The Mahabharata Secret (30 page)

What was that emotion behind the concern in his eyes? It shouted out to her that he reciprocated her feelings for him. Her heart quickened. The man she loved was standing next to her, but she couldn’t tell him that she loved him, too.

‘Forty minutes to go,’ Farooq said by way of a greeting. ‘Your friends better have been successful in figuring out the location of the secret.’ He ignored Vijay who was staring angrily at him and focused on Radha. He grinned, an evil, leering grin. ‘And after I get what I want, we’ll take care of you.’ He looked at his men. ‘Won’t we?’ He laughed and the other guards in the room laughed as well. She didn’t like the look in their eyes.

Vijay was standing like he was carved out of stone. Radha could see the fury in his eyes. He was making a conscious effort to restrain himself. His face, stony and black, betrayed his anger, his urge to fight and break free. Farooq was mocking her, mocking him, knowing fully well that they were like birds with clipped wings, able to flutter around but incapable of taking flight.

A shiver ran down her spine. The true extent of their predicament struck her like a blow in the face. These men had no intention of letting them go. Any hope that he would eventually set them free was now gone. And now, it was also clear that they didn’t intend killing her immediately. And she knew what that meant!

Tears welled up in her eyes as she realised the hopelessness of her situation. But she was determined not to show her fear; she knew it would only embolden the men.

Smiling with grim satisfaction, Farooq lifted his glass. ‘To the weapon of Lashkar-e-Taiba!’ He exclaimed in Urdu.

‘The weapon of Lashkar-e-Taiba!’ The other men echoed the refrain, some of them thumping their boots on the floor.

Radha tried to hide her trembling hands behind her back.

Then, it happened.

The power went off and the room was plunged into darkness.

‘Radha, go!’ Vijay’s shout was immediately followed by a thud, the sound of the sofa overturning, a crash and the sound of glass shattering. She heard Farooq yell out in pain and curse. The room exploded in commotion.

For a moment, she froze. Then she realised what had happened.

Vijay, seeing the opportunity, had jumped Farooq, knocking down the table and the rattan sofa. By the sound of it, he had probably rolled over after that, unable to stop himself with his hands bound, and crashed full tilt into some of the other terrorists.

She realised that her opportunity was at hand.

It would mean leaving Vijay behind, but she knew what he was thinking. One of them had to escape and get word to the government about the threat. Vijay had created this opportunity knowing the risk he faced by being the one left behind.

The fact that the lights had gone out meant that the house didn’t have an inverter. Even if there was a generator that fed power to this room, she had a few precious seconds before someone started it.

Someone shouted in Urdu. ‘Secure the woman!’

Radha racked her brains, desperately trying to recall the direction of the door through which she had entered the room and realised that it should be directly behind her. She turned around and sprinted out of the room. Shouts rang out as men closed in on where she had been standing and realised that she was no longer there.

Farooq’s voice rose over the clamour, speaking in Urdu ‘Fools! She must not get out of the room!’

A light came on behind her, dimly lighting the room she had left. Someone had lit a candle. Its weak light did little to pierce the gloom in the corridor that stretched before her, though it did help ensure she didn’t bump into anything in the dark.

She ran down the corridor.

The passage forked before her. Darting down the passage on the right, she ran blindly, hoping she was going the right way.

If she was caught...

She shuddered, not wanting to think about the possibility. She noticed rooms on either side, with their doors shut, on either side of the passage.

A beam of light pierced the darkness. Someone had switched on a torch.

There was a shout as the torch silhouetted her in the passage. The men following her had reached the fork in the corridor and had seen her.

The light from the torch also outlined a door at the end of the corridor.
Where did it lead to?

Radha increased her pace, her breath coming in short bursts. How long would she be able to keep this up?

Reaching the door, she jerked it open.

A landing led to a staircase that descended to a lower level. She just caught herself from tumbling headlong down the stairs.

For a split second, she hesitated. Was she going the right way? Or was she getting herself into a dead end?

The sound of the men pursuing her grew louder as they approached.

Quickly making up her mind, she sped down the staircase, moving as fast as she could in the darkness.

While the darkness had helped her escape, it was also slowing her progress. The men pursuing her had no such handicap. They could move faster than her and would catch up soon.

There was a window at the next landing. She paused to steal a glance outside. There was a moon in the sky which dimly lit up the surroundings. Though the streetlights were off she could make out one thing that mattered.

The street was one level below.

Her gamble had paid off.

Her hopes rising, she darted down the rest of the staircase using the balustrade to maintain her pace.

The stairway ended in a large room. Through the curtainless windows, she could see the street outside.

The lights came back on again.

Behind her the men raced down the staircase.

The stairway led down one more level, into the basement, which was enveloped in darkness. She noticed a door each, to her left and right. Both doors were latched shut.

Radha hesitated. She had to make a choice of which door to try and she didn’t have time for mistakes.

The door on her left. It was directly below the window from which she had seen the street. That had to be the front door.

She raced to the door and struggled with the latch which seemed to be jammed.

She rushed back across the room and tried the latch on the other door. It slid back smoothly and noiselessly. She turned to see where her pursuers were and saw them enter the room.

They saw her immediately and advanced towards her, evil grins on their faces.

Desperate, Radha backed up against the door she had just opened. It gave way behind her and she lost her balance, falling back into the room it led into.

Suddenly, shouts erupted from upstairs.

The group of men stopped, looking at each other as if trying to make sense of what they had heard.

The shouts came again, spurring the men to action. All of them, except one, raced back up the stairs. The lone remaining man walked up to the door and stared at Radha, anger in his eyes. Wordlessly, he slammed the door in her face and Radha heard the bolts being shot home. She heard him shout something back to the men upstairs. He was probably letting them know that he’d locked her up.

She was a prisoner once more.

37

Day 10

Somewhere in Patna

As the lights blinked on again, Vijay found himself being hauled up roughly and hurled across the room. He crashed into a wall and lay there, dazed, breathing heavily. He tried to sit up but before he could, Farooq was at his side, pulling him up by a handful of his hair.

Vijay shouted out in pain but it only seemed to encourage his tormentor.

‘Think you are smart, are you?’ Farooq hissed in his ear. ‘If I didn’t have to keep you alive until I got my answers, you’d be dead by now.’

He flung Vijay away from him, then kicked him hard in the ribs, following it up with another kick for good measure. Vijay buckled with pain but clenched his teeth and forced his screams back. He was not going to give Farooq the pleasure of knowing that he was hurting him. But he knew he couldn’t hold out for much longer if the man persisted. Just then, Vijay’s mobile phone, which was with Farooq, rang and the LeT leader looked at it with astonishment. As Vijay looked on, he disconnected the call and put the phone back in his pocket.

It promptly rang again.

This time, Farooq answered. ‘What the hell do you think you are doing calling me on this number?’ he demanded angrily. ‘You know the plan. I...’

He stopped midsentence, as if abruptly cut off by the caller and his jaw dropped. Vijay surmised that he was getting some news that he hadn’t anticipated. He wondered what it was.

‘Are you sure about all this?’ Farooq asked finally after hearing the caller out.

He fell silent again, listening to the reply.

‘Fine. Change of plans. We’ll leave immediately.’ He disconnected the call and looked at Vijay. ‘Your friends have deciphered the verse,’ he smirked. ‘And now they’ll be joining you. All of you will die together.’

Vijay wondered how Farooq knew, because he certainly hadn’t been speaking to any of his friends. But he didn’t have time to think further. ‘We leave immediately!’ Farooq barked to his men and immediately they galvanised into action. Two of them dragged Vijay to his feet and supported him out of the room.

‘What about the woman?’ Vijay heard one of the men asking Farooq in Urdu.

‘Forget her. We have more important things to worry about,’ Farooq shot back. ‘Call the others back. The Intelligence Bureau knows our location. We have to leave before they find us.’

Vijay’s heart leaped. This meant that he and his friends weren’t the only ones who knew about Farooq.

‘She has been locked in the room downstairs,’ one of the men informed Farooq.

‘Doesn’t matter. Let’s go,’ Farooq responded.

Vijay smiled to himself. If the IB was hunting the LeT leader, then they would come to this safehouse sooner or later. Even if Farooq and his men escaped with him as captive, Radha would be found.

Farooq’s next words, however, dashed his hopes to the ground.

‘Burn the building to the ground.’

A Little Too Late

Imran’s phone rang. He was in a police jeep, being driven to Farooq’s safehouse. He looked at the number. It was from one of his men in the surveillance team, who had been despatched to the safehouse as soon as its location was tracked down. Their job was to keep a watch on Farooq and his men and report in if they noticed any developments.

‘Have the commandos reached?’ Imran looked at his watch impatiently. He knew that as soon as Farooq learned about the location of the secret, he would waste no time in leaving Patna. So, he had detoured to speak to Vijay’s friends in the hope that they would be able to delay Farooq’s departure from the safehouse just long enough for the commandos to reach.

‘No,’ came the reply from his agent outside the safehouse. ‘And I think Farooq’s slipped out. The building is on fire.’

Imran cursed as he disconnected the phone. He had lost Farooq.

And he didn’t know where to start looking for him.

Marching Orders

Colin knocked on White’s door and the archaeologist opened it. He was looking normal now. The short rest must have done him good.

‘Your phone,’ Colin explained. ‘Farooq calls us on your phone.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ White apologised, looking sheepish. ‘I should have left my phone with you. I wasn’t thinking straight.’ He fetched the phone from his desk.

The two men walked down the corridor to Colin’s room.

As if on cue, the phone rang. Vijay’s mobile number flashed on the screen.

Farooq’s smug voice floated over the phone. ‘You have the information I want.’

It was a statement, not a question, but Colin answered him anyway. ‘Yes.’

‘Well?’

‘We’ve solved the riddle.’

‘And what is the answer?’ There was an edge to Farooq’s voice that Colin hadn’t heard before. He remembered Imran’s instructions.

Delay them as long as you can.

He just hoped he wasn’t putting Vijay and Radha in any more danger than they already were.

‘The secret location is in the Hazaribagh plateau.’

‘And what makes you believe that?’

‘Before I tell you that or the exact location, I want to know how and when you will hand over Vijay and Radha to us.’

‘Do you take me for a fool?’ Farooq’s voice strained with fury and something else percolated through. Was it an undercurrent of desperation? Colin couldn’t be sure.

‘Do you know what your friends just did?’ he continued, his voice shaking with anger. ‘They tried to escape.’

Colin’s heart sank.

Farooq’s next words made his blood run cold.

‘My patience is running out. I don’t have either the inclination or the time to negotiate. If you don’t give me what I want then that’s fine. You’ll never see your friends again.’

Colin hesitated. He considered his options. There was no guarantee that Farooq would return Vijay and Radha to them after learning where the secret was hidden. On the other hand, if he didn’t get the information, both of them were doomed.

There was only one thing to do. Colin could only hope that Imran reached the safehouse in time.

‘Sitagarha Hill,’ he told Farooq. ‘The Hazaribagh plateau.’ He explained to Farooq how they had arrived at this conclusion.

Farooq seemed to doubt his explanation. ‘And how do I know you are being completely honest with me?’

Colin didn’t have an answer.

‘There’s only one way to be sure,’ Farooq interrupted his thoughts. ‘You’ll show me the way to this hill to prove that this is indeed the place.’

‘And you’ll let them go then?’ Colin persisted.

‘I want you to leave Patna immediately. All three of you.’ Farooq ignored Colin’s question. ‘Leave for Hazaribagh now. I will meet you there and together we will go to this hill. If what you are saying isn’t true...’ He left his threat hanging but Colin understood perfectly.

‘One more thing. Switch your phone off. Now. I don’t want you to switch it back on until you are near Hazaribagh. I’ll be checking to see that you’ve followed this instruction. Don’t let me find your phone on. Call me when you’re approaching Hazaribagh.’

The phone went dead.