Turbulence by Samit Basu

swaying from side to side.
    “What are you supposed to be?” Tia asks. “Snake? Dinosaur? Crocodile? What kind of sick person dreams of being one of those?”
    Mukesh leaps.
    With one huge bound, he’s on her. She struggles briefly, but his fangs sink into her throat, and she falls, her blood spurting, staining the road. Mukesh raises his snout in the air, spits out a chunk of flesh, and screams harshly, a triumphant predator’s scream.
    “See,” a woman’s voice says, “you really shouldn’t have done that.”
    Tia’s car door slams and Mukesh’s head jerks, swivels. Hissnake eyes widen as Tia steps out of the car, holding a gun. Beneath him, Tia’s dead body crumbles to dust and disappears. Her bloodstains fade away.
    He springs to his feet, crouches raptor-like.
    Four more copies of Tia fan out, two to the left, two to the right. Each holds a gun trained on Mukesh.
    “I’ve never actually fired a gun before,” one Tia says.
    She fires, and hits Mukesh on the thigh.
    His startled yell is more human than monstrous.
    “It’s fun,” she says. “I’m learning the tango in Madrid and meditating in Tibet, but this? This is fun.”
    Screeching, he leaps forward, and the Tias dive. He catches one, sinks his fangs into her arm, exults as his poison-sacs gush venom into her veins; feels her dissolve and crumble.
    Four gunshots ring out. Each finds its mark. Mukesh falls heavily and writhes on the ground, moaning, wheezing.
    “I’ll tell you where you made your mistake,” a Tia says. “See, you people are all playing for power. Stupid games for stupid boys. Me, I have a son. I’m not going to let anything harm him.”
    Two more gunshots.
    Mukesh whimpers as they hit his back.
    “What were you doing on Carter Road?” she asks.
    “Having an ice-lolly.”
    “You want me to shoot you again?”
    “Killed a doctor. Powered. He could see everything. All diseases. Couldn’t take it. Tore his eyes out. He was actually happy when I got to him.”
    “What a waste.”
    Mukesh catches his second wind, rises with horrifying speed. A swipe of his talons, a leap, a snarl, five bullets sailing through empty air, a shimmying strike, and two more Tias die, blood arcing through the air and dissolving like smoke. Another Tia runs for cover, but he leaps right over the car, a dark-green reptilian streak in shiny trousers, and lands on her, snapping her spine. Then he jumps on top of her car with terrifying ease, his large, three-toed feet denting the roof.
    “I’m not so easy to kill,” Mukesh hisses. “How many bodies you got?”
    She gives him three bullets in the stomach, and he kneels and screeches.
    “Enough,” Tia says.
    He rolls off the car roof and slumps on the road.
    “What now?” he asks.
    “Now you’re going to take me to your headquarters, and I’m going to talk to your boss and finish this. “
    His throat rattles, and he nods. His features melt back, and a few moments later he’s human again, torn and bleeding.
    “You’ll live?” Tia asks.
    “Forever,” he says, and staggers to his feet, leaning on the car door.
    “Get in.”
    Mukesh slumps in the passenger’s seat, sulking.
    Tia gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car.
    “You couldn’t have planned this,” he says.
    “I take life as it comes. Not a big deal.”
    “You’re not scared?” he asks.
    “I’m terrified,” she says. “If you die before we reach Kashmir, I’ll have to find another one.”
    He chuckles, and then the chuckle turns into a rattle, and helunges towards Tia, fangs sprouting in her throat. She bleeds, screams in pain, and disappears.
    “Stupid bitch,” he mutters to himself as he pulls himself together slowly, painfully. “Never play with a snake in a closed space.”
    A sudden movement behind him. Two cold points at his temples. He sees two Tias in the rear seat, each holding a gun to his head.
    “I’ll keep that in mind,” she says. “Drive.”

CHAPTER SIX
    Uzma switches through a succession of