Fury's Goddess. Alex Archer

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.

       Moreover, she didn’t…feel anything. And usually right before anything bad happened, Annja would…sense something was up. But so far on this moonless night, she felt nothing out of the ordinary.

       Good.

       She glanced back at Frank, who took a step and promptly fell face-first into a puddle. He came up blubbering and clawing at his face.

       “Be quiet!” Annja said. “There’s not much noise out here and sound carries farther at night.”

       “I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Frank wiped the greasy muck from his face.

       “Make sure you don’t break that camera.” Annja kept moving forward, crossing a drainage ditch and a narrow culvert. She took it slow in case she happened across a lounging tiger. But the FLIR again proved its worth and showed no signs of life except for the ever-present mosquitoes.

       Annja ignored Frank’s hushed grumbling and brought them within two hundred yards of the development. There, she squatted to study the layout.

       The area ahead of them sloped upward out of the culvert to a fence. She initially thought it would be a problem getting through the fencing, but a quick glimpse down the wire told her it was still in the process of being installed and there were several areas where it was possible to step through.

       The development itself comprised elaborate mansions in a grand style reflective of the Hindu culture. The landscaping gave them the appearance of being something out of an ancient kingdom.

       A few of the homes were lit by a single light, but it was otherwise quite dark. There were streetlights, but they hadn’t been finished yet. By the look of things, several residents had moved in long before the complex was completed. Probably in a rush to get in there first for bragging rights.

       On the way in, she’d studied the ground for any tracks. But like Pradesh had said, there seemed to be no sign of tigers.

       There were an awful lot of footprints, however. Whether they’d been made by construction workers or by someone else, Annja couldn’t be sure.

       Frank nudged her from behind. “What’s the holdup?”

       “I’m trying to see what our choices are for gaining access.”

       He pointed at a hole in the fence. “Seems like a good place to start right there.”

       She held him back. “Hold on a second, would you? We haven’t seen or heard any of the police patrols yet.”

       “Probably asleep.” He started to rise when Annja grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him back into the dirt. She’d heard the unmistakable sound of a car engine.

       “Quiet!” she whispered. And then she ducked down as the first arc of light swept the area where Frank had just been standing.

       The slow thrum of the motor told Annja that the police car was on a routine patrol. The light swept over them a few times before the engine cranked up and the car moved off.

       But still she held Frank down. “Wait.”

       “Why?”

       “Trust me.”

       She listened and heard the motor die suddenly. As if they’d turned a corner.

       Time to move.

       “Okay, Frank, let’s get to that hole in the fence and get through it quickly. Make sure you pick out a spot away from the fence to hide in. The darker, the better.”

       Frank was up and moving even as Annja finished giving him instructions. As she made her way to the fence, she knew they were about to cross a line. Once on the other side, they’d officially be trespassing.

       She wondered how Pradesh would feel about that.

       Well, she thought, the trick would be to get in and get out without him ever knowing. She checked her watch. An hour on the inside just to get the lay of the land.

       The chain links bit at her arms, but Annja ducked through and then hustled across the small road the police car had driven down. Across the way, Frank was huddled underneath an overhang by what looked like an administration building. He had a small piece of paper unfolded and was studying it with a red-lensed penlight.

       “What’s that?”

       Frank looked up. “Map I made of the layout of this place. I marked the crime scenes on here.”