THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET (13 page)

28

A new mystery

The room was dark. Vijay used his mobile phone’s built in torch to search for the light switch which he now flicked on. A light dangling from the ceiling shattered the darkness with a burst of illumination and Alice gasped.

The room had shelves lined with tablets of all shapes and sizes, inscribed in scripts of all kinds, none of which were familiar to her. She realised this was a treasure trove of history.

Shukla, too, felt the same way. He looked around like a child who walks into a toy store and tries to figure out just which toy he wishes to play with first.

‘Which one is the plaque that we seek?’ Vijay wondered aloud.

‘It is this one.’ Sahu picked up a small black metallic plate, circular in shape, and showed it to them. On the face of the tablet were inscribed six symbols.

They stared at the face of the tablet. The six symbols didn’t make any sense to them.

Sahu made a show of looking at his watch. ‘I can give you fifteen minutes and no more. Please lock up after you finish. I will be in my office.’ Without another word, he strode off towards the stairs.

For a few moments, they all stared at the seal, trying to make sense of it.

‘Well?’ Alice said after they had gazed upon the tablet for a while. ‘Any thoughts?’

Shukla shook his head. ‘I really can’t see anything here that connects to the cube. I guess I was wrong.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Well, it doesn’t hurt to hope. Or speculate. It would have been really interesting if I was right.’

‘I can’t see anything either. This tablet just doesn’t make sense,’ Vijay agreed.

‘Okay, let’s get out of here and head for Radha’s place,’ Colin rubbed his hands. ‘I always look forward to her cooking.’

‘Wait, let me photograph it.’ Vijay held up his mobile phone and quickly took a few photographs.

They locked the room and crossed the gallery. Even in the semi darkness, the weapons displayed looked terrifying. They could imagine just how deadly they were in battle.

As they walked through the corridor leading to the stairs, there was a loud, anguished scream. It came from the direction of the curator’s office. It was followed by a series of screams, piercing and charged with agony.

Trouble in the Museum

Sahu strode towards his office, feeling somewhat irritated. He had wanted to leave on time today but Dutta’s unexpected call had thrown his plans into disarray. He couldn’t refuse Dutta’s request especially since he had promised it wouldn’t take too much of Sahu’s time. But the curator still didn’t understand why an American archaeologist was so interested in an obscure metal plaque that had been discovered almost three decades ago. While the discovery of Alexander’s altars had made the news at that time, no one had ever been able to prove that the ruins discovered were, indeed, the famed altars. The entire theory had been swiftly debunked and Alexander’s altars had retained their distinction of having remained undiscovered to this day.

The media had quickly lost interest in the story, and the metal plate had been forgotten and languished in the room upstairs ever since then. He had no idea how the woman had even heard about it, but Dutta had mentioned that Shukla was a good friend, so he had had to comply.

Sahu entered his office and stopped short. There were two men in the room. Three, if he counted the dead guard who lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, his throat slit.

A tall, blonde young man stood behind Sahu’s chair, calmly wiping a large and ugly looking Bowie knife with tissues from Sahu’s tissue box while the other man stood by the side of the door, holding a gun. Sahu noted that, even though the gunman had on a mask hiding his features, his nose, eyes and hands indicated that he was Caucasian.

Sahu instinctively turned to run but realised there was no escape. The gunman had moved into position behind him, barring the doorway. He was trapped here.

Riley slid the knife into a sheath at his waist and looked at his mobile phone. ‘Rajiv Sahu,’ he read from his phone. ‘Curator of Archaeology.’ He put the phone away and looked at Sahu. ‘Where are your visitors?’

Sahu stared back at him, shocked speechless. Who was this man? He had walked into the museum, killed a guard and was now asking about the people whom he had just left in the tablet room.

Finally he found his voice. ‘Upstairs,’ he stammered, indicating the second floor with his thumb.

Riley nodded. ‘Let’s all sit down, shall we? I need to ask you some questions before I take care of your visitors.’

After Krishnan had reported to him that the four targets were passing through Gurgaon and heading towards Delhi, Riley had left the hotel and met up with the team based in Delhi. When he learned that his targets had stopped at the National Museum, Riley realised that their destination was not a random choice. He had called Cooper who had instructed him to follow the targets, investigate their activity at the museum to gain any information possible, before eliminating them.

And the curator was the best person to give him that information.

‘Now,’ Riley said as Sahu sat down at his desk. ‘Tell me what your visitors wanted.’

Sahu looked at Riley with wide eyes, terror oozing out of every pore in his body. Riley smiled. The man reeked of fear. And Riley loved that smell in his targets before he killed them. It gave him a high that no psychotropic substance could.

‘One of them is an archaeologist,’ Sahu blubbered.

‘The American woman. I know that already.’ Riley’s voice was hard. He was getting impatient. ‘Tell me something I don’t know. Why are they here?’

He gestured to the gunman who slid beside Sahu, grabbed his wrist and slammed his hand on the desk, palm downwards, fingers splayed. Riley unsheathed his knife and examined the curator’s arm as the blade hovered over it. Finally, he selected a spot on Sahu’s hand and cut away a slice of flesh. Blood oozed out immediately.

Sahu let out an agonised scream which echoed down the empty corridors and galleries of the museum. The pain was unbearable. Riley chose another spot and sliced off some more flesh.

The curator screamed again and again, as if the agony would be lessened by lending it a voice.

‘Now, I’m asking you once more,’ Riley’s voice was low and sinister. ‘What did the archaeologist want from you? Why is she in the museum?’

29

Realisation

‘That was Sahu’s voice,’ Vijay said. ‘I’ll go and check on him while you guys lock up.’

Vijay sprinted down the stairs and through the corridor towards Sahu’s office. As he neared the office, he heard a man’s voice, low, strong and deadly, over the sound of the curator’s anguish-ridden screams.

‘Now, I’m asking you once more,’ the man said. ‘What did the archaeologist want from you? Why is she in the museum?’

Vijay stopped in mid stride. A cold fear took hold of him. Someone was asking about Alice. Someone
knew
that Alice was here at the museum. Was it Cooper? How could it be? Cooper couldn’t have made it through immigration without Imran knowing about it. And Imran would have alerted
them immediately.

His instinct kicked in and all questions were brushed aside. A warning siren went off in his head. He had to alert the others!

Discovered

Riley heard the sound of running footsteps in the corridor outside and motioned to the gunman to investigate. The man dashed out of the room. Riley turned his attention back to the curator.

‘I’m waiting,’ he said. With his free hand, he grabbed the curator’s uninjured arm and held the knife aloft, prepared to slice flesh off his other hand. The desk was covered with blood.

‘The metal plate,’ Sahu blubbered through his tears as he jerked his good arm in futility, trying to wrest it from the vice-like grip of his captor. ‘It was found buried beneath the foundations of Alexander’s altar!’

Riley’s ears pricked up at this news. He didn’t know much about history or archaeology – these weren’t his areas of interest – but he did know that the mission had revolved around Greek history. And he had seen for himself the tomb in Greece. He had also seen the artefacts in the dig hut at the excavation site of the tomb when he blew it up. So he knew that, somehow, this metal plate was important.

‘It wasn’t a guard. I didn’t get a good look at him and the corridor is too dimly lit, but I could make out that much.’ The gunman who had been in the curator’s office reported through Riley’s earpiece. ‘He went upstairs. Must be part of the target group. I’m calling the others in and going after them.’

‘Do it.’ Riley turned back to the curator. ‘Where are they now? Where is the metal plate?’

By now Sahu was broken. He told Riley everything he wanted to know.

‘Second floor. Arms and Armour room,’ Riley instructed his men. ‘Herd them and keep them for me. I’ll be up in a minute. I want to talk to them before I kill them.’

Defence

Vijay sprinted to the end of the corridor and dashed up the staircase, two stairs at a time. The others were almost halfway down.

‘Back up!’ he gasped. ‘We’ve got to get back upstairs.’ He looked at Alice. ‘They know you’re here.’

There was no time for questions or to exchange further words. The urgency and desperation in Vijay’s voice was sufficient for them to hurry back up the stairs.

A plan was forming in Vijay’s mind as they retreated. He swiftly outlined it to the others as they hastened towards the galleries on the second floor. ‘We don’t how many of them there are,’ he whispered. ‘And we don’t know if there’s another way down to the museum entrance from here. We can’t go back down the main staircase since they’ll be coming after us. And we have to assume they are armed. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re first going to grab whatever we can from the arms and armour displays. We need to have something to defend ourselves.’

‘
Beta
, we can’t fight them,’ Shukla said gently. ‘Especially if they have guns. The swords and spears from the displays won’t be of any use against guns.’

Vijay shook his head as they entered the gallery with the weapons. ‘I’m not suggesting that we make a stand here. The weapons are just a precaution. I agree we can’t fight them—it would be foolhardy. But we need the weapons just in case something goes wrong. Here’s what we should do. It is our only chance.’ He sketched out the plan and the others nodded.

Vijay and Colin lifted a small stone sculpture from among the statues lining the corridor and broke the glass on the displays that housed the weapons they had selected.

Shukla picked out an inscribed battle axe that had belonged to Nadir Shah, dated to around 1739
ad.
It was 52 centimetres in length, just right in terms of size and weight for him to wield without difficulty.

Colin chose the inscribed sword of Tipu Sultan and Vijay selected a mace from Kashmir from the 18
th
century.

‘Just like you to pick the biggest and heaviest weapon around,’ Colin grinned at Vijay, his sense of humour bringing in an element of lightness even in this grim situation. ‘You sure you will be able to swing it around when you most need it?’

‘Let’s hope I don’t have to find out,’ Vijay said soberly. ‘What’s your choice, Alice?’

Alice looked scared and confused, knowing that time was running out, yet unsure what weapon she could use. The thought that her hunters in Greece may have caught up with her had set off a wave of panic in her mind. Finally, Vijay made the choice for her, plucking out a Rajput wood and ivory spear from the late 16
th
century. Just 38.5 centimetres in length, it was lightweight enough for her to carry without a problem. She, too, hoped she would not have to use it.

Armed with their weapons, they took up their positions according to Vijay’s plan and waited. Under the circumstances, they had little option but to hope that the plan would work.

30

Will the plan work?

The three gunmen met at the foot of the staircase leading to the second floor. Two of them had been positioned on the ground floor, guarding the two corridors that led in and out of the museum’s main lobby to ensure that no one entered or left the museum.

The sound of glass breaking came to their ears and they looked up with one accord at the floor above.

The lead gunman indicated the stairs and they moved up, swiftly but quietly.

There was silence on the second floor as they reached the end of the staircase. And semi darkness. The corridor lights were switched off, as were the lights in the galleries closest to them. The only light that came to them was from the galleries on the far side of the rotunda.

They looked around, trying to make out the museum signs and work out which was the gallery that housed the arms and armour display. One of them silently pointed out a floor plan that was fixed to the wall near the staircase. The lead gunman shook his head as he took out a flashlight. He didn’t have a choice and had to risk being seen by the targets. It was clear that they were dealing with a smart bunch of people, who were using the lack of light to
their advantage.

He located the gallery they sought on the map and pointed it out to the other two. A thought occurred to him and he also signalled that their quarry could be armed. One could never be sure. Even though Riley had told them they were after a group of ordinary people. He had known men to lose their lives by underestimating the enemy. He wasn’t about to join their numbers.

From where they stood, the three men could see the entrance to the gallery. The door was open. It was pitch dark inside.

The lead gunman signalled again. They had to find the main switch for the corridor lights. The men spread out and started examining the walls.

‘Got it,’ one of them whispered, his throat microphone picking up the vibrations generated from within his neck so that his whisper was barely audible in the silent museum.

He flicked a switch and the corridor lights snapped on, blinding the three men momentarily.

The lead gunman grimaced under his ski-mask. While the corridor lights would provide some illumination, however faint, in the darkened gallery, it would be difficult for them, going into a pitch black room from the lighted corridor. Hobson’s choice.

The three men slowly made their way to the entrance of the gallery.

Cat and mouse

Vijay stiffened as he saw the lights go on outside. He had anticipated that the gunmen wouldn’t enter a fully dark room, and the diversion to find the light switch was the only way he could think of to buy them those few precious extra seconds that would enable them to settle down.

Even though he didn’t hear a thing, a shadow loomed in the doorway.
Trained killers
, he thought to himself. They were clinically efficient.

The shadow disappeared, and another one took its place, only to be replaced by a third shadow. All three melted into the near darkness of the gallery, as the gunmen stayed out of the line of the doorway and out of the light coming through it.

What now?
Vijay wondered. There was no way to check if the others were implementing the plan. He would just have to count the seconds, as they had planned and hope that they were able to make it.

Almost there…

Riley listened to the gunman’s voice in his earpiece and nodded. He roughly jerked Sahu to his feet. ‘You’re coming with me,’ he said. ‘We’ve got work to do upstairs.’

He half dragged the bleeding curator up the stairs, trying to reach the gallery where his targets were hiding, before they could escape.

Foiled!

Vijay grimaced as he saw the shadows loom on the wall. The others were silently making their way out of the room as planned. But, while the plan counted on their being able to observe their hunters entering the room, they hadn’t considered the fact that they, too, would be seen leaving the room. And he didn’t know if there were more men outside or even downstairs. But this was their only chance.

He waited. But no third shadow made its way through the doorway. Who was missing? And, what surprised him was that none of the three men hunting them had attempted to follow the two members of his group out of the gallery. Something was wrong.

Without warning, the lights in the gallery came on. He blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden increase in brightness.
What was happening?