“I’m so sorry to interrupt you again, but there is someone at the gates for you. She says it is paramount that she meets you right at this very moment”, the lady spoke as peacefully as she could, waiting for Aarav to erupt from the other end.
“Interrupting my interview? For the second time today? That is, it. Sorry folks, but I’m done”, Aarav spoke as he got up and removed a mic buttoned to his shirt.
“Aarav c’mon, don’t be a drama queen”, his friend remarked as he tried to stop Aarav from getting up from his chair. “He will be with the visitor in half an hour”, he told the old woman. The PR lady rolled up her sleeves and almost gave up on Aarav as she grunted in disgust and moved back to grab a chair.
“What are you so angry about? It is my interview that is being interrupted again and again”, Aarav lashed out at her.
“We are never going to finish this interview, I tell you”, the PR lady spoke to him as she took out her mobile phone and started toying with it.
“Are you mocking me?” Aarav suddenly became serious.
“Aarav, I’m sure that she’s not mocking you. Now let’s get over with the interview”, his friend tried to calm him down.
“She’s mocking me Rehann. She’s laughing right in my face.”
“I didn’t mean that”, the PR lady tried defending herself.
“Nah-uh-uh, you know what? You’re fired. I am done with your charades.”
“You can’t just fire me!”
“Oh! Guess what? I think I just did. And look, I just texted security to escort you safely out of my house. They’ll be on their way”, Aarav snubbed.
The PR lady stood there for a moment, wondering in disbelief that what had happened was true.
“Bu…bye”, Aarav muttered carelessly as he waved his hand.
“You’re such a jerk” she yelled before grabbing her handbag and storming off.
“Well… I would say that it gets better. But something tells me that you already have quite some experience with regards to that”, his friend Rehann remarked as he made Aarav settle down for the interview again.
“What about the visitor?” the old lady argued.
“Oh! Send her away. I’m not in mood for visitors today. Or better yet, keep her waiting for an hour before telling her that I’ll be unavailable.”
“No wonder you’re single”, his friend remarked as he went ahead with the old lady to meet the visitor and inform her of Aarav’s unavailability.
Aarav settled back on his chair and adjusted his coat before staring into a monitor placed before him. He shook his head a little and adjusted his dark brown hair before turning to the camera and continuing again. “As I was speaking. I never started out as a treasure hunter. To be honest, I have always abstained from being referred to by this term. But when my third hunt turned out to be a lot bigger than what I had expected, it became hard to suppress these fancy names which the media gave me. To be honest, fame doesn’t suit the job of a treasure hunter. It draws unwanted attention and hampers with my searches. Still one does enjoy the occasional recognition and it could sometimes even save the trouble of going through…”
“Aarav”, his friend Rehann interrupted the interview, yet again.
“Interruption? Again? Rehann are you for real?” Aarav barked in fury.
“I don’t think you’ll be carrying on with the interview after hearing who your visitor is.”
“Is it the Prime Minister? If not then I’m sure that whoever it is, can wait.”
“It’s Aanya.”
“Aanya who?”
“Aanya Vashishtha”, Rehann declared with a firm voice.
“Aanya Vas…”, Aarav stopped speaking as a smile carved up on his face, making him almost jump up in joy as he focused again on the last name.
“It is the daughter”, Rehann continued. “The last surviving Vashishtha.”
“Finally! I’ve been waiting for this for some time Rehann. Can’t believe that the opportunity has presented itself this soon. Escort her to the visitor’s room. I’ll be on my way”, he spoke while jumping up from his chair and taking out the mic. “Sorry but we’ll have to do this again sometime else”, he spoke to the cameraman before exiting.
“Miss Aanya, this is Aarav Kohrrathi. Aarav, this is Miss Aanya Vashishtha, the daughter of..”
“The daughter of Mr. Harish Vashishtha, of course. I am sorry for your loss”, Aarav spoke while shaking hands with Aanya, further urging her to settle comfortably on the couch. “May I ask what is it that brings you to my humble abode?”
Aanya looked suspiciously towards Rehann before turning her gaze at Aarav. “What I am about to say to you, what I am about to tell you, is probably the most secretive thing that one could say. Hence, it is of importance that whatever I speak to you doesn’t leave this room.”
“You can be assured of Rehann’s credibility ma’am. Not only is he my very good friend but is also of primary importance on my hunts. And of course, if you know who I am, you’d know who he is.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. It is just that the matter which I bring to you is quite vital.”
“Of course. We understand”, Aarav spoke while drawing his hands together and placing them over the tip of his nose. “Take us through your story. From the start.”
Aanya drew in a deep breath as she placed her Bulgari sunglasses on the table and loosened a scarf wrapped around her neck. She had long, dark brown hair which floated till her wide hips, shining like molten bronze under the bright lights. A glorious scent magnified her allure, while her sad dark eyes complimented her porcelain skin. She was sharply dressed, a designer outfit for sure but seemingly ordinary for the daughter of the richest man of the country, whose demise a few days ago had shocked the nation to its roots. The pain of her loss was visible on her face.
“We didn’t exactly see eye to eye. He wanted me to join the family business, my father. Being the single child, his expectations were quite high from me. So ultimately when I decided to move to London to pursue a career in fashion, we had a fight. It has been three years that I have been living away. We last met six months back at a relative’s wedding in Vienna, and then I saw him on the television three weeks ago, along with the entire world.”
“Wait! Did you say Vienna?” Aarav questioned her.
“Yes! Why?” she asked.
“Nothing. Struck a chord somewhere. Six months ago you said?” Aarav continued while taking down notes in his pocket notebook.
“Yes!”
“Okay. And how was his mood at the time. Was there something bothering him?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t speak much. It was hard to tell”, she responded as she broke her gaze to take a cup of tea from the old lady who came into the room.
“Thank you so much again. I must say Mr. Kohrrathi, you have quite a gifted housekeeper”, she uttered while taking a sip.
“It is a cross I have to bear”, Aarav responded while smirking at the old lady.
“I’m done with your charades Aarav. Wait till your father comes home”, the lady spoke rather rudely before storming off.
“Maybe he’ll be interested in being my butler”, Aarav playfully raised his voice as he saw the old lady walking away.
“Sorry. Did I say something wrong?” Aanya asked Rehann.
“She’s not the housekeeper. She is his mother”, Rehann replied to the embarrassment of Aanya.
“Oh! I’m so sorry Mr. Kohrrathi. I didn’t mean to…”
“Please call me Aarav. And it is fine, she won’t mind it”, Aarav spoke before getting serious again. “It has been three weeks since your father passed away. What is it that brings you to me of all people?”
“When my father died…” Aanya took a moment to continue. “Right before he… shot himself, he wrote
down a name on a piece of paper. The Ring …”
“The Ring of the Seven”, Rehann continued her words.
“Yes. The Ring of the Seven. I looked it up on the web and your …”
“My blog showed up. Of course!” Aarav continued with a hint of sadness in his voice.
“I have heard about your previous exploits. The treasure you found at the fort of Chittorgarh was covered quite well even in the British media.”
“Yes! That hunt made him quite a fortune”, Rehann filled in.
“Him? Or us?” Aarav corrected Rehann before turning towards Aanya. “And hence you decided to pay me a visit. Because of my blog. Well that is disappointing.”
“Why?” Aanya asked, concerned.
Aarav took in a deep breath before wondering how much he was supposed to reveal to Aanya. “I assumed that your father must have told you something more about this League. You’re the heiress to a master after all I was hoping to gather some more intel about this group. You see, I was chasing them even before your father brought them out in the open.”
“Well. I am afraid I could be of no more help. As I said, we weren’t on speaking terms with each other. He did call me that evening before he took his life but I wasn’t able to attend the call. If only I had known that he was calling me for the last time, I…” she choked.
“It is okay”, Rehann comforted her.
“When I came back home. The lawyers gave me lots of papers to sign, there was a lot of documentation and legal work to be done. He had just left a letter for me. It was nothing much but more of a strange farewell note as to how he has failed me as a father.”
“Can we have a look at the letter? If it is okay with you?” Aarav asked her politely.
“Yes of course. Although I don’t know if it would be of any help”, Aanya spoke as she pulled out the letter from her handbag and presented it to Aarav.
Aanya,
Surely it will be tragic, especially since it has been expected of a loving and kind father to always be loving and kind and hopefully own it to his daughter ‘cause he was supposedly a knight, who protected her till eternity. But has been so reckless and irresponsible and utmost manic when he tried raising you without your mother, to relax and comfort and provide ogles of affection you deserved. Of course, it is quite mechanical to expect a one certain man who has about only a few hours till death, to impart wisdom. So expectedly, I’ll be dead in four hours and thirty two minutes.
Love,
Your Father
Aarav looked up towards Aanya, perplexed and bewildered, his dark brown eyes growing wide in amazement. “It’s not a farewell note Miss Vashishtha”, he spoke. “It is a code.”
“What?” she stood up and came ahead as she took the note from Aarav’s hands. “What do you mean it is a code?”
“Oh! It was ingenious of you to come to me. Ecstatic. Amazing. This is better than what I had expected”, he continued.
“What are you trying to say Aarav?” Rehann asked, himself glancing at the note in Aanya’s hands.
“Let’s head to the study, shall we?” Aarav jumped up and led the way, urging his two companions to follow.
They all soon entered Aarav’s study room and it was a sight to behold. The room was built of humongous proportions; courtesy of the bungalow Aarav had purchased from his last treasure money. On the main wall was painted a huge world map, various spots on it marked with an X and notes and memos stuck on others, all being connected by long colored threads. There were pictures stuck of many historical men, there were pictures stuck of many men Aanya didn’t even know. The rest of the room was littered with hundreds of books. A few laptops adorned the empty tables placed towards the center of the room, while white boards with lots of writings festooned the other walls.
“So this is the mess your mother warned me about?” Rehann exclaimed, surprised at seeing the condition of his friend’s study room.
“You don’t come here?” Aanya asked her.
“He doesn’t bring people into this room much. Consider yourself fortunate”, he spoke with a smile.
“Here. Look”, Aarav said as he displayed an image of a man from his projector on a wall. “Do you know him?”
“I don’t think so”, Aanya replied.
“He was Sir Stefan La Vache, a Frenchman born in Slovakia. He was the pioneer of Glavach Industries, and among other things they made quite a fortune selling guns during the Cold War. He was found murdered at his residence in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava around six months ago. Right around the time your father met you in Vienna.”
“What does this has to do with my father?” Aanya asked.
“In his press conference, your father mentioned that an incident happened a few months ago which changed his perception about the masters of the Ring of the Seven. It is my belief that your father was referring to Sir La Vache’s murder. I had long suspected him to be one of the masters and although his murder was carefully covered up, with hardly any mention in the western media, I had my doubts that something was wrong within the League.”
“The League?” she enquired.
“Yes. That is what I used to call them. The Ring of the Seven was taken up by the media after your father’s death. Nonetheless, if one of the masters was murdered, it was obvious that the other masters would have paid him a visit.”
“So that is why you asked me to hack into the Slovakian servers that day?” Rehann interrupted.
“Precisely. I tried tracking the prominent people who flew into Bratislava for around a week after his murder but didn’t come across any leads. Of course, the masters would have been very careful so as to keep their identities a secret. Hence your father, flew to Vienna to attend a wedding, which is less than a hundred kilometers from Bratislava.”
“The Ring of the Seven? Does this mean that there are seven masters? And what are they? Some sort of a secret society?” Rehann asked Aarav.
“From whatever I have heard and researched in this matter, it is clear that there is indeed a secret society guarding an ancient treasure. A society existing since the time of Ashoka.”
“Ashoka? You mean Emperor Ashoka?” Aanya asked.
“Of course. Who else?” Aarav snubbed at the silliness of the question. “It is believed that Ashoka uncovered a secret treasure, a treasure so rich that it could bring entire kingdoms out of poverty, a treasure unimaginable, which could make its possessor the most powerful person in history. It is believed that he had hidden it somewhere and set up a council of nine men who secretly served as the guardians of the treasure. He called them ‘Navratna’ , or his nine gems. It is widely believed that the nine men secretly held power in various fields; from arts to administration, from military to religion; they were everywhere. They passed on their powers to the person of their choosing and thus ensured that the knowledge of the location of the hidden treasure survived. You can find their mention somewhere or the other throughout history. They are referred to as the Nine Unknown Men by the secret society enthusiasts. I preferred to call them the league since I was unsure if their number would have remained the same through thousands of years. But looks like we finally have their name and count out in the open after all.”
“It’s like the Illuminati then?” Rehann spoke up.
“Only much older and much more powerful”, Aarav replied. “Dan Brown will write a novel about them one day, I tell you.”
“My father’s farewell note. You said that it was a code. How?” Aanya asked.
“Oh yes! That’s not a note. It’s a cipher. Look.” He took away the note from her hand and placed it on a platform at his desk, making the projector display the image in an enlarged fashion. “Look again at the note. It is a simple cipher. People use these kind of ciphers to hide messages in plain and ordinary looking texts. Look closely at the note again and pick out the first letter out
of every fifth word. The letters of your name are an indication you see. Your father devised it that way. Here.”
Aarav took a highlighter and went along highlighting the first letter of every fifth word.
Aanya,
S urely it will be tragic, e specially since it has been e xpected of a loving and k ind father to always be l oving and kind and hopefully o wn it to his daughter ‘ c ause he was supposedly a k night, who protected her till e ternity. But has been so r eckless and irresponsible and utmost m anic when he tried raising y ou without your mother, to r elax and comfort and provide o gles of affection to you. O f course, it is quite m echanical to expect a one c ertain man who has about o nly a few hours till d eath, to impart wisdom. So e xpectedly, I’ll be dead in four hours and thirty two minutes.
Love,
Your Father
“SEEK. LOCKER. MY. ROOM. CODE”, Aarav highlighted the message.
“Unbelievable”, Aanya exclaimed.
“Fantastic”, Rehann uttered. “But what is the code?”
“Don’t you think that the man was a little too precise with the time remaining until his death?” Aarav smiled a little. “I think we will get a few more answers from a certain locker in your father’s room”, he continued before heading towards the door, leaving both Rehann and Aanya wondering behind.
They all arrived at the mansion of the Vashishthas in about an hour and rushed towards Mr. Harish’s room.
“This house is even better than I had imagined”, Rehann whispered to Aarav who was unbothered by the magnificence of the mansion of the richest man of India. The halls and the rooms of the place were brightly lit. Each space was designed to exemplify a particular theme. The heavy curtains were color coordinated and a walnut colored carpet ran across the place with golden flowers adoring its face.
Secret of the Himalayan Treasure Page 2
