THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET

by CHRISTOPHER C. DOYLE

  There was silence again. This time Cooper didn’t wait but pressed on.

  ‘I have a proposal,’ he said. ‘A barter. You have something we want. And we have something you want. Why don’t we exchange? Everyone’s happy and all’s well that ends well.’

  ‘You want the cube?’

  ‘Yes. And Alice Turner. Give me both and you can have your fiancée back.’

  Silence again. Cooper could picture Vijay struggling with his emotions. It was a tough choice. A former girlfriend for a fiancée. The fate of both hung in Vijay’s hands.

  ‘I’m not an unreasonable man,’ Cooper continued. ‘I will give you until 12 noon tomorrow to think about it and let me know. Until then, you have my assurance that not one hair on your fiancée’s head will be harmed. But I will expect a decision from you by then.’

  He disconnected the call and stretched. It was time to hit the sack. It had been a long day. Age was catching up with him. There was a time when he had enjoyed a field job. The thrill of stalking a target, sometimes losing it, then catching up with it again was a powerful allurement. Now, the physical effort sometimes tired him out. But he had a job to do. And he was nothing if not meticulous.

  Tomorrow he would call Vijay Singh again. And the fate of two women would be decided.

  41

  DAY FOUR

  A glimmer of hope

  Colin entered the study to find Vijay fast asleep, his head on the desk, resting on his arms. The desk was littered with printouts and Vijay’s notebook was open, his pen resting on it. Clearly, Vijay had been busy through the night. Colin wondered what his friend had been doing and whether he had learned anything that could help them.

  He walked over to Vijay and shook him gently. ‘Hey, buddy, wake up.’

  Vijay lifted his head off the desk and looked at Colin, bleary eyed. ‘I fell asleep,’ he mumbled.

  ‘No shit. You look a mess. You better go downstairs and freshen up.’

  Vijay nodded, still disoriented. Then, a thought seemed to strike him and he brightened up.

  ‘I found something,’ he informed Colin. ‘Let’s have breakfast and I’ll tell you guys.’

  Leaving Colin wondering what he had discovered during the night, Vijay hurried out of the study.

  An hour later, they assembled in the study. Vijay sat at the desk, sorting out the papers and stacking them on the desk.

  Three pairs of eyes gazed at Vijay expectantly, filled with curiosity.

  ‘I did a lot of research on Alexander the Great,’ he began. ‘I downloaded a BBC documentary by Michael Wood and watched it – all four hours of it. I read sections of various books written about the man. You won’t believe how many people have written about him. I read about the route he followed from Macedonia to India. The people he fought along the way, the stories around what he did in different cities that he passed through. And I learned a lot about the man. He was stubborn. He refused to give up in the face of all odds. And he was determined.’

  ‘Sounds a bit like you,’ Colin grinned. ‘You could be describing yourself, you know.’

  Vijay scowled at him but didn’t respond.

  Alice said nothing but in her head she was thinking the same thing. Vijay’s determination, perseverance and refusal to conform to popular belief had helped him succeed in many ways. It was what had attracted her to him in the first place. A man who knew his mind. And was not afraid to follow it. But it had also been the cause of their break up.

  ‘It seems that Alexander was driven by something at every step of the way. When he left Macedonia, it was the pothos – the desire, the longing – to avenge the defeat of the Greeks at the hands of the Persians. So he marched to Persia, defeated Darius and when Darius was murdered at the hands of his own nobles, he pursued them across the mountains until he caught up with them and killed them. Now, he was ruler of Persia but he didn’t stop there. There was another pothos that drove him further eastward. All the writers I read explained this desire as an ambition to conquer the known world and march to the ends of the earth. Apparently, Alexander had been taught by Aristotle that beyond the Indus lay the great ocean and the ends of the earth.’

  He paused and looked at Alice, who nodded her approval. ‘Go on,’ she said, ‘you’re doing a great job.’

  ‘This is where it gets all mysterious,’ Vijay continued, having validated his research. ‘First, it appears that Alexander never told his troops when they left Greece that they were marching to the ends of the earth. It was only after they conquered Persia that he told them that they would be marching on eastwards. Once again, there seems to be a logical explanation for this. If he had told his soldiers how far from home they would be marching, they may not have followed him in the first place. But that doesn’t make sense to me. Alexander was a leader par excellence. He led his men on a twenty-thousand mile journey from Macedonia to India and then back to Babylon. They marched across freezing mountain passes, baking deserts, sometimes without water or food. They followed him everywhere, without protest. The only exception was when they reached the Beas river in Punjab and they persuaded Alexander to return home saying they would march no more. These men would have followed him into the depths of the earth if he had demanded it of them.’

  He looked around to see if everyone was following him. Satisfied that they were, he resumed. ‘But we have a different theory from that of these writers. They didn’t have access to the cube or the secret journal of Eumenes. They couldn’t know that there may have been a secret quest Alexander had embarked on; a quest known only to him and his mother. But our theory provides a logical explanation of what happened.’

  ‘I see where you are going with this,’ Alice said. ‘If Olympias had the cube and the parchment which she gave Alexander, she would most likely have told him to keep the quest a secret. Alexander would have disguised the quest in the garb of conquering the known world and marching to the ends of the world. But when he left Macedonia, he told his troops only about the invasion of the Persian empire and not about his plans to march to the Indus. Not because he was afraid his men wouldn’t follow him but because he didn’t want them to know about the “secret of the gods”. And, if I’m guessing right, you also think that the rebellion at the Beas was engineered or recorded as such to disguise the fact that Alexander had accomplished his mission and wanted to go back home himself.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Vijay beamed. ‘He buried the metal plate at the base of the altar near the Beas because he had achieved his quest. Remember, Eumenes says that Alexander had become a god after entering the cave guarded by a five-headed snake? And we know that Alexander had begun proclaiming himself a god right from the time he defeated the tribes in Bactria – that was why Callisthenes was put to death.’

  ‘So what you’re saying,’ Colin said slowly, ‘is that the parchment that Olympias gave Alexander should somehow correspond with the route that Alexander took on his way from Persia to India. That’s why you were studying the route he took.’

  ‘Bingo!’ Vijay’s face shone with excitement. He had reasoned this out by himself and it felt good to see that the others could follow his line of thinking. It seemed to validate his reasoning. He had already decided on his course of action and it all depended on what conclusion this discussion reached.

  ‘So, what did you find?’ Colin asked.

  42

  Prisoner

  Radha awoke with a start. For a few moments she was disoriented. The pristine white surroundings in which she found herself were unfamiliar.

  Then it all came back to her. The Airport Express. The man with the gun. Her losing consciousness. The hospital gown. The straps binding her. The uneasy, creeping realisation that her rage was about to explode. But try as she might, she couldn’t remember anything after that. What had happened? And she realised she had been moved to a much smaller room than the one in which she had woken up earlier.

  She looked down. She still wore the gown. But she was no longer strapped down. How long had she bee
n unconscious?

  Gingerly, she raised herself on the bed and sat up, her legs dangling over the side. She felt weak; drained, as if she had expended a lot of energy in some great physical effort.

  She was suddenly aware of the pain in her wrists and ankles. She examined them one by one, wondering at the deep cuts where the nylon straps had dug into her flesh.

  She got off the bed, the white marble floor cold against her bare feet. There were no slippers in the room. The walls were solid. There was a frosted glass door to the room but it was locked. She grabbed the handle, pulling and pushing, trying to open the door but to no avail. There was only one way to open the door and that was from the outside. People could enter but she couldn’t leave. Not without an access card to activate the sensor fitted at the side of the door. She was well and truly a prisoner.

  As her hands left the door handle, it slipped away abruptly and the door swung outwards. She stumbled backwards, alarmed, as Saxena and Freeman entered the room.

  ‘How is our patient today?’ Saxena greeted her affably.

  ‘I am not a patient!’ Radha’s eyes flashed angrily. ‘Why am I here?’

  ‘I’m the one who will be asking the questions today.’ Saxena indicated the bed. ‘Sit.’

  A feeling of nausea accompanied by a sudden weakness washed over Radha. She backed up to the bed and sat down, glad to be off her feet. For some reason her legs were feeling wobbly.

  ‘After-effects of the psychotropic enhancer,’ Freeman remarked to Saxena, observing her perceptible discomfort and correctly guessing the cause. ‘Nausea and weakness.’

  ‘Who is he?’ Radha remained defiant.

  ‘Ah, I didn’t introduce you.’ Saxena gestured towards Freeman. ‘Dr Gary Freeman. Expert in genetics and the head of genetics at Titan Pharmaceuticals. He’s been working on a top secret project for us for many years now. And he’s close to a breakthrough. Now, let’s get some answers. First question: what does the IB know about our mission?’

  Radha looked blank. She had no idea what mission he was talking about. All she knew now was that Imran’s suspicions had been confirmed. Titan Pharmaceuticals was involved in some way with the clinical trials at the destroyed medical centre. But what did a genetics expert have to do with the clinical trials?

  An annoyed expression crossed Saxena’s face. ‘I want an answer,’ he said firmly. ‘Silence is not an option. We have ways, painful ways, to make you speak. I’m being gentle with you right now. Don’t try my patience.’

  ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’ Radha had no desire to find out what means Saxena had at his disposal to elicit answers from her.

  ‘I find that hard to believe. You came to my office, snooping around, posing as a journalist. You are affiliated with the Intelligence Bureau. In what capacity, I don’t yet know. You had all the details about the fire at the medical facility in East Delhi. Including the cells for the patients. You clearly know a lot about us.’

  Radha’s face registered surprise. How did they know about her association with the IB? ‘I really have no idea what you are going on about,’ she protested feebly, taken aback by their level of knowledge. ‘I have nothing to do with the Intelligence Bureau.’

  Saxena smirked. ‘Don’t underestimate us,’ he warned her. ‘We have a second team keeping tabs on the lot of you. We know that all of you, including the IB agent, were together at Jaungarh fort. Which, of course, is owned by your fiancé.’

  ‘Okay, I admit that I know Imran Kidwai. But I’m telling you the truth,’ Radha insisted. ‘We had our suspicions. We thought that Titan was mixed up in whatever was happening at the centre that got gutted. But we didn’t know what it was.’

  Saxena looked at Freeman then fixed Radha with a stern look. ‘I really don’t know whether or not to believe you. Why were you investigating us if you didn’t know what we were working on?’

  Radha hesitated. She felt terrible that she was telling this man everything. But she was scared. Of the pain. Of the cuts in her hands and legs. Of the terrifying feeling she had had earlier of not being in control of herself. She knew that these people were capable of anything. And they wouldn’t hesitate to do anything to get what they wanted.

  ‘We thought Titan was involved in bioterrorism. That you were creating a new type of pathogen that could be used by terrorists and dictatorial regimes,’ she blurted out.

  For a moment, Saxena simply stared at her. Then he burst out laughing. ‘Bioterrorism!’ he nudged Freeman, who chuckled back. ‘A new type of pathogen!’ He shook his head. ‘You really don’t know what our project is about, do you?’ He looked at Freeman. ‘I guess we really don’t need her anymore. Let’s ask Cooper what he wants to do with her. I’d like to use her for a few more trials before he disposes of her.’

  They swept out of the room, leaving Radha alone, confused and terrified. She had no doubt about her fate. If she wasn’t going to be used as a guinea pig, she was definitely going to die.

  43

  A part of the puzzle

  ‘You see,’ Vijay carried a sheaf of papers from the desk to the coffee table where the others were seated, ‘there were two mysteries surrounding the route that Alexander took on this journey.’

  He pulled out a map that traced in bold red Alexander’s march across modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

  ‘The first is here,’ he indicated a region in the south of Pakistan near the coast. ‘After heading down the Indus on his way back to Babylon, Alexander divided up the army. He sent part of it by sea across the Persian Gulf. And he led the other part of the army from the coast to Turbat.’ He indicated the town on the map. ‘Then, inexplicably, he headed south to the sea through Pasni, marching one hundred miles through the harshest terrain – the Makran desert. It took him 60 days to cross the Makran and he lost a sizeable chunk of his army there.’

  ‘That’s strange,’ Shukla remarked. ‘Why didn’t he travel back by sea? Why divide the army?’

  ‘And not just that,’ Alice took up the narrative, since she was familiar with this story. ‘From Turbat to Persepolis is pretty much a straight line.’ She indicated the route on the map. ‘Alexander marched through the Makran to Pasni and then headed to Persepolis. Even if there was a logical reason to divide his troops, if he was heading for Persepolis anyway by land, he didn’t need to go through the desert at all. Modern writers explain this by saying that Alexander wanted to conquer the desert, especially since it had been crossed by Queen Semiramis and Cyrus the Great.’

  ‘Maybe he just wanted to prove to his men that he was a god?’ Colin hazarded a guess.

  ‘It doesn’t matter why,’ Vijay replied. ‘I just brought it up to show that there were two options I had to consider that could have provided evidence for a secret quest. The Makran desert was one. If Alexander was on a secret quest, he could have been looking for the location of the secret in the Makran desert. That would explain the detour.’

  ‘But it doesn’t,’ Colin continued for him. ‘Because, by then, he had buried the metal plate under the altar at the Beas river. Which means that he had already realised the purpose of his quest. So what’s the second mystery? I’m guessing you found something there. ’

  Vijay grinned at him. ‘The Makran adventure wasn’t the only time Alexander divided his army up for no obvious reason. That was the second time he did it. The first time was here.’ He showed them a town on the map. ‘This is Jalalabad. From Jalalabad, he sent Hephaestion with one section of the army across the Khyber pass, into what is now Pakistan. The other part of the army was led personally by him, up this river valley and then to Pakistan through the Nawa Pass, which is further north from the Khyber pass.’ He pulled out another map; this one was a map of Afghanistan. He showed them the two passes on the map. ‘And get this – no one has been able to satisfactorily explain why Alexander headed north and then east. There are some authors and some websites who have provided a military explanation – saying that he had to protect his flank from the
hill tribes. But the battles he fought to conquer the hill tribes were not fought in the Kunar valley. They were all fought here – on the Pakistan side of the present day border with Afghanistan. He could just as easily have crossed through the Khyber pass and then divided the army, sending one part east and another north to subdue the hill tribes. The final battle with the hill tribes was fought at Pirsar, which the Greeks called Aornos. That is definitely in Pakistan and not in the Kunar valley. I’m not convinced by the military-motivated explanation of Alexander’s movements.’

  ‘The Kunar river valley,’ Colin read out the name from the map. ‘You think this is where the secret is hidden?’

  ‘I don’t get it.’ Alice was still puzzled. ‘It certainly sounds like Alexander had a reason to go to the Kunar valley and his quest could have provided that reason. But this is still speculation. What makes your explanation – our theory – more convincing than all the others?’

  ‘This.’ Vijay held up the translated journal of Eumenes. ‘And the verses on the cube.’ He turned to Shukla. ‘Can you please translate the verses on the cube once more for us?’

  Shukla nodded. He didn’t know what Vijay had in mind but he did know one thing— Vijay thought this was important. At a time when his fiancée’s life was in danger, Vijay would not go off on a tangent trying to solve a mystery like this if he did not think that it was useful in some way.

  He picked up the cube and began reading the verses. Vijay shook his head as each verse was read, until Shukla had read out three verses. On the fourth verse, he nodded.

  ‘That’s it. That’s the one.’ Vijay looked at them. ‘Do you see it now?’

  44

  The first clue

  The others stared blankly back at Vijay. They still did not understand. The verse that Shukla had just read out was: