“Thank you, Divya. Fetch us some tea, would you?” he said, more an order than a request.
“Yes, Professor.”
Drake and Allie followed Sharma into his office, and he hung his jacket on a hook mounted to the back of the door. He turned to them and motioned to a small circular table with four chairs. “Please, have a seat. Forgive me if I work while we talk.”
“Of course,” Allie said, trying not to stare at the professor’s metal clamp of a hand.
Sharma skimmed the message slips, made several notes using his left hand, and then checked his computer screen before coming over to the table and sitting beside Allie. “There, we should have a few minutes of peace. Now, what exactly can I do for you?”
“Elliott had a photograph of a dagger with what appears to be Sanskrit running along the blade, and I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on what it says.”
Divya appeared with three cups of tea on a tray as Allie was showing the professor the image on her phone.
“Mmm, yes, I remember it. He didn’t share my translation with you?” Sharma asked.
“I’m afraid he passed away two days ago,” Allie said, her voice quiet. “We never got a chance to discuss it.”
“Good Lord! That’s terrible. He was so… fit. Heart attack? Stroke?”
“It was a complete surprise,” Drake said, nodding somberly.
“My condolences. Did he have family?”
“Nobody close.”
“Well, the Sanskrit referred to a location he was convinced is located in Jammu and Kashmir. Are you familiar with it?”
Allie and Drake nodded.
The professor stared at the script and recited from memory. “Within the blessed cave of the six-headed fair one, the path of the devout can be seen by the righteous…”
Allie waited expectantly. “The righteous…?” she prompted.
Sharma pursed his lips. “That’s all it says.”
Her shoulders sagged. “What?”
“Yes. It probably continues on the other side of the blade. At least, that was my speculation.” The professor sipped his tea. “It was a most unusual substitution cypher. Fortunately, there are no secrets to those with the fortitude to persevere.”
“But there’s no guarantee that it continues on the flip side?” Drake asked.
“Well, no, there are never any guarantees in life. But it’s a reasonable assumption, and one that would be consistent with other relics of the period.” He glanced at Drake and then sat back. “Your colleague mentioned that he hoped to have the dagger available for physical inspection soon.”
Allie nodded. “That’s right.”
“I’d suggest that once you have it, you get back in touch with me. Call whenever, I’m usually up late working — the curse of bachelorhood, I’m afraid. I’d be delighted to decrypt the rest of the script for you. It’s a welcome challenge after long days of lecturing to bored students — the bane of my existence, but someone must pass on knowledge to future generations.” He rose, walked over to his desk, and slid a business card from an antique jade case before returning to the table. Sharma handed the card to Allie, who pocketed it. “Which reminds me that duty calls,” the professor said. “I’m afraid I have no more time — my next class begins in just a few minutes, so I must say goodbye.”
Allie and Drake moved to the open door, where Divya had resumed working at her station. “Thank you for all your help, Dr. Sharma, and for agreeing to see us,” Allie said.
The professor joined them at the threshold. “It is my unexpected pleasure to have such delightful company, although I wish the circumstances were different. I’m sorry about Elliott’s passing. He looked so vital…”
Drake sighed. “It came as quite a shock.”
“I’m sure.”
Allie smiled at the studious young woman as they left. “Nice to meet you, Divya,” she said.
Divya glanced up and then returned to her work. “Likewise.”
Chapter 24
Spencer was hunched over a computer station, a bottle of water and an empty plate by his side, when Drake and Allie returned to the cyber café. On the screen he had zoomed in on the suspect area of Kashmir, but his body language radiated annoyance, and they didn’t need to ask how his research was going.
He pushed back from the screen and studied their faces. “You look pretty pleased with yourselves.”
“It’s been a productive day so far,” Drake said.
“You going to share, or do I have to guess?”
“We talked to the professor… oh, and we learned who Carson was buying the dagger from,” Drake explained, and gave Spencer a short report on their progress. When he was done, Spencer swiveled back to the screen.
“What was the guy’s name? Indiana Singh? Let’s see if he has a website,” he said, and typed the name into a search engine. A link popped up, and he selected it.
The cartoon image of the exaggerated features appeared in all its glory, and Spencer cocked his head as music drifted from the headphones by the side of the CPU. He listened for a few seconds and laughed.
“That’s beyond cheesy. He’s totally ripped off the Raiders thing.”
“My guess is he didn’t get permission,” Allie observed.
“That’s probably a safe assumption.”
Spencer scrolled down and navigated through the website, which featured photos of temples, slums, and dizzying perspectives from the tops of cliffs. Glowing testimonials all written in suspiciously similar British English assured prospective customers that Indiana Singh was not only the best tour guide in all Delhi, but an honest and friendly chap who quickly became his clients’ best friend.
“About the only thing he’s missing is his own infomercial,” Drake said.
“He dances, he sings, he’s Indiana… Singh!” Allie intoned, and they laughed.
Their merriment was cut short by a ringing from Allie’s purse, and she fumbled the new cell phone out.
“Hello?”
“Who is this?” a male voice demanded.
“My name’s Allie. Who’s this?”
“You left a message on my phone.”
“Mr. Singh?”
A pause. “It might be.”
“I’m a colleague of Elliott Carson’s. I’ve arranged for the final payment. I’m ready when you are,” she said. “You have the dagger?”
“There’s been a change of plans.”
Allie swallowed hard. “What change? We had a deal.”
“The price went up. I want two hundred for it, not one hundred. So you’ll need to transfer a hundred and ninety.”
“I… that wasn’t the agreement. How can you justify raising the price?”
“It went up when Carson showed up in the paper with his head on the other side of the street from his torso.”
Allie had no comeback. “Mr. Singh…”
“People call me Indiana.”
“Indiana. Fine. But be reasonable. That’s a huge amount of money.”
“Then don’t buy it. I can find others, I’m sure. Just the melt weight is probably sixty grand.”
“We could probably come up with a hundred and fifty.”
“We?”
“I’m here with my boyfriend,” she said, looking at Drake, who blushed at the term.
“I’m liking this less and less.”
“Assuming I can raise a hundred and fifty, can we do the transaction?” Allie asked.
Indiana sighed. “Fine. But it has to happen today.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“None of your business. Can you do it or not?”
“I’ll have to check. It’s the middle of the night in the U.S. How am I supposed to do a transfer with the time difference?”
“Do you have a bitcoin wallet?”
“No.”
“Create one. You can figure out how in a few minutes — there are plenty of services that will do it for you. Then you transfer money to one of dozens of intermediaries, and they convert it. They’ll deposit it in your wallet, and then you transfer it to me.” He gave her the name of a preferred bitcoin broker, and she memorized it for later use.