Chapter 18:// Bumping off

 

The huge cobra reported back to her master.

“Yes, nice,” he said and petted her enormous hood. “What did you taste, my Kaur?”

She tasted the air a few times, her forked tongue whipping in a blur.

“Blood…” he said. She tasted a couple more times. “Brains. Excellent,” her master said and threw a rat at her.

The cobra gulped the snack in a single motion and slid around the street, making herself comfortable.

“It seems those sleeper programs do work after all,” Bhai Sharan said to himself and rubbed his chin. It was a troubling thought for assassins worldwide. What would they do, if computers could simply take their jobs like that? Would they turn obsolete, go the way of the pharmacists and the commercial pilots? Replaced by trained machine learning applications?

The world was changing fast. He had no illusions about the age old adage, ‘adapt or die.’ Despite his traditional theme, he was a man who went with the times. These nanodaemons were worrisome.

No, he thought to himself. He needn’t worry about that. The old man had let something slip, about them being suitable for an urban environment. A city environment, that is. But, weren’t all the important things happening in cities? Weren’t all the assassination targets there?

Bhai Sharan breathed out loudly, and sat down on his little carpet. He needn’t worry. The payment from this job would be enough for him to retire. The bonus, for a job well done, would make a nice donation to the temple. He’d have to do it anonymously, of course, but he didn’t mind that. Bhai Sharan never craved for recognition. That was a thing only stupid serial murderers did, and who got caught.

He could retire. Heck, he could finally visit India. He’d been saying he will go back to the homeland since he was a boy. Years went past, his promise unfulfilled.

Kaur slid around him in a wide circle and brought her head close to him. He petted her.

“Want to see India, my Kaur? We can find a way to get you there, somehow. I read there are mountains higher than any man can climb, fertile plains full of rice and wheat, as far as the eye can see. People all around, music. Dancing. Colours are everywhere, the clothes, the food, the decorations. You should see Bandi Chhor, the Day of Liberation, same day as Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Firecrackers and fireworks, though I think you won’t appreciate those. People celebrating all over the country, millions upon millions. How does that sound, my princess? Nice, huh? Yeah. Sounds nice…” Bhai Sharan said and smiled at the horizon.

Eastward.