The Rozabal Line

by Ashwin Sanghi

  The President coughed and got up to leave the room for another scheduled event. A knowing glance was exchanged between the President and Stephen Elliot as the former walked out of the Oval Office.

  Elliot had not bothered to keep the National Security Advisor informed of CIA Trois. He had, however, always given the President the full picture. The President recalled the BBC interview granted by the White House to Stephen Sackur four years earlier.

  London, UK, 2008

  Stephen Sackur of the BBC was interviewing the American President for HardTalk. The president was on a visit to England, having just won the presidential elections two months earlier.

  Sackur: ‘The head of the SAS was at Yale. Did you get to know him there?’

  President: ‘Yes.’

  Sackur: ‘It is rumoured that both of you were involved in Skull & Bones, the secret offshoot of the Illuminati.’

  President: ‘Well, if it’s secret, how can I possibly talk about it?’

  Sackur: ‘But what does that mean for those who see something sinister in secret societies such as the Illuminati, the Rhodes Scholars or Skull & Bones? They say you are anti-Church.’

  President (laughs): ‘I am a practising Christian. Why would I be anti-Church?’

  Sackur: ‘They say you worry about the Church becoming too powerful . . . pursuing its own foreign policy. You want to keep Islam and Christianity at loggerheads so that oil prices remain high.’

  President: ‘Who are the “they” that you keep referring to?’

  Sackur: ‘It’s a secret. Like your days as director in the CIA!’178

  The American President had been director of the CIA prior to running for office.

  This was around the time that the Norm Dixon story had appeared. ‘How the CIA created Osama-bin-Laden,’179 was the headline:

  How things change in the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities, the most despicable being the mass murder of more than 6,000 working people in New York and Washington on 11 September. Bin-Laden, the ‘freedom fighter’ is now lambasted by US leaders and the Western mass media as a ‘terrorist mastermind’ and an ‘evil-doer’, yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the vicious movement that spawned bin-Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that plague Algeria and Egypt, and perhaps the disaster that befell New York.

  In April 1978, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan. The PDPA was committed to radical land reform that favoured the peasants, trade union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality for women and the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported strengthening Afghanistan’s relationship with the Soviet Union.

  Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal land-lords, the Muslim religious establishment and the tribal chiefs. Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states, immediately offered support to the Afghan Mujahideen, as the ‘contra’ force was known.

  Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$ 6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the Mujahideen factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia, kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama-bin-Laden, provided millions more.

  Washington’s policy in Afghanistan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; it aimed to foster an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union. The grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq’s own ambitions to dominate the region.

  US-run Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe beamed Islamic funda-mentalist tirades across Central Asia, while paradoxically denouncing the ‘Islamic revolution’ that had toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran in 1979.

  Washington’s favoured Mujahideen faction was one of the most extreme, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The West’s distaste for terrorism did not apply to this unsavoury ‘freedom fighter’. Hekmatyar was notorious in the 1970s for throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. Hekmatyar was also infamous for his side trade in the cultivation of and trafficking in opium. Osama-bin-Laden was a close associate of Hekmatyar and his faction.

  The Director of the CIA and later presidential candidate was unrepentant about the explosion in the flow of drugs: ‘Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets . . . There was a fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.’

  It was this same CIA Director who had committed CIA support to a long-standing Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence proposal to recruit volunteers from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. At least 100,000 Islamic militants flocked to Pakistan (some 60,000 attended fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in the fighting).

  Soon, Osama-bin-Laden, one of twenty sons of a billionaire construction magnate, arrived in Afghanistan to join the jihad. An austere religious fanatic and business tycoon, bin-Laden specialised in recruiting, financing and training the estimated 35,000 non-Afghan mercenaries who joined the Mujahideen.

  Osama has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in Afghanistan during the jihad—fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is his primary customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Bin-Laden only became a ‘terrorist’ in the eyes of the US when he fell out with the Saudi royal family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops to be stationed on Saudi soil following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Waziristan, Pakistan–Afghanistan border, 2012

  The lanky, olive-skinned Sheikh read the note that Ghalib had sent him upon reaching his destination. ‘Praise be to Allah!’ he exclaimed as he read Ghalib’s note:

  UOY.OT.HTAO.YM.MAMI.HO

  OWT.MOTA.TA.MOTA.TIH.OT

  HT33T.3HT.TA.MIA.HTUOM.3HT.TA.MIA

  TA3H.TOH.3TIHW.HTIW.YAWA.MIH.TIH

  3OW.OT.MIH.3IT.YOT.YM.HTIW.3YA

  3WO.I.HTUOY.YM.MIHW.YHT.OT

  3M.HTIW.TUO.MIH.HTIW.TUO

  3M.3SIMOTA.OT.3MIT.YHT.TIAWA.I

  ‘My Master’s secret weapon is finally in place,’ said the Sheikh in his usual hushed voice as his hands trembled with excitement.

  Islamabad, Pakistan, 2012

  The Aiwan-e-Sadr, the official residence of the President of Pakistan, lay in the centre of the city that had been meticulously planned and built by the Greek Constantinos Doxiadis. Islamabad, meaning ‘the abode of Islam’, was the capital city of Pakistan, located at the crossroads of Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province.180 Ensconced inside the plush interiors of the Aiwan-e-Sadr sat the Iron Man of Pakistan. Born in Lahore to a lower-middle-class family, his parents could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that their son would one day become the President of Pakistan. This was the man who was supposedly at the forefront of the war on terror. This was also the man who had no qualms at waxing eloquent about enlightened moderation while enlisting the political support of Islamic hardliners.

  The President was looking at the transcript of a secret phone conversation between the chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a Thuraya satellite phone somewhere in the Middle East being operated by a terrorist called Ghalib. His theory had been proved correct. His intelligence agencies continued to remain involved with Islamic terror groups despite his strict orders to the contrary. The problem was that this situation could not be wished away.

  The President had earlier that day been officially briefed by his ISI chief, who had conveniently omitted to mention that a terrorist called Ghalib was running loose somewhere in the Middle East with a nuclear bomb. The phone tap transcript seemed to indicate that this Ghalib and his team were taking orders from someone called the Sheikh. The main worry was that the bomb in question might be of Pakistani origin. That da
mned Dawood Omar!

  During the phone conversation, the ISI chief had been trying to convince Ghalib to give himself up to Stephen Elliot of the SAS! How dare he! Was the ISI chief’s salary being paid by the Pakistan Government or by those American bastards? Apparently, the deal had been brokered by the Russians, who had been funded by a right-wing Christian group called the Cux Decussata Permuta. The ironic fact was that no one seemed to be too concerned about the nuclear weapon. All parties wanted Ghalib.

  ‘Why is this man so important to all of them?’ thought the Pakistani leader as he sipped his evening scotch and soda.

  Goa, India, 2012

  The scotch, soda and ice in their hotel room were a welcome relief. Vincent’s reunion with Martha had been an emotional one. The ordeal he’d been through only reinforced the importance of friends and family. He also realised the enormity of what he had learned from Swakilki.

  ‘Vincent, are you all right? We were worried sick about you,’ said Martha as she sobbed. ‘I really thought I’d lost you forever.’

  Vincent hugged Martha. ‘Relax, Nana. The worst is behind us. There is a reason that we made this trip. If we hadn’t come here, we would never have come face-to-face with this dangerous woman. And if I hadn’t met her, I would never have realised the importance of what I’d seen in my past-life regressions with Terry and you.’

  ‘And what is that?’ asked Martha nervously. She looked somewhat dishevelled from the hours of anxious waiting and searching.

  ‘I need to take my quest to its logical conclusion. That was the reason for my meeting Terry. Destiny took me to London, to Mumbai and to Goa. Maybe it now needs to take me elsewhere.’ Vincent was exhausted but highly charged.

  Martha looked at him helplessly. ‘I’m scared, Vincent. You nearly lost your life. I’m not sure whether I want you to take this matter any further. You’re lucky she spared your life . . . and she’s left a warning note in your hand.’

  ‘You are my lucky charm, Nana! Didn’t you read the note? She spared me because she likes you! Incredible! But Nana, really, this isn’t about me. It’s about something that has been one of the world’s greatest mysteries—something that one cannot simply leave unresolved. The greatest story ever told, the bestseller of the world, ended with an unsolved riddle. I now have a chance to fit the final piece into the jigsaw puzzle. Now, please show me the document you found on the floor of the Bom Jesus Basilica.’

  The document was old and yellow and was written on in Portuguese in flowing ink, customary of eighteenth-century manuscripts.

  I, Alphonso de Castro, tinham chegado em Goa para dar um ímpeto mais adicional ao Inquisition em 1767. Eu fui requisitado fazer uma lista exhaustive dos textos antigos que tinham sido encontrados nos repousos, temples, igrejas, mosques e synagogues dos Hindus, Thomas Cristãos, os muçulmanos e os Jews de Sephardic . . .

  Vincent began to translate the document into English:

  ‘I, Alphonso de Castro, arrived in Goa ostensibly to give further impetus to the Inquisition in 1767. I was ordered to make an exhaustive list of ancient texts that had been found in the homes, temples, churches, mosques and synagogues of the Hindus, the Thomas Christians, the Muslims and the Sephardic Jews. Any texts that did not suit the sensibilities of the Roman Catholic Church were to be destroyed by me. While I was going through an old set of manuscripts discovered in the bowels of the Church of Bom Jesus, I found this particular document.

  The Church of Bom Jesus had existed well before 1559—as a mosque. Within one of the pillars that had been discarded in favour of non-Islamic stonework was a cavity. This cavity contained a bundle of documents that had been written in Urdu. These documents had been found by a Hindu construction worker, Lakshman Powale, at the site where the mosque was being torn down to make way for the church.

  The bundle was immediately transferred to the archives of the Portuguese viceroy, where it continued to sit till it was taken up for cataloguing by me nineteen years later. The bundle contained eleven texts, of which ten were earmarked by me for destruction. The eleventh one was deliberately not catalogued by me. It was called the Tarikh-Issa-Massih.

  Through fear for my life, I felt it would be better for me to leave the document in India prior to my departure for Lisbon today. I am determined to store the document in a place where it will be preserved so that it may be discovered by future generations; they may then know the truth.

  Tonight, my ship sets sail for Lisbon. Oh Heavenly Father, please forgive me for disturbing Saint Francis Xavier. Since he has the miraculous powers of preserving himself, I believe that under his safekeeping, this document will also remain preserved. 23 April 1770.’

  Remember: It is enough, O Lord, it is enough, the two angels said. Mastrilli without doubt made the best silver bed. But to carefully guard a secret of the dead. Ignatius’s gold cup is better than a silver bed.

  ‘Do you understand what this means?’ said Vincent excitedly. ‘It means that the original Tarikh-Issa-Massih was found by Alphonso de Castro and hidden away in the Bom Jesus Basilica!’

  ‘But Vincent, this document was already with the Japanese woman. If she had found this, she would certainly have found the original Tarikh-Issa-Massih too,’ reasoned Martha.

  ‘You’re right,’ said Vincent. ‘The document will be long gone by now. In fact, it is probably tucked away in some secret archive of the Vatican by now.’

  Their deliberations were interrupted by General Prithviraj Singh, Zvi Yatom and Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma.

  ‘Father Sinclair, I understand that you have been through a harrowing experience. Unfortunately, I do not have the luxury of giving you time to recuperate. We need to talk immediately!’ commanded the general.

  Vincent did not notice the general keenly eyeing the Alphonso de Castro letter that Vincent was holding.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Goa, India, 2012

  All of them sat inside Prithviraj’s makeshift office at the Fort Aguada Hotel. Prithviraj began, ‘I must tell you that the past few days have put me in turmoil. I have always believed that there is no substitute for good old-fashioned detective work. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the last year are only now beginning to get pieced together.’

  Zvi Yatom took over. ‘We now know for a fact that Ghalib-bin-Isar and his twelve commandos have carried out terrorist acts all over the world in the past eleven months. Each of these has been timed to occur on the twenty-first of each month. Twenty-first December is just a week away. We expect this will be the mother of all the acts.’

  There was stillness in the room as everyone digested this information. The general resumed. ‘We now also know for a fact that a nuclear weapon has been obtained by these terrorists and that it has transited through India. The American President, the Pakistani President and the Indian Prime Minister have been in communication with one another and it seems that Ghalib plans to use the device somewhere in the Middle East. We would have been able to pinpoint his exact location from his satellite phone if the conversation he had with his handlers in the ISI had been a bit longer.

  ‘We are re-examining the interrogation that is being conducted on Dawood Omar, a key Osama-bin-Laden operative in Pakistan. We also know that the nuclear weapon transaction was facilitated by a Russian intelligence operative, Lavrenty Edmundovich Bakatin.’ Prithviraj looked around him; there was complete, rapt attention.

  ‘The question my colleagues and I asked our counterparts in the CIA was: why would a fringe group within the Church, calling itself the Crux Decussata Permuta, be willing to pay huge sums of cash to Pakistani scientists and North Korean contractors on behalf of a group of Islamic terrorists unless they had something significant to gain? Even today, we are not clear as to what the actual barter involves.

  ‘What I can tell you is that this bunch of terrorists has modelled itself along the lines of Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. All these men trained together in Afghanistan under Osama-bin-Laden’s henchmen. Each of them has executed
a major terrorist act on the twenty-first of each month,’ explained the general.

  ‘Now, the question that you might ask is: how do we fit into any of this? Well, we know that Father Sinclair was meant to be killed. We now also know that the kidnapper was Swakilki, an international assassin who has been keeping herself under the radar and evading arrest. We also know that she takes her instructions from the Crux Decussata Permuta. The death of Professor Terry Acton and the attempt on Father Sinclair are related. Since both these gentlemen were digging into the bloodline of Jesus Christ, it obviously made someone within the Vatican, or the Crux, or Opus Dei, very uncomfortable. It is thus possible that Ghalib may actually be a descendant of the historical Jesus.

  ‘We have tried working with information from our friends in the office of the secretary-general of CESIS, the Italian intelligence services, and the IAB in Japan, and have come to some conclusions. These are:

  ‘One. Swakilki, a Japanese national, has links with the Roman Catholic Church because she lived as an orphan at the Holy Family Home, an Osaka orphanage.

  ‘Two. A regular visitor there was Alberto Valerio, who held the position of secretary for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, at which time he travelled extensively within the Orient. His connection to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross is now known. He possibly also heads the Crux Decussata Permuta.

  ‘Three. Swakilki was initially under the influence of the Aum Shinrikyo cult and committed several crimes with her partner Takuya, till such time as she killed him too. Subsequently, Swakilki Herai has carried out assignments for Valerio only.

  ‘Four. Brother Thomas Manning, who resides mostly in Switzerland, was the banking contact who ensured that Russia received the requisite doses of cash to ensure the freedom of the erstwhile Iron Curtain countries from the Soviet Union. This was done through Bakatin, who also had excellent connections with Al-Qaeda, more particularly someone known as the “Sheikh”, who probably reports to a higher Master, possibly Osama.