Chris remained silent. He had no intention of playing these games. Instead he looked around the room to gauge the extent of his predicament. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Chris could see that the room was fairly large. Along the wall furthest from him there were, what looked like, numerous electronic panels. A couple of wooden chairs sat empty in front of them. In the background, there was a constant low humming sound like that of heavy-duty electronics. This seemed very unusual inside a cave behind a waterfall, in the back of beyond. On his right there was a stone incline that emerged from a hole in the ceiling and dropped down to the floor.
That must be a way in and out of here, he thought.
Lost in his thoughts, Chris almost forgot he was still a prisoner and Dr. Weilhammer was still looking sternly at him, expecting a response.
“I see that you are not going to talk so easily,” said his captor. “Then let me show you what will happen if you don’t,” he continued. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a dagger.
Chris winced. “If you torture me, you are going to have hell to pay,” he said defiantly as he tried to imagine a suitable thought to plant into Dr. Weilhammer’s brain so as to ensure his own release.
To his surprise, the scientist in front of him roared with laughter.
“Torture you? Of course not. I know what your kind is capable of. Alone, I would hardly be a match.”
He was telling the truth. For the last couple of minutes Chris had been focusing very hard to connect with his captor’s mind so that he could alter his memory. As a result, he could read his last thought. Dr. Weilhammer wanted to free him, as impossible as this might sound. That’s why he had taken out his knife. Also, he could read some resentment in his mind that he did not understand. Chris smiled.
“Go ahead then, cut my bonds and we can talk,” he said. Dr. Weilhammer complied.
Once his hands and feet were free, Chris rubbed his wrist to ease the blood circulation. Then he looked at Dr. Weilhammer with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“You wanted to show me what would happen if I didn’t talk?” he said finally, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Follow me.” The scientist indicated. “And don’t try to make any false moves,” he warned, flashing the barrel of a revolver in Chris’s direction.
“I won’t, if you don’t,” Chris muttered under his breath. “Lead the way!”
They walked over to the far end of the cave where rows of electronic panels and racks of control equipment lined the walls, buzzing and whirring in their myriad voices. There were programs running on some of them, closed-circuit camera feeds airing on others. It was a remarkable sight. Dr. Weilhammer quickly used a remote control to turn off the displays on the camera feeds.
“What is this place?” Chris exclaimed in awe. This must me what that windfarm powers.
“My project.”
“Of launching a rocket?”
“Correct.”
Chris roared with laughter, but Dr. Weilhammer looked dead serious, a trace of horror in his eyes.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” Chris’s face went pale.
Dr. Weilhammer shook his head.
“No way! You have the technology do that?”
“That is why I was recruited, to develop the technology, and I am not alone. We have a team.”
“A team? Where are they?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
Chris’s forehead wrinkled into a frown. “Why are you telling me any of this to begin with?”
“Because I have created a great horror, and I cannot forgive myself for it. Soon the world as we know it will end, and my soul will burn in hell for conceiving its doom.” He pulled his hair frantically, seeming to recoil at the thought.
“We must stop this then, whatever it is you’ve created!”
“It is too late.”
“Dr. Weilhammer, listen,” Chris said sternly looking the scientist straight in the eye. “There has got to be a reason you are telling me this, a captive, an enemy who came snooping at your door. There is no way you believe that whatever you have created cannot be stopped. Otherwise you would have never told me any of this. As far as I know, you joined this organization voluntarily. But it seems that something has happened in the interim that has made you regret your decision and now that I am here, you are grasping at the last straws of hope to try and revert this evil, am I correct?”
“Nonsense, absolute nonsense!” Dr. Weilhammer screamed out. “You think that because you can read people’s minds you know everything, you understand everything?” he ranted on, his face contorted with a mixture of fear and anger. “There is no way to revert anything! Do you understand? None at all! I am telling you this because it is too heavy a secret to bear to my grave.”
“So, it is like a confession? But I am not a priest.”
Dr. Weilhammer looked furious but did not respond. Instead he held Chris in an unflinching, scathing glare. Chris could literally smell the regret oozing out of the many pores of the scientist’s skin. Chris continued to speak.
“I cannot save your soul, professor, but I can still save your life and hopefully everyone else’s lives as well. Come away with me. Tell us what you have created, and we will find a way to fight it.”
“I cannot,” Dr. Weilhammer grunted, pacing the cave like a wild animal. “I cannot come away with you. They will find me and torture me and all those I love, and they will kill everyone in the most gruesome way imaginable.”
Chris winced. “I trust that they will definitely try. But you will be in our protection.”
“No. That is not an option. There is no going back for me now. The Commander in Chief does not take kindly to traitors.”
“The Commander in Chief? Of Aifra? Who is he?”
“We do not speak his name.”
“You’re lying!” Chris scrunched his face and tried to focus on reading the name from his adversary’s mind. “Hmm, or maybe not. You don’t know his name, do you?” he finally exclaimed, his heart beating fast.
“That’s none of your business! And don’t you dare try to read my mind again, or else—”
“Or else, what?”
“I’ll sound the alarms.”
“Fair enough. I’ll stop. Tell me how I can help you.”
Weilhammer paused to think. He looked calmer. “So, you think you can stop this, if I tell you about it?”
“Possibly, provided I can get safe passage out of here, of course.”
“Yes, yes, that you will have if we can hurry.” He looked at his watch. “We don’t have much time. Tell me, what do you know of ballistic nuclear missiles?”
Shit! thought Chris. This was worse than he had feared.
“No, it’s impossible! You are planning a nuclear attack? Where? When?”
Dr. Weilhammer shook his head. “No, not exactly.”
“Then?”
“The Commander in Chief does not seek to decimate people, he seeks to decimate technology. He wants to take the world back to an ancient era, long before technology was ever invented. He believes that this is the will of the Sun God that he worships. I knew this when I joined him. It seemed like a noble cause because technology has wreaked much havoc on humanity. It has killed our planet. However, I did not always approve of his methods that led to death and destruction. Casualties at the altar of the greater cause, as he put it.”
“I cannot believe you of all people would say this! Aren’t you a scientist?”
“Yes, I am, but I have come to regret it. We have no time to discuss that now. This place is bugged. I have disabled the bugs temporarily, but if I don’t reactivate them soon then I will draw suspicion and Aifra soldiers will storm right in. What I was getting at is that Aifra’s cause, as noble as it might have seemed to me initially, turned out to be much darker than I had ever imagined. We are led by a megalomaniac, viscous, all-powerful demon who wants to take over the world. He thinks that his methods will just destroy technology but he i
s mistaken. I know that it will surely destroy all of mankind. If you can stop it—”
“We can try, but first you have to tell me what it is that we are going to have to stop,” Chris interrupted before the scientist could dive into another one of his rambling, venting sessions. He could see the frustration in the man’s eyes and realized that he was probably just desperate to give expression to his deep resentment for this mission, but right now there was no time for that.
“Do you not understand?” Dr. Weilhammer asked.
“You are planning to launch a nuclear ballistic missile is what I can tell, but if it is not targeted at causing mass-murder then what could it be? Oh! An electromagnetic pulse attack? Is that what it is?”
“You are intelligent. I always thought so.”
“When? Where?”
“From here, on the 24th of April, in less than two months. A 70 megatonne weapon will detonate roughly five hundred and fifty kilometres above the earth’s surface. Those are the orders.”
“Seventy megatonnes! Something that huge could potentially cast the whole European continent and possibly parts of North America into utter darkness for months.”
“That is the goal.”
Now it was Chris’s turn to pull his hair in panic. How would they stop this?
“Stop it Markus. Don’t launch the beast. You are in charge, aren’t you?” he pleaded, referring to the professor by his Christian name for the first time.
“Like I said. I cannot do that. The mission has to go ahead as planned. The launch date has been pre-programmed into the server now. The missile will go off on that date, regardless of my participation. You have to stop it. I know Wolfgang. He is brilliant. He will think of something. Don’t underestimate him. What I can do is, forget that you were ever here and let you escape into safety. That is the only way I can help, unfortunately.” His confession appeared sincere.
“Very well then. How do I get out without your thugs gunning me down?”
“The entrance at the falls is not an option but there is a passage towards the back. We will take that. My jeep is parked there. You will hide in it. I will drive you to the highway and from there you are on your own. Come now, quickly.” Markus rushed towards the stone incline at the corner of the cave. “This way, hurry!” He indicated, brandishing his gun.
“Wait, no, not so fast!” Chris thought about Zoya. “There is someone waiting for me outside. I can’t leave without her.” He quickly felt his pockets. His gun and knife were also missing. He was not surprised. Although Markus seemed to have had a change of heart, he was not willing to completely trust a Hekameses yet.
Markus stopped in his track and turned to face Chris. At that very moment Chris saw a dark shadowy frame appear at the top of the stone incline that led to the outside. Before he could blink, a lean ninja leaped into view, landing on Markus from behind and overthrowing him instantly.
“Here, catch!” the attacker said as she tossed Markus’s gun in Chris’s direction. “Can you find something to tie him with?” Markus gasped and sputtered as Zoya held him in a vice-like chokehold.
“No Zoya, let him go. It’s okay, he’s trying to help.”
“What? You’re kidding.” She tightened her grip suspecting something sinister at play.
“Urgghhh…”
“No, I am serious,” Chris said wordlessly, transmitting the thought directly to Zoya’s brain.
Zoya loosened her grip and stood up. Markus slumped to the floor, out of breath.
“Here, let me help you up.” Chris walked up and offered a hand.
Markus got up, rubbed his neck and coughed.
“Your lady friend nearly killed me,” he finally said.
“I’m sorry, but if what you just said was true, then we are all going to die very soon, anyway.” Zoya’s eyes widened. “I’ll explain later,” he said to Zoya. “Should we get going?”
“I will need my gun,” said Dr. Weilhammer, extending the palm of his hand.
“Not unless you give back mine.”
“Cheeky, aren’t we?”
“Just cautious.”
Markus walked over to the centre of the cave where Chris had earlier been tied to a chair. There, next to the wall was a large cabinet that he had not noticed earlier. Dr. Weilhammer carefully opened the door halfway. Inside Chris could make out the outlines of many pieces of artillery, assault rifles, grenades, handguns. He flicked Zoya a knowing look.
“Don’t even think about it!” Markus warned, as if he read their thoughts. He pulled out Chris’s Glock G29 and tossed it to him. “This one, right?”
“Yes, and I had a knife.”
“Ah, okay. Let me check. Yes, I find it.” He held the knife in his left hand and extended his right, “Mine please.” The weapons were exchanged and the trio rushed towards the cave entrance through which Zoya had just emerged.
At the end of the incline was a hole like opening near the cave’s ceiling. Through it they could see a tunnel with a roof so low that the only way to navigate it would be to crawl.
“Go ahead,” Markus indicated to Zoya, “you know the way.”
Markus followed her and Chris took the rear. They crawled slowly for about a hundred feet and then emerged out into a little icy cove. There in the corner of the cove was a super jeep with tinted windows, camouflaged under a snowy blanket. Markus hastily removed the blanket and pulled open the passenger door. He motioned for Chris and Zoya to get into the back of the vehicle.
“Stay down,” he said. “There is a spot on the ring road about ten kilometres from here where there is no Aifra watch at the moment. I will drop you off there and then forget you were ever here. Do not try to contact me in any way once you get to safety, do you understand?”
Chris and Zoya nodded in agreement. In about half an hour they were at the highway. They parted in silence. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long before they could hitch a ride back to Reykjavik with a friendly Icelander. In the city, Chris filed a police report for a stolen car and belongings and cleared things up with the rental car company. The owner assured him that the car’s insurance would take care of the issue. By evening, they were at the airport and Dr. Müller had gotten them return tickets to London. They had nothing but their passports with them and the rental car lay abandoned in the middle of nowhere, supposedly stolen while they were sleeping in their tent.
* * *
At the airport Chris told Zoya what he had learned from Markus. He communicated non-verbally, for the most part, for the sake of secrecy. Then it was Zoya’s turn to narrate the whole story of how she had ended up inside Dr. Weilhammer’s cave.
Right after Chris disappeared behind the waterfall, Zoya heard machine guns roar in the valley below her. She quickly hoisted Chris’s climbing rope so as to hide the evidence of their intrusion. Two of the terrorists, heavily armed, rushed to the waterfall probably after having noticed the fire and the leopard on the loose. Zoya ducked to avoid being seen. The gunmen searched everywhere for the invader and fired random rounds hoping to hit whoever was snooping around at their base. Finally, one of them pulled out a pair of binoculars.
Seeing this, Zoya started to run towards the head of the waterfall, searching frantically for shelter. At the very edge of the falling water, she discovered the secret cove. She bent down cautiously over the edge of the cliff to see if the Aifra soldiers were still there. They had split up. A man with his back turned to her was running due east to search the rocks in the distance while a woman stood guard at the mouth of the falls. The leopard had retreated inside a cave and did not look like it had any intention of attacking the terrorists. Perhaps it was an Aifra pet. Zoya did not waste any more time and rushed into the little cove for shelter but she did not feel completely safe in there. Then she saw the tunnel that led into the interior of the cave and followed it. The tunnel had led her to Chris and Markus.
“Our flight isn’t until ten. Did you want to grab some dinner?” Chris asked Zoya at the airport after everything had
settled.
“Mmm. I’m not hungry, but I’ll give you company.”
“Not hungry? You haven’t eaten at all since morning. Doesn’t sound right. It was a crazy day, I know! But it’s over for now. Come, let’s grab some food.” He started walking towards a sandwich bar. Zoya followed but stayed silent. Chris bought them a couple of roast beef sandwiches and orange juice. Then they sat down at a table to have dinner.
Zoya ate in silence. Chris tried to make conversation, asking about the sandwich or if she was feeling better after eating a bit, but Zoya’s responses were terse.
“You know, I saw her,” she finally said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“Her? Her, who?”
“Nancy.”
“Oh!” Chris looked shocked. “And? Was she okay? Maybe we can rescue—”
“No, we can’t, she can’t be saved.” There was a lone tear at the corner of her eye as she spoke.
“Why not?”
“She was the woman. The one guarding the waterfall. She’s one of them now.”
CHAPTER twenty-seven
Wanda Faraday owned a little rustic cottage in Hope Cove, Devon, where she had spent many a lazy summer when she was younger and wanted to get away from it all. Today, her quaint little private getaway was packed with houseguests and it was neither lazy nor summer this time around. Alejandro paced the living room, arms behind his back, brows furrowed, deep in thought. Nirmala was at the coffee table reading excerpts from a set of Sanskrit verses, trying to decipher them using Google and in turn, repeating her translations to Dr. Faraday. Wanda’s expression was growing more and more intense with every translated verse.
There was the sound of a car pulling up outside, followed by the booming voices of two men arguing. The doorbell rang. Wanda went up to the door and let the visitors in. Alejandro stopped pacing and glanced at the two burly men who stood in the doorway. He then walked up to them and smiled.
“Wolfgang,” he said, with a gruff pat on his old friend’s shoulder. Wolfgang nodded. “And you must be Amon. We meet at last!” Alejandro extended his right hand to the newcomer who graciously accepted the handshake.
The Coming of Kalki Page 21