"Welcome."
It was a greeting deliberately meant as a mockery, and it was a fitting presentation to the foreigners who had dared to taint the name of Kali and the Thuggee. But the biggest atrocity was that they had dared to steal the sacred Sankara stones! There was no greater crime than that! Mola Ram really abhorred thieves coming to steal the treasures of their cause. It was like a hundred years ago when the British raided the temple. Mola Ram had sworn that it would not be allowed to happen again – but then this wretched American, this Indiana Jones had invaded their domain and done just that. He was going to pay with his life for it!
It had been easy to anticipate where the foreigners would emerge after they had escaped the caves in the captured mine car, and he was glad that the flood had not washed them away. Ram would take great pleasure in killing them himself. He saw into the eyes of the woman Willie Scott, rejoiced of her fear. When this was settled, she would be put back into the sacrificial cage, and this time he would rip her heart out! Just by thinking about it, his fingers were even now twitching to do it. He regretted that he had not done it the first time, although he'd almost had. It had nothing to do at all with her being a woman, it made no difference to the high priest. But it had seemed like a necessary thing to do at the time, to see how much the blood of Kali Ma had managed to convert Indiana Jones. He had never doubted the power of the Nish'ta in the blood, but the conversion had never been done on a foreigner before, and he had needed to see just how powerful the Christians were. Were the Christian god powerful enough to withstand the power of Kali? He had needed to know, that's why he hadn't ripped out the woman's heart back then. He was to test Dr. Jones to see if he would try and save her if he thought that there was still hope to do so.
He had been pleased to see that Jones was prepared to sacrifice her in the name of Kali, as it had proven that Kali was indeed all-powerful. If only it hadn't been for the Chinese brat Short Round! He had escaped the mines, invaded the temple in the middle of the ceremony and disturbed it. Even worse, he had managed to burn Jones with a torch. Did he know that it would counteract the effects of the Nish'ta? Maybe it had just been a chance, but it had done the damage. He remembered the god Kali's words spoken to him: the Nish'ta had a great weakness: once someone was free from it, he would forever be immune to its effects. There was no point in trying to convert Jones again, nor did Mola Ram want to try to. He was to die, and the woman and the boy would meet the same fate.
From the middle of the bridge, Indiana jones called out to him: "Let them go, Mola Ram!"
"You are in a position, unsuitable to give orders!" Ram called back. And then he ordered his henchmen to move in on him from both sides.
"Look out behind you!" the woman cried out.
To Mola Ram's chagrin, Jones answered with a different tactic. He held the bag containing the stones over the rope, threatening to throw them into the abyss below. "You want the stones? Let them go!"
How dared this wretched American making demands to him? He looked longingly at the bag, careful not to let it show how much he really wanted them. The stones were precious, as they were the source of his power. Before when he had only two, he could only do one sacrifice per month, as it took time for the stones to replenish the energy which gave him the ability to enter the chests and rip out the hearts of his victims. When they had claimed the rock from Mayapore village, the power of the stones had increased exponentially. (In his mind it had not been a theft. Since the stones had at one time belonged to the Thuggee, it was considered as taking back what once was theirs. Taking the children at the same time was considered a compensation for the village having been in possession of stolen goods.) Mola Ram could now do one sacrifice per night thanks to the third rock, and he was not ready to give that up. And not just for himself: he was convinced that with each sacrifice he made, the life force of the victim would go to Kali, increasing her power where ever she was. It was his duty to give her power! The stones had to be retrieved!
"Let them go!" Jones repeated. Mola Ram smiled. He had one advantage: the American didn't know how important the stones really were to him. For one more time in his life, he had an inspiration despite the fact that he wasn't really a strategist – a gamble which could well turn the tide.
"Drop them, Dr. Jones! They will be found – you won't!" Ram laughed. It wasn't really a lie: the stones could be found again even if they were dropped. It was the setback of allowing Jones to do so that Ram did not want to face. "Yanne!" he shouted to his guards, ordering them to move ahead on the swaying bridge.
The gamble had paid off. Jones hang the bag back over his shoulder. Perfect! Ram felt pride of himself. Now the American was to be captured, and then he would die.
Or perhaps not. Anger flowed over the priest again as his guards on the bridge once more hesitated, and it was because Jones threatened to cut the ropes with a sword he had captured! The guards were reluctant to advance forward. The cowards! Surely they didn't believe that Jones would actually be mad enough to do it? That he would kill himself? Ram didn't believe so, but it was obvious that the fools of his Thuggee guards didn't dare to take the chance. He had to take matters into his own hands one more time.
Mola Ram drew his ceremonial dagger. It was amazing that he still carried it on his person. He hadn't used it in years, not since the last time he slit a victim's throat the night Kali Ma had come to them. He waved the blade in front the woman and the boy. It was time to end this farce. "Go on!" he commanded. "Go!" And then he forced them out onto the bridge. This should give the fools some comfort. The American wouldn't cut the ropes of the bridge with his friends on it. "Go on!" he shouted loudly so that his voice echoed over the valley. This was a coerce to both his prisoners and to his guards.
Things was not going the way Mola Ram had expected it to, even though he had brought out the woman and the boy on the bridge. There was still hesitation, and Jones still stood with the sword above his head. Jones spoke to the boy in a foreign language, one that Ram couldn't translate. More words were then passed between the boy and the female, and the woman seemed to brake down in panic. "Is he nuts?" She whined.
"He no nuts. He's crazy!" the boy said. What was going on here?
"Mola Ram," Jones shouted. "Prepare to meet Kali – in hell!" And then he slashed through the rope.
"What are you doing?!" Ram cried out in disbelief. The American really was mad! The guards that had advanced on the madman was already running in the opposite direction, desperate to get to safety. But there was nowhere to go, but down. Indy had already cut the opposite rope as well, breaking the bridge in two, and the two halves fell apart. Most of the Thuggee guards fell to their deaths, wailing all the way down. On the bottom of the gorge was a river, filled with crocodiles. As soon as the first bodies broke through the surface of the water, the reptiles moved in and began to tear the cadavers apart.
Above, the bridge crashed into the side of the cliff, the hard, violent stop dislodging more guards that had attempted to hang on. As Mola Ram had been the last on the bridge, he was at the top of the dangling wreck, having managed to stay on. Looking down below him, he was not surprised to see the woman and the boy still being with them - they had after all been warned beforehand. Two of his guards had survived as well, but he could see that he could expect no help from them. They were too terrified to do anything. And on the bottom of the wrecked bridge, was Indiana Jones! The wretched American just refused to die!
Mola Ram had the high ground. All he needed to do was to climb up to the edge, and from the top he would wait for the other survivors to appear, and then he would kill them - his worthless guards included. That was his plan, but the laws of physics were against him. He grabbed on to a rung that was rotten, and it splintered in two. Losing his grip, he fell down, past the woman and the boy and below, until he managed to come to a halt on the level where his two guards were hanging on for their lives. One of the guards was knocked loose as the priest dropped in on them, and he plunged down past the archeologist who managed to duck. Mola Ram barely had time to resume his climbing before the foreigner reached him, grabbing on to his foot and attempted to shake him loose. Ram lost his grip again and fell, but this time not so far down. He came level to level with the pestering American. Their hatred for each other made them do battle there, instead of trying to climb to safety. Fists knocked into the other's jaw repeatedly. Frustrated, Ram elbowed the other and knocked him sideways – and that's where he saw his opening. He reached out with his free hand to do what he had longed to do from when he was about to sacrifice the woman.
"Indy! Cover your heart!" the boy screamed from above.
Too late. Giving in to his maddening hunger, Mola Ram's fingers began to pierce the other's chest and was about to dig further in and making a grab for the beating prize, before Jones grabbed on to his wrist.
It was down to a battle of the strongest mind. It was Indy's sense of self-preservation that fought against Mola Ram's un-yielding cravings to always rip out living organs from human bodies.
"Maaro maaro sooar ko, chamdi nocho pee lo khoon!" the priest raved in his euphoric state while laughing. [Kill, Kill the pig, flay his skin, drink his blood!] He took great pleasure in witnessing the American's panicked and pained expression and Ram pushed on harder. He couldn't wait to hold the thief's life in his hand, presenting it to him and watch him despair as he would realize that his life was over. Unfortunately for Mola Ram, Jones' self-preservation got the upper hand. When one's life was in peril, a human would gain a hidden strength to fight the crisis, and that gained Indy the power to force Ram's hand away from his chest and push it clear. To insult the priest even further, Jones used Ram's own hand to punch him in the face. Enraged, the priest resumed his ascent.
Jones should have been almost unconscious after what Mola Ram had attempted to do, but to his further displeasure, the American kept making trouble. Ram could feel how the bridge was rattled, the vibrations caused by the accursed archeologist.
Ram was still feeling the disappointment of having failed to extract his enemy's heart and he needed to compensate for that missed opportunity – and the remaining weakling guard he was approaching now would suit his needs perfectly!
The last surviving guard was in a world of his own, his eyes and hands tightly closed, so frightened by his predicament that he was unable to do anything. Such weakness amongst his own men repulsed Mola Ram, and he had therefore no scruples for what he was about to do. Reaching the guard's level, Ram wrapped his arm around the minion's neck and pulled him loose. Ignoring the guard's wailing protests, Ram cast down the weakling against his enemy below. Jones had to make himself go flat against the cliff to avoid the falling body. With no way to stop, the screaming guard fell down into the river on the bottom of the canyon and was consumed by the crocodiles. Mola Ram laughed!
His moment of pleasure was short-lived however, as he felt how Jones began to shake and rattle the collapsed dangling bridge again. Ram have had just about enough of him!
With the lack of a way to cross over, the rest of Mola Ram's guards were stranded on the other side of the gorge – but that didn't mean that they couldn't do anything to rectify the situation. Mola Ram shouted in Hindi across the canyon, giving his men orders to use their bows and shoot the American.
While the Thuggee archers did their task, the priest continued his climb towards the top – but it turned out that he had totally forgotten about the woman and the boy above him. They were waiting for him! As soon as he reached the slat the two were balancing on, Willie and Shorty began to stomp on his fingers! In pain, Mola Ram lost his grip once more and he fell. He fell on top of Indiana Jones whom had to Ram's continuous disappointment managed to evade the arrows the guards had shot at him.
As it was, when Ram knocked into the other, Jones lost his grip as well and they both tumbled down about ten feet before the managed to gab hold of the bottom rungs. They were back into fist combat. They struck at each other, each attempting to knock the other off.
Mola Ram needed to end this as he was tiring quickly. Priestly duties did not prepare him for such acrobatics, and he desperately wanted to get to safety. He was not going without that which belonged to him though. He made a grab for the bag that was hanging over Jones' shoulder, containing his precious Sankara stones - but Jones was not willing to let it go. They both pulled at the strap of the bag, no longer giving any thought to where they were.
"The stones are mine!" Ram raged.
"You betrayed Shiva!" Jones replied fiercely. Ram was about to tell him off that Shiva was dead, killed by Kali. He didn't have the time to say so though, as he got perplexed over what the American was mumbling about next.
"Shive ke vishwas kate ho! Shive ke vishwas kate ho! You betrayed Shiva!"
Mola Ram was astonished, and he grew greatly concerned. He knew those words! It was the same ones Kali had used when she had given him the gift, the power that gave him the ability to rip out hearts. How did the American know them?!
"Shive ke vishwas kate ho! You betrayed Shiva!" Jones continued to chant. Did he even know what he was doing? Mola Ram recalled the words Kali had told him eight years ago: 'It's not the meaning of the words that is of importance - it's the sounds! The vibrational tones from the larynx acts like an auditory combination lock, a code word telling the stones to unchain the energy they hold within, discharging the power! The energy just need somewhere to go, or the stones will start to burn…'
That was exactly what the stones was starting to do now! The bag suddenly burst out into flames as the superheated rocks burned through it, and two of them fell out, falling down into the river below. NO! His precious stones! He couldn't lose them!
The last stone tumbled out of the bag. Desperately, Ram reached out to catch it, failing to think of the consequences. He wasn't concerned of the fire – the power of the stones had made him impervious to it. But by touching it, he made himself being the receiver of the energy the stone was set to release. Just like the first time Ram had been exposed to it, the power rushed from the stone and into his system – all at once. It was too much! The power burned throughout his whole body as his cells became overloaded. He lost all motor responses, going almost stiff – and thereby he lost his grip as well. His body instinctively twitched as he felt himself beginning to fall, and that made him accidently throw away the discharged stone in his hand. It was caught by Jones who could hold it without trouble now as it was cold.
Mola Ram fell with a scream, bouncing on the cliff-side and finally he splashed through the surface of the water. Amazingly, thanks to the power of the stones in his systems, he was still alive – but that victory was short-lived as he became aware of the crocodiles approaching him, opening their maws, and prepared to engulf him. As he was too numb in his body to move, with too many broken bones from the fall, there was no way for him to escape. As the reptile chomped down on his arm and ripped it out of his socket, Mola Ram cried out a plead to Kali Ma, begging her to come for his liberation.
He would've have been disappointed, had Kali been able to hear him. (Which she couldn't as she was on the other side of the galaxy.) Since she had left Earth, Kali's priorities had changed due to the fact that she had been blended with another body. The biggest change was that she had lost her immediate lust for pain and suffering on other souls after her Unas host had expired. Like all Goa'ulds, she was still looking for power – but gaining it by joining forces with Sokar and becoming the ruler of Netu wasn't on her mind any more. The deal she had struck with Baal (and changing of hosts) had turned her away from that path. Kali was still a system lord commanding her own sectors – but she now answered to Baal. The balance of power had tipped over to his favor.
Therefore, even if Kali would've heard Mola Ram's plead, she wouldn't have bothered. The Thuggee or even the Sankara stones didn't interest her anymore. Had she been able to learn of Ram's defeat, she would've have dismissed it with chosen words of finality:
Their problems are none of my concern!
Author's notes: keep a lookout for the sequel, called Pankot Predator. A crossover between the worlds of Indiana Jones, and Aliens/Predator.