“What instructions?” Rehann asked.
“He slipped a note in my hands when he came to untie me”, she replied, amazed as to how Aarav’s plan had worked out fantastically.
“And what happened at the Taj?” Rehann asked again.
“That was a terrible job indeed. I mean, I was there at the wedding and all those prominent people and celebrities were just coming up and greeting her, and I had to make pep talk. Gosh! I hate pep talks”, he spoke rolling his eyes.
“I mean, what happened with the hunt? Did you meet the Prime Minister? What happened with Shayna?”
“Oh!” he continued. “Nothing that wasn’t planned. I conveyed it to the Prime Minister that we would meet him there, with the help of your sister of course. I also mentioned the fact that Shayna Maheshwari was a master herself and suggested to him that he should comfort her by mentioning that the Book of Strategy was already gone, so there was no way that the assassins would get their hands on the treasure.”
“Killing two birds with a single stone?” Aanya laughed.
“Indeed”, Aarav smirked. “The Prime Minister thought that he was helping a damsel in distress and Shayna thought that now she can never lay her hands on the treasure of the gods because the Book of Strategy was long gone. The Prime Minister I must say, is a great storyteller. He even had me convinced for a moment that the book was burnt. Shayna led me through to the Prime Minister thinking all this while that her shrewdness and charm were working magic; while in reality, whatever was happening was just an elaborate ruse set up by me.”
“What happened to her?” Aanya asked.
“I slipped the drug in her drink before we met the Prime Minister. By the time I took her to her room, she fell unconscious.”
“That’s why girls stay away from you at the bar”, Rehann spoke, cheering up a bit.
Aarav smiled. “Then once she was drugged, I called Rehya and she sent her commandos to take out the Bulls and rescue both of you. And of course on my special request, she provided you with laptops while you were surrounded by blood and bodies, to make you both stay there and not be taken away. Once they all drank the water from the water cooler, they all fell unconscious as well, enabling you to hack into the hotel’s servers and helping me to steal the Prime Minister’s own book. Easy.”
“Fantastic”, Rehann spoke.
“Unbelievable”, Aanya cried.
“Elementary”, said he.
“And now we are stuck with this code”, Aanya said as she took the case in her own hands and gave it a try.
“Didn’t work?” Aarav asked only to receive a negative response from Aanya. He took in a deep breath and gazed out of the window towards the beautiful scenery outside.
“We don’t have much time either, do we?” she asked Aarav.
“They would have known that we flew to Delhi for sure. But I’d say that we have some time before they get wind about our whereabouts. And that is why it is paramount that we decipher this code.”
“But it could be anything.”
“Not anything. This is the biggest secret that he has been tasked to secure. Whatever the password is, it has to be personal, it has to be something that he loves more than anything, it has to be something that is the dearest to him.”
“Then we can walk over his life’s history and see where the dots connect. At least we know that it is a five letter code”, Aanya said.
Aarav and Rehann both looked at each other. “Wikipedia”, they said in unison.
Aanya pulled out her new phone and opened the bio of the Prime Minister. “Mr. Amit Sushantkumar Jain was born in…”
“Wait!” she was interrupted by Rehann, who took the case in his hands and waddled with the dials to arrive at ‘A M I T J’ and ‘A J A I N’ only to see nothing happen.
“Continue”, he spoke to her, dissatisfied. Aarav narrowed his brows and looked at him before turning back to Aanya and listening to her.
“He was born in 1955 to Sushantkumar Jain, a grain trader who sacrificed his flourishing business with the British and instead participated in Gandhi’s Dandi march, to protest against the draconian colonial laws.”
“Stop”, Rehann yelled as he dialed ‘D A N D I’ before asking her to continue.
“He participated in various rallies and agitations and was imprisoned for two years, only to be released before the independence of the nation in 1947. He tried to set up the grain trading business again but was met by losses and debts which forced him to sell his house and work as a cobbler. His wife, Dishabai Jain, was forced to work as a maid and wash dishes in other homes.”
“Stop”, Rehann yelled again as he pulled his fingers to arrange the dials on the case to ‘D I S H A’ only to be dissatisfied again.
“How long are you going to do this?” Aarav asked.
“As many five letter words I can grab from his bio.”
“Thank gods that the case isn’t a digital one. Else it would have probably had a limited number of turns before it got sealed. Since this one has the dials and its appearance seems to be a little old, I’d say that it probably belongs to the time of the first Indian Prime Minister.”
“It means that the case I am holding right now has probably been touched by every Indian Prime Minister?”
“And the book that it contains was held by British viceroys and Governor Generals too. Probably a few prominent Indian emperors before them and perhaps Ashoka himself would have touched it at some point in time.”
“I think I have started liking history after being around you.”
“About time, old friend”, Aarav replied before turning back towards Aanya.
“Mr. Jain had a knack for politics ever since he was young. He took inspiration from his father’s fight for freedom and shared the same love for his country which his father did. He joined the youth brigade of the leading political party at the time and soon rose up the ranks only to be tasked with consolidating and growing the members for his party in the state of Rajasthan. His brilliant people skills and extraordinary oratory abilities, caught the attention of the top leaders of his party and he was soon lifted to the role of deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan. He contested and won the elections to gain the seat of the Chief Minister of the state when he turned thirty-nine, making him one of the youngest chief minister of the country. He served the state well for three terms and won majority when he contested for the seat of the Prime Minister of India.”
“P R I M E”, Rehann rolled the dials only to be disappointed again.
“There is no way that we can get the code like this”, Aanya spoke up.
“But this is the only logical possibility as to how it can be achieved”, Aarav continued grunting in frustration. “I could ask Rehann to create a software to throw us probable five letter words by referencing them with three or four dictionaries, but that will take time and we don’t have laptops with us. Nor is there a clue or a riddle as to how we can possibly progress through on this task and arrive at a conclusion. It just appears impossible.”
“Umm… guys”, Rehann spoke with a childish smile as he proudly held a red colored book in his hands; ‘The Book of Strategy’ written on its face. Aarav and Aanya almost jumped up together before Aarav went ahead and reached for the book.
“What? How?” he was dumbfounded.
“As it turns out”, Rehann continued with his victorious smile. “My method wasn’t that flawed after all. Throughout the bio, only one thing became clear. He loves his country over anything else. His father fought for the country’s freedom and he strives for its betterment as he is now the most powerful man of the country. All through the journey of his life, it is evident that the code has to be this.” He turned the face of the case towards the duo, ‘I N D I A’ adorning the dials.
“Unbelievable”, Aanya uttered.
�
�� “You’re not the only smart one among us, buddy”, he spoke to Aarav, mocking him playfully.
“Really?” Aarav joined in while admiring the book he had in his hands. “You had tried ‘P R I M E’ already. About time you tried the next five letter word in the title Prime Minister of India. You didn’t decipher it. You just got lucky”, he said before ignoring Rehann and reaching for the other books.
“He is just jealous that I stole his thunder”, Rehann explained to Aanya, who laughed playfully. Aarav placed all the seven books carefully on a table which was blessed by ample sunlight from outside as both Rehann and Aanya went ahead and stood behind him. He carefully analyzed the titles.
The Book of Arts
The Book of Weaponry
The Book of Sight
The Book of Alchemy
The Book of Finance
The Book of Medicine
The Book of Strategy
“The seven books are finally united after almost two thousand years”, Aarav had tears in his eyes. “Thank you, Aanya. Thank you so very much for bringing me this hunt.”
“You’re welcome. Now find the treasure for me”, she said with a lovely smile.
“Now how do we find the map?” Rehann asked, observing the next hurdle. “We have seen two books and there wasn’t any illustration on them.”
Aarav instead started going through the Book of Strategy and gazed at a few translated chapters that it held. How to force them to bend the knee? How to build the next empire? How to gain from the future of trade wars? How to win wars without weapons? The destructive force of diplomacy. Aarav had a little smile on his face.
“There were a few illustrations in the Book of Alchemy but they all revolved around the apparatus and machines that were required to be built for the conversion of metals into gold. I didn’t see any map either”, Aanya spoke getting worried.
“Your father said that when the books would come together, they would reveal a map. So ideally, we should have been staring at a map right now”, Rehann provided his input.
“Her father was correct”, Aarav spoke. “But you need to think outside the box if you want to appear smarter than me, Rehann.”
“What now?” Rehann asked him grumpily.
“Her father mentioned that the map will be revealed when the books would come together. Correct. But how can you find it if you’re not seeing the original covers? These titles are all in English, updated with time and translated to language prevalent in this era, as what would have been the policy of the Ring to keep their secret alive. But if I do this”, he went ahead and carefully unfolded the cover of the Book of Strategy with his hands, as a more rigid, dark brown material greeted his sight. “Unbelievable”, he remarked as his eyes wandered off to the Sanskrit title of the book which read, ‘Arthshastr’.
“Arthshastr?” Rehann repeated the title. “Is that the famous book?”
“I cannot believe this”, Aarav smiled in astonishment. “I am holding the book authored by Chanakya himself.”
“How is this possible?”
“Chanakya was the brains behind Chandragupta Maurya’s unimaginable rise to power. Chandragupta Maurya, born as a commoner became the most influential emperor of his time and created one of the biggest empire of ancient India. And Chanakya, the master strategist himself guided him all along. He wrote the book; he wrote the original Book of Strategy. It is a treatise on statecraft, administration, economics and military tactics. It contained all the principles and ethics and skills one needed to become a great king. He must have passed this book to his heirs, one of whom must have been among the nine men elected by Ashoka to guard his treasure. Ashoka was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, and that is how this book became an integral part of this society.”
“But wasn’t Arthshastr already discovered?”
“Technically yes, but those were just Sanskrit scripts. This book was actually considered lost till the early twentieth century, but then a Tamil Brahmin, who was in possession of an ancient manuscript written on palm leaves presented it to the Mysore Library. The librarian of Oriental Research Institute of Mysore translated it and upon reading the contents, would have assumed that the script was the fabled lost book of Arthshastr. Turns out, whatever we know of Arthshastr is just the tip of the iceberg, while the original book comfortably changed hands from one ruler to another, which probably makes it the most powerful book in the history of our country. This book alone can garner you unequivocal brilliance in your field. Couple that with the knowledge of the other books, and you don’t even need the treasure to rule the world.”
“You have to blow up everything at such a scale, don’t you?” Rehann uttered. “Why can’t a book be just a book?”
Aarav smiled a little before turning the book towards its side, and slowly grazed his hand on a Sanskrit inscription engraved on its spine. “Brilliant”, he remarked. He quickly went on to uncover the rest of the books too and looked at the inscriptions to their sides. He started moving his lips as he read them and tried to rearrange the seven books over each other. He shuffled their order and rearranged them again and again as he interpreted their meaning and tried to make the most sense of it. “It’s a riddle”, he finally exclaimed as he took a pen and paper and translated the verses to English once he grew satisfied of the order. Rehann and Aanya looked at the new order of the books; The Administrator, The Commander, The Alchemist, The Capitalist, The Healer, The Guru, The Performer.
“Those are ranks?” Aanya asked.
“Looks like it”, Aarav replied as he continued scribbling on a paper.
“But it’s not a map?” Rehann uttered.
“Yes. I don’t think that they would have created a map because in the end the location of the treasure would have been visible on one of the books and it would have been too obvious. But if you read this… this solves everything”, he spoke while jumping up excitedly, seeing another puzzle before him. He completed the translation and pulled up the paper before Rehann and Aanya.
Hidden amongst the highest of mountains, it lies;
Shielded by the holy waters, it rests.
The greatest blessing of the Gods, the greatest secret of mankind;
Shall never be found, shall never see light.
Yet the worthy who seeks the secret, shall find the way on a hill;
Abode to the gods themselves, manifested on its own self.
The supreme treasure a man will see with his eyes.
“Huh!” Rehann uttered.
“What?” Aarav asked.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“It’s just that. It doesn’t rhyme. I mean one would have expected the riddle to the greatest treasure in history to rhyme at least.”
“It is a translation Rehann. Of course it doesn’t rhyme”, Aarav almost barked.
“Does this mean that the treasure lies on a hill?” Aanya asked.
“No. It lies amidst tall mountains, somewhere around a water body. But the way that leads to the treasure starts on a hill. A hill manifested on its own, a hill that is abode to the gods themselves.”
“But it could be anything. To the people of the time, any hill that housed a temple was considered holy and was believed to have sprung up on its own. How do we know which hill they were speaking of?” Aanya asked.
“No. If this place leads the way to the treasure, then it has to be a prime spot. An ancient site that was famous and considered sacred even at the time” Aarav replied.
“I think I know the answer”, Rehann spoke.
“Aren’t you on fire today?” Aanya asked him with a lovely smile.
“You know the answer?” Aarav asked, still skeptical.
“Your thunder is long gone buddy”, Rehann mocked him before providing an explanation. “It has to be Mount Kailash.”
“Mount Kailash?” Aarav wondered.
“Of course. The mountain of gods. Hindu mythology does say that Lord Shiva resides there in a perpetual state of meditation. And you also have the lake Mansarovar there. Hidden by the highest of mountains and shielded by holy waters indeed.”
“It could be”, Aanya wondered.
“Maybe. But it is the treasure that is hidden amidst tall mountains and holy waters. The way to it starts from the hill where the god resides. Kailash is a mountain, one of the tallest peaks and not a hill. The treasure could have been hidden there considering its religious significance, but I don’t really think that Kailash will lead us to the treasure.”
“Hmm?” they all wondered.
“Yet the worthy who seeks the secret, shall find the way on a hill; abode to the gods themselves, manifested on its own self. ” Aarav uttered the lines in his head. “The way is on a hill. The hill is abode to the gods themselves. It is believed to have sprung up on its own.”
“I still think it is Mount Kailash”, Rehann spoke, adamant about his opinion.
“But it is a mountain, one of the tallest at that; not a hill”, Aanya reminded him.
“I will just search it on the internet then”, Rehann spoke as he took out his mobile phone and searched ‘Holy hills in India ’.
“What does it say?” Aarav asked him as he closed his eyes and meditated.
“Well there are indeed a lot of hills and mountains in India that are considered sacred, I can tell you that”, he replied. “We have the Mount Govardhan in Vrindavan, revered for its association with Lord Krishna. We have Arunachala Mountain in Thiruvannamalai, celebrated as a place to attain enlightenment. Then of course we have Mt. Amarnath, revered for its association with Lord Shiva.”
Secret of the Himalayan Treasure Page 16