The Krishna Key (12 page)

The thirteenth year arrived. It was the year in which my cousins had to remain undetected. They disguised themselves and took up employment
with King Virata of Matsya. Yudhistira became a Brahman
—
Kanka; Bhima became a cook
—
Ballava; Arjuna chose to lose his manhood and became a female dance teacher
—
Brihanalla; Nakula became a horse groomer
—
Damagranthi; Sahadeva became a veterinarian
—
Tantipala, and Draupadi became a beautician
—
Sairandhri. All six of them worked diligently and succeeded in pleasing their new master, King Virata and his wife Queen Sudeshna. The royal couple noticed that their new staff members were excellent workers but slightly different from the norm. They were much more confident and cultured than ordinary servants. Time flew by without incident, until the queen’s brother, Kichaka, took a fancy to Draupadi.

Outside Chhedi’s office, Priya held Radhika at gunpoint, with Taarak protecting her from behind. They edged out of the office, walked down the walnut-veneered passage and reached the elevator bank. As soon as one arrived, the three of them got in and descended to the lobby. Rathore took the stairs of the fire escape, clattering down in the vain hope of getting to the lobby before them. While running down, he continued to bark orders over his mobile phone. ‘Keep the men on standby, but no one is to take a shot. I cannot afford to have these lunatics panic and kill our chief. Is that clear?’ he shouted.

Once they reached the lobby, Priya pressed the gun harder into Radhika’s ribs and nudged her towards the glass doors that overlooked the entrance foyer and car park. Within a few minutes, a military-green
Jeep driven by a dark and unshaven thug rolled in. ‘Pranam, Mataji!’ he shouted out. Priya nodded. Sir Khan had sent his man dot on time for her.

‘Get in the vehicle!’ she barked at Radhika.

Radhika resisted and said, ‘You’ve got a foolproof strategy for escaping. Why do you need me?’

She was rewarded with a swift knock on the head with the butt of the gun in Priya’s hand. ‘Do as I say and you stay alive! Argue, and you die,’ hissed Priya as Radhika passed out from the blow. Priya, along with Taarak, lifted Radhika into the Jeep and gave instructions to the driver to step on the gas.

‘Sir Khan has asked me to take you to Panchkula. A helicopter is waiting for you at Chandimandir Helipad,’ shouted the driver over the sound of his screeching tyres. Rathore came running out and took a couple of shots at the Jeep’s tyres but was unable to hit them, both bullets only ricocheting off the metal. Rathore swore under his breath. He knew that he had to keep the CBI Special Director Sunil Garg informed. He quickly dialled the number in Delhi and spoke into the phone.

‘Yes, sir… I’m outside Chhedi’s laboratory… Radhika Singh has been taken hostage by Priya Ratnani,’ he explained.

‘I’m sorry to hear that, Rathore. I’ll put out a nationwide alert immediately. Don’t try to follow her… instead, focus on getting all possible details from Saini so that we can figure out where they are headed,’ said Sunil Garg, the Special Director of the CBI who happened to be,’ replied Sir Khanhe’ between i having tea with a friend.

After the conversation ended, the CBI Special Director turned to Sir Khan and smiled. ‘Everything is going as per plan. Now, what more do you want me to do?’

Kichaka was a lecherous fool, but he convinced his sister, Queen Sudeshna, to send Draupadi with some wine to his bedchamber. Worried about her own safety, Draupadi informed Bhima who quietly caught hold of Kichaka and beat him up. Kichaka died in the process, and Sudeshna suspected that Draupadi had played a role in his death. Sudeshna’s other brothers decided that Draupadi would be placed on Kichaka’s funeral pyre to be burnt alive. My strong cousin Bhima appeared like the wind, caught hold of Sudeshna’s brothers and killed them all. No one saw Bhima, though. This allowed Draupadi to maintain the story that she was a Gandharva and that her kin could appear out of thin air to protect her. Worried about the implications of annoying the Gandharvas, King Virata allowed Draupadi to stay on inside the palace even though his wife wanted her to leave.

Saini was in shock. He sat stupefied inside Chhedi’s office wondering how his kind and helpful doctoral
student—Priya—had morphed into a raging inferno, spitting fire and venom. Mataji! He thought back and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

He recalled their halt for coffee and sandwiches at the restaurant on their drive from Jodhpur.
The waiter had brought three cups of coffee. Priya had stretched out her arm and accepted the coffee that was on offer, passing on a cup each to Kurkude and Saini. Kurkude took a few sips of his coffee before getting out of the car to go to the restroom. He passed out in the bathroom due to chloral hydrate-poisoning. Taarak was the one who helped carry him to the car. The seal from Kurkude’s pocket went missing subsequently.
Priya and Taarak had colluded to steal Kurkude’s seal.

His thoughts went back to Porbandar and their escape from the police van.
The van had swerved sharply to the right in order to avoid the crude IED that had been placed in their route. The van doors swung open and a black-masked commando carrying a small semi-automatic said ‘Quick! Get out of the van! We have very little time
—
police reinforcements will be here soon!’ He helped Priya off the van by extending his arm out to her for support and when she came down he quickly pressed an envelope containing cash into her hand. ‘Take it,’ he urged.
Saini cursed himself for not reading the signs of respect, concern and chivalry. The commando had been none other than Taarak helping his boss, Priya!

He struggled to remember their escape from Bhojaraj’s boat into the sea.
‘Is your mobile phone still in the pocket of your jeans?’ Saini had asked Priya. ‘Yes,’ she had replied. ‘If it’s working, I want you to gift it to our host,’ Saini had said. ‘But it’s our only means of communication...’ Priya had protested. ‘Buy another basic
phone with a prepaid SIM card when we reach the city,’ insisted Saini. Priya had nodded in agreement to what Saini was saying. She had quickly punched in a sequence of letters, numbers and characters into her phone. ‘What are you doing?’ asked Saini. ‘Punching in the code for a factory reset. I don’t want any of my messages to be accessible to others…’
Priya had been deleting all traces of her communication with Taarak! a hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per secondadb scriptures

His brain flashed back to his conversation with Priya in the Porbandar hotel room.
‘I had no idea that you knew so much about chakras,’ Saini said in amazement. Priya smiled. ‘I spent several years learning meditation in school. It’s a part of my life that I usually do not discuss,’ she said dismissively. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds.
Priya had been talking about her initiation into a religious order! Why hadn’t he been smart enough to detect that?

He racked the deepest recesses of his memory to recall the day he had been arrested in his classroom by Rathore and Radhika.
Turning to Saini, Priya had said, ‘Don’t worry, Prof! As you know, my father
—
Sanjay Ratnani
—
is a leading criminal lawyer. I’ll ask him to represent you. I’m sure he’ll be able to clear up this mess. For the moment, though, I don’t think you have any alternative but to go with them.’
She hadn’t been helping him but setting him up so that he would take the fall for the murders!

Saini’s head was spinning. He recalled fragments of the scene in the hospital infirmary.
‘You spoke of four seals,’ said Priya. ‘One was given to you
—
and was discovered by the police at your house. What did Varshney do with the other three?’
How had Priya known that there were four seals? He had never shared that information with her.

The conversation with Ratnani at the hospital bed came flooding back into his brain.
‘My daughter respects you immensely, Professor,’ explained Ratnani. ‘She’s brought me into the picture to ensure that you don’t spend the rest of your life in a lockup. Now, will you let me get on with the job of saving your ass?’ Saini looked at Ratnani and then at Priya. He saw her eyes pleading with him to accept her father’s instructions. He sighed. ‘Very well, I’ll go along with whatever you say.’
Father and daughter had been ensuring that he moved on to Dwarka—where the next murder of Bhojaraj was scheduled to happen. setting him up!

Saini saw Priya stirring from her nap as they neared Jodhpur. As she opened her eyes, she saw him smiling at her. ‘Good morning,’ he said to her, ‘we’re almost there. You want to get a bite to eat before we try meeting Kurkude?’ She nodded. ‘I’m starving. I also need to make a phone call.’ ‘To whom?’ asked Saini. ‘Dad. He must be worried sick about me by now,’ she replied.
Saini recalled the number of times that Priya would slink away to make private phone calls, particularly when they reached new destinations—it was to keep either Taarak or her father informed so that they could plan events in advance.

His mind wandered to the murder scene of Bhojaraj aboard the research vessel Radha.
‘Do you know how to check a pulse?’ asked Saini. Priya nodded. ‘I don’t know how to do it on the neck. You will need to cut the duct tape so that I can check his wrist,’ she said. Noticing a pair of specimen scissors on one of the lab counters, Saini grabbed it and quickly cut through the duct tape layers, leaving yet more fingerprints on vital evidence for the police.
Priya had been making sure that his fingerprints were left on
the scissors and duct tape. She had falsely claimed that she did not know how to take a pulse reading from the neck. Yet, she had done so in the case of Kurkude, when he was poisoned.
Saini had grabbed Kurkude’s ,’ replied Sir Khanka saihead by his hair and looked into his eyes. They looked like the lifeless eyes of a corpse. He rushed outside and called Priya in. She ran inside ignoring the sign that read ‘Gentlemen’. ‘Check his pulse!’ yelled Saini. Priya bent down and placed two fingers under the angle of Kurkude’s jaw to check the carotid pulse. ‘He’s alive,’ she said.

He cursed himself for leaving Kurkude in the car with Taarak.
‘It’s better that we split ourselves into two teams,’ said Saini. ‘Good thought,’ said Priya. ‘I’m pretty certain that Radhika Singh believes that you’ve kidnapped Professor Kurkude. Why not let the professor stay in the car while the two of us go in first? If we do not emerge within an hour, Professor Kurkude can come looking for us. Is that acceptable, Professor?’
She had been ensuring that Taarak could eliminate Kurkude when they were alone.

Saini’s thoughts zeroed in on the immediate events of the past inside Chhedi’s office.
Having placed the seal in her pocket, Priya turned to Saini again. ‘Now I have all four seals. Thank you for your location analysis, it shall be most helpful, Professor,’ she smirked. ‘But I’m relieved that I don’t have to listen to your boring lectures anymore.’
Saini realised that it was very possible that Sanjay Ratnani may already have organised for the seal in police evidence to be handed over to his daughter!

News of the death of Kichaka and his siblings reached the ears of Duryodhana. The killing had all the markings of Bhima. Duryodhana now knew that my cousins
—
the Pandavas
—
were hiding in Matsya. He also knew that if he succeeded in catching them before the thirteenth year was out, the Pandavas would have to go back to the forest for another twelve years. It was a delicious thought. He attacked Matsya when King Virata was out on an expedition. The only one available to defend the city was Uttara, Virata’s son, and Brihanalla
—
Arjuna in female disguise. Uttara was terrified of battle but Arjuna was easily able to overcome the Kaurava formations. Duryodhana was ecstatic. ‘That is none other than Arjuna,’ he rejoiced. ‘We have discovered them before the thirteenth year,’ he exulted. His uncle Bhishma cautioned him, ‘A year is calculated differently between solar and lunar calendars. In my opinion, Yudhistira could have revealed himself five months ago without losing the wager!’ Duryodhana vehemently disagreed with Bhishma’s view.