He needed to know what she was planning, and why. And as long as she thought he wasn’t a threat, that he was living on borrowed time, she'd be happy to gloat in his face.
He wasn’t sure why he was still alive, but he was, probably because Maganti needed something from him. And he couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. Even if he didn’t get out of this alive, he had to try and save Fasih. And not just because of the guilt gnawing at his stomach.
Naijan needed Jehan Fasih to stay alive.
“Who says I can’t?” she asked. He turned to get a better look at her, his eyes tracking her every move. “You’d be surprised at what people are willing to believe, given a good story. And there’s nobody in Naijan or Maralana who doesn’t know the story of how Fasih betrayed your poor father. How hard do you think it would be to make people believe that Rajat Shian’s son wanted a bit of revenge? Hell, some of those people might even sympathize with you.”
“And then what? Will Maganti orchestrate a heist at the QRI?” he sneered. “Steal the Amven formula from under Dileep Haval’s nose? Is that the big idea you nutcases are so excited about?”
“Nothing as dramatic as that,” she laughed. “Really, Abhijat, you missed your true calling as a B-movie director of subpar action flicks. Once Naijan has successfully used the Amven drug on terrorists and sundry outlaws, it would create an international precedent. Other countries would rush to bolster their own defenses with Amven.
“Besides, Grigori would be able to judge the efficacy of the drug on a large enough sample size and get his own scientists to make any tweaks and modifications he might deem necessary. Without Fasih there to maintain his stranglehold on Amven production, Maralana too would be able to cite international precedent to use the drug for national security.
“Much easier than having your political opponents killed or imprisoned, really. That kind of thing raises eyebrows these days. But with Amven, all that would be completely unnecessary.
“You just have your enemies arrested on trumped up corruption charges and held in detention for a couple of days, long enough for the drug to be administered and take effect. As soon as the international outcry begins, they’d be put on trial, found innocent of all charges, and released.” A beatific smile lit up her doll-like face. “And there you have it, a free and fair judiciary and no pesky human rights activists crying foul, demanding international interference.
“A few state-sponsored medical appointments a month, just to make sure the drug doesn’t wear off too much, and you’ve got yourself the perfect democracy.”
“One that doesn’t have an Opposition?” Abhijat let the sarcasm bleed into his tone.
“Oh, it has an Opposition, alright. Just one that isn’t too prone to opposing, at least not when it matters. Nobody wants to be seen as a tyrant, of course. Or a dictator, for that matter.”
“No, I guess not. They just want to be one.”
“Precisely!” she giggled. “No international treaties broken, no bullets fired…and no internal opposition to speak of. All within the ambit of a democratically elected government. That’s what you call having your cake and eating it too.
“After the metro blasts, Badal assured Grigori that Prime Minister Rajat would finally use Amven on the terrorists. That there was such media frenzy, so much public pressure, that he wouldn’t have a choice. We were so close,” she shook her head. “And look where that got us. Fucking Fasih turned on his mentor, accused him of corruption, and your father ran out of parliament with his tail between his legs. After all that work, all that meticulous planning, we were back to square one.”
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“And so you and Badal decided to lick your wounds and traffick some children in Weritlan?”
“Oh, that was just an experiment,” she said dismissively. “Though I will say, a very lucrative one while it lasted. Like I said, we needed a large sample size to test the effects of Amven when it was used at scale. We couldn’t very well risk using it on a powerful politician, only to realize that some people are more resistant to the drug than others.
“But of course, it wasn’t very accurate. We didn’t yet have access to the final version of the drug, so we were just using an old prototype. And as always, Fasih just had to poke his nose where it didn’t belong and blow it all out of the fucking water.”
“And that’s why you tried to implicate him in Badal’s murder?” Abhijat prodded. “As some kind of revenge?”
She sighed. “Badal, that stupid fucker. We had a good thing going. But you can’t expect much of cowards, can you? Fasih exposed the La Fantome club and stole a sample of the Amven prototype we’d been using on the escorts. And then they arrested that bloody electrician,” she frowned. “What was his name? Sajal, right?”
“Sajal!” Abhijat gasped. “He was working for you? You’d hired him to tamper with the wiring in the prime minister’s office?”
“Well, technically, Badal had. But that was just a backup plan, in case the metro attacks didn’t yield the desired results. Of course, we had no way of knowing that both Rajat and Badal would be kicked out of the Parliament House before the month was out.
“But Sajal’s arrest, so soon after the La Fantome debacle…well, it spooked Badal. He wanted to leave the country, settle in Maralana. Obviously, we couldn’t allow that. For Grigori, it’d be as good as an open admission of guilt. But Badal refused to see reason, threatened to expose us if he didn’t get what he wanted.”
Abhijat nodded sympathetically. “Traitors, they tend to be irritatingly disloyal. Who’d have guessed?”
Rinisa rolled her eyes. “Well anyway, none of that had anything to do with revenge. That’s your problem, you know that? Always with the petty squabbles and grudge-holding. You can’t see the bigger picture.
“If Jehan was put on trial for Badal’s murder, he wouldn’t have been able to come to Manganic for the New Year’s gala and drum up support from Grigori’s opponents in the country. Even you couldn’t have failed to notice him getting cozy with Ivanovna at the party last night.”
“Oh please,” he scoffed. “You want me to believe that you went to all that trouble just so Fasih wouldn’t be able to suck up to Madam Ivanovna at a party? This isn’t the middle ages, you know. What was stopping him from giving her a call if he was so desperate to form an alliance against President Maganti?”
Rinisa’s eyes narrowed into slits. Abhijat swallowed his excitement and forced himself to look away, feigning indifference. He’d managed to hit a nerve.
A few minutes passed in silence. Then, she hopped off the box and began pacing the room.
“Oh well, I’m basically talking to a corpse, aren’t I? And it was a pretty clever plan, if I do say so myself.” She grinned. “I might as well tell you. If Jehan had been implicated in Badal’s murder, it was very probable that he’d have had to step down as prime minister. And if that happened, it was almost inevitable that your father would’ve been reinstated.”
“I don’t see how that would’ve served your cause.” Abhijat frowned. “No way in hell was Papa going to approve the use of Amven so long after the metro attacks, and after all the controversy that’d been stirred up the last time he tried.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t have had to approve anything. He’d have been dead before the month was out. And all the evidence would’ve pointed towards Jehan’s involvement in the assassination.
“I mean, the motive was obvious enough, and he was already accused of one murder. Who’d have doubted it?
“After that, he’d either have been hanged for double murder or – and personally, I think this is more likely – killed by you as revenge for your father’s death.” She chuckled. “Either way, he’d have been out of our hair. Him and your father, both.
“Conveniently leaving a power vacuum in Qayit, which Grigori could then fill with a suitable candidate who'd be...pliable to his suggestions...about Amven and other things.”
“He wanted to install a puppet ruler in Naijan,” Abhijat breathed. “And you were helping him do it. Are you insane? Naijan is your country too. You want to enslave your own people?”
“Aww, you’re so cute! You and your quaint little notions of patriotism and loyalty. They’re not my people, Abhijat. And they’re not yours, either.” She glanced at Fasih, still lying unconscious beside Abhijat. “Look at what ‘his people’ did to him, after all he’d done to protect them. People are people, inherently vicious and murderous. They’re not going to be nice to you just because you happened to be born inside the same borders.
“There’s only one thing human beings understand, fundamentally. And it’s power. Everything else is hogwash, fairy tales they feed you since the day you’re born, to keep you in line and keep the system going.”
“And what did Maganti promise you, in return for all this? The premiership?”