The Mahabharata Secret (4 page)

Bheem Singh wore an expression of concern on his face. ‘I had no idea.’ He looked at White. ‘You don’t know, I suppose, that Vikram Singh was murdered just three days ago? They found his body in the fort.’

‘Good Lord!’ White was aghast. No, I didn’t know...I wasn’t told...oh my god! Do you think his knowledge of the Nine was the reason he was killed?’ He took a deep breath. ‘I’ve got to go to Jaungarh then. He was a good friend.’

‘We’ll go together,’ his host offered.’ I had met Vikram a few times though I didn’t know him well. We’ll drive down tomorrow morning; it’s not too far from here.’

White was still recovering from the shock. ‘I think I’ll go back to my hotel, if you don’t mind. I...I need to be alone for a while. Thank you for your offer of dinner, but I hope you understand.’

‘Of course,’ Bheem Singh sounded sympathetic. ‘I’m sorry; I should have been gentler in breaking the news. I just wasn’t thinking.’

Through the 15-minute drive to his hotel, White’s thoughts revolved around Vikram Singh. He recalled how, a few years ago, he had scoffed at Vikram when he had shared his idea about the Nine and their true purpose, over the centuries. And now, he was dead, murdered.

He reached the hotel and made his way up to his room, as if in a daze. As he approached the room, he gave a start. The door was ajar. Was one of the housekeeping staff inside?

White cautiously pushed the door open and peered inside. The room seemed to be in order. He reprimanded himself; Bheem Singh’s words of caution and the news of Vikram’s death had psyched him so much that he was imagining things. The housekeeping staff had probably been negligent in locking the door after them. He made a mental note to complain in the morning. For now, he planned on having a large Scotch and a light dinner before turning in early. The jetlag, too, was beginning to take its toll.

He entered the room and shut the door, double-locking it behind him. Flinging his jacket on the bed, he bent down to open the mini bar. A shadow fell across the small refrigerator, but before he could react, something hard hit him at the base of his neck and everything went black.

4

Day 4

Jaungarh Fort

‘Thank you for everything, Homi,’ Vijay said gratefully, as he escorted the lawyer to the front door.

Homi nodded to Vijay. ‘Let me know if you plan to visit Delhi in the next few days. We can schedule a meeting to complete the paperwork related to your uncle’s will. Or, I can always get the papers to the fort. Whatever works better for you.’

Vijay returned to the living room and joined Shukla and Radha. They had offered to stay the night and keep him company.

‘Thanks for being here,’ he said. ‘It would have been difficult to stay alone in the fort tonight.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I’d better be going. Colin’s flight arrives at 5.45 pm. You can ask the butler for dinner. I’ll eat when I’m back.’

Exactly two hours later, he was pulling into the parking lot of the T3 terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport. He found a vacant slot for his uncle’s BMW, and made a dash for the arrival hall.

There weren’t too many international flights arriving at this time so there was a sparse collection of people who had come to greet the arrivals on the American Airlines flight from Chicago.

Vijay swiftly made his way to the arrival area. He quickly spotted the tall, blonde, young man, carrying a laptop and wheeling a large yellow suitcase, scrutinising the faces of those waiting for the passengers. Vijay shook his head and smiled. Even if he couldn’t spot Colin, it would be difficult to miss that bright yellow suitcase!

He had met Colin Baker at MIT and, despite being from two different worlds, they had become close friends. Vijay and Colin had played together in the MIT rugby and football teams and shared a sense of humour which had cemented their friendship. After graduating, they had shunned employment and teamed up to start a technology firm in San Jose, which was now working on developing a technology to convert sunlight into electricity using the thermoelectric effect.

They were similar in many ways; both were tall and broad- shouldered and keen athletes, and spent at least one month in the year together, trekking, cycling and camping out. They shared a sense of adventure that seemed to be at odds with their aptitude for technology and enjoyed any activity that had any kind of risk associated with it. But that was where the similarities ended. Colin had blonde hair, blue eyes and filmstar looks, while Vijay was dark-haired and unconventionally good-looking. Colin was the life of every party while Vijay was more reserved.

‘Colin!’ Vijay whooped, and the tall, young man turned to look in his direction. A smile immediately spread over his face, the warmth reflected in his eyes.

The two friends embraced warmly.

Colin waved a hand at the people around them. ‘I thought India had a large population and expected more people to turn up to welcome me. Is this all you could muster?’

Vijay shook his head in mock exasperation. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’

They made their way to the car park where the BMW was parked.

‘Mmm, nice car,’ Colin looked it over admiringly. ‘The latest 7 series model. Your uncle’s?’

Vijay nodded. ‘Uncle bought this a few months back.’ He paused, before adding, ‘He liked cars and could afford a fleet, but never owned more than one at a time. I guess that’s because there’s space for only one car at the fort.’

‘Are we going there straightaway?’ Colin enquired ‘I’m looking forward to staying in a real Indian fort.’

‘You’ll like it. Its 500 years old and more peaceful than the city.’

He turned onto the highway that connected Delhi with Jaipur and accelerated.

‘Looks like New York,’ Colin remarked. ‘I mean the tight squeeze out there.’

Vijay grinned. The blaring horns of the tightly packed traffic could be heard even inside the BMW.

After a while, the highway suddenly broadened and traffic slowed.

‘Gosh, will you look at
that
traffic.’ Colin gazed out at the sea of cars, buses and trucks that stretched out before them.

‘It’s the toll plaza,’ Vijay grumbled, manoeuvring his way through the densely packed traffic until he could proceed no further. ‘There’s a second one ahead that’s as bad.’

‘I have something to tell you,’ he said once he managed to work out which queue they were in. Somehow, remarkably, the tsunami of vehicles sorted themselves out into lanes that led to the individual toll gates ahead.

Colin listened intently as Vijay brought him up to date on the events of the last three days. ‘Wow!’ he breathed, ‘It’s really sad about your uncle. I hope they find out who did it and why. But I don’t understand why your uncle sent you those mails. They don’t make sense.’

Vijay frowned. ‘I just can’t shake off the feeling that uncle was trying to tell me something. Suppose he knew the intruders? Let’s say his alarm system warned him that it was being hacked and he realised his life was in danger. What would he do? Perhaps he felt he should leave behind something for me; a message hidden in emails that didn’t make sense, so that whoever murdered him and stripped the study wouldn’t find what they were looking for. But I don’t know where to start figuring this out.’

Suddenly, Colin let out a yell. ‘Look out!’

A black Mercedes with tinted black windows rushed out from an adjacent toll gate and overtook them, almost hitting the BMW in the process.

‘Bloody idiot!’ Vijay, shaken, slowed down the car and watched the Mercedes race away over the flyover. Once on the flyover, Vijay began moving back and forth between lanes to Colin’s consternation. ‘Slow-moving and fast-moving traffic mingle in India,’ he explained to his friend. ‘There isn’t a concept of a fast lane. Well, in theory there is,’ he corrected himself. Grinning, he looked in the rear-view mirror and prepared to change lanes again. His grin changed to a frown as he swung the BMW into the lane on the left. Almost immediately, he overtook the car on his right and swung back into the right lane, accelerating as he executed the manoeuvre.

‘What’s up?’ Colin noticed his expression.

‘It’s funny, but there’s a black Ford Endeavour that seems to be sticking to our tail.’ Vijay glanced in the mirror again, and moved two lanes to the left.

Colin glanced back and sat upright. ‘You’re right. The Endeavour just changed two lanes. It’s right behind us now.’

‘Okay, I’m going to test him.’ Vijay swerved to the furthest lane on the right, eliciting angry honks from the cars whose paths he cut across. The Ford followed suit, equally unconcerned about the indignation of the other drivers.

Vijay couldn’t figure out why the Ford was sticking to them, but he was worried. He had heard stories of cars being stopped by goons in Gurgaon and the occupants robbed of their belongings and vehicles. He cut across to the left, heading for the nearby exit.

‘He’s right behind us,’ Colin remarked, looking back.

Vijay swerved the BMW to enter one of the villages that dotted either side of the highway and immediately got swamped by cows, dogs, bicycles, tractors, cars and vans that slowly made their way between shops on either side.

The Ford was faring no better, its bulk slowing it down.

Colin asked, ‘D’you know where you are going?’

Vijay shook his head. ‘No idea. I just want to get that guy off our tail. Whoever he is, he’s bad news.’

He spotted a gap in the traffic and an alley leading off the road they were on. It was narrow but it seemed to be free of vehicles. It was a concrete alley just able to fit two cars abreast. Vijay hoped that they wouldn’t come across another car coming from the opposite direction.

‘He’s turned in behind us,’ Colin updated Vijay, who swore under his breath and accelerated.

The BMW came to the end of the alley. Ahead was the main road.

‘Left or right?’ Vijay wondered aloud.

‘He’s coming at us,’ Colin warned. ‘Just go left.’

Vijay stepped on the accelerator and the car lurched forward as he swerved sharply into the main road.

‘Shit!’

A black Mercedes was bearing down upon them, from the right, while another black Ford Endeavour raced towards them from the opposite direction.

‘This isn’t good.’ Colin shook his head. ‘These guys are coordinating this chase. They’ve been with us for a while. That Merc was at the toll plaza.’

Vijay nodded, his eyes glued to the road as he weaved through the meagre traffic on the road. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror showed the two Fords, close behind, weaving through the traffic at high speed. The second Ford had made a U-turn and joined the one that had been chasing them so far.

Where was the Mercedes?

Suddenly, the traffic thinned out to almost nothing and Vijay pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The sudden rush of power to the engine propelled the car forward, but the near absence of traffic had given the Fords the opportunity to speed up as well.

A roundabout came into view up ahead.

Colin quizzed, ‘You aren’t going to slow down?’

Vijay nodded grimly. ‘I think this car can take that turn at high speed. At least it will do a better job than the Fords. They are top heavy and I don’t think they’ll dare try.’

Colin grinned. ‘This is more like it. I prefer this welcome to the one you gave me at the airport. This is
dangerous
.’

Vijay smiled despite himself. The adrenalin rush felt good, he had to admit. He forced himself to focus on their objective. They had to get rid of their pursuers. Whoever they were!

They gained on the roundabout, the Fords still at the same distance behind them. It looked like Vijay’s plan was going to work. The roundabout was now just metres ahead of them and Vijay braced himself to handle the car as it rounded the bend.

Suddenly, he caught a flash of black out of the corner of his eye.

The black Mercedes!

The driver obviously had swung into the service road on the right, and had moved in parallel with the BMW, matching their speed. Vijay had been so intent on losing the Fords that he hadn’t noticed the Mercedes racing in the same direction.

It reached the roundabout before them and slowed down as it swung around the roundabout and directly into the path of the BMW.

‘Merc!’ Colin noticed the car now.

Vijay didn’t have an option. He slammed the brakes and swerved to the left in one action, to avoid crashing into the other car. The BMW’s tyres screeched and the car wobbled on its suspension as they narrowly missed the Mercedes and screeched to a halt.

Barely had the car stopped than there was a loud crash, with the BMW being pitched forward violently; one of the Fords had smashed into the car.

The airbags ballooned, as Vijay and Colin were thrown forward with the force of the impact.

‘Are you okay?’ Colin enquired tremulously of Vijay.

‘I think so,’ Vijay grunted. ‘Just badly shaken.’

Footsteps approached and they perceived five men standing outside the car. A thrill coursed through Colin as he realised that each one carried a 9mm mini UZI sub machine gun, capable of firing 1,700 rounds per minute in closed bolt position.

A few curious bystanders had gathered around, attracted by the accident, but scattered immediately when they saw the weapons. Two cars passed, slowing to observe the scene, but they, too, speeded up when they saw the guns.

Now, there were just the two friends and the armed men.

One of the men, apparently the leader of the group, barked orders in a strange language, his voice harsh and grating. The door of the BMW was wrenched open and Vijay and Colin dragged out. They didn’t offer any resistance. It would have been foolish under the circumstances.

Vijay glanced at the Ford that had smashed into his car. The SUV was a wreck but the driver was climbing out, unhurt,with just a limp.

The two friends were rounded up and taken to the second Ford and dumped in the back, their hands bound behind their backs.

Outside, they saw one of the men get behind the wheel of the BMW. It started smoothly and after some instructions from the leader, the man drove the car away. The leader and another man got into the Mercedes and the other two settled into the remaining Ford, after blindfolding their captives.