The Krishna Key (29 page)

‘What does it say?’ asked Radhika.

Saini began to translate slowly. He carefully noted down each sentence on paper and read out each word carefully as he translated the Sanskrit shlokas:

Seek Shiv at the highest point, Seek Vish by the sea; Give up your quest, for they are one, only your heart can see.

When creation and destruction are unified, And 894 reigns supreme; Where coconuts and lotuses adorn my crown, by the river I shall be.

Caste aside hatred and learn to love, Man Singh says to you. Search my temple of seven floors, and you will find me too.

You seek the stone that turns lead to gold, but verily do not find; search instead for the faithful stone that can truly transform your mind.

‘Any ideas what it could mean?’ asked Radhika.

Saini kept staring at the Sanskrit inscription. ‘Did you notice that the inscription talks of the number 894. Isn’t it ironical that Varshney specifically chose safe deposit box number 894 to hold this artefact?’ he whispered in awe.

Radhika looked at the open door of the safe deposit box. Indeed, it was 894. ‘What is the significance of 894?’ she asked.

‘I honestly don’t know,’ replied Saini. ‘The first part of the inscription seems to be telling us that seeking Shiv at Mount Kailash—
Shiv at the highest point
—would be of no use. Similarly, seeking Krishna at Somnath—
Vish by the sea
—would also be futile. We have indeed tried at both places and failed.’

‘So in what direction could it be pointing us?’ asked Radhika.

‘There is only one place that I can think of,’ said Saini, recalling Varshney’s words to him during their fateful tour to Kalibangan:

The base plate was handed down through generations even though the seals were lost in antiquity. The base plate eventually reached the hands of Raja Man Singh who was a great Krishna devotee in the sixteenth century. Raja Man Singh had a Sanskrit inscription engraved into the plate and installed it in a Krishna temple that he built in Vrindavan.

‘What place is that?’ asked Radhika.

‘The Radha Govinda temple of Raja Man Singh in Vrindavan,’ said Saini. ‘It was seven floors high and it was only during Aurangzeb’s time that the seven floors got whittled down to three.’

‘Hold it right there!’ s enclosed within a circle.t

When the Pandavas returned to camp, I asked Arjuna to get down from the chariot first, even though it was contrary to norm: usually, the charioteer got down and the warrior then followed. Arjuna was a little irritated by this breach of protocol but nonetheless alighted. After he had gotten off, I too alighted and the chariot burst into
a fireball. A shocked Arjuna asked me what had happened and I explained to him that many divine weapons of Drona and Karana had hit his chariot, which should have been destroyed much earlier. I had used my divine powers to absorb the shock. Arjuna felt embarrassed because he knew now that one of the main reasons he had been able to survive near-death situations was because of his divine charioteer.

In the administration office sat CBI Special Director Garg, watching and hearing the events unfold on his video monitor. Next to him sat Mr Rajendra Raval, the manager of the safe deposit box rentals company. Both of them sat without the slightest movement, because their hands were bound behind their backs and their lips were sealed shut with duct tape. Behind both of them stood Priya holding a .44 Magnum revolver taken from Garg’s own holster.

Taarak, dressed in expensive casuals, was a change from his persona as a driver. Saini softly said, ‘There’s nothing here that’s worth losing life over. Tell us what you want. We don’t need to fight for it.’

Saini’s voice seemed to have a calming effect on Taarak. ‘The ceramic baseplate is all I want. Hand it over and no one will be harmed,’ he said equally softly. Saini picked up the ceramic plate and slowly extended it towards Taarak, who took it from Saini gently. It was almost as though the scene was being played out, frame by frame, in slow motion.

Taarak placed the ceramic plate in his belt pack while keeping his eyes trained on Radhika and Saini. Within a minute, another figure appeared at the door
to the vault room. It was Priya. ‘How nice to see both of you once again,’ she commented caustically, pointing her Magnum at Radhika while Taarak kept his gun trained on Saini.

‘If both of you would be so kind, please stand facing the wall,’ Priya requested with mock courtesy. Saini and Radhika were in no condition to argue and did as they were told. Taarak quickly walked up to them and patted them down. Since neither was carrying any weapons, he proceeded to the next step—binding their hands behind their backs with duct tape. He then gagged them by wrapping duct tape around their mouths.

‘You may now turn around,’ instructed Priya. ‘Thank you for cooperating. While I would have loved to stay and chat, it’s critical that I find the Syamantaka. Professor Ravi Mohan Saini, you have always occupied a special place in my heart. That’s why I could not allow my dear boy Taarak to do this on his own. Heaven forbid, we cannot treat you on par with the rest!’

Turning to Radhika, she said, ‘You have my heartfelt apologies, Inspector. I am aware of the story about your husband’s sad demise and the fact that you had to see him die. I daresay you may have developed some protective feelings towards Professor Saini over the past few days, especially after the intimate moments that you spent enclosed within a circle.t erme R together in the Saptarishi Cave. It is therefore with immense sadness that I must make you sit here and watch him die!’

There was a flash of terror in Radhika’s eyes as she saw the gleaming scalpel emerge from Taarak’s belt bag.

Soon, Aswatthama, Kripa and Kritavarma reached Duryodhana who was lying on the ground writhing in pain from his fractured legs. When Aswatthama got to know of the manner in which rules had been broken, he was overwhelmed with rage. He took an oath to kill all the Pandavas and their remaining allies. Even though Kripa and Kritavarma were not in agreement with his evil plans, Aswatthama crept into the Pandava camp at night and searched for the Pandava brothers. He saw the five sons of Draupadi asleep and mistakenly thought that they were the Pandava brothers and ruthlessly slayed them. After killing several others in the Pandava camp, he set it on fire. He rushed back to Duryodhana and gave him the good news regarding the supposed death of the Pandavas. Duryodhana took a look at what was supposed to be the head of Bhima and recognised it as that of one of Draupadi’s sons. ‘Oh, what have you done, Aswatthama?’ cried an anguished Duryodhana as he breathed his last.

The room was deathly quiet except for the muffled sounds of Radhika struggling to get her hands free. In front of her sat Saini with his back to a wall of safe deposit boxes, with his arms bound behind his back and his mouth sealed shut with duct tape. On his forehead was a rubber stamp impression of a serpent—Sheshnag, the fifth permanent fixture of Vishnu.

Saini was unconscious, having been mercifully sedated by Taarak before he plunged the Swann-Morton scalpel into his left foot. Just above Saini’s head was one of the large safe deposit boxes on which Taarak had written the usual Sanskrit shloka in Saini’s own blood.

Mleccha-nivaha-nidhane kalayasi karavalam
dhumaketum iva kim api karalam
kesava dhrita-kalki-sarira jaya jagadisa hare.

The puddle of blood around Saini’s comatose body was getting bigger by the second. Radhika struggled frantically with the duct tape around her wrists. She laboured to breathe through the gag across her lower face. She knew that it was just a matter of time before Saini died.

The bright white fluorescent lights inside the vault room had been deliberately left switched on by Priya so that Radhika would be able to see him die. It would also allow the cameras inside the vault room to transmit the scene to the video monitor in the administrative office that continued to be watched by Garg and Raval, duly bound and gagged.

Taarak and Priya had removed the security tape that had recorded their initial entry. Placing the rewritable CD along with the ceramic baseplate in
their bag, they had locked the vault grille and the door to the administrative back office, leaving all the lights switched on at full intensity. As they had reached the outer entrance, Priya had smiled sweetly at the armed guard. ‘Oh my, what a big gun you have,’ she had purred into his ears seductively while Taarak had used the distraction to sedate him. The keys to the establishment had been pulled out of the guard’s pocket and his unconscious form had been unceremoniously shoved down the stairs. Emerging into the bright sunlight, the duo had locked the main entrance to the premises of South Delhi Safety Vaults Ltd and had made off swiftly. a small earthen plate—around four centimetres long and an equal four centimetres wide. ol Balaramai

Pick up the phone,
thought Rathore, as he desperately waited for Radhika to answer. He was sitting in a taxi on his way to South Delhi Safety Vaults Ltd. Rathore was eager to update Radhika that a data dump of whatever had been stolen by Taarak had been mapped and faxed to him. His boss, however, had her phone mysteriously switched off—alternatively her phone had gone out of range. Something was terribly wrong. ‘Driver, if you can get me there in three minutes, there’s another two hundred rupees as tip,’ he said as he tapped the taxi driver’s shoulder.

Inside the vault room was an analogue clock. Each time that the second hand moved forward it made a clicking sound. It was the only sound inside the vault room besides the laboured breathing of Radhika. After a few minutes she gave up the struggle—it was no use. The duct tape had been wound too tight. She suddenly felt a warm sensation along her thighs. Looking down she saw that Saini’s pool of blood had spread towards her and had begun to drench her own clothes.

Draupadi wailed when she was told she had lost all her children. Long before her tears had dried, all she wanted was revenge. I stepped in. ‘This endless cycle of an eye-for-an-eye cannot be allowed to continue. Let’s send the scouts to look for Aswatthama and find a way to neutralise his Brahmastra. He is the son of Drona but has neither the qualities of a Kshatriya nor of a Brahmin.’ When Aswatthama was finally cornered, he hurled his Brahmastra towards Abhimanyu’s widow
—
Uttari, hoping that it would eliminate all the unborn descendants of the Pandavas. I stepped in front of her in order to absorb the impact. By now, I was furious, I uttered a deadly curse, the only curse that I had ever uttered. ‘O, Aswatthama, you shall be unable to die for three thousand years. Your wounds will fester with pus, and boils shall torment every part of your body!’ I declared, leaving him to wander the earth for three thousand years in misery.