THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET

by CHRISTOPHER C. DOYLE

  Alexander’s brow furrowed. ‘Depends on what it is,

  he replied.

  ‘Oh, I think you will relish fulfilling this promise,’ his mother goaded his curiosity on. ‘It is about your campaign against the Persians.’

  Alexander fixed her with a piercing gaze. ‘Mother, you know how close that is to my heart. To avenge the humiliation the Persians heaped upon us , marching across our lands, subjugating us – that is the only goal I seek now. I will not rest until I bring the Persian Empire under Macedonian rule.’

  ‘I know, my son,’ Olympias smiled affectionately at his pothos. ‘But why stop there? There are lands beyond Persia, to the east.’ Her voice lowered to a whisper. ‘The land of the eastern gods, where the Indus and other great rivers flow.’

  ‘The Ends of the Earth! I have heard of the riches of this land, Mother,’ Alexander was thoughtful now. He had heard stories of gold and precious stones in the Indus valley and of the natives paying tribute to the Persians in the form of gold dust. ‘But it means spending a few more years away from home. Is it really worth it? The Persian Empire will yield all the wealth we need.’

  ‘It is not material wealth that you will seek in those lands.’ There was a twinkle in his mother’s eyes. ‘You were born of a god. The son of Zeus. I have told you that before. But you are still a mortal.’ She paused and looked him in the eye. ‘There is a myth from the land of the Indus. An ancient legend about a great secret that will make you a god. It is that secret that I am asking you to seek.’

  Olympias told Alexander about her meeting with the philosopher from the eastern lands. She gave him the parchment and the metal plate that the philosopher had given her and explained the inscriptions and engravings to Alexander, just as they had been explained to her.

  ‘But this has to be a secret mission. If your army knows what you seek, there will be trouble. They will not follow you to the ends of the earth, for they will not believe.’

  When she finished, Alexander studied the parchment. ‘It is my destiny,’ he said at last. ‘Born of a god. And I will be a god.’

  33

  PRESENT DAY

  DAY THREE

  A summons

  Radha heard the doorbell ring and hurried to open the door. Was it Vijay?

  A man in a safari suit stood at the doorstep, looking mournful. He looked like he bore bad news and Radha’s heart sank.

  ‘Miss Radha Shukla?’ the man asked.

  Radha nodded, her heart in her mouth.

  ‘I’m Hoshiar Singh from the Intelligence Bureau.’ The man flashed an identity card at her. Radha barely looked at it. She wanted to know what he was doing here at this time of the night.

  ‘Mr Imran Kidwai is in hospital,’ Hoshiar Singh continued. ‘Someone tried to kill him in his apartment this evening using a rocket propelled bomb. His condition is critical. I was told to inform you in case you would like to come to the hospital with us.’

  Radha gasped in shock. Imran in hospital? A bomb? She could hardly believe what she was hearing. She had just spoken to him a short while ago.

  ‘Give me a minute,’ she said and stepped inside to grab her phone. She quickly typed out a text message informing Vijay about Imran and asking him to meet her at the hospital. ‘Let’s go,’ she told the man as she locked up the house and hurried down the garden path towards the waiting car.

  An unlikely rescuer

  Shukla watched from behind the display with a suit of armour belonging to the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, as Alice was dragged to the room with the tablets. Like Vijay, he had realised that Riley was unaware of his presence in the group. He didn’t know whether it was of any use or not, but he decided to stay hidden for now. If nothing else, when the others left, even as captives, he could get to a telephone and call Imran for help. He cursed inwardly. This was the first time in his life that he regretted not carrying a mobile phone. For years, he had refused Radha’s attempts to convert him. ‘I’ve always been accessible even when there were no mobile phones,’ he would say. ‘If someone needs to contact me, they know where to find me.’

  Today, he realised how useful a mobile phone could have been in a situation like this. A text message would have been enough to summon help at this very moment.

  Meanwhile he saw Alice being pushed away by Riley and stumbling forward. The third gunman backed up to catch her from falling, coming within a foot of the suit of armour behind which Shukla had sought refuge.

  The gunman caught Alice, but only barely, almost losing his own balance in the process.

  Something went off inside Shukla’s head.

  He sprang out from behind the armour and swung the blunt end of the axe head at the head of the gunman, as he was trying to recover his balance and catch

  Alice simultaneously.

  The axe head connected and the gunman went down heavily, crashing into the glass of the display, dropping Alice as he fell.

  Suddenly all hell broke loose.

  Vijay and Colin had noticed Shukla emerge from hiding and swing the axe. While they were taken aback at this unexpected manoeuvre, they had an instant of a start on the gunmen standing next to them.

  The gunmen were fully focused on their captives and reacted with surprise as their colleague crashed to the floor. They were momentarily distracted.

  Vijay and Colin took advantage of the moment. Colin ducked and pirouetted on one knee, moving closer to the gunman covering him, and lashed out with his other leg. He caught the gunman in the knees. The man’s legs folded under him, dropping his gun. Colin dived for the gun and struck the man on his head with the butt of the weapon, knocking him out cold.

  Shukla helped Alice up and they ran for the door. As Colin tackled his captor, Vijay slipped to the floor, rolled over and swung the mace towards the gunman behind him. As the mace flew over his body, he rolled back and out of the way just in case it rebounded. The mace had eight blades mounted on a cylindrical rod and it hadn’t lost its potency. It struck the gunman on his thighs, slicing through the muscle and left him writhing on the floor.

  It had taken just seconds for the entire scene to unfold and Riley had no time to react. By the time he had unsheathed his knife the four captives had dashed out of the room, slamming the door of the gallery shut behind them.

  Riley recovered quickly from his initial surprise and sprinted towards the door. Suddenly the gallery went dark and he cursed. Someone in the group had had the presence of mind to switch the lights off before they headed downstairs.

  He slowly made his way through the darkness, bumping into a few exhibits as he walked towards the door. When he finally reached the door and opened it, he saw that the corridor outside, too, was sheathed in darkness. Through the open windows, he heard a car engine start up outside the museum.

  A wave of anger washed through him and he savagely thrust the knife into the wooden balustrade of the stairwell. He would have to inform Cooper. But it wasn’t concern about Cooper’s response that drove his rage. Tonight’s episode was a blot on his record. His men had failed him.

  This would not happen again.

  34

  New Delhi

  After their hurried getaway from the museum, Vijay raced through the streets of Central Delhi, weaving through traffic, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the museum. None of them could dismiss from their minds the sight of the curator being murdered in cold blood before their eyes.

  Finally, he relaxed slightly though his tension still showed in his tight grip on the wheel. ‘Was that Cooper?’ he

  asked Alice.

  Alice numbly shook her head. She was still in a state of shock. She didn’t know who the young blonde man in the room had been but she realised that her pursuers had not given up the chase. They had, somehow, followed her all the way from Greece to Delhi. And they even knew that she had taken refuge at Vijay’s fort!

  ‘We need to inform Imran. Whether Cooper is here or not, tonight’s incident was not random. Someone has be
en tracking you, Alice,’ Vijay gave voice to her thoughts. He passed his phone to Colin. ‘Call Imran, will you? He’s on speed dial.’

  Colin nodded and swiped the screen of the smartphone to get rid of the screensaver, then typed in Vijay’s password. ‘You have a text message from Radha,’ he reported.

  ‘What’s the message?’ Vijay wondered.

  Colin’s jaw dropped as he read the message.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Shukla enquired from the rear passenger seat where he was seated with Alice.

  ‘It’s Imran,’ Colin’s voice shook with emotion. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. ‘His apartment was bombed this evening. He’s in hospital. Radha’s gone with some IB men to the hospital and she’s asked us to meet her there.’ He gave Vijay the hospital address and Vijay swung the car around immediately. The hospital was not far from where they were and they could be there in less than fifteen minutes.

  IB or not IB?

  Radha sat in the car and stared glumly at the traffic around them. A host of questions swirled around in her head. Why had Imran been targeted? Why would anyone want to kill him? Had this anything to do with his visit to Titan earlier that day? And if there was a link between the Titan visit and the attempt on Imran’s life, did that mean that she, too, was a target?

  She hunched her shoulders and was grateful for the fact that she was in a car with three men from the Intelligence Bureau. It made her feel somewhat safer.

  ‘What did the doctors say about Imran?’ she turned to the IB agent sitting next to her, a surly looking man with a thick moustache.

  He shrugged. Hoshiar Singh, who was in the front passenger seat turned around and replied instead. ‘All we know is that he has lost a lot of blood. We’ll only get to know more when we reach.’

  Radha fought back her tears. She had forged a very special bond with Imran last year. She had been kidnapped and almost killed and Imran had rescued her. He couldn’t die. Not now.

  The car came to a roundabout and took a left turn. Radha looked out of the window, still lost in her thoughts, and gave a little start. She hadn’t been paying much attention to the route they were taking. They had been heading in the general direction of the hospital, from South Delhi. Preoccupied with the notion of losing Imran, she hadn’t noticed when they began moving in a direction that led away from the hospital. It was only now that she realised that they were passing through Chanakyapuri, and heading towards Dhaula Kuan, a route that would lead them to Gurgaon.

  She glanced at the surly agent next to her and briefly studied the two agents in front. None of them seemed to be aware that they were heading the wrong way; and if they were, they didn’t seem perturbed. The car radio was on and Hoshiar Singh was humming along with a song that was playing, one of the latest Bollywood hits.

  Something was wrong. An uneasy feeling took hold of her. Were these really IB agents? Or was this all part of the fallout of the visit to Titan Pharmaceuticals? She tried to recall the agent’s identity card but realised that she hadn’t looked at it closely. He could have been showing her his driver’s licence for all she knew. She chided herself for being so careless.

  But, if these people were masquerading as IB agents, then why hadn’t they killed her outright? It would have been so easy at her house with no witnesses around. Why pack her into a car under the guise of taking her to see Imran? Unless the news about Imran was a ruse to draw her out. A sudden spark of hope flickered within her at this thought. Maybe Imran was fine after all. But that spark was quickly doused by the realisation of her own predicament.

  Radha sank back in her seat. Maybe she was being too paranoid. But if she was right about this, then she had to ensure that the men didn’t get to know about her suspicions. She glanced at the doors on either side. They were locked shut by the central locking mechanism. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t be unlocked. Only, she couldn’t attempt to jump out of a moving car. She’d only succeed in injuring herself and it would be too easy for them to pack her back in the car.

  She realised she had just one chance at trying to get away. If that failed, they would be doubly alert and she wouldn’t have a hope in hell.

  Radha closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, steadying her breathing so that she didn’t give anything away. She had to be patient and wait until they came to a traffic intersection where they would have to stop. That was the only opportunity she would get.

  She stared ahead at the road as they continued to speed along to an unknown destination. What was going to happen to her?

  35

  At the hospital

  Vijay swung into the parking lot of the hospital and screeched to a halt in a vacant spot. The four occupants of the car jumped out with one accord and dashed to the Emergency wing of the hospital. Vijay and Colin reached the reception together with Alice close behind. Shukla waved them on and brought up the rear since he couldn’t run like the younger members of the group.

  ‘Imran Kidwai,’ Vijay breathlessly enquired at the reception. ‘We are his friends.’

  ‘Just a moment, please,’ the receptionist responded in a clipped tone. She looked through some papers, then typed in something and peered at the computer monitor in front of her. Finally, she shook her head. ‘No one by that name here,’ she informed Vijay.

  Colin and Vijay looked at each other. ‘Are you sure?’ Vijay asked incredulously. ‘We were informed that he was brought here just a short while ago. A victim of a bombing. He’s with the Intelligence Bureau.’

  The receptionist shook her head firmly. ‘I’ve gone through the records. There’s been no bombing victim here lately. And definitely no one from the Intelligence Bureau. I’m sorry. Perhaps you have the wrong hospital.’

  Shukla came up to them and heard the receptionist’s words. He looked at them, a fearful expression on his face. He didn’t need words to articulate his immediate fears. They were all thinking the same thing. If Imran was not in the hospital, who had met Radha and where were they taking her?

  Opportunity knocks

  The car had reached Dhaula Kuan. They had just passed over the Dhaula Kuan flyover and the Airport Express metro line ran alongside and above the road to the left, disappearing briefly into the Dhaula Kuan metro station before reappearing and heading towards the international airport.

  The traffic was thick at the signal next to the metro station, as they came off the flyover. Vehicles of all types converged from the Ring Road, over which the flyover passed. Cars, buses and two wheelers needing to turn right at the signal, changed lanes in a haphazard manner, mingling with traffic that needed to go straight, creating a massive traffic jam that stretched almost to the foot of the flyover.

  Radha stiffened imperceptibly. This was her chance. Once they got past this signal and the next, they would be on the expressway that led from Delhi to Gurgaon. With traffic rushing at high speed on that road, there would be no further opportunity for the car to slow down.

  She glanced out of the window. The car next to them was squeezed in beside them, with barely a foot between the two vehicles. There was no way she could open the door and slip out.

  The car moved slowly forward, the driver trying to cleave his way through the mass of vehicles moving in different directions in front of them. The gap between the cars increased slightly and Radha tensed. The traffic light had turned green and the jam was beginning to clear rapidly as vehicles began moving in their respective directions.

  It was now or never she decided and surreptitiously moved her hand over the doorlock knob.

  That was when her mobile phone began ringing. The three men in the car immediately turned to look at her. It was the last thing she could have asked for.

  What’s the truth?

  ‘She isn’t picking up her phone,’ Vijay informed the others, a worried look on his face which was shared by Shukla. In that one moment, a father and a fiancé mirrored each other in a shared sense of turmoil and emotion.

  ‘Try Imran,’ Colin suggested.
‘We need to inform him anyway about Peter. Perhaps he can help us with Radha’s whereabouts?’ He had a sinking feeling about this but he wasn’t going to let that dampen his spirits – it would only pull Vijay and Shukla down even further.

  Vijay nodded and dialled Imran’s number. A strange and unfamiliar voice answered. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Er… I wanted to speak to Imran Kidwai,’ Vijay began hesitantly.

  ‘Who are you?’ The voice was authoritative and commanding.

  Vijay was stumped for a minute. The man who had answered the call seemed to know Imran. Yet, it wasn’t Imran who had picked up the call. What could this mean?

  ‘I’m… um… I’m a friend of his,’ he finally managed. ‘Vijay Singh.’

  ‘Hold on,’ the voice commanded and there was silence for a few moments. Then the man was back on the phone. ‘Okay, you check out. You’re on the US-India task force. Sorry, Vijay, but I had to check to ensure that it was really you calling. Under the circumstances, we’re not taking

  any chances.’

  Vijay’s bewilderment grew. And a tinge of anxiety crept in. What were the circumstances? Where was Imran?

  He voiced his question.

  ‘You weren’t informed?’ the man sounded surprised. ‘There was an attempt on Imran’s life today. A rocket propelled bomb shot into his apartment from close range. The apartment was totalled. Imran is critical right now. He’s undergoing surgery. We don’t know if he’s going to make it.’

  Vijay’s brain was spinning. So the news about the attack on Imran was true! His mind quickly pieced the information together. If Imran was, indeed, undergoing surgery as they spoke, and if they were at the wrong hospital, it meant that Radha had been duped. And if the people who had met Radha, pretending to be IB agents, had known about Imran being bombed, it didn’t augur well for her. He was willing to bet that the fake IB agents were working for whoever had tried to kill Imran.

  ‘Vijay,’ the man said, ‘are you there?’