THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET (25 page)

60

Sukra points the way

Vijay stared at the north western sky with a fixed gaze, trying to will the phenomenon to happen as Colin had described it.

Van Klueck, behind him, made an impatient sound. Cooper stood by, his face impassive. He had already expressed his apprehensions about this.

The last light of the sun disappeared, and the reign of night began.

‘You know,’ Van Klueck began, then froze.

Vijay, too, saw it.

It had begun.

‘Keep a watch,’ he instructed the others excitedly. ‘Make a note of the exact point where it will be visible.’ He glanced back quickly to ensure that no one was standing in front of the rock drawing in the small alcove.

As they looked on, against the canvas of the night sky, clearly visible at this altitude, a bright point of light appeared in the night sky. It was brilliant against the other stars that twinkled weakly in its glow.

The moment that the drop of light freed itself from the clutches of daylight that had seemed to hold it prisoner, a dagger of light illuminated the five pointed star carved into the rock face in the alcove.

‘That’s it!’ Vijay yelled. ‘That’s Sukra. Or Venus, as the planet is known in the western world. And the tip of the mountain right below it is where we will find Shiva’s staff! It isn’t far from here.’ He now understood the purpose of the aperture above the alcove entrance. It was a lightbox, designed to allow the light of the planet to shine upon the five pointed star carved into the back of the alcove.

There was silence among the men as they began hiking towards the point that Vijay had indicated. Cooper gave the alcove a second glance as if he couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed.

No wonder Alexander came here at night, Vijay thought to himself. It wasn’t just to keep the mission a secret from his troops. His main motive would have been to be able to see the planet Venus light up the location of Shiva’s staff.

The powerful searchlights lit up the mountainside as they followed a natural path towards their destination.

As they came closer to the point, Vijay wondered what they would find there.

Will she make it?

As the guards charged down the corridor, the guard in the lead skidded to a halt and took aim, firing off a volley of bullets at Radha.

Radha felt as if a stick of dynamite had gone off in her chest and she reeled. She felt like she was thrown back at least five feet and her legs gave out from under her. As she slumped to the floor, everything around her seemed to go into slow motion as adrenaline was released and her synapses began firing faster. It was akin to a high speed camera producing a slow motion effect. Waves of paresthesia surged through her body as she lay on the floor, her right lung constricting and her breaths agonisingly short and painful. Each breath felt like there was a knife being turned in her right lung. Even through the pain she could feel another sensation: warm blood pouring out of the bullet wounds, soaking her hospital gown which was sticking to her body. She wanted to think but she was in a state of shock and thoughts would not come to her numbed mind.

The shooting had stopped and there were shouts all around her. She vaguely recognised Saxena’s voice. He seemed to be angry and reprimanding someone. The words were indistinct. A white film seemed to cover everything around her and her vision began to fade as she began to go into hypo-volemic shock.

Then, everything went black.

61

Shiva’s staff

Vijay stood and gazed in awe. They were standing at the very spot where Venus had emerged. The mountain formed a ridge at this point.

Carved into this ridge in bold relief, clearly revealed in the light of the searchlights, was a twenty foot tall
trishul.

Shiva’s staff.

Or, as Eumenes had put it, in the Greek context, Poseidon’s staff.

Whether it was the sight of the staff that transfixed the group or the fact that they were so close to their destination, no one moved for a few moments.

Van Klueck was the first to break the spell. ‘Right. Where’s our last stop then? The five headed snake.’ He looked at Vijay as if to say ‘this is why you are here. Tell me.’

Vijay tried to remember what Eumenes had written in the journal. Alexander had not found it difficult to locate the snake after passing the trident. So the unusual rock formation must be nearby.

What had Eumenes said?

‘Let’s spread out and search in a radius of one kilometre around here,’ Vijay instructed. From what he recalled, Eumenes had mentioned that a fairly long time had elapsed before they could locate the serpent rock. It could lie in any direction.

The men spread out in groups of three and began searching. They all knew what they were looking for. And once they found that, the secret of the gods would be within their grasp.

The missing link

Colin sat and stared at the laptop. He wasn’t accustomed to this. Vijay was usually the researcher. For everything they had done together, including the company they founded and the project that had made them rich, it had been Vijay who had done all the research. Colin was good at analysis and reasoning and operations while Vijay was the thinker between the two. They complemented each other well.

But now, when the chips were down, he was struggling to do what Vijay would always accomplish so effortlessly.

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, just as Alice walked in.

‘Anything yet?’ she asked. Colin had updated her and Shukla on his conversation with Vijay and the discussion about Venus.

‘I haven’t heard back from Vijay, so I’m assuming that the Venus connection was spot on. But I still haven’t been able to crack the last verse. The one about the eye and the three brothers. I’ve googled everything possible. But nothing seems to work.’

Alice looked at the map that Colin had brought up on screen.

‘If we’re right about the Aral Sea,’ she said, ‘then the “three brothers” will be somewhere to its south. We know that because Alexander didn’t go beyond the Aral Sea. And if we look to the south, we have two countries here. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.’

‘Right.’ A new energy took hold of Colin. ‘I didn’t try searching using the countries as keywords.’

‘Give it a shot,’ Alice encouraged him. ‘Let’s see.’

Colin typed in “three brothers Uzbekistan” and browsed through the entries the search engine threw up. He went through the first six pages then looked at Alice despondently. ‘How do we even know that Google is going to know the three brothers? After all, the cube was made thousands of years ago.’

‘Try Kazakhstan,’ Alice prodded him gently. ‘Let’s try everything.’

Colin nodded and typed “three brothers Kazakhstan”.

Again, there was nothing relevant on the first page. He clicked to the second page.

Nothing again.

The third page.

He froze. He could sense Alice drawing in her breath as she stood next to him.

On the screen, were a series of photographs with the title caption reading : “Images for Three Brothers Kazakhstan”.

62

A sliver of hope

Imran listened as Patterson spoke. This was their second call since Imran had had the equipment installed in his hospital room. They were discussing possible options in the current situation. Imran’s initial feelings about Patterson were giving way to a grudging admiration for the man’s intellect and strategic ability. While he still thought that Patterson was a bit of a Neanderthal when it came to interpersonal relations, he couldn’t argue with any of the strategic points that he was making today.

Of course, there were parts of Patterson’s plan that Imran didn’t feel happy about. The part about assuming that Radha was lost, for example. Patterson insisted that they should not hope. While Imran felt that they should not give up hope that they would eventually locate and rescue her.

‘In war, you don’t win by hoping. You win by doing,’ the big African American had boomed over the flat screen monitor. ‘As far as Radha is concerned, if we get a lead, any indication of her location, we’ll double our efforts to find her. But, for now, there’s nothing we can do. On the other hand, there’s still plenty we can do for the other aspects of this case. We should focus on that instead of sitting and hoping and praying. If she lives, that’s great. We don’t lose a member of the task force. But let’s not count on it.’

There were other parts of the plan, too, that Imran was not comfortable with. But he agreed that they didn’t have a choice. The risk was too great. It was all or nothing.

‘Right, then. You sleep well tonight. Tomorrow’s a big day. One way or the other. Hopefully we’ll come out tops,’ Patterson signed off.

Imran sighed as he watched the screen fade to black. Then he remembered his phone. An email message had come in while he was speaking to Patterson. He wondered who it was.

His eyes widened as he saw the name of the sender even before he opened the message.

Imran couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Radha! She was alive! She had sent him a message. Somehow, from somewhere, she had managed to find a way to let them know that they should not lose hope.

Throwing off the covers, he winced as he made his way out of bed and changed out of his hospital gown and into his own clothes, dialling his office as he did so.

‘Arjun, pick me up right away. I’m forwarding you an email. I want a location trace immediately. Do it now.’

The source

An hour had passed and there was no sign of the five-headed serpent that was to lead them to the secret. But there was a renewed energy in the group, goaded on by Van Klueck, now that they were within striking distance of their goal.

Cooper’s satellite phone rang. He moved off to the side and spoke in low tones. Vijay strained to hear what he was saying but he could only catch a few words. ‘Do whatever…ensure…I will…’ But the man sounded concerned. He spoke briefly but rapidly to the caller and then pocketed the phone again.

Vijay didn’t know about the other men but he was beginning to tire. The continuous exertion at this altitude was affecting him. He decided to rest for a while. It wouldn’t matter if it took them an additional fifteen minutes to find the damn serpent.

As he lowered himself to the ground, he heard Van Klueck’s voice. It was overflowing with excitement. ‘Over here!’

All thoughts of resting were forgotten as Vijay joined the others in rushing to where Van Klueck stood. Outlined by the searchlights was a massive rocky outcrop, at least fifteen feet high. It looked like a wave but it was easy to see how it could be interpreted to be a five-headed serpent. Vijay reflected on how ancient the rock formation must have been. At some point in time, he thought, it must have actually resembled a serpent, for the verse to indicate its shape. Thousands of years of erosion had still not changed the basic shape of the formation. He now realised how old the cube was. Much older than they had thought.

‘Look for the entrance to the cave,’ Van Klueck commanded and the group fanned out, searching.

It didn’t take long to find the narrow fissure through which only one man could squeeze at a time.

‘You go first,’ Van Klueck grinned at Vijay. ‘Let us know if it is safe to come in.’

Vijay shook his head as he grabbed a searchlight from one of Cooper’s men and made his way through the fissure.

He found himself in a narrow passage through the rock, which abruptly ended in a flight of steps cut into the interior of the mountain. He shone the light down the steps. They went down for quite a distance, deep into the heart of the mountain.

‘It looks fine,’ he shouted back. ‘There are steps here which go down at least five hundred feet. You won’t hear me once I’ve gone down them!’

Without waiting for an answer, he started down the stairs. He was equally keen to see what lay at the bottom. There had been so much mystery around the secret and now that he knew what the secret of the gods actually was, he wanted to see for himself where it all began. Was it really as it had been described in the Mahabharata?

As he made his way down, the light around him was augmented as the others followed him. He continued down the steps until he finally reached the bottom.

He flashed the light around. He was in an enormous cavern. Words failed him as he took in the immensity of the space. It was as if the cavern stretched through the interiors of the entire Hindu Kush range. Its walls were not visible.

The only thing that he could see was what stretched before him, occupying most of the cavern.

The source of the myth. The origin of the secret.

And it was exactly as it had been described in the Mahabharata. He was standing in the presence of what had been the basis of the creation of one of the greatest myths of all time.

63

The search starts

Imran pressed his hands over his stitches as the car sped towards the airport. An hour had gone by since he had received the message from Radha. While the geographical origin of the message was being traced, Imran had fast tracked a request for an aircraft to be available within 30 minutes to fly him and a commando team to the source of the message. Ten minutes ago, the location had been identified as a medical facility which was an hour’s drive from Jaipur. Strangely, though, this facility was not listed as a contracted centre for clinical trials by Titan Pharmaceuticals.

As long as the search had remained academic, with no leads and only endless discussions on how best to find Radha, Imran had accepted his confinement to a hospital bed. Now that her location was known, there was no way he would stay back. He had to be a part of the rescue team. He had done it before and he wanted to do it again. And he had developed a very special bond with Radha last year. He would have fought tooth and nail if anyone had even suggested that he watch from his hospital bed as they attempted her rescue.

They would be in Jaipur in less than an hour. From the airport, they would proceed by helicopter to their destination.

Imran had also run a check with Titan Pharmaceuticals to ascertain the whereabouts of their senior management. Some of them were travelling but only one man was officially listed as being on tour to Jaipur, where he was speaking at a medical convention.

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Varun Saxena. This had to be more than a coincidence.

Imran’s face was set in stone as they arrived at the airport and were hustled towards the waiting aircraft.

He was going to get Radha back safe and sound.

Time to go

Saxena and Freeman watched as Radha’s inert body was carried out of the room to a waiting ambulance. Her motionless body was attached to a drip, a feeder tube and an oxygen mask.

‘You must be really desperate,’ Freeman remarked as the orderlies disappeared with Radha’s body. ‘She’s dead. No one could survive those bullets. The blood loss alone will kill her if the shock hasn’t already. You will never get her to the facility in time to replenish her blood. And if any of her vital organs have been hit, you don’t stand a chance of reviving her.’

Saxena’s face was grim. ‘Those bloody guards. They weren’t supposed to shoot her. She’s a hostage for god’s sake! You don’t shoot hostages until you’re good and ready for it.’

‘Hey, come on, they were only doing their job,’ Freeman protested. ‘How were they to know she was a hostage? Security saw her movements on the CCTV, they investigated, found a guard tased silly in the toilets on her floor. And then you were locked in by her. You raised the alarm. When the guards saw her on the ground floor, all they knew was an inmate had escaped and had put you in peril. So they did what they’re supposed to. Remember? “No survivors, no witnesses”? That’s what they did. Don’t castigate them for doing their job.’

‘They are bloody idiots,’ Saxena muttered. ‘They’ve just complicated matters. But I’m not desperate. Even if she dies, Vijay Singh won’t get to know. I’ve informed Cooper. He’ll handle it.’

Freeman was curious. ‘So why did you inject her with the cocktail of the virus and bacterium? If the bullets don’t kill her, that will. We know that. There isn’t a single specimen who has survived that trial. And you’ve given her an extra large dose.’

Saxena shook his head. ‘I thought this was a great opportunity for us to experiment. We’ve never had a healthy subject with a mortal wound, who has been subjected to the dose. Let’s see what happens. Worst case, she’ll die anyway. But it might just turn out to be interesting. Remember what we found in Alexander’s mummy?’

Freeman nodded. ‘I do. Another six months and you will see the results of my experiments.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess it doesn’t hurt.’

Saxena looked around. ‘Let’s get out of here. In a way, I’m glad I was around when she sent the email. At least we had time to clean up and evacuate this place. The servers are being wiped right now so the IB won’t get their hands on any data. There’s no way they’re going to be able to link this facility to Titan. Though I’ve left a little something for the IB to see.’

Freeman nodded. He knew what Saxena was referring to. ‘Pity we have to leave all the specimens here, though.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Saxena replied. ‘We have all their histories and test results with us. We can always start again with different specimens, using the results we already have. And we may not need the specimens anyway. If Cooper succeeds in getting samples of the source, we are done.’

They beamed at each other, clearly pleased. Either way, the mission was going to be a success. Nothing stood in their way now.