The Rozabal Line Part 11

He moved his palms further down to her stomach. It was definitely tight and constricted. She had something to hide. Guilt? She had killed. Who? Another vision-an electric chair at Sing Sing prison in New York in 1890. The woman prisoner was killed by the flick of a switch that sent 2,450 volts of electricity through her. The switch was flicked by the state executioner whose face Yoshihama could not recognise. Actually, the face was that of Takuya, recently electrocuted by Swakilki. t.i.t for tat!

Another vision-an Inca palace in Machu Picchu. Mama Anawarkhi, the wife of the king Sapa Inca Pachacuti, is being strangled by her bodyguard. Yoshihama saw that the queen's face was that of Swakilki, but the bodyguard's face was not known to him. The face was that of Vincent Sinclair. Yoshihama moved his palms along her arms and onwards to her hands. The hands had evil energy flows. Murder? Was this a killer that he was healing? In his vision, Swakilki morphed into Empress Wu Zhao, the evil power on the Chinese throne, shattering the limbs of Vincent Sinclair in revenge for having killed Mama Anawarkhi.

Wu Zhao and Mama Anawarkhi were simply Swakilki in previous lives. She then morphed back into Swakilki as she killed again and again and again.

Chapter Thirteen.

Medina, Saudi Arabia, A.D. 632 All the wives of Prophet Muhammad took care of him during his illness. Lady Ayesha was always by his side. She would only withdraw when his daughter, Lady Fatima, came to visit him. After a short illness, Prophet Muhammad died at around noon on Monday, 8 June, A.D. 632, in the city of Medina at the age of sixty-three.The Qur'an had been revealed to him by the angel Gabriel over an extended period of time before his death. The Prophet, in turn, had dictated the revelations to his secretaries. One of the pa.s.sages (4:155-159) that was among the several dictated by the Prophet was: 'They said in boast, "We killed Jesus the son of Mary the Apostle of Allah." But they killed him not nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubt with no knowledge but only conjecture to follow. For sure they killed him not!'Could the Prophet possibly have heard of Irenaeus of Lyons?

Lyons, France, A.D. 185 The intriguing paragraph written by Irenaeus in Book II, Chapter 22, of his treatise, Against Heresies, reads as follows: On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age . . . from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify.

In this rather strange paragraph, Irenaeus was telling his readers that Jesus was very much alive and teaching at the age of fifty, even though he was no longer the youthful man that he had been at the time of his crucifixion at around the age of thirty. Was it possible that Irenaeus had read an Indian book of history called the Bhavishya Mahapurana that spoke of a meeting that had happened in A.D. 115?

North India, A.D. 115 The man sitting on the mountain had a peaceful and tranquil expression. Peace and love seemed to radiate from within him. King Shalivahana was enraptured by this man's serenity.

Shalivahana was a brave and effective ruler. He had van-quished the attacking hordes of Chinese, Parthians, Scythians and Bactrians. One day, Shalivahana went into the Himalayas. There, in the Land of the Hun, the powerful king saw a man sitting on a mountain who seemed to promise auspiciousness. His skin was fair and he wore white garments. The king asked the holy man who he was. The other replied, 'I am called a son of G.o.d, born of a virgin, minister of the non-believers, relentless in the search of truth.'

The king then asked him: 'What is your religion?' The holy man replied, 'O great King, I come from a foreign country, where there is no longer truth and where evil knows no bounds. In the land of the non-believers, I appeared as the Messiah. O King, lend your ear to the religion that I brought unto the non-believers. Through justice, truth, meditation and unity of spirit, man will find his way to Issa in the centre of light. G.o.d, as firm as the sun, will finally unite the spirit of all wandering beings in himself. Thus, O King, the blissful image of Issa, the giver of happiness, will remain forever in the heart; it is for this that I am called Issa-Masih.'

The Hindus had eighteen historical books called the Puranas. The ninth book was the Bhavishya Mahapurana. Unlike the Gospels, which could not be accurately dated, the Bhavishya Mahapurana's date of origin was clearly known. It was auth.o.r.ed by the poet Sutta in the year A.D. 115. The historical pa.s.sage on King Shalivahana and the holy man was from the Bhavishya Mahapurana. Could the Bhavishya Mahapurana have possibly influenced Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad?

Qadian, India, 1835 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in the year 1835 in a small town called Qadian in India. He became famous in the Islamic world and before his death in 1908 he published a book t.i.tled Masih Hindustan Mein. He later went on to found the Ahmaddiya sect of Muslims. In his book he wrote: Let it be noted that though Christians believe that Jesus, after his arrest through the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, and crucifixion, and resurrection, went to heaven, yet, from the Holy Bible, it appears that this belief of theirs is altogether wrong . . .

The truth rather is that as Jesus was a true prophet . . . he knew that G.o.d . . . would save him from an accursed death . . . he would not die on the cross, nor would he give up the ghost on the accursed wood; on the contrary, like the prophet Jonah, he would only pa.s.s through a state of swoon.

Jesus, coming out of the bowels of the earth, went to his tribes who lived in the eastern countries, Kashmir and Tibet, etc.-the ten tribes of the Israelites who, 721 years before Jesus, had been taken prisoner from Samaria by Shalmaneser, King of a.s.sur, and had been taken away by him. Ultimately, these tribes came to India and settled in various parts of that country.

Jesus, at all events, must have made this journey; for the divine object underlying his advent was that he should meet the lost Jews who had settled in different parts of India; the reason being that these in fact were the lost sheep of Israel.

Of course, Hazrat Mirza had not heard of the Bnei Menashe, who would only come into prominence several years later.

Israel, 2005 The report filed at the BBC World News desk in early April was crisp and concise: An Indian tribe called the Bnei Menashe have always claimed that they are one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Now, one of Israel's chief rabbis has recognised this Indian tribe as the lost descendants of ancient Israelites.

Lalrin Sailo, convenor of the Singlung-Israel a.s.sociation, an organisation representing the Jews of India, said: 'We have always said we are descendants of Menashe (son of Joseph) so it is great to hear that our claims have been authenticated.'

According to the community, the Bnei Menashe are one of the lost ten tribes of Israel who were exiled when the a.s.syrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century B.C. The community's oral tradition is that the tribe travelled through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, China and on to India.

The report spoke about the journey made by the lost tribes of the eighth century B.C., but failed to mention the journey St Thomas had made to India in A.D. 52.

India, A.D. 52 Acta Thomae, or The Acts of Judas Thomas, was written in several languages, including Syriac, Greek, Latin, Armenian and Ethiopic. According to Acta Thomae, after the crucifixion, the apostles had met in order to allocate the various countries of the world among themselves. The Middle East and India had fallen into the lot picked by St Thomas.

The book went on to say that a merchant by the name of Habban arrived in Jerusalem searching for a carpenter needed by the Indian king Gondophares. Jesus apparently met Habban, introduced himself as Jesus the carpenter, and sold his 'slave', Thomas, to Habban for twenty pieces of silver.

Habban enquired of Thomas whether Jesus was truly his master. Thomas quite naturally answered, 'Yes, he is my Lord.' It was then that Habban told Thomas, 'He has sold you to me.'

Jesus had taken the twenty pieces of silver from Habban and given them to Thomas, who then left on Habban's boat. The sea route to India had taken them via the port of Sandruk Mahosa, and they eventually reached the kingdom of Gondophares in India.

Thomas then proceeded southwards to Kerala. In Kodun-gallur, several families of Kerala were converted by him to the Christian faith. After establishing several churches, Thomas moved on to the east coast of India. He was eventually martyred for proselytising near Mylapore.

The St Thomas Christians continued to flourish in Kerala after Thomas's death. This position would remain unaltered till 1498.

Calicut, India, 1498 It was 20 May 1498. The fleet of three ships that had left Lisbon around a year earlier, the So Gabriel, the So Rafael, and the So Miguel, succeeded in going around the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in Calicut on the west coast of India.

Vasco da Gama had arrived on Indian sh.o.r.es. Over the next 450 years, the Portuguese influence over their Indian colonies would be brutal, ruthless and extremely profitable.

The 170 expedition members had arrived in India a.s.suming they would need to preach Christianity to the 'faithless' natives. They were shocked to see that there were already an estimated two million Christians spread across the land, and that they had 1,500 churches under the jurisdiction of a single Metropolitan of the East Syrian Church. St Thomas had done his job well.

The St Thomas Christians were considered high-caste members of society along Hindu caste lines. Their churches were modelled on the lines of Hindu temples. The East Syrian Church of the St Thomas Christians was Hindu in culture, Christian in religion and Syro-Oriental in worship.

This was not very palatable to the visitors from Portugal. Portugal was Roman Catholic and everything outside the Roman Catholic Church was considered heretic. In order to bring the Indian Christians under his control, Pope Paul IV would declare Goa an Archdiocese in 1557.

This was easier said than done. It was not possible to change hundreds of years of worship, culture, practices and customs that had evolved locally. A possible solution was to bring the Inquisition to India. The Goa Inquisition would be formally inaugurated in 1560, and by the time it would end around 1774, it would succeed in torturing and executing thousands.

The first inquisitors were Aleixo Dias Falco and Francisco, who took the first formal action of banning Hindus from practising their religion. Any contravention was made punishable by death. In 1599, the Thomas Christians were forcibly converted by the inquisitors to Roman Catholicism. This also implied severe restrictions on their Syriac and Aramaic customs. Again, violations were punishable by death. Condemned Hindus were tortured and put to death.

The Inquisition gained momentum and went on to ban Indian musical instruments, the dhoti-the Indian loincloth favoured by men-and the chewing of betel leaves, a traditional Indian habit. Hundreds of Hindu temples were either destroyed or forcibly converted into Christian churches. Thousands of Hindu texts were burned with a view to ensuring the supremacy of Roman Catholic texts.

It was amidst this turmoil that Alphonso de Castro arrived in Goa in 1767, towards the end of the Inquisition.

Goa, India, 1767 Alphonso de Castro arrived in Goa ostensibly to give further impetus to the Inquisition, but he was a bad choice for the task. He was more of a scholar than a religious fanatic and was more likely to be found studying the Hindu foundations of Goa's churches than burning heretics at the stake.

This obviously created a problem. The chief inquisitor wanted Castro to be sent back to Lisbon but this could not be done because of the excellent rapport that Castro's father enjoyed with King Joseph I of Portugal.

The next best solution was to give him a project that would keep him busy and, more importantly, out of the way. He was asked to make an exhaustive list of ancient texts that had been found in the homes, temples, churches, mosques and synagogues of the Hindus, the Thomas Christians, the Muslims and the Sephardic Jews. Any text that did not suit the sensibilities of the Roman Catholic Church would eventually have to be destroyed.

It was while going through an old set of ma.n.u.scripts discovered in the bowels of the Church of Bom Jesus that Castro found a doc.u.ment that would change his life forever.

The Church of Bom Jesus contained the tomb of the Spanish missionary St Francis Xavier, who had begun his mission in Goa in 1542. This, however, was not its princ.i.p.al claim to fame. History recorded that this church had been constructed in 1559. It had actually been in existence well before 1559. Not as a church, but as a mosque.

Within one of the pillars that had been discarded in favour of non-Islamic stonework was a cavity. The cavity contained a bundle of doc.u.ments that had been written in Urdu. These doc.u.ments had been found by a Hindu worker, Lakshman Powale, at the site where the mosque was being torn down to make way for the church.

Unaware of the significance of the doc.u.ments, Lakshman had carried them to his home in the city of Damao, where they had continued to lie unattended for many years. He pa.s.sed the bundle down to his son, Ravindra Powale, who buried them under his house for fear of the Inquisition. When Ravindra died in 1702 at the ripe old age of eighty-four, his house was requisitioned by the Portuguese administration to facilitate the construction of quarters for visiting missionaries.

The houses in the area had been acquired in 1705 but cons-truction was stopped for lack of funds. Construction recommenced almost forty-three years later, in 1748. It was while the ground was being broken for a new foundation that the old bundle of papers was discovered. The bundle was immediately transferred to the archives of the Portuguese viceroy where it continued to stay until it was taken up for cataloguing by Alphonso de Castro nineteen years later.

The bundle contained eleven texts, of which ten were earmarked for destruction. The eleventh would not be formally catalogued by Castro. It was called the Tarikh-Issa-Ma.s.sih.

For fear for his own life, Alphonso de Castro decided that it would be better for him to leave the doc.u.ment in India prior to his departure for Lisbon in 1770. He was, however, determined to store the doc.u.ment in a place where it would be preserved so that it may be discovered by future generations.

He first set out on a trip to northern India, including Kashmir. Upon his return a few months later, he visited the Church of Bom Jesus and knelt down to pray before the perfectly preserved body of St Francis Xavier, just before boarding the ship that would take him back to Portugal.

'Agradeca-o Deus para dar me a forca poupar este livro,' he thought to himself as he prayed fervently.

Chapter Fourteen.

London, UK, 2012 Vincent was reading the doc.u.ment that had been entrusted to him by Terry Acton. It was a photocopy of an English translation of the Tarikh-i-Kashmir, a history of Kashmir written by a person called Mullah Nadri in 1421.

...Raja Akh came to the throne. He ruled for sixty years. Thereafter, his son, Gopananda, took over the government and ruled the country under the name of Gopadatta. During his reign, many temples were built.

On top of Mount Solomon the dome of the temple had cracked. Gopadatta deputed one of his ministers, named Sulaiman, who had come from Persia, to repair it. The Hindus objected that the minister was an infidel.

During this time Yuz Asaf, having come from the Holy Land to this holy valley, proclaimed his prophethood. He devoted himself, day and night, in prayers to G.o.d, and having attained the heights of piety and virtue, declared himself to be a messenger of G.o.d for the people of Kashmir. He invited people to his religion.

Because the people of the valley had faith in this Prophet, Raja Gopadatta referred the objection of Hindus to him for a decision. It was because of this Prophet's orders that Sulaiman was able to complete the repairs of the dome.

Further, on one of the stones, Sulaiman inscribed: 'In these times Yuz Asaf proclaimed his prophethood,' and on another stone, he also inscribed that Yuz Asaf was Yusu, Prophet of the Children of Israel.

I have seen in a book of Hindus that this prophet was really Jesus, the Spirit of G.o.d, on whom be peace and salutations, and had also a.s.sumed the name of Yuz Asaf. The real knowledge is with G.o.d. He spent his life in this valley. After his death he was laid to rest in Mohalla Anzmarah. It is also said that lights of prophethood used to emanate from the tomb of this Prophet. Raja Gopadatta died after having ruled for sixty years and two months.

Vincent came to the end of the page. Turning it over, he found another photocopied doc.u.ment. It was called the Tarikh-Issa-Ma.s.sih and had originally been written in Urdu sometime around the eleventh century. The tedious pa.s.sage read much like the sixteen verses of Matthew in the Bible, outlining the royal lineage of Jesus: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and it was Isaac who fathered Jacob. In turn, Jacob's son was Judas. The children of Judas and his wife, Thamar, were Phares and Zara. Phares would have a child-Esrom, and Esrom would have a child-Aram. Aram's offspring was Aminadab who sired Naa.s.son. Naa.s.son would become the father of Salmon. Salmon had a child with Rachab by the name of Boaz. Boaz would father Obed with Ruth. Obed would produce Jesse. Jesse was the immediate predecessor of David, the great king.

The great King David married the woman who had been a previous wife of Urias and fathered the great Solomon. Solomon's offspring was Roboam, who fathered Abia. Abia's child was Asa. Asa's son was Josaphat, who sired Joram. Joram fathered Ozias, whose lineage would be continued through Joatham. Joatham's son was Achaz, and his grandson was Ezekias. Ezekias continued the dynasty with Mana.s.ses, who fathered Amon who, in turn, produced Josias. Josias had a son by the name of Jechonias around the time that they were carried off in captivity to Babylon. It was in Babylon that Jechonias had a son, Salathiel.

Salathiel continued the unbroken line with his son Zorobabel, who fathered Abiud. Eliakim was the son of Abiud. Eliakim produced a child by the name of Azor. Azor's progeny was Sadoc. Sadoc's offspring was Achim. Achim produced Eliud, who fathered Eleazar. Matthan was his son. It was Matthan who sired Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Issa...

The Bible, of course, stopped right there. This doc.u.ment, however, went further: Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Issa, who married Mary Magdala. Issa and Mary had a child by the name of Sara, who was born to them in India but was later sent to Gaul with her mother. Issa remained in India, where he married a woman from the Sakya clan on the persistence of King Gopadatta and had a son, Benissa. Benissa had a son, Yushua, who fathered Akkub. Akkub's son was Jashub. Abihud was the son of Jashub. Jashub's grandson was Elnaam. Elnaam sired Harsha, who sired Jabal, who sired Shalman. Shalman's son Zabbud converted to Islam. Zabbud fathered Abdul, who sired Haaroon. His child was Hamza. Omar was Hamza's son and he produced Rashid. Rashid's offspring was Khaleel.

Vincent's mind was in a panic. His head was reeling with this information overload. He needed to a.s.similate what he had just read. At the bottom of the page was written in Portuguese: Satis est, Domine, Satis est, os dois anjos ditos. Mastrilli sem duvida fez a mais melhor cama de prata. Mas para guardar com cuidado um segredo dos mortos. O copo do ouro de Ignatius' e melhor do que uma cabeca de prata. A cidade e ficada situada entre o' norte 1548' e 1453'54 e entre 7420' e 7340' para o leste.

Translated into English, it meant: It is enough, O Lord, it is enough, the two angels said. Mastrilli, without doubt, made the best silver bed. But to carefully guard a secret of the dead, Ignatius's gold cup is better than a silver bed. The city is located between 1548' and 1453'54' north and between 7420' and 7340' east.

Chapter Fifteen.

Moscow, Russia, 2012 The Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti is an unfortunate choice of name, even when it is abbreviated to FSB. Particularly when one considers the fact that its brand equity was much greater when it used to be called the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or the KGB.

Lavrenty Edmundovich Bakatin was sitting in his office, halfway through his customary bottle of vodka, when the phone rang. He picked it up and listened for a few seconds. He then said abruptly, 'I'll meet you at St Louis on the Malaya Lubyanka,' and hung up.

Quickly putting on his overcoat, he headed downstairs to Lubyanka Square, which was where the FSB's headquarters, and his office, were located. Just in front of the drab FSB building stood the Church of St Louis.

It was November, and the average daily temperature in Moscow ranged from 24F to 32F. The heavy woollens made Bakatin look even fatter than he actually was. He made his way inside the church and sat down clumsily on the last pew.

Throughout the glasnost era of Gorbachev, millions of dollars had been funnelled by the Vatican into Moscow using the good offices of Bakatin. This had been necessary in order to ensure that Poland be released from the Warsaw Pact.

The provider of those funds came and sat down next to Bakatin. Brother Thomas Manning looked closely at Bakatin, and then sniffed. 'Have you been drinking the stuff or swimming in it?' he remarked as he smelled the vodka.

'Vali otsyuda!' grunted Bakatin to Thomas in Russian.

Thomas grinned. 'f.u.c.k you too, old man!' The two men enjoyed an excellent rapport that had been strengthened over the years by the continuous flow of cash. Thomas Manning prided himself on being greater than any other freedom fighter. His backdoor collaboration with Bakatin and Moscow had resulted in the independence of predominantly Catholic Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Ukraine from Russia as well as the indepen-dence of Slovenia and Croatia from Yugoslavia. All of this had been achieved at the behest of Alberto Valerio.

Luckily, the entire American security establishment had been ultra-conservative from the Reagan years onwards. They had been quite happy to encourage Manning's efforts, even partially fund them. In the post-glasnost era, Bakatin had become Manning's conduit to the Sheikh.

'So. Are they willing to deal?' asked Manning.

'Pacheemu ti takoy galuboy?' asked Bakatin. Thomas was getting fed up with the insults. Bakatin was asking him why he looked so gay! 'Perestan' mne jabat' mozgi svojimi voprosami!' shot back Manning. 'Stop f.u.c.king my brain with your stupid questions!'

Manning continued, 'It's vital that we get access to him, either in Kashmir or anywhere else. If that means purchasing equipment for the Sheikh from the Pakistanis or North Koreans, so be it.'

Bakatin looked at him through glazed eyes. He then turned serious and said, 'The Sheikh wants it all. The reactor, the raw material, delivery systems, the drawings-and the cash. In return he will hand him over to you.'

He then held Manning's face in his gloved hands and planted two stinging Russian vodka-breathed kisses on his cheeks before he got up and left.

Thomas thanked his lucky stars for having preached for some years at St Catherine of Siena in Virginia before moving to Switzerland. Otherwise he would never have met Bakatin through the FBI.

The Fox News anchor was saying, 'There's now disturbing information regarding the FBI operative being held for espionage on behalf of the Russians. Apparently, his activities, which were supposed to help the Russians, also succeeded in helping Osama-bin-Laden . . .'

The report continued: 'He sold the Russians a highly cla.s.sified and secret piece of American technology, and by all accounts it seems that the Russians, in turn, may have pa.s.sed on the technology to bin-Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network.'

The FBI agent in question had been born in 1957 in Chicago. After attending Southern Illinois University, he had joined the Chicago police and then moved on to the FBI's counter-intelligence wing. After fifteen years of selling secrets for a gross remuneration of $2.1 million, he had finally been arrested in his Virginia home. Throughout his years of treachery, he had continued to attend Ma.s.s daily and was a regular parishioner of St Catherine of Siena, a church in a Virginia suburb. One of the regular preachers at St Catherine of Siena was a priest called Thomas Manning. Thomas Manning would soon become friends with Bakatin through his parishioner.

Bakatin would receive millions of dollars from accounts in Switzerland operated by Brother Thomas Manning for Valerio. The Pacific News of May 2001 would write: Rivers of money, much of it provided by Bill Casey's CIA, poured into Warsaw and Moscow, and the Vatican found ready support from the US because the security establishment . . . was packed with conservative Catholics. The Vatican's political work with Moscow paid off hand-somely with the independence of Catholic-dominant Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and later, from Moscow's nominal ally Yugoslavia, of Slovenia and Croatia.

Intelligence experts and congressional committees are puzzling over what motivated the FBI agent to spy for Moscow over the past fifteen years. Money does not seem to be the answer because he lived in an ascetic style. The search for a motive is complicated by the fact that his colleagues say that he was fiercely anti-communist and a devout member of Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative Catholic organisation. He was a regular parishioner of St Catherine of Siena Church, in a Virginia suburb of the capital. It may seem paradoxical that he would spy for the Soviet Union, a moral adversary and indeed a Satanic force in the eyes of Opus Dei. During Gorbachev's glasnost era, however, there is evidence of behind-the-scenes collaboration between the Vatican and Moscow. In particular, Cardinal Alberto Valerio, a powerful Opus Dei supporter, pursued a policy of reaching out to Moscow with the aim of gaining Poland's release from the Warsaw Pact.

The entire process of securing the independence of Poland had made one man very powerful: His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio. Alberto Cardinal Valerio had earned his doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

Kahuta, Pakistan, 2012 Someone else had earned a doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven at around the same time. Not in theology but in metallurgy. His name was Dr Dawood Omar, one of the members of the scientific team reporting to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb. Dr A.Q. Khan and Dr Dawood Omar had attended the University of Leuven at the same time as Alberto Cardinal Valerio.

Dr Dawood Omar looked at the photographs of his nuclear facilities longingly, the way a parent looks at his child with love. He had nurtured the Khan Nuclear Research Laboratories in Kahuta since 1976. Twenty-five years later, they had succeeded in closing the nuclear gap with India. Omar had every reason to be proud, even though he was now rather old.

Omar had received his engineering degree from the University of Karachi before moving on to Germany and Belgium, where he had finally earned his doctorate in physics from the Catholic University of Leuven, in 1972-the same time as Alberto Valerio, later to become His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio, who was on his way to Pyongyang.

Pyongyang, North Korea, 2010 International intelligence agencies had begun to observe regular flights between Pakistan and North Korea, accelerating at the beginning of the 1990s when there were about nine flights per month. These flights reportedly followed the visit of high-level North Korean officials to Pakistan. Dawood Omar had also made thirteen visits to North Korea, beginning in the 1990s. This particular flight, however, was not clandestine.

North Korea's official carrier, Air Koryo, flew into Pyongyang on only two days of the week-Tuesdays and Thursdays. Both flights were from one origin, Beijing. Air Koryo's flight JS 152 from Beijing to Pyongyang had taken off at 11:30 am and arrived in Pyongyang at 2 pm. On board was His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio, travelling under an alias. His visa to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had been organised through FBI channels. For all intents and purposes, he was merely a consultant to the World Health Organisation. He was met at the airport by a member of the Ministry of Public Health. At customs, he was asked to hand over his mobile phone, for which he was issued a receipt. He would be allowed to take it back upon his departure. He was quickly escorted to the Yanggakdo Hotel along with his car, driver, ministry representative and official interpreter.

Another flight had arrived in Pyongyang the same day. Its lone Pakistani occupant had visited Pyongyang several times before as part of the delegations led by Dr A.Q. Khan. His name was Dr Dawood Omar.

He did not have a visa. He didn't need one. He had valuable technology to sell; not only to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but also to Al-Qaeda. The bill would be paid by Thomas Manning on behalf of His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio from the Oedipus trust.

The world's longest railway journey without changing trains is of 10,214 kilometres. The train, operated by the Trans-Siberian Railway, starts in Moscow and ends in Pyongyang. It is the route least used for entering Pyongyang, and it was precisely for this reason that Lavrenty Edmundovich Bakatin was on it, along with the Sheikh.