The Hunt for Shambhala

33

When Selena awoke the Avalon had left the Himalayas far behind to the north and was starting to descend over the riverine lakes and timber factories of Kanchrapara just north of Kolkata. She knew they had been lucky — they all did. When they had finally got back to Yadong the aircraft was exactly where Decker had moored it, and with the exception of a few locals taking pictures of it, it had gone untouched. They were all relieved but the former US Marine had almost kissed it when he saw it was in one piece… Men, she thought.

She also thought about Shambhala. Finding such a place was a dream come true, and she could hardly wait to return there and establish a serious dig. She hoped the Chinese authorities would allow her museum the permission to do so, and she was certain Atticus could swing it, but none of this would happen if they didn’t stop Madan.

Outside the Avalon, the powerful Hooghly River shone brightly in the Bengali sun and made her turn her eyes away and her attention returned to the cabin. She yawned and looked at her watch. She had been asleep for less than hour, but it was good to catch up. Since she and Riley were attacked in Hong Kong her life had been turned into a relentless and desperate hunt and she was ready for some peace and quiet.

She had been sleeping on one of the beds in the rear of the vintage aircraft. An identical bed ran along the portside opposite her and Riley Carr was also asleep on it. He had one of Decker’s old baseball caps over his face to shield his eyes from the daylight.

Arjun Johar was sitting closer to the cockpit and talking in urgent Hindi to someone on his telephone. Selena heard the words Rakesh Madan several times and didn’t need three guesses to know what he was talking about.

Charlie and Diana had found a table under piles of crates in the center of the plane and were now sitting opposite one another. She was staring intently as he explained all about the glim dropper — a notorious old con he had updated to work in the modern world when he worked as a grifter in Germany.

“What’s that?” Diana said.

“The glim dropper is a con almost guaranteed to get a few hundred quid off the mark, but the problem is you need someone with a glass eye.”

Diana laughed. “A glass eye?”

“Right, and while getting glass eyes is not hard, finding someone who needs one and who also wants to be part of a con is not so easy. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

She laughed again. “I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

“Thanks… I think. Anyway, so I updated the con and substituted a flash drive for the glass eye.”

“A flash drive?”

“Sure. They’re super common and people keep all their private stuff on there — especially family photos.”

“Ah, now I see.”

“Right, so I go into a shop and tell the owner I lost a flash drive full of family photos of my sister’s wedding. I lay it on a bit thicker and tell him my sister died…” he leaned a little closer to Diana and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t have a sister, by the way.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“So I tell this bloke I’ll give him a thousand quid if he finds it and I’ve got a few hundred photos of some random woman’s wedding off the internet on the drive in case he looks. I give him my contact details and then I piss about pretending to look for it under his shelves all over again before leaving. Next day one of my associates goes into the store — and he only goes and finds the sodding flash drive, just like magic.” He snapped his fingers and leaned back in the seat, a smug smile slowly appearing on his lean, unshaven face.

“And then?”

“The bloke in the shop sees his chance for a thousand quid slowly slipping away so he offers to return it direct to me — just being a gent and so on, natch. Only my associate makes a big brouhaha about returning it himself if the shopkeeper gives him the address.”

“This is very devious.”

“I learned it off a perp in Stuttgart. Eventually the shopkeeper offers to pay my associate a couple of hundred quid for the flash drive — he’s got one eye on my thousand quid reward, see? My associate then drives him up to five hundred, and the transaction is made. My associate walks out the shop with five hundred nicker and the greedy bastard in the shop’s got a two quid flash drive with random internet woman on it. Everyone’s a winner — piece of piss.”

Diana shook her head and gave him a disapproving look, and Selena sighed and walked into the cockpit. Decker was sitting in the captain’s seat and searching through a pile of papers on his lap.

“Lost another approach plate, Mr Decker?”

He turned, mildly startled by the unexpected interruption. “No, I just can’t find it. It’s different.”

Selena raised an eyebrow and watched as the American scratched the back of his head and cursed. Then he smiled and pulled a piece of paper from the pile and waved it at her. “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International — all right here!”

“I’m pleased to hear it. As much as I enjoyed your white-knuckle ride landing on the Yadong River, I’d prefer something a little more civilized this time, if you can manage it.”

“How’s Arjun?” Decker asked, leaning over the side of his seat and glancing back through the cabin.

“Busy.”

“He asked me to drop below ten thousand so he could get a signal. He’s arranging a meeting with the authorities in Kolkata.”

Inspector Jyoti Banerjee of the Kolkata Police looked at them with concern in his sad, tired eyes. The sound of his air-conditioner filled the office with a gentle hum, and the addition of a small Delonghi desktop fan added another layer of white noise underneath their conversation.

He turned to Arjun Johar “And you say Rakesh Madan has some kind of nuclear weapon?”

“Johar nodded grimly. “We believe so.”

“This is a very sensitive issue,” Banerjee continued. “Rakesh Madan is one of the richest men in India. He has his own space program, for heaven’s sake. We cannot rush in like a bull in a china shop, as you say in English.” As he spoke these words he turned to Selena and gave her a pleasant smile.

“We’re aware of Madan’s standing in India,” Selena said.

Banerjee looked unmoved. “After your incredible telephone call this afternoon I had my office put together a briefing dossier on Mr Madan. He gives millions of dollars to rural development programs all over the country every year, including right here in West Bengal.”

“I understand that, but…”

“It seems impossible to imagine him building nuclear weapons let alone searching for this…”

“Lunium,” Decker said.

“Searching for this lunium all over the Himalayas — just so he can fit it into some kind of super weapon and destroy most of the northern hemisphere’s electronic infrastructure.” He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. “Have I got that right?”

“Yes,” Selena and Decker said simultaneously.

Johar said, “The IIB has had him under loose surveillance for some time now related to the space program, and I can vouch for what is being said here today.”

Decker sighed. “He’s planning on processing this lunium and using it to enhance three nuclear weapons he’s created in his labs at the space center. He calls them the Yamas — II, III and IV. There’s a prototype as well but these are the three going into orbit. We think his plan is to launch them into space on the Svarga and deliver them into low-earth orbit.”

Banerjee looked more uncomfortable by the second. “Continue.”

“After that he can manoeuvre the things wherever he wants and then when they’re in position he plans on detonating them over North America, Europe and the Far East and creating the biggest electro-magnetic pulses in history. If he succeeds he’ll fry every electrical component across these regions. This is literally the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.”

“So you say, but I must tell you that my superiors were sceptical.”

“Were?”

“After your phone call the Assistant Superintendent spoke with the Deputy Commissioner and he went even higher. One of our satellites was re-tasked to survey the areas you described. This surveillance revealed the unusual activity you reported in the Yadong Valley, and for this reason it has been decided to send a unit of the Anti-Terror Squad to Madan’s Space Center.”

“And what about Kuan?” Decker said. “Don’t forget he broke in and stole the prototype nuke.”

“Kuan, yes… I thought you said he and Madan were working together?”

“They were, but clearly they’ve had a disagreement of some significance,” Selena said.

“Whatever the hell their situation is,” Decker drawled, “Kuan is clearly planning on the mother of all paybacks. He’s gone rogue with an active nuke and nowhere’s safe until he’s caught.”

Banerjee nodded. “Yes… as it happened I had my office look into it immediately. It turns out that no robbery was reported by the center…”

“Hardly surprising,” Decker said. “Madan isn’t exactly going to fess up to having illegal nukes in his space center, is he? I imagine he is considering this as strictly his own little problem. We already know he has a unit out looking for Kuan.”

“Are there any leads on Kuan?” Selena said.

Banerjee nodded. “The vehicle containing the bomb was picked up by CCTV cameras in Bankura several hours ago. It looks like he’s heading toward Varanasi.”

“Why?”

Banerjee spread his hands and pushed back into his seat. “We think he’s targeting the temple there. It’s one of the most holy sites in Hinduism.”

“My God…” Selena’s voice trailed away.

Banerjee moved to get up from his seat. “I have a first-class agent named Jha. She will lead the team on Varanasi, and I will lead the assault on the space center. We end this today.”

“I want our people there too,” Selena said.

“This is impossible,” Banerjee said quietly.

“No, they’re right,” Johar said. “If it weren’t for these people we would know none of Madan’s plans, plus I’ve seen them in action at the tea plantation and in the Shambhala cave complex. They can look after themselves.”

Banerjee looked sceptical, but saw the point Johar was making. He offered a shallow shrug and gave a brief nod. “Very well — but only because I respect Agent Johar so much.”

“Thank you,” Selena said.

“So when do we start?” Decker asked, looking at his watch. “I’d kind of like to get on with my life, if you know what I mean.”

“The plan is we put two teams together. One will be sourced from agents local to Varanasi and they will locate Kuan and stop him from detonating the weapon he stole. The other team will be headed by me and go to the Svarga Space Center where I intend on personally arresting Rakesh Madan and ending his space program once and for all… but we have to be very careful.”

“How so?”

“This is where it gets sensitive. As I have said, Madan is very powerful and has many close friends in high places. Simply talking about launching a counter-terror strike on him would raise serious eyebrows on the wrong foreheads. Remember — there’s no evidence to support any of these claims.”

“So what do we do?”

“I can assemble a team of men I trust,” Banerjee said. “And we go to the Svarga Space Center unofficially.”

“How long to get there?” Selena asked.

“It’s on our side of the border between West Bengal and Odisha,” Banerjee said. “So four hours by road.”

“That’s too long,” Selena said.

“I can request an aircraft immediately,” Banerjee said. “The problem is the nearest airport to the space center is miles away and we would have to drive from there.”

Selena leaned forward in her seat, her eyes sparkling with a new idea. “Where is the space center, exactly, Mr Banerjee?”

“Like most space centers, it’s on the coast.”

Selena turned to Decker and opened her mouth to speak, but the American cut her off before the first word fell from her lips.

“To the Space Center, and no farther,” he said.

“Thank you, Mitch.”

He sighed and put his hat on. “And I’m not paying for the fuel, dammit.”