The Mahabharata Secret

by Doyle, Christopher C

  ‘And what was that secret?’ Radha asked.

  White shrugged. ‘We don’t know.’

  ‘So how do you know that the purpose of the brotherhood was guarding this secret when you don’t even know what that secret is?’ Radha persisted.

  White pulled out the leather notebook Bheem Singh had given him and placed it on the glass-topped centre table . They all stared at it but no one touched it; as if it was cursed in some way.

  ‘Have you heard of Ernst Schafer?’ Bheem Singh asked of no one in particular.

  Everyone, except White, shook their heads.

  ‘Okay, what about the Ahnenerbe?’

  ‘Hang on, wasn’t that the organisation set up by Hitler to research the origins of the Aryan race?’ Vijay screwed up his face as he spoke, trying to recall his school history lessons.

  ‘Correct.’ Bheem Singh acknowledged. ‘In 1935, Hitler authorised Frederick Hielscher to establish the Ahnenerbe, or the Bureau for the Study of Ancestral Heritage. One of its objectives was researching the origins of the Aryan race. They focused on Tibet.

  ‘In 1937, Ahnenerbe was made an official organisation attached to the Schutzstaffel, the dreaded SS—the Protection Squad.

  ‘Ernst Schafer, a hunter and biologist led two expeditions to Tibet in 1931and 1935, primarily to fulfil his hunting and biology research interests. However, in 1938, the Ahnenerbe sponsored a third expedition at the invitation of the Tibetan government. One member of Schafer’s third expedition was the anthropologist Bruno Beger, whose interests included racial research. In 1937, Beger had actually proposed a research project in Tibet and, as a part of the Schafer expedition, intended measuring the skulls of Tibetans for his research on the racial characteristics of Tibetans. ‘

  He indicated the notebook. ‘This is Bruno Beger’s diary in which he kept notes of everything he saw and researched.’ He briefly explained Beger’s stay at the Temple of the Tooth and his discovery of the texts there.

  Shukla picked up the notebook and began leafing through it, stopping in parts to read some of the entries. As his eyes fell on one of the Sanskrit inscriptions that Beger had copied, his face lit up.

  ‘You can read Sanskrit?’ Bheem Singh noticed Shukla’s attention to the verses.

  Shukla nodded, not taking his eyes off the page. ‘I studied ancient Indian languages when I was in college. Vikram and I both did; we were keenly interested in the past. Pali, Prakrit, Magadhi and Sanskrit. Even Kharosthi. That was before he decided to become a nuclear physicist. This is fascinating.’ The last remark referred to the page he was reading.

  ‘Well, then, perhaps you can translate for the benefit of the others.’

  Shukla looked around and nodded. He cleared his throat and began reading aloud.

  ‘I, Surasen, do hereby put down a record of my discovery as part of the secret library of the Nine Unknown Men, the glorious brotherhood created by our beloved Emperor Asoka the Great, Devanampiya Piyadasi. I will not say what this discovery is, for the Emperor forbids any record describing what I have found in case it falls into the hands of the enemy; for this is the reason the brotherhood of the Nine was founded. But I must record how I made the discovery.

  ‘On the instruction of my Emperor, I accompanied the jungle-dweller to his forest habitat, a 10-day journey from the palace. Leaving him and my escort of troops behind, I proceeded cautiously to the foot of the hill that lay in the midst of the forest. ‘Before me, I beheld a small entrance, a dark hole in the side of the hill, hidden by a larger wall of rock. I stepped through the opening into the darkness beyond. I was not afraid of demons, for I am not superstitious, but I was afraid of the unknown; and I knew not what lay before me, beyond the opening.

  ‘As I passed through, a curious thing happened. A strange light, soft and dim, lit up my steps leading me through a passage to the mouth of the cavern. As I entered the cavern, I could not believe my eyes at what I beheld.

  ‘But, as the wise Emperor has said, such a discovery can put the world in great peril. So I must hold my tongue and say no more.’

  Shukla looked up. ‘This is amazing.’ His hands trembling with excitement as he resumed his study of the notebook.

  Vijay’s eyes narrowed. ‘How is it that you guys are so well-informed about a secret society that has managed to stay hidden for over 2,000 years?’

  Bheem Singh smiled. ‘This is confidential, Vijay. But I’ll share something with you. I’m leading a government project that is trying to secure the secret of the Nine. The brotherhood died out centuries ago. Now, someone else is after the secret. And the government wants to ensure that it remains concealed the way Asoka intended. If Asoka believed it could destroy the world, we can’t allow it to fall into the wrong hands.’

  ‘There’s a reason you’re telling me all this.’ Vijay looked enquiringly at the Maharaja.

  ‘A couple of reasons, actually. First, the original Nine Unknown Men went to great lengths to secure the location of the secret. They devised an elaborate system of riddles and clues and divided up the pieces of the puzzle among a few members of the Nine so that no one member could find the location on his own. The first part of the puzzle is a metal disk with a verse inscribed on it which can only be deciphered with the help of a key.’

  ‘It’s all here in the diary,’ Shukla agreed. ‘A metal disk, a key, a ball of rock and a riddle—four parts to the puzzle.’ He then corrected himself. ‘Sorry, two metal disks. They made a duplicate; probably just in case one got misplaced.’

  Vijay’s eyes widened. ‘So you’re saying that uncle was murdered because Farooq and his cronies are searching for the secret of the Nine’?

  ‘That’s the second reason why I’ve shared this with you because you told us what Farooq was looking for. Apparently he has somehow come into possession of one of the two metal disks, though how he came by it I can’t imagine. It seems reasonable to conclude that your uncle was murdered and you were kidnapped because of your uncle’s knowledge of the Nine. You need to know that you may be in grave danger. Especially if Farooq, whoever he is, believes that your uncle knew the location of the key and handed this knowledge to you. Did Vikram do that?’

  ‘No, uncle never told me about any key.’ Vijay toyed with the idea of telling them about the emails. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to share the emails with anyone yet. If his uncle had intended the message behind the emails to be common knowledge he wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to disguise it.

  Bheem Singh nodded. ‘Anything you discover that might help in protecting the secret will be useful for us.’

  ‘Sure, though I can’t imagine how we can help.’ Vijay couldn’t help but feel that the Maharaja knew he was holding something back.

  ‘In any case, please be careful,’ Bheem Singh cautioned. He shared with them the details about the massacre at the Temple of the Tooth and the disappearance of the ancient texts that Beger had so painstakingly copied into his diary. ‘And that’s not all,’ he added. ‘Greg here was attacked last night.’

  White nodded ruefully and his hand went to the back of his neck. ‘I’ve got a bump here,’ he said, ‘from being mugged last night in my hotel room. I woke up to realise that the room had been searched.’

  ‘There’s nothing that Greg could have had with him that could help anyone on the trail of the secret. He had only just arrived in India and didn’t even know the details. But his association with the project was, by itself, enough to draw attention to him.’ Bheem Singh added and then addressed Vijay, ‘We haven’t lodged a police report because we don’t want undue attention. I have asked Greg to move into my farmhouse. He will be safer there, as the farmhouse is well-guarded. I think you should also be very careful and watch your back. If this Farooq guy is really after the secret of the Nine, then he will stop at nothing.’

  The butler entered the room to announce the arrival of the lawyer, Homi Mehta.

  ‘Vijay, my boy, are you alright?’ Homi’s usually genial face was creased with worry as
he rushed to Vijay and clasped his hand, looking at his injuries from his earlier escapade.

  ‘I’m fine, just a bit shaken,’ Vijay assured Homi and then introduced him to Bheem Singh, Greg White and Colin.

  Vijay once again narrated the details of their kidnapping and escape. He had intended telling Homi about the key since he considered Homi to be a part of the family, and had begun explaining what Farooq wanted, when he noticed Bheem Singh frowning at him. Realising that the Maharaja was averse to telling anyone else about the Nine, he quickly skipped over that part of the story.

  ‘Radha called me this morning when you didn’t return during the night,’ Homi said, ‘She called me again when you did turn up, so I decided to rush here as soon as I could.’

  Bheem Singh and White exchanged looks and the former cleared his throat. ‘Well, Vijay, I think we’ll be going,’ he said. ‘I’d have been happy to take you to Delhi in my car and have you dropped back but, since Mr. Mehta is here, I guess that’s taken care of. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.’ He handed over his business card to Vijay.

  ‘And me too,’ White joined in, scribbling his phone number on the reverse of Bheem Singh’s business card.

  Vijay rose and shook hands with the two men and they moved towards the door.

  ‘I’ve brought all the papers relating to Vikram Singh’s will and estates,’ Homi handed over a plastic folder to Vijay as he sat down. ‘Apart from all his assets, there is…’ He hesitated and glanced at Radha, Shukla and the two men walking out of the room.

  Vijay understood. Homi was not comfortable discussing the details of Vikram Singh’s will in the presence of others. He smiled reassuringly at the lawyer. ‘It’s okay, Homi. Everyone here is a friend.’

  Homi nodded, still looking uncomfortable, but resumed. ‘Your uncle had leased a locker, two years ago, in Delhi. Here’s the key. I don’t know what’s in there, since Vikram was very secretive about it. There’s nothing in the will about its contents either.’

  White and Bheem Singh stopped at the door to the sitting room as they heard this, and turned. Their eyes met Vijay’s. All three men were thinking the same thing.

  Was the mysterious key that Farooq sought hidden in this locker?

  However, without putting this thought into words, Bheem Singh and Greg White left.

  ‘Why don’t we check out the locker while we are in Delhi? Vijay suggested.

  He was excited about the revelation that his uncle had, indeed, hidden something away and he wanted to find out what it was; especially if it had something to do with a 2,000-year-old secret brotherhood.

  Homi looked at his watch. ‘I have a lunch appointment at one-thirty,’ he said, ‘so I’m sorry but I won’t be able to drive you to the locker today.’

  ‘Why don’t you pick up my car on the way?’ Radha suggested, as Vijay’s face fell. She realised what he was thinking and understood his need for immediate action. ‘We should anyway have a car at the fort, just in case, now that the BMW is out of action.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Vijay looked at her gratefully. ‘We’ll pick up your car once we finish at the hospital.’

  Homi scribbled the address of the locker on a slip of paper, ‘You’ll need to carry an identification proof which has your photograph on it. The other papers that will give you access to the locker are in the folder I just gave you.’

  Trapped!

  Vijay and Colin accompanied the clerk down the stairs to the basement of the vault.

  The lockers were in an underground vault accessed by a narrow staircase that was barred at the top by a solid steel door with two levels of security: an electronic password to open the first lock and a manual key to open the second.

  The clerk stopped at a row of lockers, unlocked one of them and left. Vijay could now use his keys to open it completely. Vijay’s hands trembled with excitement as he opened the steel box kept within the locker. Inside was a package wrapped in brown paper. He ripped off the paper to reveal a layer of bubble wrap. Carefully placing the package on the felt-topped table the clerk had left for them, he removed the bubble wrap, wondering what lay within that had to be preserved so carefully.

  As the last layer of wrapping came off, Vijay and Colin stared at the object that lay on the table.

  It was a solid slab, circular in shape, made from a strange dark metal, ancient in appearance but with no traces of rust. One side was smooth and polished. The other side had a circular hollow at the centre, circumscribed by what looked like a gear wheel with inscriptions around it. Forming a circular boundary to the hollow and the gear wheel was a final circle, also surrounded by inscriptions. It didn’t seem like a key of any kind. As they stared at the disk a thought dawned on Vijay.

  His eyes sparkled with excitement as he looked at Colin, who immediately understood what Vijay was thinking.

  Just then, Vijay’s mobile phone rang. He looked at the number. It was Homi. He put the phone to his ear, but could only hear someone breathing heavily.

  ‘Homi...Homi...’ he barked into the phone anxiously. ‘Vijay,’ a scratchy voice gasped, as if choking; Vijay could barely recognise the voice as Homi’s. The words seemed to be coming between gasps. Or was it just a bad signal in this underground area? ‘Vijay...please...they...address...locker...please...leave...’ The voice faltered and fell silent, and Vijay heard a clattering sound as if something had fallen on the ground.

  A cold fear gripped Vijay. He looked at Colin, who had replaced the metal slab in its bubble wrap packing and slipped it into a duffel bag.

  ‘That was Homi. I think he was trying to warn us to get out of here. Now.’

  He quickly dialled the ambulance number that was saved on his phone for emergencies, and asked them to report to Homi’s office.

  ‘Farooq?’ Colin had caught onto Vijay’s thought.

  Vijay nodded grimly. ‘Let’s go!’ He slung the strap of the bag across his shoulder and bounded up the stairs.

  Suddenly, cries and screams filtered through the heavy steel door at the top of the staircase, which was open just a crack. Abruptly, the door slammed shut and the two friends, who had by now been joined by a few more people accessing their lockers, heard the sound of the bolts slamming home. Someone had locked the steel door!

  The small knot of people looked at each other in surprise. There was, however, no cause for concern. If the steel door was locked, anyone wanting to leave the locker had simply to use the intercom and the door would be opened for them from the outside.

  Vijay picked up the receiver of the intercom. There was silence; no tone. He waited for a while, hoping someone would come on the line, but nothing happened.

  What was happening outside?

  Abruptly, there were two sharp bangs and sudden silence. The screaming and shouting had stopped.

  Vijay and Colin exchanged glances. Now they looked worried. They didn’t know how many of the others had realised it, but the bangs had sounded a lot like gunshots.

  ‘Let’s step away from the door,’ Vijay said as he and Colin tried to herd the others down the stairway. If those had been shots from a weapon, it was likely that there would be an attempt to break into the locker. There were only two ways the locker could now be opened: either someone from the vault would help unlock the steel door or it would be blown open. And if the latter happened, it would be best if there was no one near it.

  A worried group crowded into the space between the rows of lockers.

  Colin frowned. ‘Do you think we’ve been tailed all the way here?’

  Vijay shrugged. ‘Perhaps. But I think we are safe here. I don’t think their Uzis can penetrate that door of steel. It must be two feet thick.’

  Just then, as if to prove him wrong, there was a loud explosion accompanied by an ear-shattering crunching of metal and the ground beneath their feet shook as if an earthquake had struck. Vijay and Colin looked at each other in dismay as the steel door bulged inwards from the centre, as if it had been struck by a powerful proje
ctile. The thick hinges were bent and the door itself was twisted in places along the frame. Wispy trails of smoke drifted in through the cracks that had appeared between the steel door and its frame.

  Voices could now be heard through these cracks. Men shouting at each other in harsh, guttural tones; sounds identical to what they had heard the previous evening.

  Vijay and Colin exchanged glances.

  Then, without a word, they split up and began searching along the walls for an opening, any orifice that might lead out of the vault. But there was nothing. The vault had been built to keep things in.

  9

  244 BC

  Surasen stood silently and watched his Emperor pace the length of the chamber. Rarely, in his long association with him, had Surasen seen Asoka this distressed; this restlessness was uncharacteristic.

  ‘Where are they?’ Asoka stopped in mid-stride and turned to Surasen. ‘Did you not command them to come here immediately?’

  ‘My liege, I did,’ Surasen bowed his head. ‘It is midnight and they would have had to be roused from their sleep.’

  Asoka turned away and resumed his restless pacing of the chamber. Silence descended on the two men, leaving Surasen to his thoughts.

  He remembered the change in the Emperor’s demeanour at the discovery in the forest. His mood had persisted since. So deeply had Asoka been affected that he had not spoken a word since then, except for a brief command, instructing him to immediately summon a few courtiers.

  Surasen noticed that his emperor did not hesitate while naming the men who were to be summoned; clearly the emperor had, during the journey home, been dwelling on what he intended to do about their discovery.

  There was a sound at the door, and a guard entered to announce the arrival of the courtiers.