The Centre(72)

Although we’d made amends on the surface, Shiba was cold toward me from then on. She also postponed her flight back to England by a couple of days.

“Nothing to do with you, obviously,” she said, not looking me in the eye. “Just wanted to spend a little more time at home. You okay to fly out by yourself?”

“Of course.”

I tried to appease Shiba in every way I could think of, to show her that I was still the same person she’d thought I was. But I think my efforts were so obvious that they came across as artificial. Things felt forced between us from then, and I could feel in my bones that our friendship was over. As for Arjun, I was civil toward him but avoided him as much as I could. When Shiba did her recording that evening, I stayed in my room. The next morning, while I was heading out to the cottage to do mine, she stopped me.

“You’re still doing that?”

“Well, it’s my last day, I thought I might as well finish. It’s become kind of a ritual for me. Don’t worry, I’ll leave the USB here with you after. You can do what you like with it.”

She nodded, and I continued to the cottage. There, in the filing cabinet, I found another USB and copied all that I had recorded of my story onto it. On the original, I stopped the recording just before my encounter with Arjun. On the second, I continued further. Then, the morning of my flight, I gave the first USB to Shiba and tucked the second into my suitcase.

There was one last thing to do before I left Delhi. I went into Shiba’s room while she was downstairs and opened her bedside drawers. Nothing. Then I checked her bookshelves. Nope. Then, her dressing table, and there it was. I carefully unfolded the cardboard and extracted the magpie’s feather. I put it in my bag, encasing it in a slender box that had come with a necklace I’d bought from Sarojini Nagar. The feather, I realized, hadn’t drifted onto my balcony for Shiba. I had been mistaken. It had come as a gift for me. I brought my luggage downstairs and hugged Shiba goodbye. We were both misty-eyed. Then I rolled my suitcase down the driveway and toward the large black gate, finding, not my Uber, but Arjun, car keys in hand.

“I sent your taxi away. I thought I would drive you to the airport myself.”

We drove in silence for a while before he finally spoke.

“I couldn’t help but notice,” he said, “that we have not spoken since that … interaction in my office. I had quite a bit to drink that night. I hope that I did not say or do anything that embarrassed you, my dear.”

“You didn’t.”

We resumed our silence.

“I hope I did not cross a line.”

“Nope.”

“Good. Well, I’m happy that everything is fine. I would never want to get in the way of Shiba’s friendships, you know, and I would never want anyone to get any silly ideas.”

“It’s fine. The truth is, things like that can be quite revealing, don’t you think?”

I saw his grip on the steering wheel tighten.

“Revealing in what way?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “Things like that make you see things differently. Reassess.”

“You sound angry,” he said, jaw clenched. I shrugged. “I’m sure there’s no reason to even ask, but we can be sure of your discretion regarding the work we do, yes?”

I said nothing.

“You must understand. This isn’t a family to be trifled with.”

“Ha,” I snorted. “Okay. Thanks.”

“I hope you are aware of just how privileged you are, being granted access into this world. Consider yourself lucky to have come so far. And think of how much further people can go when they recognize the value of what they are given. It would be childish, after all, to play with things you do not understand.”

“I … I wasn’t actually planning on saying anything.”

“Good,” he said, and something ignited inside me.

“But, yeah, if I wanted to, I could.”

He pulled the car over onto the side of the road.

“Okay,” he said. “Now. Tell me. Seriously. What would you like? All we are asking for is your discretion regarding our work. You are already obligated to this, as you’ve signed ironclad paperwork. But if there is anything we can do to sweeten the deal, name it.”

I smiled. “You’re desperate for my silence, aren’t you?”

“You understand, of course, that it would not take much for us to find something to leverage against you, if needed. Everyone is so careless these days, with their iClouds shy-clouds.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Do you have something on me?”

“There is little that we do not have access to, my dear. Have you not realized that by now?”

I laughed. “You’re just trying to scare me because you’re scared.”

“How do you think Shiba would feel if she found out about everything you’ve been up to?”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “It would be much worse for you than for me if she found out about our so-called interaction.”

“Not that,” he snapped. “I meant your little breakin at the Centre. Taking advantage of her trust to steal the access code. Sneaking into the kitchen after she fell asleep—”

“The kitchen?” I asked, confused. A vague picture materialized in my head. A spacious, darkened room. An industrial-size fridge. A rectangular sink. I couldn’t be sure if this was a memory or just my brain conjuring images in response to his words. “Do you mean that room at the end of the hallway? How did you know I was there that night?”