The Rozabal Line Part 19

President (laughs): 'I am a practising Christian. Why would I be anti-Church?'

Sackur: 'They say you worry about the Church becoming too powerful . . . pursuing its own foreign policy. You want to keep Islam and Christianity at loggerheads so that oil prices remain high.'

President: 'Who are the "they" that you keep referring to?'

Sackur: 'It's a secret. Like your days as director in the CIA!'

The American President had been director of the CIA prior to running for office.

This was around the time that the Norm Dixon story had appeared. 'How the CIA created Osama-bin-Laden,' was the headline: How things change in the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities, the most despicable being the ma.s.s murder of more than 6,000 working people in New York and Washington on 11 September. Bin-Laden, the 'freedom fighter' is now lambasted by US leaders and the Western ma.s.s media as a 'terrorist mastermind' and an 'evil-doer', yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the vicious movement that sp.a.w.ned bin-Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that plague Algeria and Egypt, and perhaps the disaster that befell New York.

In April 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan. The PDPA was committed to radical land reform that favoured the peasants, trade union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality for women and the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported strengthening Afghanistan's relationship with the Soviet Union.

Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal land-lords, the Muslim religious establishment and the tribal chiefs. Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states, immediately offered support to the Afghan Mujahideen, as the 'contra' force was known.

Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$ 6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the Mujahideen factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia, kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama-bin-Laden, provided millions more.

Washington's policy in Afghanistan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; it aimed to foster an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union. The grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq's own ambitions to dominate the region.

US-run Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe beamed Islamic funda-mentalist tirades across Central Asia, while paradoxically denouncing the 'Islamic revolution' that had toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran in 1979.

Washington's favoured Mujahideen faction was one of the most extreme, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The West's distaste for terrorism did not apply to this unsavoury 'freedom fighter'. Hekmatyar was notorious in the 1970s for throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. Hekmatyar was also infamous for his side trade in the cultivation of and trafficking in opium. Osama-bin-Laden was a close a.s.sociate of Hekmatyar and his faction.

The Director of the CIA and later presidential candidate was unrepentant about the explosion in the flow of drugs: 'Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets . . . There was a fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.'

It was this same CIA Director who had committed CIA support to a long-standing Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence proposal to recruit volunteers from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. At least 100,000 Islamic militants flocked to Pakistan (some 60,000 attended fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in the fighting).

Soon, Osama-bin-Laden, one of twenty sons of a billionaire construction magnate, arrived in Afghanistan to join the jihad. An austere religious fanatic and business tyc.o.o.n, bin-Laden specialised in recruiting, financing and training the estimated 35,000 non-Afghan mercenaries who joined the Mujahideen.

Osama has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in Afghanistan during the jihad-fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is his primary customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Bin-Laden only became a 'terrorist' in the eyes of the US when he fell out with the Saudi royal family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops to be stationed on Saudi soil following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

Waziristan, PakistanAfghanistan border, 2012 The lanky, olive-skinned Sheikh read the note that Ghalib had sent him upon reaching his destination. 'Praise be to Allah!' he exclaimed as he read Ghalib's note: UOY.OT.HTAO.YM.MAMI.HO.

OWT.MOTA.TA.MOTA.TIH.OT.

HT33T.3HT.TA.MIA.HTUOM.3HT.TA.MIA.

TA3H.TOH.3TIHW.HTIW.YAWA.MIH.TIH.

3OW.OT.MIH.3IT.YOT.YM.HTIW.3YA.

3WO.I.HTUOY.YM.MIHW.YHT.OT.

3M.HTIW.TUO.MIH.HTIW.TUO.

3M.3SIMOTA.OT.3MIT.YHT.TIAWA.I.

'My Master's secret weapon is finally in place,' said the Sheikh in his usual hushed voice as his hands trembled with excitement.

Islamabad, Pakistan, 2012 The Aiwan-e-Sadr, the official residence of the President of Pakistan, lay in the centre of the city that had been meticulously planned and built by the Greek Constantinos Doxiadis. Islamabad, meaning 'the abode of Islam', was the capital city of Pakistan, located at the crossroads of Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province. Ensconced inside the plush interiors of the Aiwan-e-Sadr sat the Iron Man of Pakistan. Born in Lah.o.r.e to a lower-middle-cla.s.s family, his parents could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that their son would one day become the President of Pakistan. This was the man who was supposedly at the forefront of the war on terror. This was also the man who had no qualms at waxing eloquent about enlightened moderation while enlisting the political support of Islamic hardliners.

The President was looking at the transcript of a secret phone conversation between the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a Thuraya satellite phone somewhere in the Middle East being operated by a terrorist called Ghalib. His theory had been proved correct. His intelligence agencies continued to remain involved with Islamic terror groups despite his strict orders to the contrary. The problem was that this situation could not be wished away.

The President had earlier that day been officially briefed by his ISI chief, who had conveniently omitted to mention that a terrorist called Ghalib was running loose somewhere in the Middle East with a nuclear bomb. The phone tap transcript seemed to indicate that this Ghalib and his team were taking orders from someone called the Sheikh. The main worry was that the bomb in question might be of Pakistani origin. That d.a.m.ned Dawood Omar!

During the phone conversation, the ISI chief had been trying to convince Ghalib to give himself up to Stephen Elliot of the SAS! How dare he! Was the ISI chief's salary being paid by the Pakistan Government or by those American b.a.s.t.a.r.ds? Apparently, the deal had been brokered by the Russians, who had been funded by a right-wing Christian group called the Cux Decussata Permuta. The ironic fact was that no one seemed to be too concerned about the nuclear weapon. All parties wanted Ghalib.

'Why is this man so important to all of them?' thought the Pakistani leader as he sipped his evening scotch and soda.

Goa, India, 2012 The scotch, soda and ice in their hotel room were a welcome relief. Vincent's reunion with Martha had been an emotional one. The ordeal he'd been through only reinforced the importance of friends and family. He also realised the enormity of what he had learned from Swakilki.

'Vincent, are you all right? We were worried sick about you,' said Martha as she sobbed. 'I really thought I'd lost you forever.'

Vincent hugged Martha. 'Relax, Nana. The worst is behind us. There is a reason that we made this trip. If we hadn't come here, we would never have come face-to-face with this dangerous woman. And if I hadn't met her, I would never have realised the importance of what I'd seen in my past-life regressions with Terry and you.'

'And what is that?' asked Martha nervously. She looked somewhat dishevelled from the hours of anxious waiting and searching.

'I need to take my quest to its logical conclusion. That was the reason for my meeting Terry. Destiny took me to London, to Mumbai and to Goa. Maybe it now needs to take me elsewhere.' Vincent was exhausted but highly charged.

Martha looked at him helplessly. 'I'm scared, Vincent. You nearly lost your life. I'm not sure whether I want you to take this matter any further. You're lucky she spared your life . . . and she's left a warning note in your hand.'

'You are my lucky charm, Nana! Didn't you read the note? She spared me because she likes you! Incredible! But Nana, really, this isn't about me. It's about something that has been one of the world's greatest mysteries-something that one cannot simply leave unresolved. The greatest story ever told, the bestseller of the world, ended with an unsolved riddle. I now have a chance to fit the final piece into the jigsaw puzzle. Now, please show me the doc.u.ment you found on the floor of the Bom Jesus Basilica.'

The doc.u.ment was old and yellow and was written on in Portuguese in flowing ink, customary of eighteenth-century ma.n.u.scripts.

I, Alphonso de Castro, tinham chegado em Goa para dar um impeto mais adicional ao Inquisition em 1767. Eu fui requisitado fazer uma lista exhaustive dos textos antigos que tinham sido encontrados nos repousos, temples, igrejas, mosques e synagogues dos Hindus, Thomas Cristos, os muculmanos e os Jews de Sephardic . . .

Vincent began to translate the doc.u.ment into English: 'I, Alphonso de Castro, arrived in Goa ostensibly to give further impetus to the Inquisition in 1767. I was ordered 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 texts that did not suit the sensibilities of the Roman Catholic Church were to be destroyed by me. While I was going through an old set of ma.n.u.scripts discovered in the bowels of the Church of Bom Jesus, I found this particular doc.u.ment.

The Church of Bom Jesus had existed well before 1559-as a mosque. Within one of the pillars that had been discarded in favour of non-Islamic stonework was a cavity. This cavity contained a bundle of doc.u.ments that had been written in Urdu. These doc.u.ments had been found by a Hindu construction worker, Lakshman Powale, at the site where the mosque was being torn down to make way for the church.

The bundle was immediately transferred to the archives of the Portuguese viceroy, where it continued to sit till it was taken up for cataloguing by me nineteen years later. The bundle contained eleven texts, of which ten were earmarked by me for destruction. The eleventh one was deliberately not catalogued by me. It was called the Tarikh-Issa-Ma.s.sih.

Through fear for my life, I felt it would be better for me to leave the doc.u.ment in India prior to my departure for Lisbon today. I am determined to store the doc.u.ment in a place where it will be preserved so that it may be discovered by future generations; they may then know the truth.

Tonight, my ship sets sail for Lisbon. Oh Heavenly Father, please forgive me for disturbing Saint Francis Xavier. Since he has the miraculous powers of preserving himself, I believe that under his safekeeping, this doc.u.ment will also remain preserved. 23 April 1770.'

Remember: 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.

'Do you understand what this means?' said Vincent excitedly. 'It means that the original Tarikh-Issa-Ma.s.sih was found by Alphonso de Castro and hidden away in the Bom Jesus Basilica!'

'But Vincent, this doc.u.ment was already with the j.a.panese woman. If she had found this, she would certainly have found the original Tarikh-Issa-Ma.s.sih too,' reasoned Martha.

'You're right,' said Vincent. 'The doc.u.ment will be long gone by now. In fact, it is probably tucked away in some secret archive of the Vatican by now.'

Their deliberations were interrupted by General Prithviraj Singh, Zvi Yatom and Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma.

'Father Sinclair, I understand that you have been through a harrowing experience. Unfortunately, I do not have the luxury of giving you time to recuperate. We need to talk immediately!' commanded the general.

Vincent did not notice the general keenly eyeing the Alphonso de Castro letter that Vincent was holding.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Goa, India, 2012 All of them sat inside Prithviraj's makeshift office at the Fort Aguada Hotel. Prithviraj began, 'I must tell you that the past few days have put me in turmoil. I have always believed that there is no subst.i.tute for good old-fashioned detective work. Unfortunately, the circ.u.mstances of the last year are only now beginning to get pieced together.'

Zvi Yatom took over. 'We now know for a fact that Ghalib-bin-Isar and his twelve commandos have carried out terrorist acts all over the world in the past eleven months. Each of these has been timed to occur on the twenty-first of each month. Twenty-first December is just a week away. We expect this will be the mother of all the acts.'

There was stillness in the room as everyone digested this information. The general resumed. 'We now also know for a fact that a nuclear weapon has been obtained by these terrorists and that it has transited through India. The American President, the Pakistani President and the Indian Prime Minister have been in communication with one another and it seems that Ghalib plans to use the device somewhere in the Middle East. We would have been able to pinpoint his exact location from his satellite phone if the conversation he had with his handlers in the ISI had been a bit longer.

'We are re-examining the interrogation that is being conducted on Dawood Omar, a key Osama-bin-Laden operative in Pakistan. We also know that the nuclear weapon transaction was facilitated by a Russian intelligence operative, Lavrenty Edmundovich Bakatin.' Prithviraj looked around him; there was complete, rapt attention.

'The question my colleagues and I asked our counterparts in the CIA was: why would a fringe group within the Church, calling itself the Crux Decussata Permuta, be willing to pay huge sums of cash to Pakistani scientists and North Korean contractors on behalf of a group of Islamic terrorists unless they had something significant to gain? Even today, we are not clear as to what the actual barter involves.

'What I can tell you is that this bunch of terrorists has modelled itself along the lines of Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. All these men trained together in Afghanistan under Osama-bin-Laden's henchmen. Each of them has executed a major terrorist act on the twenty-first of each month,' explained the general.

'Now, the question that you might ask is: how do we fit into any of this? Well, we know that Father Sinclair was meant to be killed. We now also know that the kidnapper was Swakilki, an international a.s.sa.s.sin who has been keeping herself under the radar and evading arrest. We also know that she takes her instructions from the Crux Decussata Permuta. The death of Professor Terry Acton and the attempt on Father Sinclair are related. Since both these gentlemen were digging into the bloodline of Jesus Christ, it obviously made someone within the Vatican, or the Crux, or Opus Dei, very uncomfortable. It is thus possible that Ghalib may actually be a descendant of the historical Jesus.

'We have tried working with information from our friends in the office of the secretary-general of CESIS, the Italian intelligence services, and the IAB in j.a.pan, and have come to some conclusions. These are: 'One. Swakilki, a j.a.panese national, has links with the Roman Catholic Church because she lived as an orphan at the Holy Family Home, an Osaka orphanage.

'Two. A regular visitor there was Alberto Valerio, who held the position of secretary for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, at which time he travelled extensively within the Orient. His connection to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross is now known. He possibly also heads the Crux Decussata Permuta.

'Three. Swakilki was initially under the influence of the Aum Shinrikyo cult and committed several crimes with her partner Takuya, till such time as she killed him too. Subsequently, Swakilki Herai has carried out a.s.signments for Valerio only.

'Four. Brother Thomas Manning, who resides mostly in Switzerland, was the banking contact who ensured that Russia received the requisite doses of cash to ensure the freedom of the erstwhile Iron Curtain countries from the Soviet Union. This was done through Bakatin, who also had excellent connections with Al-Qaeda, more particularly someone known as the "Sheikh", who probably reports to a higher Master, possibly Osama.

'Five. After the war on terror, Osama-bin-Laden went into hiding in the Waziristan district of the tribal regions on the PakistanAfghanistan border. His new focus was to support local Islamic terror groups with ideology and cash. He wanted to expand his activities by creating local franchises. One of these was the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan. When, as a fallout of the war on terror, the Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned by the Americans, they spun off the ultra-elite Lashkar-e-Talatashar, or the Army of Thirteen, with Ghalib as the head.

'Six. In the last 11 months, the group has carried out eleven attacks in different parts of the world. Each attack has been on the twenty-first, leading us to believe that the big one will be on 21 December this year.

'Seven. We know that a nuclear weapon is in the hands of Ghalib and that the Crux Decussata Permuta have played a role in making this possible. Valerio, Dawood Omar and A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's head of nuclear research, studied at the University of Leuven in Belgium around the same time. Thus, it is quite possible that they were friends. We believe that Ghalib is taking his instructions from Osama-bin-Laden's right-hand man, the Sheikh.

'This is where you come into the picture, Father Vincent Sinclair. We need your help to understand why elements within the Crux Decussata Permuta would be willing to risk a nuclear war for the sake of Ghalib. Is he truly of the lineage of Jesus Christ? Moreover, what is the significance of 21 December, particularly at Tel Megiddo?'

No one noticed that Martha's knuckles had gone completely white.

Vincent sat stunned and motionless as he heard the general give his speech. Memories of 11 September 2001 came flooding back. He had been in the staff room of Stepinac High School along with his friend, the permanently unshaven janitor, Ted Callaghan. The television had been turned on in the staff room.

Then on that day, at 8:46 am, American Flight 11 from Boston had crashed into the North Tower. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 am, United Flight 175 from Boston had crashed into the South Tower.

Vincent and Martha attended Ma.s.s at St Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday, five days after the attack on the World Trade Centre. Cardinal Egan decided to hold Ma.s.s for all those who had died in the tragedy.

Two thousand people turned up.

After the memorial Ma.s.s was over, Vincent walked over to Thomas Manning and said, 'I need to talk to you.' Thomas had nodded. Martha left them alone, and Thomas and Vincent strolled over to Murray's Bagels on 6th Avenue. They bought a couple of bagels with a variety of cream cheeses and settled down at a table. 'So, what's all this I hear about you and Opus Dei? An Opus Dei-connected FBI agent was arrested and they're saying he was a parishioner at your church,' Vincent asked.

'Vincent, you know I value our friendship. I want you to know that I had nothing to do with that FBI agent who was arrested. He simply attended prayers at St Catherine's, the same church in which I preached. Period.'

'Point taken. Are you a member of Opus Dei?'

'What is this? An inquisition?' asked Thomas, visibly irritated. 'Vincent . . . look . . .'

'Just answer the question, Thomas! I need to know.'

'No. I am not Opus Dei. And I promise you-that's the absolute truth.'

It was the truth. He was not Opus Dei.

He was Crux Decussata Permuta.

The group was deliberating on what the general had just told them. 'Martha, you have regressed your patients into the past, but isn't it possible to progress them into the future? Some gurus, such as Weiss, have indicated that our futures are variable, which means that the choices we make in the present could determine the quality of our future,' said Vincent.

Martha thought about it before replying. 'Well, progression is not very different from regression. The problem is that it is difficult to distinguish between fact and fantasy. What if one sees something in the future that may not be true? It could do irreparable damage to the psyche of the patient.'

'Could you progress me?' he asked.

'Sure. But I don't feel very comfortable doing it. You must understand that hypnotic projection is the exact opposite of regression and implies projecting the mind into the future. The purpose would be to see what will happen in the future or what is likely to happen in the future. If this is crazy to a "normal" mind, consider the basic fact that the human mind can not only regress or progress but can also move sideways. Take the concept of dreams; isn't it possible to dream through the pa.s.sage of an entire year in a matter of an hour?'

'So why won't you progress me if it could tell us something critical?' demanded Vincent.

'If the mind "sees" an event happening often enough, there is a strong possibility that such an event would eventually play itself out as a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't want to put you in that situation, Vincent.'

Pandit Ramgopal Prasad nodded his agreement. He said to Vincent, 'Son, your future is not a predetermined one. That is the essence of Hindu philosophy. Even though there is always a "most probable" scenario, it is definitely in our hands to change the outcome via our actions. That is the basis of karma.'

Vincent was adamant. 'We are living in a moment of crisis. We need to do something dramatic that may help us. I think I can live with the consequences.'

'Okay, Vincent, you win. What do you want to see?' asked Martha helplessly.

'Do we have a bloodline of Jesus here in India? Is it Ghalib? Is he the anti-Christ? Does he have a bomb? Where is it? Where do they plan to set it off? Will the world tomorrow be a better place than the world today? Will there even be a world left tomorrow?' Vincent was on a roll.

'I get the picture, Vincent,' remarked Martha caustically. 'Let's get you settled. Please understand that projection can be either directive or non-directive. Directive progression is better suited for curing ailments or traumas. My progression will be non-directive, in which you will be free to choose the path yourself. Understood?'

'Sure.'

'Why don't you settle down comfortably on the bed and let me pull this chair near you. Comfortable?' Vincent nodded as he settled onto the hotel bed. Martha pulled up the chair beside him while the others continued to remain seated on the floor cushions.