The Rozabal Line Part 21

Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma nodded; the very date that he had seen as the end of the world.

'What can you see?'

'The radiation produced by the explosions has destroyed all the vegetation.'

'What else?'

'Burning trees. Burning gra.s.s. Rivers and oceans of blood. Complete darkness.'

'Can you see anyone else?'

'I can see him.'

'Who?'

'The man who started it. The man who finished it.'

'What did he start or finish?'

'The end of the world.'

Waziristan, PakistanAfghanistan border, 2012 The Sheikh needed to reconfirm the contents of Ghalib's note. He asked his loyal attendant to fetch him his mirror. When this was in front of him, he held the note up and re-read it from the mirror image: OH.IMAM.MY.OATH.TO.YOU.

TO.HIT.ATOM.AT.ATOM.TWO.

AIM.AT.THE.MOUTH.AIM.AT.THE.TEETH.

HIT.HIM.AWAY.WITH.WHITE.HOT.HEAT.

AYE.WITH.MY.TOY.TIE.HIM.TO.WOE.

TO.THY.WHIM.MY.YOUTH.I.OWE.

OUT.WITH.HIM.OUT.WITH.ME.

I.AWAIT.THY.TIME.TO.ATOMIZE.ME.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

Zurich, Switzerland, 2012 Herr Egloff, the investment advisor from Bank Leu, was sitting in the dining room of his chalet near Lake Aegiri consuming his usual breakfast of Birchermuesli mixed with fruit and yoghurt. This particular batch had been made with chopped filberts, chopped almonds, sweetened wheat germ, rolled oats, dried currants, and dried apricots. Herr Egloff attributed his good health to this wonderful concoction that had been invented by the renowned Swiss Dr Bircher-Benner.

The other reason for Herr Egloff's good health was the excellent state of his clients' portfolios. More specifically, the portfolio managed for Brother Thomas Manning. A single-sheet summary lay on the dining table.

Next to it lay an unsigned draft press release. It spoke about a nuclear threat in the heart of the Middle East. The fallout of such an event would be a reduction in the production and supply of oil in the region. Prices would further rise. Brother Manning would be pleased.

Crude Oil Future Contract Number One that he had purchased for his clients at $51.06 per barrel was now trading at $203.11 per barrel.

He had made a similar investment for his biggest client, a radical outfit called the UNL Militia. Herr Egloff did not ask too many questions about where the money came from. It was just one of the reasons for his tremendous success.

Before doing anything else, he had an important a.s.signment to carry out for His Eminence. He transferred $30,000 from the Oedipus account to that of Iscariot. He then took a phone call from Washington DC and transferred a million dollars from the UNL Militia to Iscariot.

Jerusalem, A.D. 27 Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests. And said to them: 'What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?' And they appointed him thirty pieces of silver.

Srinagar, Kashmir, India, 2012 She had come here to Srinagar to meet him. It had taken several months of effort to finally get him to agree on a deal. He was the junior a.s.sistant director of Archives, Archaeology, Research and Museums for Kashmir. His name was Yehuda Moinuddin a.k.a. CIA Trois a.k.a. Iscariot a.k.a. Judas.

As such, he had complete access to the former director's work-the work of Dr Fida M. Ha.s.snain. A person listed in the Who's Who of archaeology and having complete control over the entire body of ancient Kashmiri doc.u.ments. One of Dr Ha.s.snain's bestselling books had been A Search for the Historical Jesus, written in 1994. This phenomenal work of scholarship had contained tonnes of painstaking and verifiable research to prove that Jesus had not died on the cross and that he had spent the latter part of his life in Kashmir.

Yehuda had worked in this heady environment of scholarship and research for quite some time. Over many years he had absorbed each and every little detail that was available regarding the Jesus-in-Kashmir theory.

However, there was one extremely important difference between him and Dr Ha.s.snain. Dr Ha.s.snain was a true scholar. He was a Sufi, a mystical proponent of Islam, and was never out to discredit Jesus or the Christian faith. In fact, it was his love for Jesus Christ that made him want to distinguish fact from fiction. Yehuda Moinuddin, on the other hand, was a different matter. He was one of the key members of the Lashkar-e-Talatashar. He was Ghalib's most trusted aide, who managed all the financial matters of the group and lived on the houseboat Barabbas that belonged to Ghalib.

He was sitting in the balcony of the houseboat moored on the Dal Lake sipping a cup of kahwa, a delicate Kashmiri tea flavoured with saffron and almonds. 'I must find him before Vincent Sinclair and the others can reach him,' Swakilki said to him.

'I have spent the last two years researching everything there is to research on the subject. I already know whatever there is to know. I simply need to lead you to him. For that you must pay me my price.'

Swakilki handed over a thin white envelope containing a slip with an account number at the Bank Leu, Zurich. Yehuda Moinuddin took it and looked at the slip eagerly. Thirty thousand dollars. He smiled a sly smile of satisfaction. 'I won't confirm with Egloff because I trust you,' he said.

Swakilki shot back, 'You won't confirm because I can kill you.' He laughed. 'No, you won't. I'm the only one who can take you to him,' he said as he thought of the last meal he had with Ghalib.

Duly washed, they sat down and were served the lamb. Ghalib took the hot naan and, breaking it into pieces, lovingly served it to his men. He then spoke to Yehuda,'In Srinagar, there is a j.a.panese woman looking for me. You will go, find her, and tell her that you will deliver me to her.'

The trip westwards from Srinagar towards the Poonch district of Kashmir, along the Indo-Pakistan line of control, is very scenic. One necessarily has to travel through what is commonly called the 'Valley of Kashmir', a strip that is about eighty miles long and thirty-five miles wide, straddling the river Jhelum at an average elevation of 5,500 feet. Looking at the verdant hills and orchards and endless miles of swaying chinar trees, Swakilki found it difficult to understand how Bill Clinton could have called this 'the most dangerous place on earth'.

The rugged India-made Mahindra Commander 650, an extremely basic 4x4, was ideal for the difficult roads that they were traversing. Yehuda was at the wheel. Swakilki sat on the uncomfortable bench seat in the rear of the vehicle wearing an Afghan burqa that covered her entirely from head to toe. Swakilki was looking forward to finally being able to see the man in person.

Vatican City, 2012 'One can never trust Muslims!' shouted His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio. Brother Thomas Manning was silent as he listened to Valerio venting his anger.

'We transfer funds from our Oedipus trust to the Isabel Madonna trust. We convince Dawood Omar to part with the first bomb of the series, only to be told that Osama plans to use Ghalib as the trigger! G.o.d curse his soul to eternal d.a.m.nation!' he thundered. Silence greeted him.

'Don't you have anything to say? Do you realise what could happen to the Church if word got out?' he demanded furiously.

'Your Eminence . . .' began Thomas Manning.

'Yes. Say whatever you want quickly!'

'Does it matter whether Ghalib is delivered to us alive or dead?' asked Manning delicately.

'What do you mean?' asked Valerio.

'Well, wasn't the intention of this exercise to prevent word from getting out that Christ had not died on the cross and that he had not been resurrected. Wasn't it our intention to ensure that the story we have fed our faithful flock for centuries remains intact?'

His Eminence wanted to be angry; instead, he smiled at Manning's logical mind.

Maryland, USA, 2012 Stephen Elliot and Prithviraj Singh were with their friend from Mossad, Zvi Yatom. They were not alone. Around fifty people were in the darkened room along with them. The poorly lit room had walls that were padded in dark velvet. The sweet smell of incense pervaded the atmosphere. The room was accessed through a single pa.s.sageway, the entrance to which was camouflaged by a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, painted in 1759 by Benjamin Wilson. Inside the secret hall, one could observe in the dim light, thirteen pa.s.sages that led to thirteen separate rooms. Each of these rooms was used for very specific ceremonies.

The Grand Master spoke. 'Achaita, divine revelation. Rome will pa.s.s away, Jerusalem will burn and the reason will become broken. And my Law, the Law of Zion, will be acclaimed by the whole of humanity.'

'Achaita!' said all those gathered in unison.

'Oh Illuminated, Brothers and Sisters of the Great Hidden Lodge, of the Night, of the Star, of the Light! Zion is the Law!'

'Achaita!'

'Elevate and proclaim the Light, and break the chains of death, with the force Zion, oh Illuminated. I am the creator of worlds. I am the Great Architect of the Universe. Nations and governors are dust in front of me!'

'Achaita!'

'The next centuries and millennia will only know one word: Zion. And one Law: Zion. The next millennia will be of freedom and light, life and creation, love and kindness, under the Law of Zion, the Law of the Eternal One!'

'Achaita!'

'Proclaim Zion, oh Illuminati, and lead the slaves to the footpath of freedom. The brave ones will be free and eternal, to image and similarity of G.o.d. The cowardly ones will die forgotten and surrounded in their chains of ignorance and sin!'

'Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion!'

The Grand Master, dressed in scarlet robes, thrust the knife into the dummy that had been placed on the large black granite slab in the centre of the room.

'Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion! Zion!'

After the dummy had been 'sacrificed', each member went up to the Grand Master, bowing and kissing the Grand Master's ring. As they kissed it, they swore their allegiance to Novus Ordem Seclorum, the New World Order.

'We have lost our colleague Terry Acton to the forces of the evil Church. Fear not! His sacrifice was not in vain. As we speak, the forces of Islam and the forces of Christianity are positioning themselves for the greatest conflict ever. At the end of this conflict, they will both destroy themselves. And then will arise the New World Order-the power of the Illuminati!'

Ceremony over, the Grand Master retreated through the secret pa.s.sageway till it ended at the secret door that was camouflaged on the other side by the painting. The Grand Master placed both palms on the scanners by the sides of the entrance and waited till the door swung open.

The forty-fourth President of the United States of America then went and settled down behind the antique desk in the study of the official 125-acre retreat in the centre of Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Camp David.

The forty-fourth President, the SAS director Stephen Elliot, RAW chief Prithviraj Singh and Mossad operative Zvi Yatom were all peas from the very same pod.

The Illuminati.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Tel Megiddo, Israel, 2012 Ghalib surveyed the area. El-Azhar was very familiar with the site. He had brought along with him all the required ordinance maps that outlined every inch of the territory. El-Azhar told Ghalib not to worry as they parked the truck inside a small thicket so that it would not attract too much attention. El-Azhar asked Ghalib to wait while he surveyed the caves to determine the exact location that would be ideally suited to their purpose. Ghalib would continue observing El-Azhar from a distance, using night-vision binoculars. He would wait desperately for the next four days while El-Azhar continued to remain invisible. Ghalib was worried. Could something have happened to him? Just as he was about to break protocol and go searching for him, he saw an extremely tired and fatigued El-Azhar emerge from one of the very small openings along the slope of the hill. Ghalib lifted his eyes to the heavens and exclaimed, 'Ma sha' Allah! I thank the all-merciful Allah for having heard my prayers! El-Azhar lives to tell me his story!'

Bethany, Judea, A.D. 27 Now, there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany. Jesus therefore came and found that he had been four days already in the grave. And said: 'Where have you laid him?' It was a cave; and a stone was laid over it. Jesus said: 'Take away the stone.' They took, therefore, the stone away. And Jesus lifting up his eyes, said: 'Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard me.'

Tel Megiddo, Israel, 2012 Ghalib's arrest by Zvi Yatom was quick and effortless. El-Azhar had done his job well by tipping them off. Within a few minutes Ghalib had been surrounded. The problem was that his truck, containing the alleged device, had disappeared.

The Israeli state gave the police blanket powers to arrest suspected terrorists, carry out communication intercepts, and severely curtail freedom of expression. In high-risk areas, search warrants could be done away with and the authorities were free to periodically ban communications through mobile phones or cyber cafes.

It was a cla.s.sic chicken-and-egg story. Which came first-the terrorist or torture? Hard-line Islamic terrorist groups claimed that thousands had been tortured by the Israeli state whereas the authorities claimed that they had no other way to deal with people who saw nothing wrong in killing innocent women and children in schools, hospitals and restaurants. The greater the terrorist menace, the more aggressive were the police and army in questioning suspects and, consequently, the higher the levels of torture and interrogation. But each suspect that emerged from the jails, innocent or not, became sympathetic to the terrorist cause.

Tel Megiddo, Israel, 2012 He was strapped naked in a prostrate position on a table and interrogated, while the soles of his feet were whacked repeatedly till the bones began to crumble.

Ghalib merely whispered, 'The person who partic.i.p.ates in holy battles in Allah's cause will be recompensed by Allah . . . will be admitted to Paradise if he is killed in battle as a martyr . . . Bismillah, i-rahman, i-rahim, in the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful, Sibhana man halalaka lil dabh, praise be upon he who has made me suitable for slaughter.'

Jerusalem, A.D. 27 The Roman soldiers stripped Jesus and proceeded to tie his hands tightly to the post above him. The flagellum was made from a combination of individual leather pieces, bone and lead. Two soldiers, one on either side, carried out the task. While the Jews had an upper limit of forty lashes, the Romans had no such limit. The flagellum struck the skin of his back, shoulders and legs with maximum impact. With each progressive lash, the whip not only cut through the skin but also through tissue, capillaries, veins and muscles.

Tel Megiddo, Israel, 2012 The High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector that Zvi Yatom had succeeded in obtaining from Tel Aviv was cleverly able to identify radioactive materials from their 'natural signatures'-because all radioactive substances continued to emit gamma rays, x-rays, alpha particles, beta particles, or neutrons. The machine had already sounded several alerts. The first alert had flashed on the screen.

Thorium-234. 24.1 days. Beta, Gamma, X-ray.

It had turned out to be a huge fertiliser warehouse on the edge of a neighbouring field. The radioactive thorium was a key component of fertiliser and had a 'half-life' of 24.1 days. The half-life was the amount of time it took for half of the atoms in the given radioactive substance to decay. The next alert was near the kibbutz. It turned out to be the x-ray department of the kibbutz hospital. Zvi was looking at the notebook computer's screen as it flashed another message.

Pota.s.sium-40. 1.28 billion years. Beta (1.3-MeV), Gamma.

Wrong number again. It was a truckload of bananas being transported to the local market from the kibbutz.

Another message flashed: Thorium-232. 14.1 billion years. Alpha, x-rays.

'Yes! We may have found it!' shouted Zvi triumphantly as he ordered the patrol vehicles of the unit to head in the northerly direction pinpointed by the map on the screen. The signal became stronger and then suddenly stopped. They were in a granite quarry! Radiation was quite obviously going to be high owing to the high uranium and thorium content of the granite stone.

'Turn back!' he ordered. 'Let's move towards the hill.'

As the convoy progressed, the earlier computer message reappeared.

Thorium-232. 14.1 billion years. Alpha, x-rays.

Zvi Yatom stopped his jeep and peered over the shoulder of the technician operating the infernal radiation detector. 'What is it?' he asked.

The operator looked up at him and said, 'Sir, this area is the local sc.r.a.pyard. Disused metal objects are brought here and are re-used for welding. The thoriated tungsten welding rods emit radiation. That's the signature we seem to be picking up.'

Zvi was exasperated. The d.a.m.n computer was identifying fertiliser, granite quarries, bananas, x-ray machines, welding rods and everything other than the d.a.m.n bomb. 'Carry on towards the excavation site,' he ordered, 'that's our best bet.'

Suddenly, the screen came alive.

Uranium-235. 700 million years. Alpha, x-rays.

They had it! Uranium-235 gave off alpha rays, which had a half-life of 700 million years. They were close to a source of enriched uranium. There was no alternative. They would have to evacuate the area immediately.

Waziristan, North-West Frontier Province, 2012 'Shukran li-l-lah! Thanks be to Allah!' cried the Sheikh. 'Even though he is in the clutches of the Jewish sc.u.m, he has not forgotten his duty. Where is he?'

The messenger spoke up. 'I am given to understand that he has been whisked away to the Tel Megiddo prison nearby, where the Mossad agents are interrogating him.'

'Rascals! They would wh.o.r.e their own mothers to achieve their aims. So what do we do about the truck that is sitting there? The detonation codes are only with Ghalib.'