THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET (20 page)

48

The truth about Alexander

‘I think you have already figured out part of the truth about Alexander the Great,’ Van Klueck said finally. ‘In reality much of what we know about his life is based on facts that have been distorted, on many occasions, to reflect the inclination, philosophy or the motives of the person writing the record. As a result, it has become very difficult for us to work out exactly what is historically accurate about the man and what is glorified fiction.’

He waited for Vijay to acknowledge his remarks. After Vijay had nodded, he continued. ‘And that is where artefacts like the cube are useful. They help us validate parts of the story that could be passed off as just another fantastical rendering of Alexander’s exploits by an ardent admirer or sycophant.’

Vijay nodded again, remembering Alice’s objections to their analysis. There was so much fluff in the records about Alexander that it was difficult to believe everything written about him.

Van Klueck held out his hand. ‘The cube please.’

Vijay handed the cube to him and watched as he fitted it into the metal plate. It was a perfect fit.

‘So how do
you
know which parts of the Alexander story are correct and which ones are fantasy?’ Vijay was curious. What was the source of this man’s knowledge and power?

‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ Van Klueck smirked. ‘But I’ll tell you something. Olympias was a member of our Order. And she knew about this cube because it was created by one of the first members of our Order. Thousands of years ago.’

Vijay was stunned. When Imran Kidwai had briefed the task force on all that he had learned last year about their invisible anatagonists Vijay had realised that they were immensely powerful. But he had no idea that they were ancient as well. If what Van Klueck was saying was true, then the Order, whatever it was, was far more ancient than the brotherhood formed by Asoka the Great, which they had discovered last year.

Van Klueck appeared pleased to see the shock on Vijay’s face. ‘That’s how we know that Alexander’s quest in the land of the Indus was not some yarn spun by his spin doctors. We were the ones who provided him with the means of finding what he wanted.’

Vijay found a weak link in this suggestion. ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ he shot back. ‘Today, you’re looking for the secret that he found. But if you had the means to find it two thousand four hundred years ago or more, as you claim, why didn’t you find the secret then? Why hand it to Alexander on a platter, allow him to hide the metal plate, and then go looking for it more than two thousand years later?’

Van Klueck’s face darkened. ‘That’s because Olympias tricked us. This secret has been protected for thousands of years before Alexander. Remember, this is the secret of the gods. The gods of the land of the Indus. The cube and the metal plate were created for the express purpose of ensuring that the secret would remain protected. And a small brotherhood of Vedic priests was created to guard over the secret. They were the only ones who had access to it. Olympias invited one of the priests to her court on the pretext of understanding more about the origins of the Order. And, somehow, she persuaded the priest to part with the location of the secret. For that transgression, the Order withdrew all protection to her after Alexander’s death. She would never have suffered such a humiliating death if the Order had continued to protect her.’

‘What is this Order that you belong to?’ Vijay opened another line of questioning.

Van Klueck shook his head. ‘I have told you enough already. Know only that we are as old as mankind itself. There was a time when we were known and feared throughout the world. But we decided that our influence and power was better obtained by staying out of sight and out of the minds of humanity.’

He paused before continuing. ‘Anyway, Alexander found the secret but things went horribly wrong and he died. You know the history. His funeral cortege was hijacked by Ptolemy and his mummy was buried in Alexandria, where it lay until the fourth century.’

‘Which is when it mysteriously disappeared,’ Vijay murmured, remembering his research.

‘It didn’t disappear,’ Van Klueck assured him smugly. ‘Christianity was spreading through the world. We saw the signs. Anything that was related to the pagan gods was being destroyed. And Alexander was worshipped as a god. Before long, his mausoleum would have been desecrated and his mummy destroyed. So we took matters into our own hands. We spirited the mummy away from its burial place in Alexandria and buried it in another, secret, location. No one was supposed to know about the burial place. However, unknown to the Order at that time, a map had been created. A map that was hidden away for all these centuries. Until we rediscovered it, quite by accident, a few decades ago. We excavated the mummy. Which turned out to be quite a boon for us. Over the centuries, the story behind the secret he discovered had turned into a myth. We scarcely believed it was possible. So, we tested the mummy. And we discovered that the myth was true. The secret of the gods was no myth after all. And Alexander had, indeed, discovered it. That is when we decided that we needed to find the secret. But we were missing the cube and the metal plate. We knew that the last time they had been seen was with the priest who met with Olympias. But he disappeared after his meeting with her and no one ever knew what happened to him. When we heard about the possibility of the tomb of Olympias being discovered, we realised that there was a chance that the cube and metal plate would be found within it, buried with her.’

‘So you got Cooper to join the excavation and got Stavros on your side to recover the artefacts.’

‘Exactly. So now you know.’

Vijay frowned. ‘This certainly plugs gaps in the information we had and explains what’s been happening. I can even begin to guess at the links between the excavation and the clinical trials you have been conducting. The tests you ran on Alexander’s mummy… they threw up results that needed the clinical trials to validate them, right?’

Van Klueck smiled again. ‘Close. But only partially correct. The trials were necessary because the tests we ran on Alexander’s mummy threw up a discovery that we were unprepared for. You see, the cube was created based on a myth from your great epic, the Mahabharata. There is a story in that epic that vividly describes what Alexander found and also explains the tests that we ran on him. In order to understand the results of those tests, we needed to run the clinical trials on living people. ’

Vijay racked his brains, trying to think of a myth from the Mahabharata that would have led to clinical trials and a discovery based on medical tests conducted on the corpse of a man dead for over two thousand years. But he couldn’t think of anything.

‘I don’t know what you’re referring to,’ he said finally.

‘It is the myth called, “The Churning of the Ocean”, in English. Or, more accurately,
Samudramanthan.’
Van Klueck’s pronunciation of the Sanskrit word was perfect but Vijay barely noticed. His entire attention was taken up by the mention of one of the most famous myths from the epic.

‘But... how?’ he was confused. ‘That myth is pure fantasy — the churning of the ocean using a mountain and Vasuki as the rope to obtain
amrita
. There’s no science behind it.’

Van Klueck smiled sympathetically. ‘Everyone is so accustomed to treating the Mahabharata as an epic poem or as a fantasy story, that they find it difficult to believe that there could be great science embedded in it.’

Vijay couldn’t agree more. Their discoveries the previous year had convinced him of the science and technology at the heart of the Mahabharata. And he now knew that he was on the cusp of learning about another secret that the Mahabharata had held deep within for over two thousand years.

‘Let me explain it to you.’ Van Klueck leaned forward and began.

49

DAY FIVE

A glimpse into a mystery

Radha blinked in surprise at the unexpected sight of Saxena smiling at her. He had walked into her cell unannounced and told her that he would take her for a walk around the medical centre.

‘I’ve been asked to take good care of you,’ he explained to her, amiably. ‘Apparently, Cooper’s move in bringing you here has paid off big time. It looks like we’ll be able to advance our deadlines for his part of the project. Which means that my part gets done faster as well.’

Radha ruminated over his words as he led her out of the cell and through a maze of corridors which she had never been through before. But all thoughts were banished from her mind as they emerged on a long balcony surrounding a rectangular atrium. The roof bore powerful lights that combined with the lamps on the balconies to light up the immense space. The balcony continued without a break on all four sides of the atrium. She counted eight storeys to the building.

Radha considered the immensity of the building with awe. Her movements had been restricted within a corridor leading from her cell to the toilet block. While she had seen other inmates in this prison in the communal toilets and bathrooms, she had never imagined that the building could be of this size.

‘Two hundred and fifty cells,’ Saxena informed her as he noticed her gaping. ‘Eight floors of this facility are underground — the ones that you see before you. Two floors are above the ground. From the outside it appears to be a low rise, nondescript building. No one knows what we have in here.’

‘Who is Cooper?’ Radha asked, having got over her initial surprise.

‘You don’t know? I thought the American archaeologist would have told you. He was the co-director on her excavation project. Peter Cooper. He was planted there by us.’

This was another shock for Radha. So there was a connection between these people and Alice’s experience in Greece. But what was it? And who was “us”?

A thought struck her. She recalled her conversation with Vijay when the others were enroute to the museum. He had told her about Eumenes’ journal and the description of Alexander’s quest for the “secret of the gods”. Was that the connection between Saxena’s operation and the excavations in Greece?

‘So you’re trying to figure out the secret that is mentioned in the riddles on the cube?’ She voiced her thoughts, without mentioning the journal. If it was secret, then she didn’t want Saxena knowing about it.

Saxena looked at Radha, appraising her. ‘You do know more than you let on. And you’re right. I am working on the greatest secret that the world has ever seen. One that will enable the Order to rule the world without anyone even realising it. We will pull the strings and people will dance like puppets at our beck and call.’

Radha was intrigued. She had to know more. What was Saxena ranting about? She decided to call his bluff. ‘So you say,’ she scoffed. ‘All I see here are clinical trials that end in people dying. Everyone dies. What’s the big secret in that? Is the Order going to rule a world of dead people? Is this a new pathogen that you’ve discovered that will wipe out the world’s population, leaving the Order intact? Who will you rule if there’s no one left?’

Saxena glared at her. ‘We aren’t going to kill people,’ he said emphatically. ‘We will give life, not take it away.’

Radha looked at him, her expression clearly indicating her disbelief. ‘You want to believe you are important in the scheme of the Order. But all you’re doing is conducting clinical trials that are resulting in failure.’

Saxena’s face revealed his fury at her words. He was immensely proud of what he was trying to achieve. He was very close to success. He longed for the recognition that was deservedly his. The Order would not be forthcoming with any recognition until the mission was over. But he had achieved so much! And here was a woman, who knew nothing of what he was doing, disparaging his achievements! He could restrain himself no longer.

‘You don’t believe what I say?’ he challenged Radha. ‘You think this is all about a pathetic virus and clinical trials that are going nowhere? You…’

Radha interrupted him. ‘I think you are blowing up your little mission into something much bigger. Something that is important. But it isn’t. I don’t believe a word you say.’

‘Fine, then,’ Saxena fumed, his compulsion for recognition and admiration getting the better of him. This woman wasn’t going anywhere. And there was no way anyone would ever find her. ‘Come with me. I’ll prove it to you.’

He led the way to a set of elevators and pressed his access card against the card reader as he punched the button for the lowest level of the building. The high speed elevator descended with startling swiftness and they soon reached their destination.

Saxena briefly told her about the Order and how Olympias had obtained the cube and persuaded Alexander to extend his ambitions beyond conquering the Persian empire. The elevator doors opened to reveal a long, white corridor lined with doors on either side. Most were shut but some were open to reveal laboratories stacked with all kinds of equipment and devices, servers and monitors, and manned by technicians in white laboratory coats.

‘This is the nerve centre of our operations here for my mission,’ Saxena explained. ‘Freeman’s project occupies the two floors below us.’ He led Radha into an office at the end of the corridor. It was furnished with a large desk and a leather chair in one corner of the room, with a stainless steel workstation attached to the opposite wall. A tall bookcase stood to one side of the desk, the shelves sagging under the weight of enormous medical tomes. On the desk was an LCD monitor, a keyboard and mouse.

‘Sit down.’ Saxena indicated one of the two chairs facing him across the desk as he sat on the leather chair.

Radha sat and watched Saxena fiddle with the computer keyboard and mouse.

After a while, the virologist swivelled the monitor to face her. His demeanour was that of a scientific expert about to deliver a presentation to an awestruck audience.

‘You folks believed that we were manipulating pathogens for bioterrorism,’ he smirked. ‘That’s about as far from the truth as you can possibly get. The reality is just the opposite. We don’t want to kill people. We want to protect them from disease.’

‘You really expect me to believe that,’ Radha scoffed. ‘After all the mayhem you and your people have caused, now you want me to attribute all of that to a noble cause?’

‘Tch, tch,’ Saxena reprimanded her. ‘Every coin has two sides. You saw just one side. All that we’ve done, not just in the last few days but in the past decades, was essential to our success. We’re on the cusp of a major scientific breakthrough; one that even modern technology has not yet been able to deliver. Yet, the secret behind this revolution in medicine has been with us for thousands of years, hidden behind a veil of riddles and myths. A veil that most people don’t even know exists, leave alone being able to penetrate it.’

‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ Radha confessed.

‘You do read the newspapers?’

Radha shot a dark glance at Saxena but the virologist was asking the question in earnest. ‘Of course, I do,’ she replied.

‘Very well, then, you must have read about a major issue facing the medical world today. It has been a concern that has been building for years but the media have only recently got hold of it. For years now, people have been misusing and overusing antibiotics. The result? Bacteria have evolved and built resistance to many drugs used to combat some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. Some of these strains have even become resistant to multiple drugs. There is a very real threat that the antibiotics that have shielded mankind from life-threatening diseases ever since the discovery of penicillin will very soon be obsolete. The shield that protected us from killer diseases like tuberculosis, for example, is weakening and will soon be gone. We will be in the prehistoric ages, medically speaking; we will find ourselves in the dark ages when deadly bacterial infections were untreatable.’

Radha nodded. There had been a lot of coverage in the international media over this issue. New technologies were being researched and new breakthroughs were being sought to combat this frightening future scenario. She began to understand the motives of this group, whoever they were. ‘So the clinical trials are aimed at finding that elusive breakthrough that will replace antibiotics?’ She still didn’t quite understand how Saxena intended combating the threat he had mentioned.

Saxena tapped a button on the keyboard next to him and a three dimensional image appeared on the screen, spinning slowly. It was an icosahedron — a twenty-sided polygon. He tapped another button and the screen split. To the right of the first image, another one appeared, also three dimensional, of irregularly shaped disks.

‘The figure on the left is a retrovirus,’ Saxena explained, indicating the first image. ‘And the one on the right is a bacterium.’ He paused. ‘Both are previously unknown pathogens. We obtained both from the body of Alexander the Great.’