RESONANCE (21 page)

Chaklala

The Wing Commander
at Chaklala, Rawalpindi, received an order from his superior to open three vaults at underground locations.

The officer followed the instructions and asked his men to follow him into a deep tunnel, leading to different underground facilities. Two fissile cores, two trigger devices and two implosion modules were loaded on to a mobile van and taken to the surface for assembly. Within two hours, the expert assembled two nuclear weapons of a hundred kilotons each. Another technician fitted the GPS enabled parachute and calibrated the destination, where the nuclear bombs would be dropped. These nuclear bombs were put in a capsule, fitted with two small rockets on its underside to ensure precise delivery of the bombs at the intended destination.

Ground staff placed everything into a waiting Dassault Falcon aircraft. Another technician removed the transponder of the aircraft so that it would fly undetected for many nautical miles.

From Moradabad

The seven Jihadists
pretending to be Hindu devotees de-boarded Sadbhawana Express at Moradabad, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. They had to wait in a dilapidated, dingy
dharamshala
till instructed to move further.

When the Jihadists got the signal to go ahead, they got into the general compartment of 2369, the Kumbh Express. They joined the group of men and women, singing and chanting devotional songs. A few of the onboard toddlers and children watched these strange worshippers curiously, while some of them would occasionally wail because of suffocation, caused by the throngs of people and the extreme summer heat. The slightly grown up and young kids were more interested in peanuts and the snacks which vendors sold at railway platforms. Every time the train stopped, they pleaded with their parents to buy something or the other.

The Indian Railways was operating many special trains from different parts of the country to carry the devotees to the Kumbh Mela. All trains were running jam-packed and many people were left stranded on the platform, waiting to get lucky with the next train. Thousands of private bus operators and cab drivers were doing brisk business. More than a hundred thousand private cars were stuck in a several miles long traffic jam.

Three hours later, when the train was about to reach the destination, the devotees started to sing till their voices got hoarse and their lungs threatened to burst. The Jihadists too would stop for a few seconds, inhale and rejoin the chorus one more time, one more, and then again for one more time.

From the railway station, the Jihadists went to Har-ki-pauri. They ate heartily at a local food stall. Later, they decided to take a bath and what could be more refreshing than the fast flowing cool water of the Holy Jahnavi River. After a lot of bargaining and coaxing, they engaged a photographer, at a dirt-cheap price, to capture their photographs on the pavement. They all looked very pleased with themselves. Only one of them missed all the action, because ever since he had reached the
ghat
, he had been hit by a bout of dysentery. He could only stand in the long queue in front of the public lavatory, holding his stomach, looking at his friends from afar. The group moved on to the tiny shops in the narrow by-lanes to buy trinkets and little curios. One boy found the cheap steel bracelets and aluminum chains too costly as they were priced at five rupees each. He settled for a two rupee six inch, orange plastic trumpet with a green snout. He blew it loudly and waved the wand high in the air, signaling to the others to join him. They all seemed to have forgotten the purpose of their visit and got lost in the elevating air that enveloped the place. It was as if they were on vacation. The blue sky overhead and the swift current of the holy river seemed to infuse them with the same life energy as she did to devout Hindus and to everything else.

The photographer delivered their photos within an hour. Each one peered closely into them, excitingly pointing their own images. "I am here.""Hey, my eyes are closed.""I am looking so many shades fairer.""Look at the way this fool is crouching."They were full of comments.

It was time to buy bus tickets to the final destination that lay nestled in the mountain. In the overcrowded bus, five of these youths had to find a place on the bus rooftop, ducking and braving the slaps of the branches of the tall trees all along the four-hour journey. Two of them had to make do by holding tightly onto the narrow bars of the back ladder leading to the rooftop.

The bus stopped at the security post. The policemen casually checked the baggage of devotees and asked the driver of the bus to proceed.

With nothing much to do, the youths had dinner, spread out newspaper sheets on the bus station floor and fell asleep.

Before the crack of dawn, a man's voice commanded them to rise and shine. The next stop was to be the CISF office.

NIST

While the Home Minister
held a closed door meeting with the Director of the CBI, Siddhartha waited in the PA's room. When they were through, he went to see the Minister in his office. He further briefed the Minister about Tupac-II.

"Where is the boy, Aban?"The Minister enquired.

"He is at the guest house of the Army Cantonment."

"What about the daughter of the ambassador? Is she with Aban?"

"No, sir. She went to the Indian Council of Forest Research and Education in Dehradun for the billion-tree campaign. But we have information that she has come back to Delhi to spend some time with her father."

"Isn't Pakistan aware of Aban's whereabouts?"

"They are, sir. Hafiz Saeed came to know about Aban's trip to Ajmer and Pushkar with Juhi. Gunshots were fired at him when he was coming back to his hotel. Since we were guarding him, our men somehow took control of the situation. After the incident, we thought it fit to hide him till we got to the bottom of Tupac-II. And Aban is doing his best to solve the riddle."

"Still the contents of his laptop are as elusive as ever."

"Yes, sir."

"I talked to the Secretary of Commerce at your behest during my last visit to the USA. I requested NIST to help us to break the image password. Even though they could not decipher the Amaru Tupac-II file as they could not find the images to fit the 2X2 grid, they did come up with a definite conclusion. Three image password files are in uncompressed format and should be the size of 480X 360, each of about thirty-three kilobytes, with the same hue, saturation, colour temperatures etc, which will reveal the mystery. Surprisingly, the fourth image is panoramic."

Siddhartha Rana listened in rapt attention.

"Well, I have some good news for you. Our R&AW Agents penetrated the office of the new ISI Chief and got hold of three image files of similar descriptions. I have them with me. Perhaps, these three are the first three images, which will help to crack the password."The Home Minister handed Siddhartha a pen drive. "The fourth, however, is still missing."

"Sir."Siddhartha said, and then stood up, intending to leave.

"Sit down, Siddhartha. I want to tell you something else."

"Sir."

"Certain facts have come up about this gentleman Sundaram Iyer. A few days back, we got information that he was up to some mischief. He seems to have gone on a wire-tapping spree without prior sanction of my Ministry. Not only has he bugged phones of the cases he was handling, but also yours and mine. He has even dared to wiretap the phone of a few Cabinet Ministers and senior bureaucrats. Worst of all, he even intruded upon the National Security Advisor last week. R&AW has found his overseas connection and the Enforcement Directorate has unearthed details of his foreign banks accounts in tax-havens. "

"I'm also aware of his dubious role, sir, but my hands are tied for lack of concrete evidence."Siddartha went on to explain everything he knew about Sundaram Iyer.

The Minister was incensed. He said, "Now we have conclusive proof against him. So I've asked the Director of the CBI to suspend this man pending a departmental enquiry."

"Sir, I've another suggestion. Let's not do anything for the time being."

"Why?"

"If he is working for the Jihadists, he is an important link for us. Any knee jerk reaction could be disastrous as they will smell a rat and get alert. We still have two days' time, but hasty action may leave us with no time at all."

"What should we do then?"

"Let the Director CBI pretend before Sundaram Iyer that he is not aware of anything and watch closely how Sundaram plays his cards."

The Minister agreed. He asked his PA to connect his telephone line to the Director of the CBI. After a brief conversation, the Minister turned to Siddhartha, "We've bad news. The Director says that Sundaram has faxed a two-day casual leave application to his office."

"Where is he?"

"The Director says that he tried to contact Mr. Iyer, but his phones are switched off. He left his official car at North Block after our meeting."

"Let me try his home number,"Siddhartha dialed and talked to Sundaram's wife. She told Siddhartha that she was not aware of her husband's whereabouts and that her daughter and she were going to Kerala by the evening flight to spend their summer vacation."

That set Siddhartha thinking. He turned to the Minister, "It's quite surprising, sir. Sundaram's daughter studies in the Delhi Public School and she is in the same class as my son. Their exams commenced today, yet they are leaving."

Deputy Commandant

In the middle
of the night, the office of the Central Industrial Security Force received a message from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The officer on duty rang up the Deputy Commandant's residence and informed him about the fax message.

The DC drove his official car from his residence and reached his office in five minutes. He looked at the fax message, which had instructions to elevate security to maximum level around the dam site and the reservoir.

The security guard entered the room of the DC, saluted and snapped in attention. When the DC nodded, he said that an officer of 108 Rapid Action Force Alpha platoon wanted to see him.

"Send him in."

A man entered, "Sir, my command office has asked for the deployment of additional force for the security of the dam."The man handed a letter to the DC. "Our Commandant is at Cham, at the upstream of the river. He has asked you to convene a meeting of your officers at seven in the morning. He wants to take stock of your preparedness. But before that he wants to see the security arrangement around the reservoir. If you could depute your officer to accompany him, it would be easier for us."

"At this time of the morning,"the DC said, " I've my doubts that I can spare any officer. Anyway, I will give him a quick tour."

The Deputy Commandant rode his vehicle with the man on NH94 and sped towards Cham. A SUV coming from the other side crossed the bridge and steered slightly left blocking the DC's vehicle. Before the DC could react, four people surrounded his vehicle. They pointed their gun at him and asked the DC to come out of the vehicle.

Another man walked towards the DC with powerful strides. When the man came closer, the officer was taken aback. He was his exact clone! The clone addressed the DC in measured tones, "Officer, from now on, I'm the Deputy Commandant of your CISF unit. Give me your vehicle key and the keys to the vault of your office. I'll take proper care of your installation."

"How can he speak in my voice and style?"The DC looked bewildered.

"Well, well, you must be astonished at my appearance, officer. I not only speak as you speak, but also think as you think. I even know each of your family members, about your grand-grandfather as well as grandchildren and of course, the name of your dog. Sorry to say my men injected a heavy dose of sedatives in his veins because he would have recognized me and I needed to guard myself. But you need not worry; he will wake up by tomorrow afternoon. He will live long."

"What do you want?"

"Revenge, officer, revenge!"

"I don't know you. I have never seen you before."

"I would never avenge a personal grudge, officer. But when a country slaughters another country, I take it personally, very personally."

"What are you talking about?"

"The pain inflicted on my country when your country split my country into two will always keep our wounds green."

"Are you from Pakistan?"

"I belong to none except Allah, brother."

"What's the point in talking about the painful stories of history? Indians too never overcame the pain of partition."

"Partition was destiny, my dear, but the 1971 War was never our destiny. The war was imposed upon us. I can still feel the pain when your men divided my country. That pain never leaves me. Tell me what should I do?"

"I still don't know who you are."

"I too am searching for the answer to the existential question, 'Who am I?' But I certainly know why Allah sends his men to bear suffering in this world. He sent me to fulfill a cause, and that was to take revenge."

"But..."

"No questions."Shalim Amār Khan turned to his men, "Take everything from him. "

The men disarmed the DC. Two of them started to drag the officer towards the river, but Shalim Amār Khan stopped them. "When I reached this place, I had no place to hide. I went there and stayed the night,"Shalim Amār Khan said, pointing to the Shiva Temple, about a mile north of the reservoir at Killu Khaal. "There is no one there except the God guarding both mountain and gorge. Even the priest has left the
mandir
and gone for the
Shahi Snaan
on this auspicious day. There is a small antechamber with heavy iron doors at the back of the temple. The rusted handles of the door do not seem to have been opened for eons. When I touched it, the doors opened with a long squeaking sound as the rings on it made a loud clang. Worried that someone had heard the strange sound, I waited. When all remained quiet for a long time, I entered the dark room. The place was full of an almost palpable, though invisible energy. And even though I was thirsty and exhausted, I felt rejuvenated within minutes.

"Take the officer there. He who looks after all of us, will take care of everything. Put him in handcuffs, but don't seal his mouth. Leave dry fruits and water beside him. The priest will come back by evening. Oh! Yes, don't forget to take one more precaution. Administer a soothing tranquilizer to him. He needs to sleep for twenty-four hours. He will not endure the pain of isolation."

Turning to the DC, Shalim Amār Khan continued, "My sincere apologies to you, sir. You are an honest officer and I honour the trait. Unfortunately, today, my choices are limited. But I promise you that if I live to see tomorrow's dawn, I will come back. You may then choose to punish me for my deed."

Shalim Amār Khan turned and reached the official vehicle. His men proudly occupied the back seat. He entered the car and adjusted the rearview mirror. Nearby, on a dusty road, the SUV climbed over a mountain in the opposite direction quickly moving towards the north.

Shalim Amār Khan pressed the pedal, crossed the bridge, steered at the bend and accelerated.