THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET

by CHRISTOPHER C. DOYLE

  Sighing, he turned the helicopter around to fly back westward, towards the airforce base.

  His co-pilot let out a sudden shout. He had been peering curiously into the wrecked pinnacle and had spotted a man clinging on to the rock.

  The pilot quickly activated the external hydraulic hoist system as he positioned the chopper directly over the pinnacle.

  Will he make it?

  As the rock walls of the pinnacle, and the stairway itself, started to splinter, Vijay heard the sound of the helicopter’s rotors directly above his head.

  He glanced up and saw a hoist swinging down towards him.

  The stairway lurched as it began to disintegrate.

  The hoist inched its way down to Vijay. He held on grimly.

  Just a few more inches.

  Almost there.

  Now.

  With a thunderous roar, the walls of the pinnacle collapsed and the stairway shattered, leaving Vijay holding onto large rocks suspended in mid-air.

  Vijay felt the hoist touch his shoulders and he grabbed at it. Around him, the pinnacle was imploding in a huge cloud of dust that enveloped him. He coughed as he tried to maintain his grip on the hoist and his eyes burned.

  Then, he was being winched up and strong hands were pulling him on board the chopper. The door of the cabin shut and the helicopter rose, carrying Vijay to safety.

  76

  Intelligence Bureau Headquarters, New Delhi

  ‘It seems we grossly underestimated the enemy,’ Patterson concluded. The task force was completing a review of the operations which had led to the events on the Ustyurt plateau and Vijay’s close shave with death.

  Vijay had been flown back to India earlier in the day after receiving medical attention at the Kazakh airforce base. He was fortunate to have escaped without broken bones or any serious injuries. He had rested briefly before heading to Delhi with Colin and Shukla to attend the meeting which had been called by Patterson. At the fort, though, Vijay and Shukla had remained closeted in their rooms until it was time to depart. Neither of them was inclined to meet anyone.

  At the IB office, seated in the conference room, they had discussed the entire sequence of events starting with the excavation in Greece to the events in Kazakhstan and the failed mission to rescue Radha. There was silence for a few moments after this last discussion. The team had lost a member. She had gone down displaying courage and determination, putting the objectives of the task force before her own life.

  Imran had left his hospital bed for this meeting. He had insisted on attending in person. On the US side, Royson had joined the meeting along with Percy Galipos, the genetics expert on the task force.

  Patterson looked dispirited. The last twenty-four hours had been harrowing for all of them. And, despite their best efforts, the enemy had given them the slip.

  ‘The firepower they displayed in Kazakhstan was unprecedented,’ he continued. ‘And in Afghanistan, as Vijay has informed us, they were able to stave off the Taliban until their mission was complete. Then, there is the link between the Order and the reason we set up this task force in the first place. The search for the Mahabharata Secret last year. We didn’t know about that link until now. We still don’t know what the Order is or who their members are. There doesn’t seem to be any reference to them in recorded history. Somehow, they have been able to keep their presence hidden over the centuries. We now have some names. But nothing more. The only thing we can be sure of is that they are powerful and have immense resources at their command. They have tentacles in the highest offices of government in many countries including your country and mine.’

  ‘And they are ancient,’ Vijay joined in. ‘Very ancient. If what Van Klueck said was true, it was the Order who had created the cavern thousands of years ago. And the Order had something to do with the preparation of the amrita.’ Something struck him. ‘Will you excuse me? I need to make a call. I just thought of something.’

  Patterson nodded and Vijay left the room. He was back in a few minutes. His face was flushed with excitement.

  The others looked enquiringly at him. It was obvious that he had something to tell them.

  ‘It was something you said,’ Vijay began, addressing Patterson. ‘You called them the enemy. That’s when a bell went off in my head. You see, there is a recorded reference to them in history. A conclusive link to the secret from the Mahabharata which we uncovered last year.’ He pulled out a small notebook. ‘I just called Alice and asked her to reference a diary which was given to us last year. It belonged to a German called Bruno Beger. You know the story.’

  Everybody nodded. Those who had not been a part of the adventure had been briefed about it.

  ‘Well, in that diary, there was an entry that was a translation of a document written by Surasen, a courtier of Asoka the Great. I will read out the first paragraph for you:

  ‘I, Surasen, do hereby put down a record of my discovery as part of the secret library of the Nine Unknown Men, the glorious brotherhood created by our beloved Emperor Asoka the Great, Devanampiya Piyadasi. I will not say what this discovery is, for the Emperor forbids any record describing what I have found in case it falls into the hands of the enemy; for this is the reason the brotherhood of the Nine was founded.’

  He shut the notebook and looked at the others. ‘I am convinced that the Order is the “enemy” that Asoka was trying to hide the discovery from. And he succeeded for over two thousand years. If we have to learn who these people are, we have to delve into our mythology. It is clear that their origins were in India and they have evolved since then into a global organisation.’

  ‘Now that you mention Surasen’s account, I remember the phone tap recording that Blake played for us when I first met him. That conversation also mentioned that Murphy would report to a member of the Order in India,’ Imran reminisced. ‘We’re dealing with an invisible monster. No intelligence agency in the world knows about the existence of the Order. Yet, they have the resources and power that we have witnessed.’

  ‘And now, they’re going to relentlessly pursue us,’ Shukla said sombrely. ‘They know who we are. Where we live. And what we do. They will come for us. They have exposed themselves to us. And they will try and rectify that mistake. None of us are safe.’

  ‘True,’ Patterson admitted. ‘But they don’t know about the task force. Don’t forget that we, too, have resources at our command. We may have lost the battle but the war has just begun. This time, we were unprepared. Now that we know a bit about them, we can prepare ourselves better.’

  He looked at Vijay. ‘And you say that this entire mission of the Order was inspired by a myth from the Mahabharata?’

  Vijay nodded.

  ‘Tell us about it.’

  Vijay thought for a moment. Where was he to begin? ‘I won’t go into the details of the shlokas from the Mahabharata which narrate the myth,’ he said, ‘but Van Klueck read and translated some shlokas for me. The myth is called the Samudramanthan.’ He looked at Shukla. ‘I think you’re the best person to explain what the myth is about.

  Shukla hesitated then nodded. ‘I’m sure everyone on our side knows the myth but I will summarise it for our friends in the US. According to the Mahabharata, the Devas – the gods – and the Asuras or Danavas – the demons – joined forces to churn the ocean of milk for amrita – the nectar that would confer immortality on whoever drank it. They used Vasuki, a serpent as the churning rope and Mount Mandara as the churning stick. Eventually, after years of churning, the Ocean of Milk yielded the amrita, among other things.’

  Galipos frowned. ‘I’ve heard that myth,’ he said. ‘What’s the connection with the bacteria and the virus you told us about?’

  ‘According to the translation I heard from Van Klueck,’ Vijay replied, ‘the shlokas tell a story that is quite different from the conventional interpretation of the verses. Thousands of years ago, there was a search for a potion that would confer immortality when consumed. In the cavern in the Hindu Kush, there is
an immense underground lake which is inhabited by the bacteria we discovered at Aryan Laboratories. The bacterium is an extremophile, able to live in very salty environments. The lake is saltier than the oceans of this world. And the bacterial colony in the lake gives it a silvery white colour – the water looks like milk. Hence the reference to the Ocean of Milk in the myth.’

  ‘Like halophilic Archaea,’ Royson muttered. Seeing Patterson frowning, he hastily added, ‘the red blooms in the Dead Sea.’

  ‘So, these bacteria in their natural state produce toxins which are fatal for humans,’ Vijay continued. ‘But, apparently, all those centuries ago, someone discovered the existence of a retrovirus that infects bacteria.’

  ‘A bacteriophage,’ Royson interjected, helpfully.

  ‘Exactly. Thank you. I had forgotten the term. The interesting thing about this retrovirus is that, once it infected these extremophile bacteria, it would alter their DNA and change the proteins they produced. The toxins were replaced by proteins that are beneficial or neutral to humans. However, since viruses cannot survive in salt water, and the bacteria cannot survive outside the salt water, the infection had to take place using certain herbs and plants and small quantities of crushed jewels. I don’t know how but this somehow neutralised the effects of the salt water on the virus. This is the manthan referred to in the Mahabharata. It is not a reference to churning but a description of all the ingredients being mixed together. Once the infection process was complete, the amrita was ready for consumption.’

  ‘You said the Order collected the snakes as samples from the cavern,’ Patterson remarked. ‘I take that to mean that they believe the virus infects the snakes.’

  Vijay shrugged. ‘I have no idea. They didn’t say anything to me. But I thought the same thing at that time. I don’t understand it though. How can snakes carry a virus that infects humans?’

  ‘It may be possible,’ Royson spoke up before anyone else could comment. ‘Not something that we can dismiss outright, at least. A couple of years ago, a study by the University of California, San Francisco discovered a virus belonging to a family called Arenaviruses. These infect mammals, usually rodents. While there is no evidence that this particular virus can pass from snakes to humans, one of the genes in the virus group is very similar to the family of viruses that includes the Ebola virus, which is a haemorrhagic virus which infects humans. This discovery was pretty much unprecedented. Who’s to know if there aren’t other viruses out there that can infect snakes and humans? And this would be the best way to preserve a virus for thousands of years. In a live host.’

  ‘And the plants were the ones that the verses referred to?’ Imran asked.

  Vijay nodded. ‘Van Klueck told me, when we reached Kazakhstan, that his team had found the plants that were described in the verse. I remembered bits of their names and looked them up before leaving the fort for this meeting. The plant with the violet fruit is called,’ he referred to his notebook again, ‘Prangos pabularia Lindl. That’s the Latin name. Apparently it is so localised to selected provinces of Uzbekistan that it doesn’t even have an English name. The other plant, with dark purple fruit is Prunus sogdiana Vassilez. In English, it is called the Sogdian plum. The older branches of the plant are dark grey and the younger branches are brownish green. The flowers are white or have a purple base – hence “clothed in grey and white and green or brown”. This is also found in selected provinces of Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan. And, when I researched these on the internet, both plants are found together in only two provinces of Uzbekistan: Tashkent and Surkhondaryo. And, believe it or not, Surkhondaryo approximates to the region where the Sogdian rock must have been. The Rock itself has never been found. But Alexander’s route went through that province before heading southwards again.’

  ‘And this potion conferred immortality?’ Royson asked.

  ‘According to the myth, yes.’

  ‘Can you tell us about the amrita?’ Royson asked. ‘From a scientific perspective, of course. I know you’ve told us that the search involved finding the original bacterium and the retrovirus, the prophage of which we found in the subjects of the clinical trials. But I’m curious to know more about exactly what happens when the potion is consumed. Did they share that with you?’

  Vijay nodded. ‘I don’t remember all the scientific terms,’ he admitted. ‘But I can tell you what I remember. Essentially, the retrovirus adapts to the human body and makes it the host for replication, inserting its DNA into the human genome for this purpose. In doing so, it switches on certain genes which produce proteins that combat ageing and diseases associated with ageing.’

  ‘Interesting’, Galipos remarked. ‘Do you remember any details about the genetics or the proteins?’

  Vijay frowned, trying to remember. ‘Let’s see. Van Klueck said that there are several reasons for ageing. For example, shortening of telomeres which results in cell loss and shrinking tissue. He said that telomeres are at the tips of chromosomes.’

  Galipos intervened discreetly. ‘A chromosome is a giant coiled DNA molecule. At the end of each chromosome there is a repeated sequence which is meaningless from a genetic point of view. This is a telomere. It is like the aglet at the end of a shoelace, protecting it from fraying. Every time a chromosome is copied, a little bit of the telomere gets left out. You can see how, after lots of copying, the telomere gets so short that any further replication will start leaving out meaningful genes. That is when a cell stops dividing. Interestingly, apart from growing old and leading to cell loss, cells that stop dividing but don’t die have been shown to have malignant effects on healthy cells.’

  ‘Yes,’ Vijay agreed. ‘So, one of the genes that gets switched on is the one that controls the production of telomerase which enables repair of the telomeres. So cells keep replicating and there is no cell loss, which reverses the ageing process.’

  Galipos nodded. ‘Interesting. But the production of telomerase would also lead to unlimited cell division and replication – essentially a tumour. Or, by another name, cancer. So how does that help?’

  ‘That’s the interesting part. Apparently, the virus also influences the production of a protein that leads cells to commit suicide. This protein targets senescent and malignant cells. Effectively killing off any cancerous growth in the body.’

  Galipos whistled. ‘That sounds like p53. A protein that leads to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis or a signal to a cell to kill itself. It targets cells with genetic damage, which is essentially what cancer cells are, and induces apoptosis in those cells. So the virus also ensures control of runaway cells. Very interesting.’

  ‘There are other genes which he mentioned, which produce proteins that provide a check on diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and even Alzheimer’s. These genes improve the functioning of muscle groups in the body or cause enhanced regeneration of tissues. All activated by the retrovirus. But I don’t remember them all now. Of course, Van Klueck also said that the reason they were conducting clinical trials was because they wanted to understand exactly how the virus works. And that’s why they needed the original virus. The prophage just wouldn’t work the same way. But he was very confident about the results.’

  ‘Sounds like a miracle cure,’ Colin observed.

  ‘It does,’ Roydon said emphatically. ‘No wonder they wanted to get their hands on this…this mixture.’ He shook his head, as if he still couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  ‘You’ll pardon my saying this,’ Colin said. ‘I know there are respected scientists in this room and I don’t have any expertise to be judgmental about this. But, quite honestly, this all sounds very far-fetched to me. I mean a miracle virus that leads to the production of anti-ageing proteins and changes the nature of bacteria as well as targets cancer cells. It is a bit hard to believe. More like science fiction, really.’

  ‘Not really.’ Defence of the argument came from an unlikely source. Patterson had entered the fray. ‘There’s a lot about the human genom
e and viruses that we still haven’t discovered. There are new discoveries being made every day. Take, for example, the Adeno-associated virus type 2 or AAV2, which infects humans but is not known to cause sickness. In several studies using mice, it has been demonstrated that AAV2 kills 100 per cent of breast cancer cells in the laboratory by activating proteins called caspases, which are essential for the cell’s natural death. Cancer cells infected with AAV2 also produced more Ki-67, a protein that activates the immune system, and c-Myc, a protein that helps to increase cell growth as well as induce apoptosis.’

  ‘Moreover,’ Royson added, ‘8 per cent of the human

  genome consists of virus genes and their remains. From evolving primates who were infected with retroviruses hundreds of thousands of years ago. And we know of viruses that turn on DNA that is usually dormant in people – the HIV virus, for example. It is very possible that the retrovirus produces proteins that attach to DNA to switch on genes that we don’t really know anything about. The human genome is still a big mystery. It has been mapped, but we’re still trying to figure out what large parts of it do. For a long time, an enormous part of the genome – over 90 per cent of it – was termed “junk DNA” because it doesn’t code for proteins. Today that tag is being discarded as new discoveries come to light.’

  Galipos took up the narrative now. ‘That’s right. The ENCODE project suggests that almost 70 per cent of DNA is being copied into RNA rather than the miniscule numbers suggested earlier. It is entirely possible that there could be millions of genes out there. We just don’t know. Recent studies at Harvard University have shown that, for one genetic class –lincRNAs – more than 83 per cent are likely to contain transposable elements. These are called “jumping genes” because they can hop around within the genome. And many of these “jumping genes” are actually descendants of ancient retroviruses that have been passed down the generations along with the rest of the genes. It is thought that many of these retrovirus remnants may be involved in switching genes on and off. So the idea of a retrovirus entering the human body and switching on new genes that we don’t know about is hardly farfetched.’