RESONANCE (22 page)

Their Mad Life

A control room
was setup in the North Block. The Home Minister authorized Siddhartha Rana to take every possible measure to save Sardar Sarovar Dam and report the progress to the Home Secretary.

The Joint Secretary of the Department of Internal Security with other officials boarded a special aircraft to Vadodara, Gujarat. They travelled further, about sixty miles from the airport, to the dam.

Siddhartha called Aban from the North Block and told him about the three image files that the Home Minister had given him. He uploaded those files to a newly created email account. Aban downloaded the file.

"We still need to search the fourth image,"said Siddhartha.

"When will you be back in your IB Office? I need to know everything that you can tell me about Tupac-II because I have a hunch that there might be a clue in those details."

"The work in the control room of the North Block keeps me from my office until tomorrow afternoon."

"Will see you then."

For the entire day and night, Siddhartha stayed in the control room, arranging logistics for the security of the Sardar Sarovar Dam: the explosives experts, divers from the Navy, intelligence officers, engineers and the officials of the hydro power project. He also coordinated with the anti-terrorist squad and the CISF office.

It was late evening the next day, but he still could not get time to go to his own office. The systems expert rang him up, "Sir, I need you to be present here in the IB Office. We have decoded the
rashis of Jyotish
, sent by the FBI."

Siddhartha rushed to his office and entered his room. Aban and the system expert were waiting for him. Siddhartha turned to Aban, "I think you could use some sleep."

"I have been trying to work out the solution ever since you provided me with the three images."

"Any progress?"

"I'm sorry. I've used thousands of combinations to arrive at the fourth image, but still nothing."

Siddhartha moved his gaze to the systems expert, "Tell me how did you decrypt the elusive attachment file?"

"The pdf file attachment shows many symbols. I tried to decode through normal decoding, but nothing came out of that. These Jihadists always come up with some innovative idea or the other. They are always a step ahead of us. Therefore, I tried to think the way they think. The answer was to look at the problem in the simplest way. I took a printout, scanned it and saved it as a document. I ran the optical character recognition program with pre-selected fonts. Nothing came out when I chose the English and Roman fonts. Then, I tried Indian fonts like Mangla. Still, without success. Then, I searched for the fonts relating to astrology as the symbols represented rashis. Finally, I got the answer. When I set the OCR to read the Astrology font, the symbol turned into Arabic language with phonetic and thematic structure. I used my computer translator and got a clear message."

"Absolutely wonderful."Siddhartha was delighted. "Show it to me."

"Sir, first look at the symbols once again."The expert unfolded the sheet paper.

"The Arabic version seems to have carefully maintained the rhymed form, as if an Oracle was delivering the sounds with profound effect."The system expert clicked on the version:

He then ran the translator. "Now see the converted message in English, derived from the combination of mystical
rashis,
numinous
Jyotish and
magical Arabic."

We have made a surveillance of their Lake.

The data will be ready for the simulation.

We need to work out a few things.

Period, frequency, phase, amplitude of simple harmonic motion.

He continued, "Sir, each of the four lines contains eight words. Unfortunately, it does not represent the image password."

"That's true. However, this is a very important file. The last line is interesting. They are talking about period, frequency, phase and amplitude of simple harmonic motion. During my last discussion with the engineers and technical experts when we were analyzing the data sent by the FBI from Dubai, the most worrisome fact was the lake moving in a simple harmonic motion."

Aban was worried. "We still don't know which lake they are talking about."

Siddhartha tried to assuage his fears, "Most probably, it is the Sardar Sarovar."

"Are we doing something to prevent the sabotage?"

"Yes, we are. Our team of underwater explosives experts, divers, engineers and the anti-terrorist squad have already started the operation."

"Have they found anything?"

"They are trying. But the lake is huge. They could not do much during the night. They say that it'll take another day to declare the lake completely sanitized. We may come to know about it by tomorrow evening."

"How much time do we have?"

"There is the possibility that the dam on target is not Sardar Sarovar. In that case, if we get to know the exact status of Sardar Sarovar only by tomorrow, then perhaps we will be left with no time."Siddhartha's words hung over in the office like an ominous cloud.

Siddhartha continued to look at the last line. The word 'Simple Harmonic Motion' mocked at him in the same way as the subject line of the email''Their Mad Life'.

"I hope I'm not going mad,"Siddhartha drank a glass of water and turned to Aban, "I know the date, but still don't know the place."

Mother's Ashes

A car was struck
in the traffic snarl near Roorkee. Long queues of buses, private vehicles, trucks were all lined up, waiting for the traffic police to clear the logjam.

Juhi asked her father, "Why did you choose today, the 14
th
of April, for the immersion of Mom's ashes?"

"I could not come to India when your mother died three years ago since the Prime Minister of India was on an official visit to the US. Even after we came back to India after my retirement, I waited for this day since 14
th
April is the most pious day of
Kumbh
. Today is the
Mesha Sankranti
. On this date, the sun rests at the equator for the whole day. The
Vishu
, our Vedic calendar says that on this date, the sun starts its
Uttarayana
, the northward journey. The saints celebrate the day as the beginning of the New Year. So, I chose this date."

"But why did you choose the occasion of Kumbh?

"To understand this, you need to know the origin of Kumbh. At the time of the mythological
Samudramanthan,
when the gods and the demons churned the primordial sea, a golden pot emerged along with many other treasures from the belly of the
samudra.
This pot called
Kalash,
contained divine nectar, which could make anyone immortal. A fierce battle took place between the gods and the demons as they quarreled over who should have the pot of nectar. The demons being stronger than the gods took possession of the golden pot or
Kumbha
. So, Vishnu disguised as
Mohini,
or the beautiful enchantress, lured the demons into giving her the pot of the elixir of immortality. Vishnu started distributing the nectar to the gods, but one of the demons realized that they had been tricked and alerted the other
Asuras.
Immediately, the demons rose up in battle against the gods and one of the gods,
Indra's
son, ran away with the golden pot. This skirmish lasted twelve days, corresponding to twelve human years after which the
Kumbh Mela
is held. During the fierce battle, four drops of the nectar fell in four different places'Haridwar, Prayag, Ujjain and Nasik, and took the form of four holy rivers: the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Shipra and the Godavari. Ever since then, it is believed that whoever takes a dip in these rivers during
Kumbh
or the special celestial configuration, is absolved of all sins and blessed by the Almighty.

"What ritual will we perform there?"

"We will take a dip in the sacred Ganges and then scatter her ashes in the holy water."

The traffic ahead had not moved much. The Ambassador turned to Juhi, "I think we should have some light refreshment."

"It would be better we check-in into the hotel and then have some tea. I'd packed pastries and patties for you. You can have them in the car."

"You must be tired after driving all the way from Delhi."

"I'm fine."

"Still Juhi, a half hour break will do us no harm. Steer left. There is a very nice multi cuisine restaurant Fuzion. I love the vegetarian
tandoori
fare they serve at this place."

"How do you know about it?"

"Your mother and I used to stop by whenever we planned a trip to these parts."

Juhi slowly turned the Mahindra Xylo to the porch of the hotel. The restaurant was full, and the manager asked them to take the garden seats. Snacks were served after a while. Juhi had gone silent and the Ambassador did not know how to start a conversation.

"Do you still miss your mother?"

Juhi nodded.

The Ambassador continued, "She was a wonderful woman. I miss her every day, each moment. She wanted you to be a doctor. But I never interfered with your dream when you chose to pursue environmental studies. I want you to be happy. I love you and cannot bear tears in your eyes. Ever since you have come back from America, you have not been your cheerful self."

Juhi kept nodding.

"Your grandfather was an army officer, who fought both World Wars for the British Empire. When I qualified for the Indian Foreign Service, he was on cloud nine. I joined the LBS Academy at Mussoorie as probationer and every time, I came home, my mother would pester me to marry this beautiful girl, who was studying medicine. When I finally told her that I was in love with another girl, she was still happy. When I told my parents that the girl I had fallen for was a Christian, my mother, though not very happy, was still willing to compromise for the sake of my happiness. But my father was dead against the relationship. I tried to convince him, but finally succumbed to his emotional blackmail and married the girl of his choice. For a long time, I could not accept your mother as my wife. I even refused to take her to Buenos Aires, when I was posted in the Indian Embassy in Argentina. She was too evolved a person and too strong to do anything about my audacity, even though she disliked it. When I realized what she truly was, I began to feel small."The Ambassador fell silent.

"Will the story of two love birds come to an end?"Juhi stared blankly to a dimly lit lamppost for long time. A while later, she turned to her father, "Do you still love your first love?"

"Yes. I do."

"Do you want me to forget my first love?"

"No, my sweetheart. Not at all. I don't want to repeat the same mistake your grandfather did because it just results in wasting years in the lives of two people."

Both father and daughter kept quiet for a very long time.

"Where is Aban?"

Roosevelt Dam

Siddhartha rang Robert McLean,
"We have decoded the file 'Their Mad Life'. It talks about the surveillance of a lake and some simulation details --
Period, frequency, phase, amplitude of simple harmonic motion
."

"I'm afraid, Siddhartha, this is a very dangerous situation. In fact, our counterterrorist experts have known for many years that al Qaeda has been preparing to attack big dams. They possess photographs and notes of the target locations in the USA. Even more chilling are the disturbing facts that have come up with our military findings in Kabul. They have seized a computer from an al Qaeda office, which has models of a dam that has been created using structural architecture and engineering software. The simulation, attached to the file, is about the catastrophic failure of a big dam. However, we cannot identify any specific dam, which might be their target. The simulation is the proof of their complete preparedness and not a mere feasibility study. They have engineers, who use Microstran and AutoCAD with complete mastery. So, obviously they have advanced software for analyzing steel and concrete structures and classifying rocks and soils. They can conjure up architectural designs in three dimensions like a magician with a flourish of a wand. In fact, the simulation shows precise calculations of how a wall of tidal water, surging downstream, can bring an unimaginable catastrophe.

"Have you run the simulation, transposing it on a real-life dam?"

"Yes we have. We took help of Aban's project and chose the Roosevelt Dam to see the results of simulation. The hydrological engineers told us that this dam backs the largest man made reservoir, holding gallons of water. What I saw was beyond imagination."

Robert McLean described the details like a movie was playing in front of his very eyes.

The Roosevelt Dam broke. It swept off the city of Phoenix from the map of America. Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale and many other nearby cities got inundated, killing millions. The entire area, being saucer like with no water outlet was a disaster waiting to happen. Once the area got submerged, the water did not drain out for years. Nothing could be done for decades except for people to pray that the water would evaporate quickly.

"Still, the breaching of a dam requires massive explosives, and in all likelihood, a big dam will withstand most shockwaves."

"That's true, but technology today can enable a person to breach anything from cyberspace, even if he has never seen the place. A twelve-year-old boy, sitting thousands of miles away, hacked into the SCADA system, which runs Roosevelt Dam and opened the massive floodgates. If this could happen a decade back, think of the possibilities that the technology of today can unleash."