stepped sideways and then pulled up a piece of cloth from his robe. I used a part of the blade that I hadn’t slightly abused to cut it off, then cleansed the blade of his blood. Finally, I turned, then walked back to Pashtar.

“I see that I have dulled this slightly, cutting through the bones. One moment, please.” I used my strength and fingernails, running them along the edge of the blade and sharpening it better than a diamond whetstone could. “Be careful if you shave with it.” I tossed the bloody cloth into the air, then sliced it into six pieces before it could hit the ground. “Yes, that should be sufficient.”

Apparently, Dodi had been watching what was going on outside through a peephole. He opened the door to the Temple again, then began shouting for workers to come clean up a mess. While the workers were running up, I carefully handed the sword back to Pashtar. He reverently took it from me, carefully sheathing it.

“Thank you for honoring me by using my sword to kill the unworthy one, My Lord.”

“You’re very welcome.”

I looked up, where my people and the two officers were walking up. “It’s getting late in the day. We had anticipated spending the night here. Gopal Dodi, you are the new administrator of all my estates. I also need a new security officer here.”

Before I could say anything, Pashtar said, “Khalah, you are in charge of that now. The others from our group will assist you in protecting the property of our Lord.”

“Yes, master Pashtar. Take care of our Lord in his travels.” The two of them clasped hands at the forearms.

I brought my right hand up, rubbing my eyes, stopping with my fingers on the bridge of my nose. Nothing else for it. I lowered my hand.

“Thank you, Sayel Pashtar. I accept you into my personal service.”

He grinned then, highly pleased.

Hannah had been translating for my security team. I heard Chuck sardonically say, “Mike is going to love this.”

“Captain Bhate, at this point I don’t think you and your troops will be needed here. However, I leave it up to you to decide whether to encamp here overnight before heading back to New Delhi in the morning or not. Lieutenant Singh, I would appreciate if your platoon would stick around, with at least two of the jeeps, if for no other reason than to provide an appropriate escort back to New Delhi when I am finally ready to leave my estates.”

“Of course, Your Majesty, we would be honored to remain,” Singh said.

Bhate said, “If we can refill our canteens from your water supply, then we will return to New Delhi this evening, Your Majesty. We shall deliver the racks of weapons to your plane, so they can be appropriately loaded, and then we shall provide guard duty so that nothing conveniently disappears.”

“You have our thanks, Captain Bhate. Namaste.”

“Namaste, Your Majesty.” The two of them left, to get their troops organized.

I looked at Dodi, Khalah, Phogat, and Pashtar. Switching languages, I said, “I don’t suppose that the four of you speak anything close to fluent English, do you?”

Dodi went first. “Our country only received her independence thirty-seven years ago. English is still the language of all the High Courts. I learned it in military school, so it is a second language for me.”

Khalah said, “I speak it not well, but understand more than speak.”

Phogat nodded. “I similar to Khalah, due to tourists. Rest of Temple staff like me.”

Pashtar surprised me. “Yes, of course, My Lord. Our former master made certain that those of us who attained my rank received an education in England, as he was never sure where we would need to be deployed.”

“Sayel, I think you just made Chuck’s life a lot easier. Sayel Pashtar, this is Charles Allen. He is the head of my security detail, and my principal bodyguard. You’ll be working with him, plus the other members of my team. This is Angela Benton, Wendy Thacker, and Sharon Morris. And this is Deputy US Marshal Jeremy Gage, who has been assigned to me by President Reagan as my minder and ‘get out of jail free’ card.”

Pashtar looked puzzled, as did the rest of them. Gage said, “What that means is, if for some reason Mister Lewis has the need to kill someone related to the United States, then I get to wave my badge and all is forgiven.”

Dodi was still puzzled. “But ... he is our Prince, and these are his estates, and this is his province. We are all his, to do with as he wills.”

“Yes, you are, and I was very pleased that I have only had to kill two people so far, instead of unleashing not just Captain Bhate and his troops, but ... anyway ... destroying everything here. That was a distinct possibility that I had to consider before arriving.” I saw that Pashtar was nodding his head in understanding.

“That’s correct, Sayel. But, Gopal, what Marshal Gage is talking about is not just here, on these estates and in this province. Keep in mind the rest of the world. What your former master did was not necessarily legal, depending upon who he did it to, and where. Marshal Gage gives me that legality, or at least the support of the government of the United States, everywhere in the world.”

“Now you really are bloody damned James Bond,” Hannah said, with a chuckle.

“Thank you, I think. The rest of my group. Margaret Lewis, my CFO and one of my girlfriends. Hannah Rothschild, my second keeper and personal aide, as well as one of my girlfriends. Helen Awarai, Priestess of the First People of Australia, Guardian of the Sacred Souls of Uluru, and one of my girlfriends. And Carrie Holsinger, Guardian of the Souls of Mount Moffett and the First People of the Aleut, and NOT one of my girlfriends.”

“Not yet, anyway,” she said, causing me a little discomfort at the chuckles that came from others in my group.

Pashtar noticed, for the first time, that Helen had changed into her formal wear with her triangles. He took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out, nodding.

“I am well aware of the differences in titles. As our Prince, we should address you as Your Highness. Yet, I note that both the Captain and the Lieutenant addressed you as Your Majesty.”

“That’s correct, Sayel. I have been chosen by the First Peoples of Australia and the Aleut to be their King.” My voice got a little deeper. “We have accepted that title.”

Pashtar looked at the other three, then easily lowered himself to his knees, bowing before me. “You are my Master and my Lord. Therefore, you are also my King, if you will have me in your service.”

At his words, the others went down to their knees as well. Some of the workers had been coming back in from the fields, while those cleaning up the blood were still in the area. Upon seeing their leaders bow before me, they joined in. It took perhaps five minutes for everyone in the compound, except the concubines, who remained hidden, to join the group.

Once it looked like everyone that was going to show up had done so, I said in Hindi, “We, California Lewis, First of Our Name, Prince of this realm, King of the First People of Australia, King of the First People of the Aleut, do hereby accept your fealty as your ruler. We tend to not be very formal unless decorum requires it. As you are now our subjects, you are now also our responsibility. Give us a little time, and we shall do all within our power to make your lives better. Arise, my people.”

In a low voice that was muffled by everyone getting up, I heard Hannah say, “Half a dozen more wind turbines, already ordered.”

“I’m glad we’re talking with Siemens. I think we’re going to end up with a factory here in the Punjab region building them for India and China as well, since there’s as many people here as in Hutchinson,” I said. “Margie, would you please go with Gopal and find the books to the estate? I’m quite certain that Gazda was stealing. The only question is how much. In addition, the bank accounts of Ramaeshwara Randhawa are all mine, and I need to see about getting them transferred into the accounts for the estate, so that those funds can be utilized for the people of the Punjab.”

Phogat blinked, then said in Hindi, “My Lord, you are going to use your own wealth to help everyone? Not just your own people, but everyone?”

“Of course, Priestess. There is nothing wrong with having wealth. At the same time, there is a great problem when you hoard that wealth, and do nothing with it. Your Temple needs to be painted and repaired. The roads here need to be paved, and the people need proper food and medical care. I am their Sovereign! It is my duty to them to ensure they have what they need. The taxes and tithes that they provide to me are not solely for me to enrich myself! They are to enrich all of our peoples.”

“Now ... Risaldar Marwah! Front and center!” He quickly rose to his feet, ran to a position in front of me, stopped and saluted. I nodded at him in return, allowing him to drop the salute. “While Dodi is busy showing Margaret the books, you will introduce the entire staff of this facility to me. At the same time, I want the cooks to be prepared to serve the evening meal for the entire staff, so let’s get them through first.”

“Yes, Sahib!” He quickly barked out orders, with the cooks hurrying up first. Once they were done, we went through the rest of the staff. There was one nurse, a teacher for the children, ten laborers that doubled as tank crewmen, ten housekeepers, and the rest were general laborers and their families.

“Risaldar, I am satisfied with everyone I have met so far. What is the status of those within the town, itself?”

“Sahib, they are your people, but not directly of the estate. As such, your rule is law, but they do not directly belong to you, as all of us do.”

“Asis Phogat, is that how you and the men in the other barracks are?”

“My Lord, we all are directly yours. Myself, my acolytes, the guards and workers from the secondary barracks. Everything north of the town, between the river and the next north-south road, on this side of that road, including the grocers, poultry farm, and the Gurudawara Choe Sahib, all the way up to the east-west road that is south of Chharbar and then back to the river, is your personal and private estate. There are two additional residences where workers stay, depending upon the harvest, but they are normally empty.”

I could see that my security team and women had frowns on their faces from this talk. I was a bit disturbed, too. “Risaldar, while I have read the terms of inheritance that were in the paperwork, I have a bit of a question regarding the legality, as it were, of the status of everyone here. I am quite familiar with American law, but perhaps you could explain the nuances of Indian law that, um, clarify everyone’s status.”

He frowned, then saw Lieutenant Singh with his troops. “Lieutenant, could you please assist me?”

Singh said something to the soldier he was with, then came walking over. “I think this is a first for me, a Risaldar actually asking a lowly Lieutenant for assistance.” That got a chuckle from my group when Hannah translated it.

“There are officers, sir, and then there are officers. It is rather obvious to me that you will not remain in this rank for very long. The reason I asked for your assistance, Sir, is that our Sahib has asked a question regarding the legal status of those of us on the estate, and I’m not fully qualified to answer that.”

Singh nodded. “I understand. And more importantly, I understand why His Majesty is asking this question. Slavery, per se, was abolished in India, and has been so for more than a hundred twenty years. Even indentured servitude is now illegal. At the same time, even though the Princes were required to renounce it, the practice continues, albeit under different names. While all of the people of this region are your subjects, as both their Prince and as a King, the people of this estate are in a state of ‘voluntary bondage’. What that means is that, for whatever circumstances have led them here, they have all renounced their freedom. In other words, they have asked to become slaves here.”

He held up his hand. “Not in the term you think, from before your American Civil War, but in the term that yes, their master could do with them as he pleased, if he so desired, but that they would also be cared for, fed, and be given a job, to be productive, instead of simply being free to starve to death. They also have higher status, as bond servants to you, than anyone else within your province.”

I waited for Hannah to finish translating what he said. I said, “In other words, my initial thought, because I tend to have mostly American morals and ethics, to free everyone would be greeted with horror by everyone here, because it’s actually the worst possible thing I could do as far as they are concerned.”

Risaldar Marwah nodded. “Yes, Sahib. If I may be so bold ... I have seen combat, seen men die. I would rather you gave me the same treatment that you gave Gazda than be freed from my servitude to you.”

Everyone else that was from the estate that heard our conversation either nodded or said they agreed.

I turned and looked at Gage. “You know, Cain and Abel are going to really love this.”

Jeremy shook his head. “I remember the discussion about your good plan to take over the world. Consider this to be on-the-job, training.”

“Sayel, you’ve been awfully quiet.”

“It is not my place to speak, Your Majesty. It is simply my duty to carry out your will, however I can.”

I let out a deep breath. “I apologize to all of you, but I cannot imagine a set of horrors that would cause me to voluntarily do what you have done. I do not doubt that you have all faced them. I shall endeavor to do all that I can to make sure that no one else has to make the same decision you did. Not because it was a wrong decision, but because it was the only one you could make. Whether that means getting more jobs, more food, more medical care, or simply getting the police to do their jobs and crack down on criminals instead of taking bribes to look the other way, I shall do it. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be done overnight. But it shall be done.”

I didn’t realize how much I’d raised my voice until I heard, not just everyone nearby, but also the soldiers making camp, applaud and cheer.

I saw that Phogat had tears in her eyes. “Bless you, Master! May Sati watch over you and yours, giving you strong and healthy children! Many of them!”

“Thank you. Lieutenant, carry on. I suppose about now, I ought to go find out what Margie has been up to. Hannah, are you okay?”

She wiped her eyes. “I’m not as stoic as my sister-wife, maybe because she’s heard this or something similar before. I’m so incredibly proud of you, my love.”

Chuck said, “We’ll get your gear set up in your bedroom. You go do whatever it is that you have to do.”

With Hannah, Helen, Carrie, and Pashtar following, I went to the main building. As I approached the door, it opened from within. “Greetings, Master,” said a beautiful, young woman.

She was wearing a choker, like the two women that had served water.

“Thank you. One of my ladies and Gopal Dodi should be in here somewhere, examining the books of the former overseer. Would you please take us there?”

“Of course, Master.” She bowed, then moved in a way that simply flowed, down a hallway, and to a room with two large tables in it. Margie and Dodi were sitting next to each other at one of them, Margie with a manual calculating machine and notepad in front of her, while Dodi had a telephone to one side. A large book was open between them. Four gorgeous women were seated at the other table, eating. Seeing me walk into the room, all four of them stopped what they were doing, stood up, and then bowed to me.

Margie looked up from her papers. “Glad you’re here, Cal. Girls, sit down and finish eating. When you’re done, have the rest come in and eat. We’ll want to see all eight of you in the bedchamber later this evening.” She looked at the woman who’d brought us in. “You may resume your duties.”

One of them said, “Yes, Mistress.” The four sat back back down and resumed eating, while the other bowed and left us.

“I take it you’ve found a few things I’d be interested in,” I said, walking over, so I could look over their shoulders.

“Slightly, yes. We showed up in time to completely fuck up Gazda’s plans. If you hadn’t killed him, well, I would have recommended doing so, anyway. He was planning on stealing right at half of what you have in your estate accounts, taking four of the women here, and heading off to the South Pacific, to live somewhere in wealth. The minor detail that he hadn’t actually asked any of the women to go with him, he was simply going to take them, and kill the other four in a tragic fire disguised as Satipratha, makes things a little worse.”

“He had all that written down?”

Dodi opened the book. “The plane tickets are here, and the passports are here. All of the account routing information is here. I have been on the phone to the National Bank, confirming the cancellation of those transfers, so that everything is now in the estate accounts. They have an actual branch in Lalru, so we won’t have to go all the way to Ambala, but we will need to go there tomorrow, to make final arrangements.”

“More or less out of curiosity, at this point, how much are we talking about?”

Margie shook her head. “In your scheme of things, not that much. Half a billion rupees, in liquid accounts. Call it forty million in US dollars.”

“You’re right, that’s not that much. Where’s the hidden treasure? Hidden Swiss bank accounts somewhere? He had an airplane worth half that, and there’s for damn sure a lot of money tied up in ... Dodi, how often were the tanks exercised?”

“Every time the master would return from a job, one of the things he would do is have the crews show off one of the tanks, as a symbol to all of his power.”

“Come with me,” I ordered.

Everyone but the concubines followed me back to the garage. “Risaldar Marwah, one thing I missed seeing was the armory for the tanks. Obviously, they are functional. That also means they have to have ammunition somewhere.”

“Ah, of course, Sahib. For safety purposes, the ammunition was stored below ground, under the vehicles in a reinforced bunker.”

“Move the tanks. I need to see inside those bunkers,” I said.

“Of course, Sahib!” He pulled a whistle from around his neck, and blew it three times, then three times again. Within twenty seconds, ten men came running from the other buildings. “Both tanks! Move them out, for visual inspection! Drivers only!”

Most of the crews stopped, while two men hopped up onto each of the tanks, opening a hatch, and dropping in. The crews still outside made sure the doors were open. First, the Centurion fired up, and the crews guided it outside. The roar from both twelve cylinder engines was deafening, and acted as a draw for the soldiers as the Centurion moved out, pivoted left, while the T-72 moved out and pivoted right. Marwah made a cutting motion with his hand across his throat, so both drivers shut their tanks back down.

“Lieutenant Singh, take this opportunity to have your men familiarize themselves with both tanks! Tank crews, take this time to show off your equipment to men from the President’s Bodyguards!” I yelled.

The crews all beamed with pleasure, while the soldiers all played tourists, half of them going to each of the tanks.

In the center of the floor of the garage, where it had been hidden by being directly under the center of each tank, were two doorways. I pointed to Marwah to open the front one, which had been hidden by the Centurion. He did so, and I went down the ladder inside.

There was a six foot wide room, running the entire length of the garage. One wall under the Centurion had eighty boxes of two hundred fifty rounds each of seven point six two mm machine gun ammunition, and another twenty boxes of twelve point seven mm ammunition. The rest of the area under the Centurion was full of one hundred five mm main gun rounds, easily a hundred of them. The area under the T-72 had the same amount of machine gun ammunition as was under the Centurion, with one hundred twenty-five mm main gun rounds under it.

The way things were set up, the tanks only had one way in and out, and couldn’t pull straight through the garage. Considering they each weighed effectively fifty tons apiece, I understood that. If the ammunition in here ever blew up, it would go up, destroy the tanks, but otherwise not completely devastate the entire compound, due to the reinforced concrete floors the tanks actually sat on in the garage. I used my vision to look all around, but didn’t find any hidden or secret rooms. I used the ladder to return to the garage.

Everyone was waiting for me. Margie had this incredibly amused expression on her face. “Boys and their toys. I think everyone is all excited about showing off their tanks to actual soldiers.”

I saw the way everyone else was looking. “Went off a bit half-cocked, if I’m using that expression correctly, did I?”

“Realizing that I don’t get paid in the traditional sense, this still applies. What do I do for a living?”

“Money, finances, and investments.” I knew at the tone of her voice I’d fucked up.

“Thank you for recognizing the obvious. Just because you happen to have an incredible amount of liquidity doesn’t mean that everyone else in the world operates that way. I’m half tempted to not tell you, just because, in case you can’t tell, I’m a little irked at you.”

Sayel said, “It would not establish a good precedent for you to abase yourself before your woman here in public, where everyone else can see you.”

I turned my head, looking at him.

“You are not the only one who can read muscle groups, Master. You’re much better at it than I am, much faster in combat, but this is not combat to the death; only of the heart.”

Margie looked at Sayel. “I like you. What did you do for your former Prince?”

“I killed people that he could not be bothered to kill himself, and trained the rest of his personal assassins.”

That made Helen laugh. “Yagyu, William, and you are going to get along very well.”