Operation Chaos: A Gripping Action Thriller (12 page)

Cipher text  :         U W  B   P    T   P  N  E  Q   K     S   S  K M H V T

Finally, we send UWBPTPNEQKSSKMHVT as the cipher text and the other party who knows the keyword decodes it just using the opposite process which we used for encoding it.''

''A genius invention-'' Shonali words were interrupted when David passed his radio to her. It was her dad on the other side.

''Hello, Shonali?'' The voice on the other end sounded worried. But for Shonali, the tone was cold. That was the cold voice she had lived with for her entire childhood. Her mother had passed away when she was three and her father didn't want to be her father.

''Yeah, Dad. I am fine. Flying to Nalanda. I suppose Commander David gave you an update of the situation,'' Shonali tried to sound calm.

''I am so sorry Shonali to drag you in the middle of this. I didn't know whom to ask for help and I... all these lost objects... these threats- so I asked for your help. This is a nightmare for me, Shonali.''

''It is alright, Dad. I think we will get to the bottom of this soon. You stay safe,'' Shonali replied.

Chapter 33

Muhammad had cleverly planned his move while descending the stairs to the platforms. He got on the train towards Huda city centre and exited it just as the doors were closing. It was a risky move, but it was his only shot. He turned left and saw a man holding a handgun get into the train and that very second Muhammad knew his trick had worked.

Keep searching for me where I don't even exist.

The next part was easy. He emptied his pockets and walked upstairs. Muhammad entered the same toilet he had exited minutes ago. While getting into the toilet earlier, he had memorised the next metro timings and had waited for his chance to rush out. He had ensured to keep the red jacket in his hand and ran fast enough to gain some attention. Once he knew the agents were behind him, he dumped his bag and jacket to trick the agents to board the trains.

Now that he had thrown the intelligence agents off his trail, getting out of an already panicked metro station was not a difficult job. It was a job he was trained for. Fifteen minutes later, Muhammad walked out of the New Delhi metro station free as a bird.

Gulped a few pints of fresh air, took out his satellite phone and typed.

Out of the trouble. Going to the rendezvous point. Where are they now?

He soon got a reply:

Exactly where we wanted them to go- They are in a chopper to Nalanda. You know what to do next. Be careful henceforth. You may not get a second chance.

Muhammad didn't understand how his boss got the location of David's team every time.

There must be somebody else helping him
.
 

Chapter 34

''We are flying over Patna right now. Should be landing at Nalanda in 15 minutes,'' the pilot announced over his microphone. The night was setting in and the weather was turning unpleasantly cold.

''What do you mean, you can't get it from here?'' David asked Ranjeet with a big surprise on his face.

''Look, the firewalls on that system are military grade. I could have bypassed them using the old military key codes, but it appears they have changed those too. Moreover, as per your information, the system is on an island and it doesn't have any wires running from the land so probably it has a direct uplink to the satellite, which I can't establish in such a short time frame,'' said Ranjeet.

''I get that. So how do you plan on doing it?'' asked David. He was clearly not happy with the turn of events.

''I don't have many options. In fact, I only have one, which requires me to be on the island and hardwire into their system to hack it. There must be some way of getting on that island without getting detected.'' Ranjeet looked at David hopefully. ''Or maybe an aerial bombing would solve the entire problem.''

''We have grade B sensors and radars monitoring the perimeter 24x7. Also, we can't risk an air-strike. They have some high priority hostages down there. We don't want to lose those scientists. And bombing that place would be equivalent to destroying our own technology. The government has spent billions on this project.'' David took a moment's pause. ''We can't breach in because we are not sure about the exact number of terrorists on the island and what type of artillery they have. If we are delayed even by a few moments, they launch the missile. That is why we chose this third way- roaming around and solving puzzles for that lunatic. Believe me, if I lay hands on that bastard, I will bleed him to death''

''I will keep looking for a way to get their systems down, or at least disable the perimeter security. Then your team might have a chance to slip past the security systems on the island without tripping any alarms. Will keep you posted.'' Ranjeet dove into his laptop screen, typing furiously than ever.

As soon as the chopper made a landing in an open field, David and his co-passengers got out of the chopper and stretched their legs. The journey had been exhausting.

Back at the bunker, Ajaysingh had been racking his brain over the past hour, focussing on the voice he had heard on the tape. He had made a lot of enemies over the last few years, but the insanity in this tone was unique. He was staring at his shoes with a look of nothingness and then it hit him like a thunderbolt and left him stunned. His mind had drifted to his past.

I thought it all ended at Pokharan in 1998. I should have known- It was just the beginning.

Chapter 35

''Bravo! Now that we have reached here, does anybody have any clue what we are looking for?'' Ranjeet was the first one to ask.

''I think we will figure it out when we reach that stupa.'' Sameer felt a dreamlike mist swirling around him as he entered the remains of the world's first international residential university, flanked by commandos following close behind. 

''You know, almost two thousand years ago, it was very difficult to get entry into this place. Many of the scholars tried, but failed the entrance test,'' Shonali said.

''Wait! There was an entrance test at that time too?'' Ranjeet asked with a giggle.

''Yes. For admission in Nalanda, you had to answer the questions asked by the guards standing right here at the gates. Only 2-3 out of ten made it into Nalanda,'' replied Shonali. ''Many scholars from around Asia studied at Nalanda which was said to be the cradle of the Buddhist civilisation. The earliest references of this prestigious place can be traced back to Magadah- the time of Gautama Buddha in the 6th century B.C. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics, architecture, philosophy.''

As they walked through the ruins of the ancient city of knowledge, the commandos moved in a formation of 3 metres spread checking the corners ahead of them.

''Clear, Check the right passage,'' one of the commandos reported.

''Right passage clear.''

They had to make sure there weren't any surprises lying ahead of them this time. Such ruins were always a possible ambush site. The place looked like a stone complex, mostly consisting of stone classrooms which appeared more like meditation areas.

After all introspection leads to true knowledge,
Shonali thought inwardly.

Many dormitories appeared to be lined up at a corner near the south end of the excavation site. ''The current excavation is just a fraction of the total university and many buildings are still buried under the current site.
The site has a number of small monasteries where the monks had lived and studied and many of them were rebuilt over the centuries,'' Shonali told Sameer.

''How many students did this university have? It looks like a large place for a university of those times,'' asked Ranjeet, with an intention to start a conversation with Shonali.

''It was huge! This place was planned in a magnificent manner.
It had a nine-storied library where the monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, and would you believe,  10,000 students resided in the university’s heyday along with 2,000 professors. Nalanda University attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. Also, many of the students travelled to spread Buddhism, such as PadmaSambhav- a teacher of yoga who went to Tibet, where he established the 1st monastery and became the founder of Lamaism. Alas! All the teachings of those scholars and the literature, the knowledge stored here for centuries is now lost,'' Shonali said, trying to catch up with David's pacing feet.

Ranjeet was not going to give up so easily. ''Lost? How was it lost?'' continued Ranjeet in an attempt to extend the conversation.

''There was a fire which burnt down over 9 million manuscripts and we lost a big piece of our ancient wisdom. The university lost many important factions of our oldest manuscripts in that fire, besides some of the valuable knowledge on Vedic mathematics, medicinal properties of plants and several other topics. It was around 12th century, when the Muslim invader Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked the university and tried to uproot Buddhism and plant Islam with his sword. It is said that the burning of those 9 million manuscripts continued for several months....''

Ranjeet was slowly becoming detached from the surroundings. His eyes were glued to Shonali- the way she was explaining, the way her smile almost made him skip a beat, her beautiful purple kurti. Deep down, his heart was set on fire...

''...
and the smoke hung for days like a dark pall,'' Shonali completed.

''We have enough information on this place now, but we still don't know which stupa does the message on the transcript refer to,'' David said, observing that there were quite a number of stupas around the place.

Ranjeet ran his quick fingers on the keypad and the next second came pouring out data from the internet- ''This place has a strong link with Gautama Buddha as he often came here. There is a large stupa here where Sariputra- one of the chief disciples of the Buddha was supposedly born and his relics are entombed.''

''No.... There is no link between Sariputra's birthplace and the stupa on the transcript. It said -
THE RESTING STUPA OF THE GREAT BUDDHA. There has to be a stronger connection of Lord Buddha to the stupa. Sariputra was a chief disciple, but not the first. Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon to Kondanna, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahanama and Assaji- his first five disciples at Sarnath where he gave his first sermon on
the Four Noble Truths and how to practice the Eightfold Path. That conversion of the five ascetics at the Deer Park at Sarnath led to the order of monks- The Sangha  and hence-
'' Shonali was trying to find the correct logic.

''What's the Sangha?'' Sameer queried.

''The Buddhist philosophy is based on three founding stones known as the Three Jewels- the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Sangha has many definitions, but in general I would say Sangha are those groups of people who practice and follow the path of enlightenment shown by the Buddha.''

''So you think Sariputra's stupa isn't the place that transcript was suggesting?'' asked David.

''Maybe. But until we have something more credibly solid, we might as well explore the Sariputra's stupa,'' said Shonali with a sigh.

''So what should we be looking for in there?'' David came to the point straight away.

''The earlier message did not give us any clues, but I recall it said- STARTS THE HILL which means that it is just the beginning of a road leading us to whatever artefact that psycho wants. So we should expect to find some more clues in here. Look for any ancient inscriptions, symbols, hidden passageways.  Anything that stands out from the normal is worth checking out. But I think it is going to be a tedious task and we don't have enough time to explore a complete stupa.''

''I know it's a tough task, but I have my task force and I have already asked for back-up. We also have two local guides coming to help us out, so we would know where to look,'' added David.

''That was pretty quick!'' Shonali was taken aback.

''Somebody skipped your history lecture, I guess,'' replied David, with a chuckle.

David and his team spread out around the sector and started exploring while Ranjeet worked on getting access to the mainframe server. Shonali and Sameer worked on guiding the search teams.

But back in Delhi, one man was beginning to understand why that phone call was meant for him; why the bomb had blasted at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The words-
'I want you to suffer. You'll be hurt and you'll be put to pain.... EVERY. SECOND.’
floated around him. The man paced up and down in his bunker restlessly. President Ajaysingh Chauhan was now starting to get the picture of who had left  that message for him.