THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET (27 page)

67

The best laid plans of mice and men

Patterson scowled at the camera. This was going to be an all-nighter for him. Imran had returned from Jaipur and was back in his hospital room. His stitches were hurting and he was exhausted from his exertions, having been up all night. The travel to Jaipur and back hadn’t helped since he was still weak from blood loss and the surgery.

Imran had briefed Patterson about Radha. The big man had taken the news stoically. This was war and he had lost team mates before. There would be time to mourn later. There was still much to be done.

But he wasn’t happy with the news that Colin had given them.

‘Why did they have to choose Kazakhstan of all places?’ he growled. ‘We just withdrew from our military base in Kyrgyztan. There are no other American bases in Central Asia. As long as they were in Afghanistan, we could have provided Vijay some support through our drone bases there and gotten him out of there without too much of a problem. We still have troops there. Kazakhstan is going to be difficult. That’s a crazy region. Any flight from Afghanistan will have to cross Uzbek and Kazakh airspace. And we can’t use choppers from the Afghan bases – they won’t have the range. I don’t see any of these countries agreeing at short notice to allow our fighter jets to enter their airspace.’

‘Does that mean that Vijay’s going to be completely on his own?’ Imran wondered aloud.

Patterson shrugged. ‘I’m going to do my damndest to ensure that we can still back him up. That is not my main worry. I’ll work every contact I have in Washington to be able to do it. But I’m not sure if we have enough time for that. If they’re going to be at the final location by dawn tomorrow, local Kazakh time, that gives me only a few hours. That’s it then. I’d better get going.’

‘All the best.’ Imran signed off and switched off the monitor. A hollow feeling took hold of him. He had already lost Radha. And Patterson didn’t sound very confident about being able to help Vijay. Imran knew the odds. And, though he fought it, he couldn’t shrug off the feeling that he was going to lose a second friend today.

The Three Brothers

Vijay stared out of the helicopter as they passed over the Ustyurt plateau. Far below stretched a flat highland plain, carpeted with sand. Very little vegetation could be seen in the pre-dawn light and no sources of water were visible as far as the eye could see. This was desolation at its keenest.

From the desert sand rose giant terraces, chalk escarpments that seemed to reach out in an attempt to touch the intruders flying overhead. The jagged, ruptured cliffs were at least 300 metres high and flaunted different colours, from pristine white to blue and pink. It was like gazing down on another planet while orbiting it.

Was this where the source of the virus was located? They would find out soon.

As if on cue, the pilot turned around and informed them that the rock formation known as the Three Brot
hers was in sight.

‘Look out for the arrowhead,’ Van Klueck instructed. ‘I want every eye on the ground.’

To Vijay’s immense surprise, the flat highlands they were flying over had huge arrows seemingly carved into them. He was reminded of the Nazca figures carved on the ground, stretching for miles. But here, apart from the arrows, there were no other shapes visible.

The arrows themselves comprised a U–shaped bag from which two arrows with clearly defined tips stuck out.

Vijay now understood the meaning of the verse. He also understood why Van Klueck had wanted to be here before sunrise.

The Three Brothers formation now loomed ahead of them, majestic and eerie at the same time. The three upright columns of sheer rock rose proudly from a bed of chalk that climbed steeply like a gargantuan chalk dune submerging their nether regions. The columns were bare, bereft of any vegetation, their eastern side set on fire by the new born sun.

Vijay could not take his eyes off the spectacular creation of nature which surpassed the desolate beauty of the plateau that he had witnessed so far. If there ever was a composition of nature that could give eternal life, this seemed to be an appropriate place to find it.

‘The Three Brothers,’ Van Klueck murmured, somewhat pointlessly, also taken up by the beauty of the rock formation. Then he snapped back issuing instructions with military precision.

Far below, on the ground, an SUV could be seen, with little ant-like figures around it – the advance team.

And then Vijay saw it. Another set of arrow heads. Carved into the stone of the plateau just like the others they had passed on the way. It was pointing towards the Three Brothers, unlike the other arrowheads on the plateau which all pointed northwards.

The arrowhead that points the way.

But which one was the arrowhead referred to by the verse? Each one was pointing at the rock formation but at different parts of the rock.

‘Which one is it?’ Cooper shouted above the roar of the helicopter rotors.

‘The shadows will touch the one that will lead us to the Seal!’ Van Klueck shouted back. ‘Look, they are retreating already.’

He was right. The long shadows cast by the early morning sun shining on the rock were shrinking, drawing back towards the rock formation like a bride drawing in her train.

‘We can’t hover here indefinitely!’ Cooper yelled. ‘We have just enough fuel to make the journey back to Aktau!’

‘They’re marking the arrowheads!’ Van Klueck responded. ‘We’ll go down now.’

The helicopters began their descent as the advance team on the ground started scurrying around the various arrowheads. Vijay understood what was happening. With the advent of daylight, the advance team were planting white flags on the perimeter of each arrowhead. When the shadow of the rock formation struck the correct arrow, they would know by the shadow cast on the white flags as it retreated towards its creator.

The choppers landed in a storm of dust and sand, the sound of the rotors dying out to give way to a silence that was deafening.

It was a beautiful sight. All around them was a vast stony desert plain in the centre of which stood the rock formation called the Three Brothers. In the distance, the cliffs began changing hues as the sun rose higher in the sky.

‘This doesn’t make sense,’ Vijay said. ‘Both arrowheads are in shadow right now. As the shadow of the rock recedes, it will touch the tips of both arrowheads. They are pointing in the same direction!’

‘Patience,’ Van Klueck said. ‘Remember, the cube was made by the Order. There is a purpose to everything we do. If the verse says we will find the location in this manner, I believe we will.’

The group waited as the shadow of the triple headed rock continued to recede. Which one of the two arrowheads was the one they sought?

68

The Serpent Seal

The armed men gave a shout in unison as the shrinking shadow passed over the tips of the two arrowheads and then lingered over the tip of the one that was to the extreme right. It pointed to the shortest of the Three Brothers.

Vijay now realised the truth behind Van Klueck’s words. He had been incredulous until now. But the receding shadow, while passing over the arrowheads, had itself become an arrowhead pointing away from the rock. By some strange natural positioning of the rock and the sun, the tips of the arrowhead-shaped shadow and the carved arrowhead on the plateau now met.

Van Klueck shot a triumphant glance at Vijay, who nodded in acknowledgement. ‘Let’s go.’ The European started forward as the others hauled large trunks from the helicopter and followed him in the direction of the arrow.

As they approached the smallest peak, Vijay felt a thrill of anticipation. What would the Serpent Seal reveal itself to be?

Cooper looked back at the arrowhead. He was clearly calculating something in his head. ‘The arrow is sloped upwards,’ he said finally. ‘Which means the point at which we need to dig is on the slope. I think it should be about there.’ He indicated a spot on the steep face of the rock formation.

Instructions were given and five men stepped forward. One of the trunks was opened and equipment was pulled out. A discussion began among the five men, with repeated glances towards the rock. Not being a climber, Vijay didn’t understand the discussion but he could make out enough to know that they were trying to decide what equipment to use.

As he looked on, one of the men picked up a cylindrical device and aimed one end at the summit of the shortest of the three peaks. A grappling hook shot out and soared over the top of the rock, trailing a climbing rope behind it. Vijay realised it was some kind of a compressed air cannon that shot the hook at the rock. The hook landed with a clank on the summit. Another man pulled on the climbing rope, which slid forward a few inches, then became taut, indicating that the hook had found a hold in the rock.

Another device was unpacked and attached to the rope. Vijay didn’t know what it was until one of the men slipped on a harness and attached the device to it. He pressed a button and the motorised winch pulled him rapidly up the rope.

‘You’re looking for either an opening in the rock or a seal with the sign of the Order,’ Cooper instructed the climber, speaking into his throat microphone. The climber, like all the other men in the group excepting Vijay and Van Klueck, was equipped with a throat microphone and a tiny earpiece for communication.

The winch continued to pull the man up the slope until, at around seventy feet, he stopped and proceeded to attach the rope to the rock so that he was not dangling in mid air.

‘He’s found the seal,’ Cooper informed Van Klueck. ‘It is intact.’

Van Klueck nodded. ‘I thought as much. Now we know what killed Alexander.’ Vijay looked at him enquiringly but Van Klueck did not elaborate on his cryptic statement.

The men got busy unpacking the rest of the trunks. There were portable generators, power drills, jackhammers, electric hole making machines and manual implements like shovels, spades and pickaxes, along with enormous hammers for breaking rocks.

The other four men now used similar devices to shoot grappling hooks at the summit of the rock and climbed up to join the lead climber, who lowered a rope which was tied around his waist. A bag containing the equipment was tied to the rope and hauled up by the climbers, thick cables snaking out of the power tools, connected to the generators on the ground.

‘You’ll have to break the seal,’ Cooper told the men on the slope. ‘No need to be gentle about it. We’ll close the opening later.’

The generators were started up, the noise echoing over the vast, stony plateau, scaring a few rabbits and birds out of their nesting places. The climbers began attacking the rock, using the drills and the hammers to break the seal. From this distance, Vijay could not see what the seal looked like. But he realised it was well camouflaged. No one would have known that there was a seal hidden somewhere on the rock formation.

Finally, there was a shout from the climbers, a loud crack and pieces of rock tumbled down the slope. The seal was broken.

A square, black opening yawned in the rock, dark against the white slope in which it was set. It didn’t look very big and, as the lead climber hoisted himself into the opening, Vijay realised that it couldn’t be larger than three feet on each side. Just enough to fit one man at a time.

The power equipment was lowered along with the five winches, as the climbers entered the orifice one by one. They carried the manual implements with them.

‘It’s a horizontal tunnel leading through the rock,’ Cooper reported to Van Klueck. ‘Narrow, so they’re on their hands and knees.’ After a while, it seemed the men had stopped and Cooper listened intently to his earpiece. He turned to Van Klueck. ‘They’re in a chamber. There are stairs leading down from there. We should join them now. Once they descend, we’re going to lose contact with them.’

‘Let’s go,’ Van Klueck motioned to the men to follow him, as he strode to the base of the rock and grasped one of the winches. ‘Time to see what the old haunts of the Order looked like.’

Almost there

Vijay winched himself up, sandwiched between two guards. He didn’t really have to do much; the winch did all the work. The guard in front of him disappeared into the opening which was just large enough to accommodate one man. Vijay followed him, the light from his helmet lamp illuminating the guard’s posterior.

The tunnel ran horizontally through the rock. It was not uncomfortably narrow. There was space on either side and above Vijay, provided he didn’t raise his head too high. The floor and walls of the tunnel were polished smooth. They reminded him of a tunnel he had traversed last year. Another place, another time, same kind of tunnel. It did make him wonder if there was any connection between the builders of that tunnel and the one he was crawling through now.

After stretching for around thirty feet or so, the tunnel opened out into a large chamber. Vijay clambered out and joined Van Klueck and the men who had gone before him and watched as the rest of the group emerged from the passage.

‘Lights,’ Van Klueck ordered and powerful portable searchlights were switched on, illuminating a stairway that descended into deep darkness, the bottom of which could not be penetrated by the searchlights.

On Cooper’s signal, an advance team of four men made their way down the stairs. Cooper monitored their movements through his earpiece as they relayed back reports on their movements.

The group waited silently, patiently, in the chamber as the minutes passed. Finally, after what Vijay reckoned was at least twenty minutes, Cooper nodded to Van Klueck. ‘All clear,’ he said.

Van Klueck nodded back and the rest of the company began the descent down the stairway.