Serpent's Tooth

Fargo chuckled, a rueful look on his face. “I’d taken a few of her things during a weekend at the Xian Pyramid. Since Erica joined up with the consortium, she’s been looking for an excuse to expel me out into the cold, cruel world.”

Brigid echoed Fargo’s laugh, drawing Kane’s attention.

“What?” Kane asked.

Brigid smiled. “Never thought that I’d sympathize with the wicked bitch of the east. You call yourself an archaeologist, but you’re nothing more than a common thief.”

Fargo shrugged. “Knowledge is power, but it doesn’t keep a belly full.”

“It pays the bills, right?” Brigid asked. “A lot of excuses for mercenary activity. After all, aren’t you just seeking what we have lost as a race?”

Fargo’s eyes narrowed. “I knew it. The waiting game was just to shake my tongue loose. You wanted the truth about me? Fine. I know you’re not paranoid when you actually do have someone out to get you.”

Kane smirked. “Spoken like someone who has plenty of enemies of his own.”

“So what about the Nagah?” Grant asked. “They like the other cultists in the south? Snake worshipers?”

“Worship, nothing,” Fargo said. “Scaled skin, hinged fangs, complete with venom sacs capable of spraying blinding poison. They also have hoodlike structures, webbing along the sides of their heads that leads down to their shoulders, capable of flexing like a true cobra’s. Crazy is strong enough for a lot of things, but not enough to change a madman’s species. That’s why I said they possessed the facilities to reengineer genetics.”

“It’s possible to make enormous changes with the proper technology,” Lakesh spoke up. “I’m living proof of that. Enlil-as-Sam utilized a swarm of nanites to rebuild my internal organs and store my youth.”

“That was utilizing Annunaki technology,” Brigid said.

“Nanites?” Fargo asked.

“Molecule-scale machines capable of deconstructing and reorganizing matter,” Brigid explained.

When the look on Fargo’s face betrayed his level of comprehension, Grant laughed. “Really tiny robots that can change an old man into a young guy, or a normal person into one of your cobra freaks.”

“Thanks,” Fargo muttered.

“I know how tough it is, listening to Brigid explain things for the first time,” Grant added.

“Grant and I jockeyed to get first crack at science books when we arrived,” Kane said. “Understanding the basics really helps.”

“Do you two mind?” Brigid asked. “Besides, I thought you didn’t trust him.”

“We don’t,” Grant said. “We don’t like or trust the murderous little prick.”

Kane nodded. “But, like you sympathized with Erica, we can sympathize with him.”

Lakesh sighed loudly, wishing to return to Fargo’s story about his serpentine adversaries. “The snake men seem to correlate with mythologies that extend back at least three millennia. Though the name ‘Nagah’ is localized to the Indian subcontinent.”

“If you read between the lines, however, there are beings like mer-people, Lamia, even gods such as the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. Snakelike humans are not a unique mythology,” Brigid interjected. “As well, Lord Strongbow had modified his troops with reptilian aspects, obviously inspired by ancient creatures such as the Formorians.”

“Durga mentioned Strongbow’s people,” Fargo said. “How they utilized an inefficient form of transformation.”

Brigid tilted her head. “The Tuatha de Danaan and the Annunaki entered a truce and combined their technologies. However, one of the regions where they engaged in fiercest conflict was the British Isles. Perhaps the Formorians were these serpentine humans.”

“I thought that was a leftover memory of when the snake faces and the Tuatha were at war,” Kane said.

“Perhaps,” Brigid said. “There is also a disturbing similarity between the reptilians that Fargo describes and the Nephilim that the Quad V hybrids evolved into.”

Domi raised her hand and both Brigid and Lakesh looked at her. “Brigid, you were helping me do some research on reptilian humanoids, after we’d encountered the Hydrae mutants in Greece. There was someone…Yuck…”

“Icke. David Icke,” Brigid replied. “It popped into my mind, as well.”

Lakesh rolled his eyes. “I was around when he posited some of his ideas.”

Brigid nodded. “Icke’s theories were odd, but they may have had actual scientific basis. He theorized that there were shape-shifting but basically reptilian creatures who secretly ruled the world in the twentieth century. They were purported to have had limited shape-shifting abilities, but his position that many world leaders were actually nonhumans strained credulity. This, of course, diverges from the traditional mythological texts where these creatures were not shape changers. As well, the Nagah were not an antagonistic race. They lived in a subterannean realm beneath India. There were also hints that the Nagah originated on another continent.”

“Like Lemuria or Atlantis,” Kane suggested.

“You’ve been taking notes,” Brigid complimented him. “Which brings our friend’s comparison to Lord Strongbow’s troops full circle.”

“So, the Nagah were not shape-shifters?” Fargo asked.

“Unlikely,” Brigid answered. “Even Icke’s contemporary John Rhodes stated that such accusations of saurian humanoids were unfounded paranoia. The ‘reptoids’ of Rhodes’s description were, like the Indian Nagah, subterranean, but with origins in the era of the dinosaurs.”

Fargo squeezed his brow. “That’s a lot to bite off in one session, and I saw the fucking things.”

The archaeologist glanced at Kane. “So, are you going to go to India?”

“Yes,” Lakesh spoke up. “I want to come, as well. I proved I can handle myself in the field, with our last journey to India, and the sortie into China.”

“You’re not making me sit it out like you did in China,” Domi said curtly.

“Darlingest one, it’s too dangerous,” Lakesh countered. The slap across his cheek wasn’t entirely unexpected. Lakesh, having seen Domi in conflict, knew that she pulled her punch, because his head wasn’t swimming and he was still on his feet. Her ruby-red eyes glowed angrily in the interrogation room.

“I’m perfectly fine with danger. It’s my job. Besides, you’re too important to risk without having someone specifically looking out for you. Kane and the others will be too busy to babysit you, keep their eyes on Fargo and deal with high-tech snakes at the same time,” Domi told him.

Lakesh nodded. “I forget. You’re not some fragile flower.”

“And it’s not like I can tell you not to go, because you speak the language,” Domi added. “So, I’m coming along. No bullying this time.”

“Fine,” Lakesh said.

He turned to Sela. “You and the other away team members can handle things here?”

“Absolutely, boss,” Sela replied. “Just don’t forget to bring me something back as a souvenir.”

“What were you thinking about?” Fargo asked, slipping back into the role of seducer.

“How about your balls if you betray my people?” Sela asked.

Fargo glanced at Kane.

“Sympathy or no, if the consortium shows up to this party, you’ll be the first one to catch a bullet,” Kane told him.