The Hunt for Shambhala

31

“Wrong,” Madan said. “I already have the bomb — or three of them to be accurate — Yama II, III and IV, but I need the lunium to increase their yield. You see, the lunium is hundreds of times stronger that tritium and will make the bombs more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

“So you want this lunium to make the bombs more dangerous?” Selena said.

“That depends on what my man here reports to me.”

After a brief conversation with one of his men, the man then walked to the water and conducted a short test. He returned to Madan and nodded his head.

“It seems as if my journey has not been in vain,” Madan said with a strange look in his eyes. “Kalki has appeared in Shambhala… and now the new age can begin. I am the Destroyer of Filth and my holy mission is clear.”

“Absolutely fuckin’ nuts,” Riley said.

“Where’s the target, Madan?” Decker said.

“Target?”

“You have your goddam lunium, or whatever the hell it is,” the former Marine said with disgust. “So where’s the target?”

“You are most impertinent, Captain Decker.”

“What city, dammit?”

Madan burst out laughing. “What city? Why all of them, of course…!”

Decker and Selena exchanged a confused glance. “I don’t understand,” Selena said. “How many of these bombs are you making?”

“Just three.”

“Then how…”

“No bomb can be that powerful, Madan,” Riley said. “And that makes you full of shit, mate.”

Kaleka joined the laughter, and then Madan spoke. “No, Corporal Carr, no three bombs alone are powerful to destroy every city in North America, Europe and the Far East, at least not in the way you’re thinking.”

“I still don’t get it,” Diana said.

“You don’t get it?” Charlie said. “Imagine what I feel like.”

“This is over,” Madan said, and ordered his men to transport the lunium containers out to the helicopters. “I told you that I was the tenth avatar of Vishnu, but you doubted me. I told you when I reached the heart of Shambhala I would no longer be Rakesh Madan, but Kalki himself, and that then I would become the Destroyer of Filth with a power so great it can raze entire civilizations to the ground, but you doubted me. Now, I see you still have a lingering trace of doubt in your eyes.”

He barked some Hindi at Kaleka as the final lunium disappeared through the narrow tunnel and headed out to the choppers.

“I still think you’re talking crap, Madan,” Riley said.

“No,” Diana said coolly. “He’s not talking crap. He really is going to end global civilization with just three bombs.”

Decker and the others turned to look at the young Portuguese academic. “What’s going on, Diana?” the American said.

“He’s going to do it with his birds.”

“His birds?” Decker said.

Johar’s shoulders visibly slumped. He understood.

“His satellites,” Diana said. “He has several satellites and he’s launching more this week.”

“Ha!” Madan said. “You were listening to me after all. She is right, ladies and gentlemen, and the launch is tomorrow morning.” He glanced at his watch. “In just a few hours in fact.”

“But just three bombs?” Selena said. “That’s enough to take out three cities, not three civilizations.”

Then Decker got it. “Holy shit,” he drawled. “The bombs aren’t going to destroy the civilizations.”

Selena looked up at him. “Mitch?”

“The people are going to destroy their own civilizations, aren’t they Madan? You’re going to set man against man and woman against woman. You’re going to have every man, woman and child claw each other’s eyes out to stay alive!”

“Mitch?”

Madan started chuckling. He was revelling in this.

Decker clenched his jaw. “He’s using this lunium to create a super-EMP bomb.”

“Ha!” Madan said. “Throughout this duel you and I have engaged in, you have not disappointed me, Captain Decker,” he said. “And even now you impress me. Yes, the lunium, which is far more potent than tritium by several orders of magnitude, will be used to create the most powerful nuclear electromagnetic pulse bombs the world has ever seen.” Without warning, he turned to Kaleka and ordered everyone out of the mountain. “We have what we need… the prophecy is being fulfilled. The Destroyer of Filth has manifested in Shambhala today! I am the Tenth Avatar!”

Kaleka trudged back in from the choppers with a grim look on his face. He approached Madan, his face now tight with fear. “I got a call when I was outside in the valley. Lee Kuan raided Svarga.”

Madan’s face contorted with rage as he turned to his second-in-command. “Lee Kuan did what?”

“He raided the Svarga,” Kaleka repeated. “And he stole the Yama I.”

“He stole the prototype?”

Kaleka offered a grim nod. “Yes.”

“The vile traitor…” Madan said, his words trailing away into the darkness of the chamber. “What can he be planning?”

“Blackmail,” Kaleka said flatly.

“He must be destroyed. Send Singh’s unit after him and have him killed.”

Kaleka nodded and immediately made a phone call.

“The prototype is highly unstable,” Madan said. “He must be stopped. When it is retrieved, have his entire family wiped out.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are dangerously crazy, mate,” Riley said. “And that little fact is unbeatable.”

“Yes, Mr Carr, but sadly, you are not,” Madan said. “Kill them!”

Kaleka raised his rampuri but the Australian’s response was like lightning. He lunged at Kaleka and disarmed him in a second, snatching the rampuri and thundering forward with only one thing on his mind — the survival of himself and his friends.

The Indian stepped back and the tip of the blade missed its target and slashed open the side of his shirt instead. He brought his enormous hand down on Riley’s wrist and smashed the blade from the Australian’s hand with such force he nearly broke his arm. Riley’s response was to ignore the pain and bring his other hand up and power a chokuzuki punch into Kaleka’s throat.

The Indian staggered back as he struggled to suck air through his smashed windpipe, and Riley took advantage of his confusion to land a solid uppercut on his jaw and knock him off his feet.

In the chaos, Decker and the others rushed the remaining men and began fighting for their lives. As the battle grew around them, Selena ran forward and grabbed the knife that Kaleka had knocked from Riley’s hand. Snatching it up she felt its weight in her hand. “Riley — catch!”

The Australian’s arm shot out and he caught the rampuri. “Thanks, mate!”

But a man lunged at her and grappled her to the rocky ground. Her face smashed into the stone chips and the impact nearly knocked her out cold. The man struck her again and again.

She began to grow more frantic as the blows rained down on her, and raised her forearms to shield herself from the frenzied attack. The blood rushed to her head as a sense of danger overwhelmed her now. The fear she felt for her own life was ratcheted up again as the beast tore her arms out of the way and clawed at her face and neck.

Through her blurred vision she saw two hands grab the man’s shoulder and then pull him off her. She heaved herself up to her elbows to see Mitch Decker punching the man repeatedly in the face until he fell forward in the ground, bloodied and unconscious.

Any of Madan’s men who were still standing now ran from the cave and one of them fired some shots at the last of the lamps and plunged the place into darkness.

Diana screamed, and now they heard more shots firing in the darkness. Everyone dived for cover wherever they could find it. Madan’s forces were unleashing a final onslaught to give their leader the time he needed to transport the lunium out of the mountain and return safely to the choppers outside.

Decker heard another scream and fumbled for his flashlight. Switching it on he just caught Riley Carr punching one of Madan’s goons into the statue pit. As the screams faded into the pit, Riley rolled up his sleeves and scanned the darkness for another fight. “Who wants some more?” he yelled.

Decker rolled his eyes to heaven and ran over to him.

“You decided to join me then?” Riley said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Thought you’d taken up knitting to be honest, mate.”

Across the chamber, Diana was desperately scanning the chaos to find her friends in the half-light when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and another slip around her throat. She gasped and tried to scream but it was too late — Kaleka was pulling her back into the dark recesses of the weird inverted chamber and throttling her as he went.

She clawed at his powerful hands, but his grip was like iron and after just a few seconds she began to lose consciousness. She saw stars forming in the darkness and tiny slivers of light flashed across her eyes as the blood flow was slowly being cut from her head.

She had read about a surge of strength people felt when they were in mortal danger and now she knew it was true. She felt the energy course through her like electricity — she saw her parents… were they still alive? She had to know. She couldn’t let an animal like Kaleka kill her like a dog in this cave.

She spun around and delivered a feisty and powerful kick into the man’s groin, sending him doubling over. He fell to his knees and howled in agony as the pain from the hefty impact on his balls travelled up through his body and turned his stomach inside out.

She thought she had him beaten when he lashed out with his shovel-like hand and belted her across the cave. By the time she pulled herself up, he had staggered to his feet and slipped away with the rest of them.

“They’re gone!” Selena yelled.

“And the bastard’s got his bloody lunium, too!” said Riley.

Decker helped Johar to his feet as Charlie scramble over to them, his nose bleeding heavily. “He’ll be airborne in minutes,” the American said. “We’ve got to put an end to this, dammit!”

“So let’s get on with it,” Riley said. “If this is the final act I want to go out in a blaze of glory!”