Operation Chaos: A Gripping Action Thriller (19 page)

You will need to completely devote your soul to the purpose... You must surrender yourself to Lord Buddha.

Surrender to Lord Buddha?

''The translation of the script from the dhvaj is almost clean except for this part,'' Shonali said to Sameer, pointing the finger at that line. ''It translates as - Continue your journey and you may find the answers you seek and you must surrender yourself to Lord Buddha.''

The line kept playing with Sameer's mind.

Surrender to Lord Buddha... Surrender to Lord Buddha... How to surrender to this sculpture?

Suddenly, he had a hunch.

He explained his intuition to Shonali. ''Maybe the surrender here refers to taking blessings, to devote oneself to the Buddha.''

''Okay. But, how does that help?'' Shonali asked.

''So how do you surrender to someone or seek blessings of someone?''

Shonali took a second to answer.

''Um... By bowing down or by touching his feet...''

And then it hit Shonali-
THE FEET! The feet of Lord Buddha- that's where the answer lies. Surrender yourself to Lord Buddha.

Sameer saw the look of realisation on Shonali's face and smiled to himself. They dashed towards the feet of the sculpture!

**********

"39GENJ3011AKINOM"

One second left.

It was the astounding speed at which Ranjeet typed the password as the operator spoke which filled up the 16 blank spaces just a few milliseconds before the window closed.

The screen went blank for a couple of seconds.

Ranjeet crossed his fingers as he went on to type a command in his console window.

Hope it works.

He a typed in a test command and it executed spot on! He heaved a sigh of relief as he realised that he had barely made it through this firewall. But now the work had to go faster. Disconnecting the call, he had a little celebration in his mind and then went back to his work. He was halfway through.

Chapter 50

''So you say we search around the feet? But we have already looked there. We got nothing,'' David said, looking at Shonali who was busy observing the area around the feet very carefully. She had checked for hidden compartments, but there was nothing there.

The Black Cats watched in bewilderment as Shonali and Sameer were searching around the feet of the sculpture hysterically.

''Ma'am, this place was discovered a long time ago and many historians have inspected the place since;
searched  for  secret caves, passages or cryptic sculptures. It has also been open for the public.
I don’t think you will find anything new here,'' the local guide tried to convince Shonali.

But Shonali’s mind was on fire as her intuition directed her to observe minutely, search for an opening or a mark, from every possible angle, impervious to what others were saying.

''You know what- there is never a timeline for history to be discovered. You cannot compartmentalise history. That is one thing that this night has taught me. I saw a script hidden in the midst of the one of the oldest stupas. And that changed my perspective of looking at history. Maybe we are looking over something, or missing something.'' There was a vehemence and a conviction in her voice that was unmistakable.

Sameer was flashing a light towards the bottom of the feet, when he saw a glare. A very small amount light was being reflected back into his eyes. Only he could observe it because the glare fell directly on his eyes.

What's that? A mirror?

Sameer cleared up his throat and announced to everyone in the cave.

''Everyone, I need everyone to switch off their flashlights. Can we get these spotlights out too? '' he said, turning to the local guide.

''In a moment.'' The confused guide dialled a number from his phone.

''What did you find, Sameer?'' Shonali asked excitedly.

''Just hang on a second. Need to confirm it first,'' Sameer said, clutching his flashlight tightly.

Everyone had turned off their flashlights and lanterns. A few seconds later, the spotlights went out. The cave was pitch black now.

David had kept on his night vision goggles just in case of any surprise attacks in the darkness.

Sameer switched on his flashlight and carefully directed it towards the spot from where he got the glare. After a couple of attempts, he hit the spot and observed a glare coming from an unknown spot.

''There!'' said Sameer pointing at the feet of the Buddha. ''Can you see a beam of light being reflected back from somewhere around the bottom of the feet of the carving?'' Sameer asked, drawing Shonali’s attention to a tiny section where the feet touched the back wall. But Shonali couldn't make out the source of the reflection in the blinding darkness. All she could see was the light from Sameer's flashlight.

''I can see it! A very thin beam. It goes and hits somewhere on the ceiling of the cave!'' David observed.

Through his night visions, David had a clear picture of the light beam emerging and hitting the roof. He went and stood exactly below the point where the beam hit the ceiling. ''This is where it hits the ceiling,'' David added, pointing upwards.

Sameer asked everyone to switch on their flashlights.

''Do you think there is some sort of arrangement of mirrors over there,'' Sameer asked, pointing to the compartment in the rock near the feet of Buddha from where the ray of light had emerged.

''Mirrors? In such a small compartment?'' Raghav was confused.

Shonali was the one to reply. ''Yes! It's possible and it makes sense too. While carving and excavation of these caves, mirrors or light reflecting surfaces such as pans filled with water were extensively used to disperse the light falling at the entrance of the cave inside the dark caves where the sculptures were being carved. Obviously they had no spotlights in those days, so they had to depend on reflecting surfaces to direct the light inside the caves which used to be dark even during broad daylight. So it can possibly be an arrangement of curved mirrors which must be focussing the light to that single point on the ceiling.''

Sameer remembered the lines written on the dhvaj-
Beyond the darkness is the light of wisdom.

Sameer took a deeper look at the small hole through which the light had shot out. In the darkness he could not see much, but was pretty sure of the presence of a hollow space somewhere inside  that compartment  where the entire mirror mechanism would be resting.

''I suppose we start looking at the spot on the ceiling of the cave where the beam touched,'' David said turning to Shonali.

''Of course it would be hidden in the roof... Again! Nobody looks for anything on the ceiling and that's where these Buddhist monks have hidden their stuff,'' Shonali quoted, with a little smile on her face.

The ceiling was not that high and this time they had some help from the local authorities who made arrangements for a ladder to be put up. Five minutes later, Commander David D'costa reached up to the ceiling and felt the cold stone roof against his palm. He moved his hand along the stone surface to search for any cracks or compartments. The ceiling was absolutely plain, without any sign of any hidden spaces. David switched on his night vision and tried to see the surface more clearly. After five minutes of fruitless investigation, a disappointed David was tired of searching.

''Miss Shonali, are you absolutely sure we are on the right track? This looks like a dead end to me. There's absolutely nothing up there,'' said David as he climbed down the ladder.

''I think this should be it. There's no other location I could infer from the
dhvaj.
''

''Let me go and take a look,'' Raghav volunteered.

''Sure, go ahead. Give it a try. After all, you found that
dhvaj
,'' David said, stepping away from the ladder.

Raghav climbed up and switched on his night vision goggles. He could see the small stream of light directed from near the feet of Lord Buddha on the ceiling. He touched the spot on the ceiling where the stream of light hit. He tried searching for a button or lever, but the ceiling was plain and hard. Raghav pressed hard his finger on the spot again where the light hit and that's when he got some movement. The ceiling of the cave shifted up to a very little distance. Raghav smiled to himself.

Shonali and David were standing below watching him expectantly to come up with something.

''I think something just moved. I don't know what it-''

Raghav's words remained incomplete as a big mass of rock parted from the ceiling out of nowhere and fell right on Raghav. Losing his balance, Raghav dropped down. Shonali and David watched in horror as the huge slab of medieval rock accelerated right towards them!

Chapter 51

Muhammed had followed his master's orders to the word. Now it was time to get ready for his final task. Having narrowly escaped the intelligence officers at the metro station, he had managed to get a room in another hotel far away. He planned everything with extreme care and meant to make no mistakes this time.

Assignment 6.00 was not as easy as he had thought. It had been difficult to get a truck good enough to serve his purpose, but the next task was much more difficult. It was almost 4 am in the morning and he only had two hours before the President would make an appearance in the press conference.

On the desk in front of him were the maps of roadways in Delhi. His master had informed him that the President would be landing at Safdarjung Airport instead of Indira Gandhi International Airport. Muhammed had then scanned and searched for every possible route which David D'costa would take to reach the I.B. headquarters, where the conference was going to be held.

He cross-marked the positions on the road where he would have to set up the cameras for surveillance and park his truck. He knew he had to strike from a considerable distance as the impact had to be done with maximum possible velocity.

Muhammed only had one shot to kill the President of India.

Chapter 52

Shonali and David were under excruciating pain. The weight of the slab of rock from the ceiling was crushing them slowly. They tried desperately to hold their hands up against the slab, but it was too heavy for them. Raghav had already passed out after hitting the ground hard. Shonali was screaming in pain, her left elbow taking the entire weight of the slab and her right palm desperately trying to push back the slab. The black commandos teamed up into two teams and started to lift the rock from two ends. It took the muscle effort of ten strong hands to move that heavy slab up by inches. After a combined effort, Shonali and David were able to crawl out from under the rock, but Raghav was still trapped and unconscious.

David signalled his team to hold it for a bit longer and once again crawled in to drag out Raghav. It was a difficult task with the heavy weight pinning him down and Raghav's leg being caught under the rock. Sameer went over to the other side and helped the commandos lift the slab an inch more so David could slide out Raghav's leg.

Shonali, who was now resting near the entrance of the cave, asked for a bottle of water. As she pressed her handkerchief against the wound on her elbow, she knew it needed medical attention. One of the commandos swiftly attended to it and rested Shonali's left hand in a temporary sling.

David had some minor injuries to his shoulder and wrist, but Raghav was badly injured. His leg had been stuck under the rock for too long. Sgt Harish bandaged Raghav's leg while David sat silently drinking water. In one corner of the cave, he saw Shonali resting her head against the sculpture of Reclining Buddha, sitting quietly.

''I should have never asked you to help us. I didn't know I would be putting you in danger,'' David said as he walked towards her.

''Nothing that I can't handle. I am fine. Just the elbow hurts a little. Your medic said that it would recover soon. I was hoping that we don't mention about this incident to my dad. Let's just say I slipped somewhere. How is Capt. Raghav?'' she asked.

''I think he is coming around,'' said David, pointing
towards Raghav who was starting to regain consciousness.