Secret of the Himalayan Treasure

by Divyansh Mundra

  ​ He met as many people as he could in the hall. He blessed the couple and spoke to them for some time while everyone gathered around. All of a sudden, he became the center of attention.

  ​ “And to think that you almost had me believing that he was the evil master”, Aarav spoke as he pushed his emotional self away and brought out his logical side.

  ​ “There is no evil master, Aarav. Others are just blind”, Shayna replied while looking back at him.

  ​ Mr. Amit Jain, slowly went away from the crowd and was greeted by a group of five men, the top brass of his political party, and was led away to another room from the hall.

  ​ “Follow me! Now!” she ordered Aarav and walked ahead. They soon exited the hall and strolled down the corridor towards a sea facing room at the end which was being guarded by four men.

  ​ “You cannot go in”, one of them while blocking their way.

  ​ “It is necessary that we speak with the Prime Minister at this very moment. Show him this and he’ll understand”, Shayna said as she passed on a piece of paper to the guard who looked at them again suspiciously before walking into the room himself. A few moments later, the door of the room opened and all the men barring the Prime Minister walked out with a puzzled face. The guard came ahead and ordered two men to search both Aarav and Shayna, before leading them inside.

  ​ The Prime Minister sat with a grim face on a chair before a round table, with cards and some chips placed on it. He asked the guard to leave the room and only looked at them both once he was gone. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked with a grave face as he opened the paper and placed it on the table with a sturdy hand, The Ring of the Seven inscribed on it.

  ​ “It means that it is a matter of grave importance”, Shayna spoke as she moved forwards and shook the Prime Minister’s hand.

  ​ “We met when you were awarded the Padma Shree, didn’t we?” the Prime Minister spoke up. “I understand that a treasure hunter would be on a trail for a secret like this, but you?”

  ​ “You know Aarav?” she spoke, surprised.

  ​ “Yes”, the Prime Minister said as he shook Aarav’s hand. “The treasure he found in Chittorgarh financed three of my major schemes directly. This man has helped in filling our coffers to a great extent.”

  ​ “Perhaps you can excuse me from paying taxes for a lifetime then, sir?” he replied back with a smile.

  ​ Prime Minister laughed a little. “You are an inspiration to me.”

  ​ “Him?” Shayna asked again, surprised.

  ​ “Yes. Him”, the Prime Minister responded as Aarav looked at Shayna and smirked. “He is a treasure hunter. Who doesn’t want to be a treasure hunter? Who doesn’t want to go to exotic adventures and end up with a pot of gold in the end? This man has the best job in the world.”

  ​ They all laughed and agreed.

  ​ “Now. The Ring of the Seven”, the Prime Minister continued. “Ever since Harish Vashishtha passed away, we are being bombarded by queries about this secret group. When I assumed power, I thought that these were just rumors; a secret society guarding an ancient secret, sounds too good to be true. But alas, as it turns out, Harish was a member of this secret group.”

  ​ “Wait. But you were elected to the office three years ago”, Aarav spoke.

  ​ “Yes. But all I knew about this society was just a rumor. It all became true after Harish committed suicide.”

  ​ “So, you’re telling us that you knew about the Ring of the Seven only when the rest of the world came to know of it?” Aarav grew concerned.

  ​ “Precisely”, the Prime Minister replied calmly.

  ​ “But it can’t be true”, Shayna interrupted. “You are one of the masters.”

  ​ “What?” the Prime Minister lifted his eyebrows in amazement and smiled. “I wish that I was.”

  ​ “You can tell us, sir”, she continued in a low voice. “I am one of the masters too.”

  ​ “You are a member of the Ring of the Seven?” the Prime Minister moved ahead and placed both his arms on the table. “Unbelievable.”

  ​ “Yes”, Shayna continued. “And so are you.”

  ​ “I’m sorry to disappoint you child, but I am not”, the Prime Minister uttered to her horror. “I don’t understand. If you are a master yourself, why did you come to me? How could I possibly help you?”

  ​ “Mr. Prime Minister. I’m afraid but the secret is out. All the other masters are dead and only we survive”, she continued, growing more anxious.

  ​ “But I cannot possibly help you. You must have me confused with someone else.”

  ​ “I don’t have time for this. Someone is out there, killing the other masters. Our only chance of survival depends on your book. Help us, please.”

  ​ “My book?” the Prime Minister grew suspicious.

  ​ “The Book of Strategy”, Aarav laid the fact.

  ​ “The Book of…”, the Prime Minister’s eyes widened all of a sudden. “Do you mean the Book of Nehru?”

  ​ “The Book of Nehru?” Both Aarav and Shayna asked him together, looking into each other’s eyes.

  ​ “Yes. It’s a legend, a myth that gets passed along to every Prime Minister among other secrets. From all that I know about it, the story says that in his early days Robert Clive, Commander-in-chief of British India, laid his hands on a secret book, a book which held tactics of military and administrative strategies, which he acquired during the Second Carnatic War which helped him defend the fort of Arcot against the combined forces of the French and the Nawab for fifty-six days, eventually garnering him immense recognition in Europe. He further employed those tactics in recapturing the city of Calcutta and winning the Battle of Plassey with hardly a few men. He was praised as a tactical genius and eventually went on to become the Commander-in-chief of British India. Robert Clive passed on that book however upon his deathbed, and it kept on changing hands from one governor general to another as the British built their empire on the shoulders of our countrymen. However, someone burgled the home of Fredric Thesiger, who was the Viceroy of India for about five years, and found himself in possession of that book. He gave that book to a popular face around that time who had successfully led an agitation in Bihar.”

  ​ “Mahatma Gandhi”, Aarav spoke as he grabbed his head.

  ​ “Yes. Gandhi had grown his image as an Indian nationalist ever since he came back from South Africa. And he won many hearts when he successfully led the Champaran movement in Bihar and won the war for the peasants without the use of a single weapon. I have heard that he combined his ideology of fighting wars with peace with the strategies in that book and he went on to become the Father of the Nation. He won India its independence from the colonial rule and once Pakistan was seperated from the country, he passed on the book to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.”

  ​ “What happened then? Where is the book?” Shayna asked the Prime Minister.

  ​ “I don’t know”, he continued. “He never passed on the book. He burned it instead.”

  ​ “What?” Aarav and Shayna uttered as they weren’t able to believe what they heard.

  ​ “Yes. He burned the book.”

  ​ “He burned the Book of Strategy? Why? Why would he do that?” Shayna asked, aghast.

  ​ “No one knows. But this is all that I know about the Book of Nehru. I never could have guessed that it is somehow related to the Ring of the Seven.”

  ​ Shayna had held her head as she stared at Aarav with horror in her eyes. He looked back at her and verified each aspect about the story which he heard with the history that he knew. But there was nothing wrong with the timelines or the successions.

  ​ “The British ruled over us for so long”, Aarav spoke. “They killed hundreds and thousands of Indians, looted our resources, created artificial famines and let us suffer while they filled their own bellies. They destroyed our culture, pitted kingdoms against each other, pitted religions against ea
ch other, lied and forced their way to let our countrymen fight their wars for them. They even broke the country into three. And you’re saying that all of this happened just because they had the Book of Strategy?” Aarav uttered, completely forgetting about his treasure hunt and instead grieving from inside as he thought of the possibility that the darkest time of India was, in part, courtesy of an ancient book. The Prime Minister wasn’t able to find words to match Aarav’s argument. “The story you told. That much detail. It is impossible to pass all of this from one Prime Minister to other”, Aarav tried to prove him wrong.

  ​ “Each Prime Minister receives a document passed on by his precursors. It contained this matter among a lot of others that are of importance to this nation”, the Prime Minister replied.

  ​ “Can I have a look at it?” Aarav asked.

  ​ “Of course”, he responded with a smile. “Once you get elected to the office, you surely can. But don’t stand against me in the next elections, please. I plan to serve this country for another term.”

  ​ “This is impossible”, Shayna whispered. She knew that the hunt was now officially over.

  ​ “Is she alright?” the Prime Minister asked Aarav as Shayna took support of the wall behind her.

  ​ “Shayna”, Aarav rushed towards her and held her. “Are you alright?”

  ​ She shook her head as she found it hard to grab her breath.

  ​ “It’s probably the wine”, Aarav spoke to the Prime Minister. “She had a little extra. I should take her to her room. It was a pleasure to meet you Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you for your time and help.” Aarav led her out and asked a helper to guide them towards the room allotted to her. He held her by her shoulders and walked with her towards the elevator.

  ​ “Shayna. Are you okay?” he asked, moving away the hair falling on her face as she grew more and more restless.

  ​ “I’m having trouble… breathing. Aarav. I… I don’t know what is happening to me.” By the time they reached in their room, Shayna had started sweating and grew more and more restless. Aarav made her sit on the bed and handed her a glass of water before going back and locking the door of the room. As soon as he turned and came back, the glass had slipped from Shayna’s hand and spoiled the floor while she lied on the bed, her body motionless.

  ​ Aarav went ahead and placed his fingers towards the side of her neck to feel her pulse. He further moved his hands up and grazed her face, admiring her beauty before reaching out to the phone in his pocket.

  ​ The drug he slipped into her drink while passing her the wineglass before moving to meet the Prime Minister had taken effect much quicker than he had anticipated. He assumed that she would wake back up in six to eight hours, and by that time he hoped that his plan would work… just the way it had been working all this while.

  ​ Back at the bullpen, Rehann and Aanya were made to sit in the center of the hall, while three Bulls stood around watching them. The rest were guarding the floors below. Aarav and Shayna had been gone for almost three hours, leaving behind an agonized Aanya and a restless Rehann. The Bulls had gagged Rehann as he had started raising his voice to abuse them. And after yelling frantically for over an hour he finally broke down and held his head low. The Bulls were highly disciplined. Their leader K had given them express orders to not touch them both and had left with two Bulls, following Shayna to the Taj hotel. The Bulls in the hall didn’t speak with each other, they didn’t even move from their positions and kept standing in attention as they carefully watched every single movement of Rehann and Aanya. Aanya was anxiously looking at the wall opposite to her, staring at a single line of crack that ran through it. She wasn’t gagged or cuffed like Rehann, courtesy of Aarav Kohrrathi, but she had been forced to sit on the chair for almost a day and it was making her mad. She hadn’t come to terms with the fact that Shayna was behind the conspiracy the entire time. She had trusted her. They all had. But she betrayed them and revealed her true self.

  ​ Once, when the Bulls faced the other way, Aanya looked below towards her hands, where Aarav had placed a small scroll when he had come ahead and untied her. ‘Wait for the men in black. Serve them water from the water cooler once the action stops’, it said. She rolled back the scroll with a confused face and again looked at the crack on the wall.

  ​ “Who are the men in black?” she wondered to herself. “What action was Aarav talking about?”

  ​ She gazed towards Rehann, who had his eyes open and was staring at his feet grumpily in the dim light of the room. She again kept wondering the same questions, about the men in black and the action which would stop. She stared at the wall opposite to her, lit by the moonlight coming from the window behind her. Her sleep deprived eyes almost hallucinating the crack crawling on the wall. She closed her eyes slowly and opened them again to see the crack, only this time it was lit brighter than before.

  ​ And that is when she heard the noise.

  ​ Four men simultaneously barged into the hall through the narrow windows. They were all clad in black, wore bullet proof vests and masks, shooting red lasers from the front of the guns that they were holding. The Bulls in the hall hardly found time to react as their bodies were penetrated by the bullets that those men in black fired, killing the three of them almost instantly. Aanya and Rehann woke up as the loud noises of gunfire startled them, and saw the walls of the rooms bleeding red by the time they realized what had happened. Two of the four men rushed ahead to cover the entrance of the room while two more men entered through the windows and went to help both Rehann and Aanya.

  ​ ‘Three targets down. I repeat three targets down. Hostages are secure.’ A voice rang through their ears. ‘Seven hostiles on the floors below. Alpha team requests immediate order to engage.’

  ​ ‘Affirmative’, they heard a female voice ring through the radios of the men.

  ​ The four men who had entered first went ahead down the stairs. Rehann and Aanya heard in horror as sounds of gunfire blared through the building. They heard men shouting amidst sounds of shootings, they heard them crying amidst the rounds of firings, they could almost smell the blood being spilled on the floors below.

  ​ And then the noise stopped.

  ​ One of the two men who had entered afterwards stood at the gate of the hall with his gun pointing out. The other man cut the ropes bounding Rehann and ungagged him before asking him if he was okay.

  ​ ‘All hostiles terminated’, a voice rang through hall. ‘Hostages are secure. Operation Strakh concluded.’

  ​ The four men entered back into the hall above as they opened their gears and faced Rehann and Aanya, one man again asking if they were alright.

  ​ Both of them sat stunned with their mouths open and their hands shaking, unable to make sense of what had happened. They soon heard footsteps rushing up the stairs as around four more men entered, not dressed in their military gear but black suits. Two of them pulled ahead a table and placed it before Rehann, while the other two opened the backpacks that they were carrying and took out three laptops, placing them on the table and turning them on.

  ​ Soon, a woman entered the place and glanced at all the carnage and blood that adorned the hall. She took out her handkerchief and covered her mouth with it before she ordered her men to pull the bodies away. She then moved her eyes towards a terrified Rehann, who looked even more stupefied at seeing her than he was when he had heard the firing of guns. She trotted ahead in her heels as she opened her mobile phone, dialed a number and handed it over to Rehann. He took the phone from her while still gazing at her face, startled.

  ​ “Hello?” he uttered, barely getting his voice back.

  ​ “Did they connect the laptops with the internet?” Aarav’s confident voice struck his ears from the other end.

  ​ “They. Did”, he managed to speak, still fazed. “What exactly is happening right now?”

  ​ “I don’t have the time to explain it. Is Aanya okay?”

  ​ “Yes. She is”, he said tu
rning towards her.

  ​ “Good”, Aarav’s voice grew excited. “Tell her to do what I asked her to. Slowly.”

  ​ Rehann conveyed the same to Aanya who stood up sluggishly and proceeded towards the water cooler.

  ​ “What is happening Aarav?” Rehann asked again.

  ​ “Nothing. Can you hack into the hotel’s servers for me please?” Aarav requested.

  ​ “The hotel’s servers. Yes. But what is happening?”

  ​ “Dear god Rehann. Stop asking so many questions and do as I say.”

  ​ Aanya carried a tray with many glasses filled with water and started offering them to all the men present around.

  ​ “Don’t drink the water which Aanya offers you”, Aarav ordered as Aanya brought the tray towards Rehann. He refused her politely still thinking what was happening.

  ​ “The internet is down”, he spoke over the phone.

  ​ “Ask the men to fix it as soon as they can”, Aarav barked.

  ​ The men went ahead and started fixing the connections while Aanya kept the tray away after offering water to everybody and came back to stand near Rehann.

  ​ “Who are you people? What is happening?” Aanya asked.

  ​ “We are your well-wishers, Ms. Vashishtha”, the lady in the suit spoke before looking back at Rehann.

  ​ “This doesn’t change anything”, Rehann replied grimly to her.

  ​ “You are online now”, she spoke to him while blinking her eyes.

  ​ Rehann continued looking towards her before turning to face the laptops. “I am online”, he spoke slowly. “What do you want me to do?”

  ​ “Whatever happens, don’t let them know what I am asking you to do”, Aarav replied hurriedly.

  ​ “I won’t…” Rehann suddenly stopped speaking. “God! Rehya are you okay?” he got up and tried holding the woman in suit but she collapsed on the floor; just like all of the other men present in the room. “What is happening?” he held his head and looked towards a very worried Aanya.