The Krishna Key (13 page)

While Saini was attempting to get his thoughts in order, the Jeep carrying Radhika Singh and her captors was screeching through the streets of Chandigarh, hurtling towards Chandimandir Helipad in Panchkula. ‘Where are we going by chopper,
Mataji?’ asked Taarak, almost shouting to be heard over the din of the engine.

‘Lucknow,’ yelled Priya. ‘From there we take a private charter to Nepalgunj on the Indo-Nepal border!’

‘Why, Mataji?’ asked Taarak.

‘Because that is the place from which we can travel to Simikot along the Nepal-Tibet border. Simikot is the starting point for our trek to Mount Kailash!’

Both Priya and Taarak carried on their conversation inside the Jeep while Radhika’s unconscious body lay stretched on the vehicle’s floor between them. Priya should have reckoned that it was folly to be talk,’ replied Sir Khan like on the Kaliyugaing freely on the assumption that Radhika Singh was unconscious. Radhika Singh was always conscious of everything.

The Robinson R44 chopper stood silently at the helipad with a pilot and another man, awaiting Priya and Taarak. The R44 was a single-engine, four-seater light helicopter. The enclosed cabin had two rows of side-by-side seating for a pilot and three passengers.

They got out of the Jeep and Taarak lifted Radhika Singh’s unconscious body to carry it into the helicopter, but the pilot stopped him. Turning to Priya he said, ‘Mataji, this helicopter can take only four people. I am your pilot and this person here with me is your guide, who will assist you in getting to your destination at Mount Kailash. You and Mr Taarak Vakil can be the third and fourth passengers, but we don’t have the engine capacity to carry a fifth.’

Taarak looked at Priya, waiting for her response. Instead, she turned to the Jeep driver. ‘Since we can’t take Radhika Singh with us, there’s no point in trying
to keep her hostage. Just dump her into Sukhna Lake. The place will soon be swarming with cops when Kurkude’s body is discovered. Discovery of her body will be an added bonus for the police.’

King Virata thanked the Pandavas profusely for having protected his kingdom and gave his daughter Uttari’s hand in marriage to Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu. A Brahmin was then sent by the Pandavas to meet Duryodhana in order to ask for their share of the kingdom. Duryodhana sent his father’s charioteer Sanjay to inform my cousins that nothing was due to them because they had been discovered prior to completion of thirteen years as per the solar calendar, even though the required time period had elapsed as per the lunar calendar. Several sages and other learned men went to meet Dhritarashtra to warn him of the consequences of Duryodhana’s refusal, but Dhritarashtra remained unmoved. It was then that I decided to intercede.

Rathore, Saini and Chhedi were sitting in the Immuno conference room. It was situated on the same floor as Chhedi’s office and was fitted out with the very latest audio and video equipment. The notable absence was that of Radhika Singh.

Chhedi had asked his secretary to arrange for coffee and sandwiches but Rathore ignored the refreshments on offer. Rathore’s mind kept wandering. He was worried about his boss who was missing in action.

‘Priya consciously chose to wait until all four seals had been discovered before revealing her own identity,’ said Saini. ‘She then waited for me to figure out the fact that they represented the swastika—and consequently Mount Kailash. She now thinks that Krishna’s secret lies there, but she does not have one important clue that I do.’

Rathore listened to Saini carefully. It had become evident that they had wasted a great deal of time by focusing police attention on Saini as the prime suspect. It was time to take advantage of his expertise in history instead.

‘What clue do you have that Priya doesn’t?’ asked Chhedi.

Saini turned to Rathore. ‘When your team searched my house, you found the seal that Varshney gave me, but on the day that you arrested me, I was carrying in my pocket a handwritten note from Varshney. The duty sergeant kept it with my personal effects when I was booked into prison. Do you have it with you?’

Rathore nodded. He pulled out the note from his file and passed explorationig Balaramai it on to Saini.

Saini began reading the note that Varshney had handed over to him during their visit to Kalibangan. ‘Varshney was a linguist and loved playing word games,’ he explained as he read the note. ‘I tried reading and rereading this note several times but was unable to make any sense of what my friend
was trying to say. It’s typical gobbledygook that Varshney adored.’

Saini passed on the note to Chhedi and said, ‘Could you project an image of this note on the screen via the overhead projector? It will help if all of us jointly try to crack this.’ With the note duly magnified on the white screen in front of them, everyone was soon absorbed in reading the strange paragraph penned by Varshney.

D’etale r’aknahs! Edise-Breta-Weulb DNA. Rats anispiter. Axis Red Nerrus ajar! Sitih saliak roh salak. XNI dialer, dial, devil. Pitta pott Felnox. Strap lamina on stats. Peek slipup desserts. Tub trams. A kit saw slarem. Un warder!

Could it be a code? Rathore tried examining every alternate letter, then every third letter, but was unable to discern a pattern. His mind kept wandering back to Radhika Singh. Every few minutes he would look at his phone expecting some information about Radhika but the phone remained silent.

Chhedi wondered whether the phrase was an anagram of some sort but even after using an online anagram resource he had come up empty-handed. Saini played with his pen as he attempted to coax meaning from the madness. His reverie was shattered by a booming voice.

‘So, have we cracked this case yet?’ asked Radhika Singh, walking into the conference room purposefully, oblivious of her dishevelled appearance. Rathore heaved a sigh of relief. It was good to see the chief alive!

‘I have an entire contingent of men searching for you all over Chandigarh,’ said Rathore to Radhika. ‘Sorry we were unable to prevent your abduction.’

‘Relax Rathore. The fact that it was a four-seater helicopter became my deliverance,’ joked Radhika.

‘But I sent a team to the helipad. You were not to be found anywhere,’ said Rathore.

‘The Jeep’s driver had been given instructions by Mataji to drive towards Sukhna Lake and to dump me into the lake so that I would drown,’ explained Radhika. ‘Upon reaching there, he lifted me off the floor of the vehicle and placed me on the ground thinking that I was unconscious. He then returned to the Jeep to get rope with which to tie my hands and feet before dropping me into the lake.’

‘But another team is already at Sukhna Lake. Why didn’t those fools find you?’ interrupted Rathore.

‘They did but a little later. It wasn’t their fault that it was a secluded area,’ said Radhika. ‘As it turns out, just as the driver picked up the rope to tie me down I scared the living daylights out of him. I crept up behind him and cursed into his ears at full volume. He spun around to find my face inches away from his own, snarling. Before he could react, my sledgehammer fist had smashed into his jaw and he went crashing to the ground.’

Rathore laughed. He could visualise the scene as it must have played out.

‘While he was on the ground, a heavy spanner fell down from his Jeep,’ continued Radhika. ‘The driver was a glutton for punishment. He picked up the spanner and came towards me, swinging it menacingly at me. I calmly took aim,’ replied Sir Khanpprivates was swift and strategic. He passed out. I hope he isn’t planning to father any children any time soon!’

Radhika had used the rope to tie up the driver. She had then used the driver’s cell phone to try and call Rathore but before she could get through to him she had been spotted by the police team that had discovered Kurkude’s body. They had wanted to inform Rathore immediately but she had ordered them not to. She wanted to examine Kurkude’s body for herself first.

After an hour of crime scene investigation, Radhika had been forcibly bundled into a police car by Rathore’s deputy and dropped off at the Immuno office. She now had to face the far more difficult job of wording an appropriate explanation to Saini. She turned towards him. ‘First of all, you have my sincerest apologies, Mr Saini,’ said Sniffer Singh, magnanimously admitting her mistake. ‘It has now become evident that you could not have been responsible for the serial killings that have happened. I was following the wrong scent.’

Saini smiled at her but there was sadness in his eyes. ‘You were doing your job, Inspector. I just wish that we could have been saved the running around. There was no way that I would ever have imagined that Priya was the enemy. She was the sweetest, most caring individual that I ever knew,’ said Saini. He did not say that he had found himself falling in love with Priya during the past few days. He silently admonished himself for having let his feelings get the better of him.

‘Do you have any thoughts about what our next step should be, ma’am?’ asked Rathore, looking at Radhika.

‘We can’t let them get away,’ said Radhika. ‘We’ve had Varshney brutally killed in his house. We then saw Bhojaraj murdered on his ship. We’ve also had to deal with the slaying of Kurkude’s secretary—Miss Gonsalves. We’ve now discovered the body of Kurkude himself on the shores of Sukhna Lake. Both Priya—or Mataji or whatever her real name is—and Taarak Vakil must be brought to justice.’

‘We have another equally serious problem,’ said Saini. Radhika, Rathore and Chhedi looked at him questioningly.

‘We do not know what the Krishna Key actually holds in store. It could very well be a DNA sample, but it could equally be a nuclear device or ancient weapon. Irrespective of what it is, we cannot allow Priya and Taarak to get their hands on it,’ said Saini.

‘I know that they are headed to Mount Kailash,’ said Radhika. ‘They thought that I had been knocked unconscious but I was simply pretending to be that way. I figured that it would give me a chance to listen in on their conversation. We have to go after them!’

Saini stared at Radhika blankly. She soon realized that he wasn’t staring at her but at the screen behind her on which Varshney’s note had been projected. ‘Fool!’ muttered Saini.

Radhika Singh was not amused. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she said.

‘I have been such a fool!’ clarified Saini. ‘The answer has been hovering right before my eyes and I chose to ignore the obvious!’

‘You’ve cracked the code?’ asked Chhedi excitedly.

‘It’s utterly simple. One merely has to read the passage in reverse order, letter by letter, ignoring the punctuation marks and spaces,’ answered Saini. He,’ replied Sir Khansh. b began rewriting the letters from the last letter of the bottom sentence and worked his way upwards, right to left, on each sentence. He soon had a readable paragraph before him:

Redraw numeral swastika, smart but stressed pupils! Keep stats, no animal parts. X on left-top at tip. Lived, laid, relaid in X. Kalash or Kailash it is? Raja surrender. Six are tips in a star. And blue water beside. Shankar elated.

‘Fine, you now have a more readable paragraph but it still means absolutely nothing to us,’ said Radhika to Saini.

‘Ah, but it makes perfect sense to me,’ said Saini, grinning from ear to ear.

I reached Hastinapur and decided to stay with Vidura. The next day, I met with the blind Dhritarashtra and his sons. Duryodhana said, ‘I have administered Indraprastha well. We don’t need the Pandavas to return.’ I replied that it was
inconsequential whether Duryodhana’s rule was competent or not. A word once given was to be honoured. Indraprastha was to be returned to the Pandavas after thirteen years. The Pandavas had kept their word and it was now the duty of the Kauravas to keep theirs, but Duryodhana refused. I bargained. I said, ‘Give them five villages instead and I will convince them to accept the offer in order to maintain peace and harmony.’ Duryodhana, however, was adamant. ‘I shall not part with a single needlepoint of land,’ he thundered. I countered, ‘Then there shall be war at Kurukshetra. By refusing to honour your commitment you have compromised dharma.’ The dimwit
—
Duryodhana
—
got angry and tried to have me arrested! I assumed my omnipotent form and that was sufficient to scare the living daylights out of all of them. War was now inevitable.