RESONANCE

by AJAY

  After departing from Marina Beach, the yacht sailed towards Atlantis the Palm. The Captain steered to port and the yacht responded to the command. It pitched in the northwest direction towards the open blue briny deep. Within half an hour, it cruised beyond the territorial water limits of the UAE and anchored in the international waters of the Persian Gulf.

  Three speedboats docked with the yacht one after another. The boats dropped off the passengers, turned back and faded away into the horizon within minutes.

  Sundaram Iyer went inside a small cabin on the upper deck to meet another person. Shalim Amār smiled at the guest. Sundaram was friendly, "Welcome aboard, Shalim Saheb."

  Shalim Amār got straight to the point. He asked Sundaram to provide him with the minutest details of the Deputy Commandant of the dam: his way of dressing, the way he walked, what his voice sounded like softly or when he shouted in a harsh tone, details about his family members, their lineage, details about his dog or other pets, his likes and dislikes and anything else that anyone could imagine.

  "I will get his 360 degree profiling done. I'll also tell my contact to prepare a DVD and send it to you."

  "No need for that. It is dangerous. Just pay him a courtesy call and befriend him. Visit his home. Stay in the small town for a few days. Everyone relishes a nice meal, but opens up only after a few drinks. And, I know how much you love drinking all night. But for heaven's sake, you control your craving at least for a few days in his company. Let him take your place. So, you drink less and watch more. If you follow this, you will have everything you ever desired."

  Sundaram Iyer nodded and turned his eyes when he heard the footsteps of other persons joining them in the room. Somashekhar Reddy looked exhausted since he had had to undertake a quick tour of the dam site and board the flight to Dubai the very next day.

  "It was tough to come all the way from the dam to this awesome ocean?"Sundaram Iyer laughed.

  "Still it's tempting when so many gorgeous women are around,"Somashekhar Rao grinned.

  No one noticed when Saeed al-Masri stepped inside the room and overheard them. "Let's get down to brass tacks,"The usually calm Saeed al-Masri could not hide his ire.

  A lull came over the room, as no one dared say anything before the first in hierarchy of the financial wing of the al Qaeda. al-Masri, on the other hand, looked a little ill at ease in the presence of an unknown man. He turned to Sundaram Iyer, "Will you introduce our new friend?"

  "He is part of our team and will play a major role on the day of deliverance."Sundaram Iyer smiled, "He is Shalim Amār Khan."Sundaram Iyer went on to explain his role.

  "Welcome to our world, Amār Bhai."Al-Masri was all heart. He then turned to Somashekhar Rao, "Can you tell us about your simulation?"

  "Let's go to the conference room. We've set up the equipment in that room."

  "Why not here?"A tiny doubt crept in al-Masri's mind. "Anyway switch off all the lights in the conference room."

  "Why?"

  "After living for many years in pitch-dark caves, I'm more at ease in dark surroundings."

  Somashekhar Rao pulled out a Blue Ray disk and loaded it into the player. "Before I start the simulation, let me tell you a little bit about it."

  Al-Masri approved and Somashekhar continued, "We all know that if a water body is bound from all sides, it has a definite characteristic of natural vibration. To understand it in a better way, I visited the Mount Olympus water park in Wisconsin Dells, USA, which is known to be the Water Park Capital of the World. It gave me insight into how walls of waves of more than nine feet could be created with very little energy. I went to the park's Poseidon's Rage, where I met the operator. He showed me four air jet-pumps, which release compressed air every ninety seconds to bring up a new wall of water. I requested him to puff out the compressed air after an interval of seven seconds just to see what happened. I paid him a bit and he obliged."

  "Why seven seconds interval?"al-Masri interjected.

  "I calculated the area of the surf pool and evaluated how much time the first wave would take to travel to the far end and come back to its original position. It was exactly seven seconds. When the compressed air pushes the incoming wave at the precise interval, the nine feet waterfront became thirteen feet. The third release elevated the wall to twenty seven feet."

  "Hold on. The nine feet wall rose by four feet only in the second burst, but the third gust raised it by another fourteen feet. How is that possible?"

  "This happened because the third surge synchronized with the frequency of the pool. The resonance of the pool took it to that high level."

  "What will happen if you fire the fourth burst?"

  "That will break up the height of the water wall."

  "Why?"

  "Because that will kill the resonance of the pool and water."

  Al-Masri smiled in appreciation. "How can you do this to a very big pool?"

  "Oh! You mean the big lakes? Once we determine the exact contours of the water body, we calculate how much time it will take for a wave to travel from one front to another and return. If we amplify the oscillating wave, the same effect will occur."

  "Can you do this to the biggest manmade lake?"

  "The world's largest manmade reservoir is Lake Kariba in Africa. The water volume is more than one hundred and fifty quintillion gallons. It would be almost impossible to make that enormous volume of water to sway back and forth in simple harmonic motion."

  "Then what type of inland water body is suitable?"

  "Any backwater storage, which rests in a deep canyon and holds just the optimum amount of water."

  Al-Masri nodded. However, he still had his doubts. "Has it ever happened in reality that waves have been created by the resonance of the pool, in the way you have described?"

  "Not exactly. But every reservoir, bay and sea is affected by seiche."

  "What is seiche?"

  "Though imperceptible to the naked eye, a standing wave of extremely long wavelength oscillates to and fro in an enclosed water mass. This is a seiche. The time period of oscillation depends on the length and depth of the body of the water. For a bigger but shallower lake, the time period may be hours. But, if the lake is deep, the time period is a few minutes only."

  "How tall is the water front?"

  "It's not more than a few feet in a large lake."

  "A few feet will do nothing,"al-Masri was getting fidgety, "Seiche is good for nothing. It won't even move a stone."

  "What if the seiche amplifies to a wall of several hundred feet?"

  "How will you do that?"

  "I'll show you in the simulation."Somashekhar Rao smiled and leaned to press the play button of the disk player.

  Clue

  Although Tupac-II was still an enigma, Siddhartha did not have much time to weigh it without further leads. For many months, he was deeply involved in unraveling the Mumbai attacks, thread-by-thread, trying to uncover Pakistan's role in it.

  Many breakthroughs were achieved during the year 2009. The Indian government furnished evidence and testimony to Pakistan: call records, GPS data tracking records, the details of DNA samples of the terrorists, the items found in the fish trawler Kuber, and several other corroborative evidence. One of the disturbing facts was about the explosives signature of the grenades used by the terrorists. The manufacturer was China's state-owned company Norinco.

  The Pakistani plan of passing the buck on to al Qaeda or the Bangladeshi Islamic jihadist group and to hide the role of Pakistani State Actors in hatching Project Karachi fell flat on its face when India provided Pakistan with the intelligence inputs gathered by western countries. In January 2009, the Pakistani Information Minister accepted the nationality of Ajmal Kasāb as Pakistani. A few days later, the Interior Minister confirmed that the Mumbai attack was indeed planned in Pakistan. The pressure of USA, UNO and western countries started to mount on Pakistan to arrest the key players of the conspiracy.

  Some information was received by global intelligenc
e that Pakistan's terrorist outfits were planning to attack other important coastal cities from the seaside, this time using underwater explosives and small submarines.

  "Underwater explosives and submarines? Something big must definitely be on their mind."Siddhartha concluded after pondering for a long time.

  Missoula Flood

  Somashekhar Rao clicked on the simulation, but in a flash pressed the pause button. "Gentlemen, I'll first show you a video of an unprecedented destruction caused by a megaflood before running the scientific simulation of dam failure."

  The simulation began. After a brief introduction of megaflood in the western part of North America, the movie started.

  The massive Cordilleran ice sheet blocked the mouth of the Clark Fork River and caused the water to backup and submerge the city of Missoula.

  The scene cut and the camera pointed to a highlander, running atop the highest peak of a mountain. With bated breath, he watched the breaking of the ice dam, unleashing a megaflood of biblical proportions. The flood plowed ahead and created havoc in the Columbia River Gorge in no time.

  The highlander, who watched massive waves, towering thousands of feet high moving at great speeds with a deafening noise and approaching him, he stood thunderstruck. The giant wave scoured and stripped the topsoil, cut deep canyons and coulees in no time, randomly depositing hulking boulders at different places. The gargantuan water then turned into a colossal vortex, spiraling with tremendous velocity. It drilled the hard rock and sunk into the belly of the earth. One vortex followed another. The water poured in from three-mile high cliffs into deep gorges.

  With the last scene of the biggest waterfall in human history, the movie ended.

  "How big is our lake?"asked al-Masri.

  "Big enough to bring doomsday to the entire plain."

  "Upload this file to our remote server too."

  Hafiz Saeed

  Aban started to post in blogs, detailing the atrocities inflicted on him during his custodial interrogation and the torture meted out to him by Indian agencies. He began to contribute to Jihadist literature. A Karachi-based literary agent got in touch with him to write his story in book form. Private FM channels broadcast his interviews. Aban told the radio-jockey about his future as a Jihadist, willing to work tirelessly for the liberation of his Muslim brothers all over the world and do everything to alleviate their suffering. Television crew lined up in front of his home to interview him and he obliged each one of them. These television channels projected Aban as a warrior against Israel, aiming to liberate Palestine from the clutches of Zionist rule. Aban was getting famous day by day, hour by hour and minute by minute on his way to becoming a living legend.

  Slowly, a few Islamic ideologues started to make contact with Aban and he would invite them home to talk of strategies to free Kashmir from Hindustān and Afghanistan from the American led armies.

  In one of the mornings, Aban declared before a famous newspaper reporter that he would not mind picking up the gun to serve the greater cause of Jihad. On the same day, a man from LeT asked Aban to meet him at Jamia al-Qadsia mosque in Chowburji, Lahore.

  On Friday afternoon, Aban drove to the university road and parked his car in front of the mosque, situated in the heart of the city. He spread out his mat and waited for the person, who had promised to see him.

  At the end of the evening prayer, the Qazi of the mosque announced that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was going to deliver a sermon to the devotees.

  While his followers listened to Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in rapt silence inside the mosque, outside policemen with machine guns stood guard and bearded security men frisked all those, who entered the prayer meeting place. Hafiz Saeed's voice echoed not only inside the mosque, but also blared through the loudspeakers, spreading out to a radius of several miles. A few techno savvy people recorded his speech, word for word, in their digital voice recorders.

  Hafiz Saeed spoke with complete conviction. "God has promised to make us Muslims a superpower if we follow the right path. Our rulers are the slaves of America and have sold their conscience for a few dollars…"With his calm and serene demeanor, he continued, occasionally coughing in between and taking deep breaths.

  A man came and whispered into Aban's ear. Aban stood up and followed him. On the first floor, they entered an air-conditioned room, with majestic marble floorings and a gorgeous floral ceiling. A plush divan was placed on an Iranian carpet, slightly away from a deep leather settee. The escort asked Aban to make himself comfortable and wait.

  After a while, Aban heard several footsteps. Hafiz Saeed entered, but stopped his followers at the door. He asked one of his men to bring dry fruits and sherbet for the guest.

  The door was shut. Aban stood and bowed before the bearded man.

  "Please be seated, my son,"Hafiz Saeed said in his deep, profound voice.

  "Was it you who called me?"

  "Yes."

  "What holy service can I offer?"

  "First let me explain why I called you. I'm aggrieved about your father's death. I sent my condolences to your family."

  "Unfortunately, I was not in Lahore. I could not visit my Ammi, as the FBI would not grant me permission to leave America."

  "I know everything. Let me continue, son. You may not be aware that your father always stood for the just cause of Pakistan. He is a martyr."

  Aban could not resist, "But it was our men who killed him without showing any mercy."

  "I'm still not sure who killed him."

  "Why was his body never found?"

  "We sought the help of the Pakistani army to retrieve his body. However, before we could reach the place, the Pakistani Army ditched us. The Americans pressurized them to intensify army operations against the Taliban in the Swat valley."

  Aban clutched his hands together "Where?"

  "Nemogram."

  "Nemogram,"Aban said under his breath. "I've heard this name. I don't remember exactly, but Abba used to mention it."Aban racked his brains to find the connection between Nemogram and his Abba, but in vain.

  "Because of America, the bully, Pakistan has banned our organization. So, we had to withdraw our men from Swat Valley and concentrate on other assignments. Now we have to be very discreet in our modus operandi. For this, we have restructured our organization LeT and renamed it JuD, the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah. During the day, our men carry out charitable work and after sundown they carry out the divine work."

  "What divine work?"

  "Jihad, my son, Jihad!"

  Aban nodded and Hafiz Saeed continued, "I also want to know what happened to your father. So, get to the bottom of it and come back to me with the truth. Serve your motherland, my son."

  Aban bowed one more time. "Tell me what else I will have to do."

  "Join us."

  "Anything for you."

  "If I ask you to kill Kafirs?"

  "I'll not blink."

  "What if Kafirs are your family members?"

  "Kafirs are Kafirs!"

  Hafiz Saeed expressed amusement, "I will tell you when the time comes. You will certainly know who the Kafirs are. Till then write whatever I say. Post them to western media. And carry out the unfinished work of your Abba."

  "What work?"

  "Tupac-II."

  "What's that?"

  "Time will tell you everything. For the time being, I have a very small request for you. You are trained as a civil engineer. You've submitted your papers on the environmental impact of big dams. Your simulation model of Lake Mead is a unique presentation."

  "How do you know about my simulation model?"

  "Don't be in a rush, my son. Right now, we want you to do only a few calculations for us."

  "What kind of calculation?"

  "Calculations regarding the contours and resonance of a dam."

  "Dam!"

  "Yes."Hafiz Saeed's eyes twinkled.

  The Wave

  It was nighttime on the yacht. The Chief Steward laid out a sumptuous dinner. However, to his surpr
ise, no one visited the dining room. On request, he asked the maître d' to serve tea and kebabs to the guests inside the conference room.

  With every passing hour, Sundaram Iyer's urge to move to his suite and enjoy the company of the gorgeous girls grew stronger, but he was too scared to express his craving in front of the dreaded al Qaeda man. For the time being the best option for him was to limit the discussion to 'Giant Waves'. He turned to Somashekar Rao, "I have a very simple solution to our plan. Why not repeat 9/11 and let the dam crumble down?"

  "Please understand that it won't make any difference. Even if we get the biggest passenger aircraft, say for example an Airbus 380 or the heaviest aircraft Antonov Mriya and let it hit the dam, it will still not come down."

  "How can you say that when much smaller aircrafts caused the two huge towers of World Trade Centre to tumble down like a pack of cards?"

  "We all know that the twin towers didn't collapse because of the impact of the aircraft. The truth is that the burning jet fuel of the aircraft melted the weakest structure of the columns. The connections between the floor trusses and the columns of the building broke within minutes of the impact. When the floors detached from the main structure and fell onto each other, it quickly exceeded the load that any one floor was designed to carry. It then initiated a progressive pancake-collapse. But the same thing will never happen in a big dam since the temperature of burning Jet Fuel will not be sufficient to melt steel. Only a gaping hole of a few feet wide on the concrete lining would be exposed and that won't be sufficient enough to cause the structure to collapse. Even if we assume that it collapses, it will only be after several hours, giving sufficient time to the engineers to empty the dam with a regulated flow of water."