“All I ask is that you be as discreet as possible. We don’t want any blood on our hands. It is not the Indian way.”

“Oh yeah… tell that to the Kashmiri’s,” Marlon snorted.

Singh’s nose flared –

“That’s different!”

“Why?”

“That’s terrorism!”

“This is also a form of terrorism!”

“What form?”

“Religious terrorism!”

“But… sadhus are beyond religion!”

“Terrorism of the worst kind!”

Singh reddened –

“Marlon – we are dealing with sadhus here.”

“So what!”

“Sadhus are saints!”

“Hoh! Self-appointed saints if you ask me! Real saints have got to be approved – it’s not just a matter of walking out the door and…”

“They wouldn’t even harm an ant!”

“No! That’s because they are ants! You just told us that!”

Marlon scanned the room for the applause that never came –

“And no doubt your phony saints have the same ambition as your filthy ants. The little fuckers want to take over the world!”

Singh failed to immediately reply – either he had an answer and preferred to keep it to himself, or he was lost in thought.

“Perhaps you are right,” he eventually said. “I’m not really sure what they are hoping to achieve with this Max.”

“There you go.”

“But one thing I can tell you with utter certainty – they are not physically aggressive.”

Marlon fobbed this off –

“Yeah… thanks for that – that’s great – we simply step aside and leave the planet to them.”

“No, no. I’m not saying that.”

“Think about it,” Marlon said with a sneer. “These harmless little sadhus of yours are going to an awful lot of trouble just to make an innocent little suggestion – don’t you think?”

No-one answered.

Marlon’s face softened into a resigned smile.

“Anyway, it will never get to that, will it?”

“Let’s hope not.”

Marlon got up from the table –

“Yeah well,” he said. “That’s it for now.”