SANJAY CAME DOWN the stairs with, of course, a gun. Indira clung to him from behind.
Seriously, though, as soon as I took out Sanjay, I was going after his gun supplier.
Sanjay was not engaging in the proper use of firearms.
I stood there with my hands on my hips. “You know, Indira, you really picked a winner. Thanks to him, you’ve lost your job and your reputation.”
“Reputation?” she asked.
“I told the people at India Emporium that you and Sanjay were living together.”
“You mean the Shahs from India Emporium?” she shrieked. “But they’ll tell the Gulatis, who will tell the Ambanis, who will tell the Ramanis and Aruna Ramani’s parents live in the flat next door to my parents!” She pushed Sanjay away and sat down on the bottom step. “They’ll kill me.”
Sanjay kept the gun trained on me but looked pleadingly at Indira. “Don’t worry, Indu.”
“Oh shut up! My life is ruined.”
“What is it you see in him anyway?” I asked. Sanjay glared at me.
Indira cupped her face in her hands. “I like that he has goals, dreams. Otherwise, computer programmers are a dime a dozen.”
“Goals like destroying me and Bill Gates?”
She shrugged. “Makes him interesting.”
Sanjay switched the gun from one hand to the other.
That got my attention. I was the goddess, not a relationship counselor.
“You will never succeed,” he said.
“Why the gun then?” I argued. “If you’re so sure I’ll fail?”
For a moment he looked dumbfounded.
“Because it is my dharma to kill you,” he finally said.
“Are you sure that’s what your dharma is, Sanjay?”
“Yes,” he insisted.
That was the problem with fanatics. They were so damn sure about everything.
I took a step forward. “Then we have a slight problem. Because I’m sure about my dharma. I know without a doubt that I’m here to save the world. I still have a lot to learn. I’m far from enlightened. But I’m never going to give up. And no one is going to stop me. So you see the conflict of interest here? You’ve sworn to stop me, and I refuse to be stopped.”
“She’s right, Sanjay,” Indira called out.
“But Indu,” he protested.
“I’m bored with this,” she said. “I want to do something different. All you ever do is sit around and plan how to destroy Maya. I want to go to Vegas.”
“Indu…”
They continued arguing, but I was no longer paying attention. There was this curious roaring in my ears, like the flapping of thousands of wings. The warmth inside me fired up into something intense, something scalding.
I saw myself riding bareback though a sunset valley on a beautiful black stallion. In one hand I held my sword, in the other a decapitated man’s head.
The man was Sanjay.
I didn’t know what the vision meant, but I did know one thing.
I was so feeling the shakti.
I’d have to ask Ram about the weird vision. What was up with the horseback riding? I’d never been on a horse in my life.
The familiar wind started up, without my being aware of having called it.
“It ends here, Sanjay.”
He looked at me, and whatever he saw made him open his mouth and step back.
Without any effort I pried the gun from his hands. With just a thought, I increased the wind’s intensity so Sanjay was flung back against the hall closet door. Indira was hanging on to the banister for dear life. The wind had loosened her bun, and her locks spun around her face.
I thought the wind-tousled look really did it for her.
“You have a choice, Sanjay. You can live, or you can die. If you live, it will be by my rules.”
He stared up at me without answering.
I prodded him with the edge of my sword. “The Goddess of Destruction does not ask twice.”
“Live,” he whispered. “I’ll live.”
I kept the sword trained on him but silently ordered the wind to disappear.
It did.
Yes!
Okay, so I was being a little dramatic with the wind and giving Sanjay the choice between life and death, but it wasn’t like I could send him to jail. On what charges? It was my word against his.
And I didn’t really want to kill him. “Rise,” I demanded.
Sanjay did, and I looked him straight in the eye. “You will leave California. You will move to Seattle and pursue your dream of destroying Bill Gates. Your desire to create a software program to rival Windows is a worthwhile one. Focus on it. I never want to see you again. If you come near me or mine again, I will know. Believe me, I will know.”
I could see in his eyes that he understood. Maybe it was my whole new well-adjusted Goddess of Destruction persona, maybe it was his desire to keep Indira happy, or maybe I had just succeeded in transferring his fanaticism from me to Bill Gates.
Whatever.
Indira threw herself to the ground at my feet. “Jai Ma Kali!”
I cocked an eyebrow at Sanjay.
He followed suit. “Jai Ma Kali!”
How I loved my worshippers.