Empire of Bones by Liz Williams

was being insulted or not. At length, Tokai gave up the game and said, "Now. This most in-teresting question of these supposed aliens. Who would have thought it? They say there is a vast ship orbiting the world, and that an alien itself is not a hundred miles away in Varanasi."
    Immediately, Anand made a gesture of negation. "Non-sense. Nothing more than rumors and tricks."
    "Are you quite sure about that?"
    "What else could it be?"
    Tokai was not particularly interested in Anand's opinions, but he was intrigued to note that Anand did not like the idea of aliens at all. The prince's discomfort, relayed into pheromonal ouday, was being transmitted along the cane with some force. Perhaps it had something to do with Anand's out-raged hierarchical certainties. Whatever the case, Tokai thought, it might prove useful.
    To Amir Anand he said, "Oh, but I think it is more than tricks and rumors. My old friend Vikram Singh, minister of the interior, has seen the alien with his own eyes. In the Temple of Durga, in Varanasi. It resembles a god, he tells me. It has four arms… and who do you think was with it?" The question was entirely rhetorical. Unless Anand had spent the previous week in a darkened room with his head in a box, he could hardly have failed to take note of the multiple news an-nouncements, which though confusing had managed to focus on one important fact.
    Anand scowled, as if in preparation for hearing the name.
    "Jayachanda Nihalani." Tokai rolled the syllables on his tongue with some relish, as though they were a Cuban cigar. "The little caste revolutionary. And not long after your failure to capture her at the hospital.
    What a pity, Anand. History, I've often thought, depends on so little—a chance meeting, a missed opportunity. If you'd taken Nihalani into custody as planned, who knows who'd be in receipt of otherworldly fa-vors now?" He smiled. Anand gave him a wary glance, evi-dently sensing where the conversation was heading. "Tell me again what happened at the hospital. There is a very big gap between being a fugitive lying sick in a bed one moment and becoming die favored representative of an alien people the next. I would like to know what happened in the day or so that Nihalani went missing."
    He listened carefully as Anand began to speak. The man was brutal, but brittle, and there were still alarming areas of weakness which would have to be corrected. Anand re-counted his last confrontation with Jaya Nihalani with as much measured objectivity as he could muster, but Tokai could sense the rage beneath the words. It was hardly surpris-ing. The whole Nihalani affair had been a chronicle of inepti-tude: first a bloodbath at the ashram all tüose years ago, leaving Nihalani free to rally the masses and instigate a caste-based revolt; then redemption when Anand finally captured her a full ten years later, only to lose her again in a prison breakout…
    The government of Bharat was fortunate that Tokai had offered his services in solving the problem, and even more for-tunate that he specialized in ingenious solutions. The thought of the Selenge virus drifted into his mind, and Tokai smiled to himself: that had been an inspired solution, for example, in response to a much earlier crisis. Not without its drawbacks, of course—no biological weapon was perfect—but really Selenge had exceeded expectations.
    Tokai said, lightly, "So you would have no objections to… retrieving Nihalani? Privately, this time, and without the hin-drances placed in your way by unsympathetic government de-partments? A chance to redeem yourself?"
    There was an electric pause, then Anand said, "You mean I'd be working for you?"
    After a very long time, during which he could smell the growing odor of Anand's sweat, Tokai answered,
    "That's right. You'd be working for me. The thought bothers you, perhaps?"
    "No, no, of course not," Anand said hastily. "Why should it?"
    "No reason. Ironically, Nihalani is under the protection of the