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.’‘What?’ Radha couldn’t believe her ears.‘Bheem Singh is a partner of Al Qaeda?’Farooq was grinning from ear to ear, enjoying their shock and visible discomfort.He had known that they were pinning their hopes on the Maharaja.Vijay’s expression grew gloomy and forlorn as he digested this revelation.There was no hope of escape left for him and Radha.He looked at Radha and saw the same conclusion in her eyes.‘So Bheem Singh knew you were a member of the Nine?’ Radha demanded.‘Of course not.I wasn’t going to tell them everything.I’m pretty sure they held back a lot of secrets from me.’Farooq waited for a while before taking up the narrative again.‘Bheem Singh and Van Klueck had searched high and low for clues to the secret of the Nine.They even sent a squad of assassins to the Temple of the Tooth near Lhasa.The assassins massacred the monks and made off with the ancient texts that were hidden in a vault in the temple.But they couldn’t find the metal disk and the key which were so vital to the search.’ He shrugged.‘Naturally.One disk was with the Nine.The other was with the astronomer, buried behind the Buddhas at Bamiyan.’He leaned forward and looked at Vijay.‘Now, I’ll answer your question about how I got the metal disk and the texts.Luckily for us, before the Taliban was overthrown, the disk and the texts were passed on to Mohammed Bin Jabal, an Al Qaeda leader.But it wasn’t until 2003 that I got to see them.I immediately realised they were important, though I had never imagined what they would lead to.I took them to Vikram Singh, who didn’t yet know about my links to Al Qaeda.He translated them for me and I learned the truth about the secret of the Nine.’He looked at Vijay.‘Unfortunately, your uncle began wondering where I had found the disk and the texts.And when I asked him which member of the Nine had the key, he became suspicious.He secretly placed me under surveillance and discovered that I was working for Al Qaeda.He confronted me and threatened to expose me.’ A shadow crossed his face.‘I gave him a chance.I told him if he let me know who had the key, I’d leave him alone and that would be the end of it.’‘But he didn’t.’ There was pride in Vijay’s voice.‘I had to go underground.While I lay low, I got involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba, who had ambitions of becoming the foremost Islamic defender of the faith.I also informed Bheem Singh and Van Klueck about the discovery.One of the texts mentioned a hidden location and gave instructions on how to find it.But that wasn’t where the secret was hidden.Instead, we found a small hoard of weapons, fairly sophisticated considering their antiquity, which we reverse engineered to build our own armoury.’Radha and Vijay recalled the examples Shukla had given them, in an earlier conversation, of the so-called celestial weapons that had been used in the Mahabharata; terrifying weapons that could kill thousands at one stroke and lay entire regions to waste.It was a sobering thought.‘That contraption you used to blow up the vault door,’ Vijay recalled the events at the vault in Delhi, ‘was that part of this hoard?’‘One of the original weapons,’ Farooq beamed.‘Not one of the replicas we built.Imagine it.A weapon thousands of years old, still in pristine working condition.And amazingly lightweight as well.That metal—we couldn’t figure out its composition—was lighter than aluminium or even carbon fibre.’Vijay remembered seeing how the device had been folded up to less than half its size and the manner in which it had been carried away.Having witnessed the power of that device, the fact that a terrorist organisation like LeT had access to weapons like this was frightening.‘Does that mean there is some truth to the legends of the Mahabharata?’ Radha wondered.‘That the war actually did happen in ancient times?’‘Doesn’t matter.’ Farooq was dismissive.‘The weapons were powerful, but that isn’t what we were looking for.Though we did find an incomplete manual that described how to build the ultimate weapon of the Kauravas, the one described in the Vimana Parva.Using the manual, we built a prototype.But it didn’t work the way it was supposed to.We realised we needed to find the location where the weapon was hidden.Which meant we needed the key to the disk.So, we began looking for the key.’‘And murdered the members of the Nine, one by one,’ Vijay said, bitterly.Farooq sounded enthralled by his memories.‘We used the weapons we had built using the secret hoard we had discovered.I was fond of your uncle.I didn’t want to kill him.Which is why I left him for the last, hoping that one of the others would have the key.‘No wonder your uncle had such an advanced security system installed at the fort,’ Radha remarked.‘He knew his life was in danger.’‘And you murdered him.’ Vijay’s voice was low, but the pain of his uncle’s death had returned.He was also angry with himself for having unwittingly aided a terrorist organisation in getting their hands on a secret that the Nine had strived for centuries to keep concealed.‘So what is this secret?’ Radha returned to the question that had led to these revelations.‘An amazing weapon delivery system,’ Farooq hissed, his eyes brightening.‘One that we will use to carry out our threat.’ He smiled superciliously.‘We are going to attack the G20 summit in Washington.Al Qaeda has become obsolete and redundant, a toothless paper tiger.It is time for them to be replaced by an organisation that is more innovative and persistent.The time has come when the world will sit up and take note of Lashkar-e-Taiba!’34Day 9The Hotel Ashoka Palace, PatnaColin, White and Shukla were gathered in Colin’s room
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