Operation Chaos: A Gripping Action Thriller (28 page)

''This sculpture must have been examined by numerous historians. How could they have missed an inscription or a hidden compartment here? That is a sculpture of national importance. You sure this is where the painting pointed to?'' asked Raghav.

''Those historians looked at the Capital just as a sculpture- not as something which King Ashoka designed to hide a possession of Lord Buddha. I can just HOPE that this is where that painting pointed to,'' replied Shonali.

''So where do we start looking?'' Sameer put forth another question.

''I have a hunch. But for that I will need to bring this Capital to the ground level. It's difficult for me to examine the sculpture,'' said Shonali. The Capital extended up to almost a feet or two above her head.

Raghav suggested that it was best that they climbed up on some elevated platform to observe the sculpture rather than shifting it to ground level. He sent his team to arrange for some tables.

''And what's your hunch?'' Sameer asked Shonali.

''Remember what the script on the painting said
-
destiny resting on a flower and guarded day and night by the faithful guards of the King of Magadha.
So we know that whatever it is- it lies above the inverted lotus. Which leaves us with the circular abacus...'' said Shonali, pointing to the side of the abacus where the four carved animals- lion, elephant, bull and horse moved in a clockwise fashion, ''... and the four lions. These four lions are said to be guarding the artefact. So where would you hide something if you have these four lions as guards?''

''At the... centre?'' replied Sameer with a hint of apprehension.

''Exactly!'' said Shonali with excitement beaming in her eyes.

''How can you be so sure?'' asked Raghav, arranging the tables with the help of his teammates.

''I did tell you that originally this Lion Capital had a Dharmachakra with 32 spokes resting upon the heads of the lions. Why was it placed there? The one at Sanchi didn't have any Dharmachakra over it! Don't you think it was an attempt to hide something in the centre so that it wouldn't be seen from the top?'' asked Shonali.

''Okay. Let us assume that your hypothesis is correct. But where would it be hidden. There is no place in the centre of the lions, and the circular abacus below also doesn't look like it contains any hidden compartment. Also, this Lion Capital is carved out from a single block of sandstone- there are no joints. So where would it be possibly-'' Sameer was interrupted by the curator.

''Actually, there IS a void in the centre,'' the curator said softly.

''Where?'' asked Shonali, quickly climbing up the table to have a clear view of the space in the centre of the Capital where the four lions were back-to-back.

''When this Capital was being examined by experts, they reported that there was a small void somewhere around the centre, but it was just considered as a structural defect. They said it was common for many of the old artefacts and sculptures to develop such minute defects over a period of time,'' the curator answered.

''So that's where we should be focusing. Can I get a flashlight?'' asked Shonali, keenly observing the space at the centre. The backs of the lions merged at one point and it was quite a distance above the circular abacus
.

That's a lot of space. The void should be somewhere midway,
thought Shonali. Sameer climbed up the table with a flashlight and focused the beam of light at the point where the backs merged. The bottom looked completely plain, without any hole or void. After a few moments of minutely focusing the flashlight on the rock, Shonali observed an abnormality! A tiny piece of stone was bulging out of the base. Even though the sculpture was carved out of a single block of sandstone, a part of the void was shut by another piece of sandstone. They had found the opening!

The next job didn't take much time. Raghav and his team expertly pulled out the tiny piece of sandstone covering the void with some help from the curator.

That's how the artefact remained hidden all these years. Placed in plain sight!
Shonali was amazed. She flashed the light at the void and tried to view it from different angles. ''I think I see something in there,'' Shonali said hesitantly.

''Whatever it is, it has been kept hidden from the world for almost 2000 years. I think it's time for the world to know about this missing artefact,'' quoted Sameer. The deepest secret of the cult of monks was about to be revealed!

Chapter 71

Wheeler Island, Bay of Bengal.

Co-ordinates-
20° 45
′
 28.94
″
 N, 87° 5
′
 7.92
″
 E

Time- 7:20 am

At the western end of the wall, the commandos had made a small gate by cutting out a portion of the steel grill. Everyone checked their ammunition, set a 13 minute timer on their wristwatches and split into three teams as decided.
Cpl. Swaraj and Cpl. Abhinav
took positions with their teams and got ready to pounce on the enemy at Capt. Pratap's orders.

In the control tower, Irfan was monitoring the feed from the security cameras all night. His eyes, heavily stressed from monitoring the activities at the facility, were drooping down. His teammates did a fine job watching over the scientists taken as hostages and taking them to the restroom after certain intervals of time. There had been no sign of any kind of attempts by the Indian army to infiltrate the facility. The sensor readings looked perfectly normal and the cameras showed no unusual activity.

As he was just about to go into a nap, Irfan's eyes caught a little activity on the cameras as if he had seen something move on a camera positioned at the north-west part of the facility. Shaking his head vigorously in an attempt to shake off the drowsiness, he leaned forward towards the screen to observe more closely. That very instant, there was a minute disturbance in the reception from the cameras and screens turned blank. Even the lights in the control room went out. The power to the entire facility had been turned off.

''We
have about 14 minutes, soldiers. It is now or never- we don't want those missiles taking off from here. I want these bastards dead. Take them all out.''
Capt. Pratap's words rang on the radio of every commando.

The three teams, with their silenced rifles, moved cover to cover through the woods towards their destination- Modules 13 and 14. The northern part of the facility was a typical forested area which made Cpl. Swaraj's and
Cpl. Abhinav's teams easy to push ahead in the ample cover of trees and rocks. Sgt. Parag and Lance Cpl. Nishant split their ways and decided to circle the perimeter on the cemented road running on the boundary of the facility. They had encountered a terrorist stationed at the northern watch tower. Before the terrorist could even sense Indian commandos running into the woods behind him, Sgt. Parag had finished him with two shots from his silenced rifle.
There may be terrorists stationed at the eastern watch tower too,
Parag predicted. There was no watch tower at the western end; that section of the island being on an uneven terrain was left out from the core facility area. Parag decided to check out the eastern watch tower, while Nishant proceeded towards the southern part of the island along the boundary of the facility. He made a swift three sixty degree sweep of his horizon,
but there was nothing to be seen, nobody to be seen.
It never appeared to them as if the island was captured by terrorists. The entire woods were clear, the cemented roads showed no signs of terrorist activities and even the missile building workshops were filled with an eerie silence. Abhinav and
Swaraj's
teams, on reaching the central sector of the facility, were surprised to find that they hadn't seen encountered a single terrorist until then. Yet Cpl Abhinav and Cpl Swaraj decided to play it safe. One team moved towards the southern part of the facility maintaining a low profile while the other got in position to provide a covering fire in case of a surprise ambush. Their wristwatches displayed they had 9 minutes 47 seconds left...

The technical expert of the terrorists, Razak, sat perplexed figuring out the reason why the power had gone unexpectedly. He checked with Irfan and asked if any strange activities had been detected on the cameras. Irfan shook his head to indicate a negation although there were slight suspicions disturbing his mind. Azar, Hasib and Razak had arrived at the facility after completing their job with Muhammed at Dehli. Abbaz had been leading the operation on the island for the initial phase, but after Razak arrived, he took over the control from Abbaz. There were 30 seconds left for the power to come back when Razak thought of contacting his contemporaries at the watch towers. He hurriedly grabbed the mouthpiece and spoke into it.

''Sohail? Everything alright there at the northern end?''

There was no reply. ''Sohail? Come in. Pick up the goddamn walkie-talkie.'' Razak kept on trying.

''He must have dozed off. Try the eastern watch tower,'' suggested Irfan.

''Parvez. Come in,'' Razak tried out Irfan's suggestion.

''Haan Janab,'' was the prompt reply on the radio.

''Everything alright there?'' asked Razak.

''Yes. Everything is fine,'' replied Parvez.

''Keep an eye out. I suspect something is not right,'' Razak said, putting down the radio in a hurry as the computer screens in front of him came to life. The back-up generator was functioning and the missile systems started rebooting.

As soon as Parvez put down the radio and reached for his gun, a bullet from Sgt Parag's rifle tore right through his head. Parag had been waiting for his window of opportunity and as soon as the radio was off, he knew the coast was clear.

Cpl. Swaraj's team had checked the Module 13 and had come up with nothing. Now they knew one thing for certain - their hostages were in Module 14. Cpl. Abhinav advanced ahead with his team to the east side entrance of the Module 14 while Cpl. Swaraj and his team planned to breach in the Module through the western entrance. Meanwhile, Capt. Pratap and Ranjeet had doubled back to the western side of the facility where they found the hole cut out in the steel grill. They entered the facility and sprinted towards the Module 14 with just seven minutes left for the systems to boot up.

Abbaz and Hasib were keeping a watch over the hostages kept in two separate rooms on the second floor of Module 14 while Azar patrolled down the corridor on the first floor. Cpl. Swaraj found a window beside the western door and quietly cut out a portion of glass, unlatched the window and managed to get inside the Module. The module faintly resembled a shed with two floors where the scientists had their offices and research labs. Swaraj checked the ground floor for any signs of activity and then unlatched the door, letting his team inside the Module. The ground floor lobby had two reception desks and models of missiles kept at the centre. There were maps and plans scattered on a sofa at the other end of the Module. The teams scattered and searched the ground floor inch by inch. 5 minutes 14 seconds remaining. Swaraj slowly moved to the first floor, taking the staircase when he heard some footsteps approaching near him. By the sound of the approaching footsteps, Swaraj guessed there was just one man. Swaraj quickly crouched down and took cover behind the wall as he heard the footsteps come nearer. All of a sudden he sprung up from his cover and fired rounds at his target. Even before Azar could reach for his pistol, six bullets silently tore through him. His lifeless body made a soft impact on the ground. Swaraj signalled his team to move to the first floor and investigate the offices.

4 minutes 43 seconds remaining. Ranjeet and Capt. Pratap had now reached Module 14. Ranjeet's next move was to get into the central cable of the security cameras and loop the feed.

Abhinav and his team moved to the second floor. They could sense some murmur and footsteps coming from the adjoining rooms. After scanning the rooms with their thermal imaging cameras, Abhinav and Swaraj located the rooms where the hostages were being held.

''We have the locations of the hostages. Moving in to secure them now!'' Abhinav reported to Pratap on radio.

''Cpl Abhinav, this is Ranjeet. I need you to stand down for about half a minute. Need some footage of the terrorists watching over the hostages to loop the video,'' Ranjeet spoke into the radio.

After exactly thirty seconds, both the teams simultaneously busted into the rooms, taking the terrorists completely by surprise. Swaraj's team fired at Abbaz. They were quick and efficient. But before Abhinav could pull a trigger on his rifle, Hasib pulled a scientist and leveled his gun on him. They now had a hostage situation. Every team member of Abhinav's team had his aim on Hasib but no one was sure if they had a clear shot. Capt. Pratap came in the room, aiming his pistol at Hasib. He saw Hasib taking small steps towards the walkie talkie
. If he alerts the control tower, then we are done! The missiles will b
e
launched
!
Pratap decided to take the risk. He took the aim and fired four rounds from his pistol. Two bullets went passing by Hasib's left ear, but the third one found its mark. The fourth one tore through the neck, leaving Hasib disoriented. Taking the cue from Capt. Pratap, Abhinav jumped and tackled the scientist on the floor, making Hasib an easy target for his soldiers. The soldiers rained bullets into Hasib's chest, thighs and head. There was a minute left before the security cameras were going to be back on.