RESONANCE (25 page)

Dive

The diver surfaced
on the far side of the Tehri Lake and took off his mask. He smiled at Shalim Amār Khan and flashed a thumbs up sign, "Mission accomplished!"

"Great! Why don't you remove your SCUBA?"

The diver removed the suit and handed over a remote control device to Shalim Amār Khan, "I've put in the blast cap, and adjusted the actuator."

"There is no abort button on this remote?"Shalim Amār Khan looked surprised.

"Yes. I had instructions to make it a never-fail system."

"Give me the schematic diagram of the placement of the charge."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I'm not authorized."

"Do as I say. I'm in control of this operation."

"You do not control me."

Shalim Amār Khan was furious, "Then who controls you?"

"al Qaeda."

"So it's their plan to blow up everything, even if the Government concedes to our demands."

"I know nothing about that."

"Do you know who in the al Qaeda controls you?"

"Indeed. Saeed al-Masri. He has promised me an incentive. al Qaeda will pay me double."

"You don't seem to understand Saeed al-Masri's language. Try to get this straight. This is the al Qaeda that you are working for. They never leave a trail behind. The 'double payment' is nothing but a honey trap to lure you back to their den, where they will pump two bullets into you and do away with the whole story of the gallant scuba driver who once worked for Her Majesty. Think. I have kept my promise and simply on trust paid you in full even before you started the work. Had your al Qaeda friends trusted you, they would have done something similar."

Quietly, the diver pulled out the schematic diagram from his inner pocket, handed it over to Shalim Amār Khan and walked away, a wiser man.

Shalim Amār Khan wore the SCUBA and dived deep into the lake.

NSG

Siddhartha talked to
the Home Minister and explained the new situation. The bewildered Minister asked, "But you said that the Deputy Commandant was confident that there was nothing unusual."

"That is what is more worrying. I want commandos to be airlifted right now to Tehri. They will para drop on the mountain side and approach the dam very cautiously, without raising any alarm to avoid panic reaction among the Jihadists."

"We've already deployed hundreds of commandos in Delhi in view of the upcoming Commonwealth Games. I'm not even sure that I can spare any. Moreover, even if I somehow arrange for the commandos, we are too hard pressed for time. The NSG, based at the Indira Gandhi Airport, will need at least two hours to reach, and two hours to climb the mountain to reach the dam."

"Aban and I are on our way to Tehri,"Siddhartha informed the Minister.

"What do you hope to achieve by going there?"

"Aban has a watch which will perhaps help us save the dam."

"How will you ever reach there on time?"

"Neither Aban nor I are trained to paradrop. So, we cannot accompany the commandos in their aircraft. We will have to look for something else."

"Take my helicopter. Will you require anything else?"

"We cannot evacuate millions of people from Haridwar. It's impossible. Please talk to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand to evacuate people from Har-ki-pauri and other bathing places on the Ganges without any delay."

"That's another heck of a problem. There will be chaos and many lives will be lost in the stampede that is sure to occur if such an order is given."

"The police in Haridwar will not be informed of the reason. I'll ask my IB officer at Haridwar to contact the Heads of a few
Akharas
just now. It's common for them to fight amongst each other for the
Shahisnaan
, the royal bath. They will do the same thing, this time too. The police will then cordon off the entire area, disallowing anyone to take a dip until the matter is resolved."

"Is there any loose end that we need to tie up?"

"Yes sir. We will need the Air Force Base in Dehradun to be ready with very powerful explosives. We will also require the radio frequencies of the fighter jets when they reach the destination so that we can communicate to coordinate our action."

"What? Are you talking about explosives?"The Home Minister sounded jaded. "Powerful explosives can blow up the dam. Definitely not save it. Correct me if it's otherwise."

"Aban has something more in his MacBook. I've seen it and it is beyond anyone's imagination. I'll explain to you later, sir. Please trust me on this one and have this done."

"I'll have to talk to the Defence Minister. Let me correct myself. We need to brief the Prime Minister about this entirely baffling turn of events."

Flying from Chaklala

In the dead
of night when everyone was asleep in Pakistan, the Dassault Falcon aircraft with two nuclear warheads took off from the Chaklala Air Defense Command in Rawalpindi.

After flying east for a hundred miles towards India, it suddenly turned to Lahore. A few miles before the city, the pilot ejected one of the bombs.

The parachute opened; the GPS calculated the position and fired a small booster rocket from the capsule. The parachute slowed down on its descent and the capsule floated into
Anderoon Shehr,
the walled city of Lahore. It dropped with a thud and five persons immediately surrounded the delivery from the sky. They carried it to a shop near Bhati Gate in a hand driven cart. They lifted the shutter and moved the bomb to an underground chamber.

The same aircraft turned northeast towards the tribal area of North Waziristan.

One of the Saabs AWACS aircrafts, flying near South Waziristan, picked up the signature of the Dassault Falcon. It immediately connected to the captain on the radio, directing him to return to the nearest Air Force Base.

When the captain ignored the instruction and bent the throttle instead, an F-16B took off from the Sargodha AFB, locked the target and fired the missile on the Dassault Falcon.

However, before the missile could hit the Dassault, the captain released the hatch opening without bothering to activate the parachute. The capsule carrying the nuclear bomb fell freely and hit the sand bed where the Domal River joined the Zhob River.

Except for a little tribal girl, no one saw anything unusual falling from the sky and none heard the sound of the deep impact.

The impact created a deep vertical depression, which was quickly filled by quick sand, concealing the deadly nuclear weapon in its womb.

Repentance

Shalim Amār Khan
resurfaced from the lake after two hours. Khalil Deek was waiting for him, "We are getting late. We should initiate the pre-defined procedure within half an hour."

"I know, but a few important things need to be worked out first."Shalim Amār Khan walked towards his vehicle. The man's hands and legs were tied up and tapes sealed his mouth. Shalim Amār Khan asked one of his men to free him.

Sundaram Iyer fumed at Shalim Amār Khan, "This is what is expected from a Pakistani bastard."

"This is what I do to every traitor. A traitor has no nationality."

"Shut up. I did everything you told me to do. I even put my high-profile job at stake. Do you know how powerful the Joint Director of the CBI is?"

"That is why you are a traitor. Am I wrong?"

"So you were behind the cold blooded murders of the AIG, Somashekhar Rao and Parag Nanda?"

"Only you can answer this question. Why did you keep in touch with al Qaeda even though I asked you not to share anything with them? Why did you trust Saeed al Masri? I know the answer is money, money and money and nothing else."

"Do you know what will happen to you, if you do this to me?"

"Only He Knows."

"Are you hare-brained?"

"Hold your breath, Mr. Iyer. You'll need all the air in your lungs. It's your type, who has sold the world to the devil. Neither ideology nor faith drives your kind. You are simply a worshipper of Mammon."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to repent."

"Repent for what?"

"No questions."Shalim Amār Khan walked away.

His men forced the semtex-lined jacket on to Sundaram Iyer.

"You can't do this to me. I'll get drowned. Be afraid of Allah."

"It will just be a spark, Mr. Iyer."

The Prime Minister

The Home Minister
visited Panchavati, the official residence of the Prime Minister of India at 7 Race Course Road. The Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister, National Security Advisor and Air Chief Marshal were already present.

The Minister explained the latest situation about the possible terrorist attack at the new location, Tehri. The Prime Minister said, "A few days back, I had a long talk with the PM of Pakistan. He is apprehensive that the al Qaeda is up to something big."

The Home Minister responded, "As per our intelligence source, the LeT and a few rogue elements of the ISI are also involved in this matter."

The Foreign Minister, who was a very seasoned politician, cut in, "It may have been true in the past, but the present democratic government of Pakistan does not approve of any hostile act against India."

The Defence Minister joined in, "What's your perception?"He turned to the Air Chief Marshal.

"I talked to our Army General. As per our military intelligence, the Pakistani army has not de-escalated the situation at the border, in spite of the flag meeting. Our Army General has been trying to contact his Pakistani counterpart but to no avail. Instead of strengthening their forces on the Afghanistan border, as the Americans would want them to, they are moving their forces to the Indo-Pak border."

The Principal Secretary walked inside the room, "Excuse me Mr. Prime Minister. But we seem to be on the brink of some grave danger. We have just received a courier, containing a DVD, entitled 'Save
Hindustān
if you can'. We ran the DVD before bringing the matter to your attention. It also says that a man from Tehri will contact you at 08:15 hours, exactly ten minutes from now. I think everyone should have a look at it."

"Can't we wait till our meeting is over?"

"I'm afraid not."

The Prime Minister nodded and the Principal Secretary switched on both the DVD player and a plasma TV. The video file began to run.

Shalim Amār Khan stood in the backdrop of a reservoir, surrounded by high mountains, "
Adab,
Mr. Prime Minister and the honourable members, watching this brief documentary. I won't take much of your valuable time and keep you in suspended animation. However, I'll ask you only two questions'What pleasure did you derive by liberating Bangladesh and who gave you the right to take away the pride of Pakistan? Try to find out the answers while you watch the next show. Open your eyes. This is not Sardar Sarovar, where you have been trying to find us. Look closely. I'm presenting Tehri Dam before the august audience."

The scene cut to disclaimer, which mentioned that the show was not real, but a realistic simulation of what would happen.

The text image of the disclaimer dissolved slowly and the beautiful and serene Tehri Reservoir appeared on the screen. A commentary described the catchment area, the reservoir, the two rivers Bhagirathi and Bhilangana, Tehri and Koteshwar Dam, Hydel Power Stations and the holy city of Deoprayag, Rishikesh and Haridwar.

The wave of the water in the reservoir started gaining height. A hill collapsed and the wave rose higher and higher. The bridge on the Bhilangana River collapsed without much ado. It hit the dam which crumbled like a coconut cookie.

A wall of water, several thousand feet in height, surged ahead, uprooting everything that came in its path. It gained more and more height and momentum as it traversed the narrow canyon. When it reached Deoprayag, the gigantic pressure of the wave pushed the water of Alaknanda River ten miles backwards. The small town of Deoprayag vanished from the map.

The water continued to travel in a zigzag canyon and hit Rishikesh. Within no time, all temples and buildings, even at high elevation were flattened out like pancakes. The wall of water carrying dense slurry, mud, trees, logs, gigantic boulders, bridges and entire buildings rumbled, tumbling forth with tremendous momentum before reaching Haridwar. As the water followed the zigzag path of the narrow canyon, the waters behind the wall turned into rapidly moving vortices.

The scene cut sharply to the city of Haridwar.

Millions of people flocked at different
Ghats
to take a holy dip in the waters. The arterial road leading to Haridwar was jammed with incoming traffic for many miles while a sea of devotees covered the narrow by-lanes.

Suddenly, a half a kilometre high water wave, moving at great speed, overwhelmed the entire landscape. Nothing remained of the city, but a flat mud-plain.

The water oozed out devouring Saharanpur, Meerut, Muzzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, East Delhi, Hapur, Agra, Kanpur and many towns and cities one after the other. The fury of the river continued further to the major cities of Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna, uprooting every barrage, bridge and road in its life-quenching wake. It crushed Farraka Dam in West Bengal and the water diverted into two parts. One went to Bangladesh and the other to Kolkata.

The scene cut once again to show the after effects of the great deluge.

The wild water had carved out wide
gullies
and
nullahs
. It had stripped off the entire fertile topsoil, turning the place into a wasteland. At some places, the water logging in huge pools turned these places into permanent wetlands. Heavy boulders and stones, carried from the Himalayas, were dispersed all across the Gangetic Plain, as if some demon had lifted them off from the mountains and hurled them at the plains below. The gigantic vortices had dug several hundred feet deep wells. The entire place was in complete disarray. Order displaced by complete chaos. Health had given way to pestilence. The once incense-perfumed Ghats of the Ganga reeked of rotting man and matter. What seemed unchanged in this changed world order was the course of the River Ganges, which flowed unperturbed, though quiet.

The movie stopped and static frames popped out:

Death toll'Twenty Million,

Economic cost'3.5 trillion dollars,

Time to recover'Twenty years, or God only knows.

The movie restarted and Shalim Amār Khan made a reappearance, "Your Excellency, you must be wondering why I sent you a simulation before the real story, which will start exactly at 08:47. You will ask me a question, what do I want? Well I will answer the first one. I want you to get a feel of things to come, since many of you may not live to see it. As for the second question, "What do I want? The phone will ring in your room, Honourable Prime Minister. I'll answer your question then."

The phone rang just then. The Prime Minister picked it up, "What do you want?"