by AJAY
Two disturbing facts emerged. The first was the unnoticed oscillation of the reservoir of Koyna dam, which had created a highly destructive earthquake in the past. The second was the possibility of a water-pancake effect, which can be caused when a dam structure begins to resonate with the frequency of hammering tidal waves. Because of oscillation, the center of buoyancy of a huge water-mass can progressively shift both upward and downward. Resonance and shifting buoyancy could be a dangerous combination. The latter could cause the buoyant force of the water body to bob up and down. Every time the force hits the top portion of the dam, it will push it away towards the downstream and each time it will move down and affect the lower part of the dam, it will try to topple the dam towards the upstream side. A moving torque will be created. This will weaken different parts of the dam. The capacity of the dam to resist overturning, sliding and crushing at the toe will diminish with each passing minute. Finally, the dam will give way once the overturning force becomes more than the weight of the dam. In a worst-case scenario, an upheaval similar to Koyna dam might occur. No dam can withstand a high seismic surface acceleration and the dam will buckle under the pressure and give way.
But which dam? The question remained unanswered. The simulation of the actual dam under threat was not available to Siddhartha, since Somashekhar Rao had run that simulation on his laptop in the conference room of the yacht. Saeed Masri had prevented its transfer to even a remote server for complete confidentiality.
Another fact that caught Siddhartha's attention was the date assigned to the catastrophe. As discussed in the yacht, it had to be the the date of the death anniversary of the philosopher and sage Ramana Maharishi.
Siddhartha checked the date. It was 14th April. He picked up his pencil and encircled the date on his table calendar'14th April 2010 and scribbled "Place'???"in bold right next to the date.
There was another hint regarding the place'it was the place where a great saint had taken 'Water Samadhi', which is supposed to bring ultimate Nirvana.
Siddhartha searched through the lists of saints, who took samadhi. There were hundreds. A few important ones were: Saint Dnyaneshwar at Alandi, Nivrutti at Tryambakeshwar and others. But most of the places were not near any lake or river. Some were. The great saint and music composer Thyagaraja had attained samadhi on the banks of river Cauvery, Saint Eknath in the holy Ganges River and a few more.
One of the places that kept coming back to Siddhartha's attention'the temple of Vasudevanand Saraswati, was situated on the right bank of Narmada River at Garudeshwar, Gujarat. The Saint propagated the philosophy of respecting all religions. He would instruct the Muslims to chant Ayats, the verses from Qur'an. Parsis visited him to receive grace. Before taking samadhi, he sat up, facing the Lord in the west, performed tratak (steady gaze), controlled his breath and quit the body with a loud chant of Om.
Siddhartha thought aloud, "Garudeshwar is hardly seven and half miles from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. All leads, including the consignment of semtex to Garudeshwar and the assassination bid on the Chief Minister of Gujarat points to this dam. He lifted the eraser and rubbed the question mark, put against the heading; 'Place' in the calendar and put 'Garudeshwar' against the blank.
He now scribbled 'SS', the abbreviation for Sardar Sarovar inside the date encircled'14th April 2010.
The game was on… … ..
U.S. President
The Prime Minister of Pakistan disconnected his hotline. He asked his secretary to contact the Chief of Staff of the White House and inform him that the Prime Minister needed to talk to the President of the United States.
Within half an hour, he received confirmation. The Prime Minister explained the gravity of the situation to the President.
"So, you think the al Qaeda may be involved."
"Indeed, Mr. President."
"What do you want us to do?"
"We would need the satellite images of the movement of the al Qaeda men in the area. Deployment of the US Special Operation commandos in select locations of Islamabad will also be required. The Marines, who are experts in underwater explosives, should be repositioned from the Gulf region. Drone attacks on the intruders is imperative."
"But your parliament has recently passed a resolution, condemning our drone attacks."
"You are aware of our government's limitations, Mr. President. We support the Allies War against al Qaeda, but we also need to address our constituencies, since public opinion is against the presence of Americans on Pakistani soil."
"Do you have a specific target in mind?"
"Yes, Mr. President. My source has provided me with accurate photographs."
"Anything else?"
"I want U.S. experts to bug my residence, office and the PM Secretariat."
"What?"The President could not believe his ears. It was perhaps the first time in the history of any sovereign country that the Head of Government of one country had asked another country to bug its most important office and residence.
Home Minister
The Home Minister of India called an emergency meeting of the different departments of intelligence: R&AW, IB, CBI, the Director General of Police of Gujarat, CISF and CRPF in the conference room of North Block. The Chief of the Armed Forces was a special invitee.
Siddhartha Rana accompanied the Director of IB. When he entered the conference room, he saw to his dismay, Sundaram Iyer shaking hands with the Home Secretary. Their eyes met. Sundaram smiled while Siddhartha squirmed in his seat.
The Home Minister started the discussion, "Gentleman, we have a grave situation. The Prime Minister has received information that terrorists from Pakistan and possibly al Qaeda have infiltrated India. They are all set on a mission to blow up a big dam in order to bring massive destruction to our country. We have concluded that Sardar Sarovar Dam may come under attack. We still don't know exactly when, but it may be sooner than we think."The Minister went on to explain about the leads and shared everything he knew.
The DGP of Gujarat could not stop himself any longer. He blurted out, "Sir, we've been pointing out this fact for a long time that Gujarat is not only on the Pakistani terrorist's radar, but also on that of the al Qaeda. And the problem is magnified because even Indian Muslims support al Qaeda and LeT. These flesh mongers have their guns trained not only for the destruction of Gujarat, but also plan to assassinate top politicians including the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Unfortunately, the Central Government has turned a blind eye to all our concerns."The DGP was really exasperated.
"Well, now we have Gujarat as our sole point of focus."The Home Secretary said drily.
"I need to convey the wishes of the Gujarat Chief Minister. He makes it very clear that if the Central Government continues to support the fundamentalists at the cost of the majority population, Gujarat is not going to cooperate."The DGP said with stubborn finality.
The Home Minister joined in, "We are not here to score points against each other. The nation stands above any state. As an top IPS officer, you are expected to keep your brief limited to security concerns and not dabble in politics."Sundaram Iyer almost rubbed his hands with glee.
"The Gujarat police forces have their own limitations. We may not be in a position to deploy sufficient police force at Sardar Sarovar."
"Why?"
"We have more than a dozen major dams to guard, and many other vital industrial installations. We face a perpetual threat from Muslim fundamentalists. How can we forget the attack on Akshardham Temple that led to major casualties?"
"Please get this clear in your head that we are a nation first."The Home Minister said firmly, "The CISF takes care of Sardar Sarovar. And the Central Government will deploy central forces at other sensitive locations."
The DG thought it fit to keep his mouth shut for the time being. The Home Minister continued, "Any more suggestions?"
Siddhartha raised his hand. The Minister nodded and Siddhartha spoke out, "Sir, my Director has already briefed you about everything we have come to know about
the Tupac-II plot. However, I could decipher the date only an hour before this meeting."
"What date is it?"
"14th April."When Siddhartha said this, Sundaram Iyer shifted uneasily.
"14th April is just two days away."The Home Minister was obviously alarmed. He turned to the Director of CISF, "Has your unit noticed anything unusual at Sardar Sarovar in the last few days?"
"Sir, I've verified with the Deputy Commandant at Sardar Sarovar. There is nothing unusual except that some fishermen tried to reach near the dam. The patrolling party intercepted them and questioned them thoroughly. The DC said that the fishermen seemed to be innocent people from Garudeshwar, a small village near the dam."
"How long did they stay near the dam?"
"About two hours before our people sighted them."
"That's a pretty long time for anyone to dump explosives."Sundaram Iyer chipped in, "I suggest that the CISF carry out extensive sweeping for explosives around the lake, but more intensively at the toe of the dam."
The Director of R&AW was worried. He turned to the Home Minister, "Sir, you need to discuss the matter in the cabinet. We have already taken a stand after the Mumbai attack that if Pakistan is involved in any further attack on India, we will retaliate with all weapons at our disposal. Even the President of the United States supports our view. America is willing to attack inside Pakistan territory, if something like the Mumbai attacks originates from Pakistani soil."
"I can understand your point. Before coming to this meeting, we had a long discussion in the National Security Council meeting. The Foreign Minister doesn't subscribe to this philosophy. Moreover, we should not blame Pakistan if some non-state actor tries to do mischief."
"If the dam bursts, it won't be an innocuous mischief. The impending cost will be unimaginable. Our option in view of public opinion will be limited,"Sundaram Iyer rejoined.
"Well Mr. Iyer, the government will decide the course of action. We have mechanisms to deal with such situation."The Home Minister turned to the Chief of the Armed Forces, "What is your assessment of the situation?"
"We have information about troop movement of Pakistani Armed Forces at our LOC and also at the Punjab and Rajasthan border. We tried to ascertain this with the Pakistan Chief, but he was evasive in his reply. Our Defence Minister has given us the go-ahead to match their strength. We have moved our army from the hinterland and put the Air Force and the Navy on maximum alert."
The Home Minister wondered how Siddhartha could pinpoint the date of the impending attack and asked for an explanation.
"Sir, we tracked a yacht which sailed from Dubai. The agents of the FBI bugged the yacht and recorded the conversation that took place in the conference room. The participants talked about the date and the place of attack also. The date is confirmed and the place is the best possible guess according to the information available to the IB."Siddhartha said, and then turned to see the reaction of Sundaram Iyer. Sundaram was leaning on one side of his chair, staring at the floor blankly.
"See me in my chamber after the meeting."The Home Minister told Siddhartha and moved the motion that the meeting be adjourned.
Chaklala
The Wing Commander at Chaklala, Rawalpindi, received an order from his superior to open three vaults at underground locations.
The officer followed the instructions and asked his men to follow him into a deep tunnel, leading to different underground facilities. Two fissile cores, two trigger devices and two implosion modules were loaded on to a mobile van and taken to the surface for assembly. Within two hours, the expert assembled two nuclear weapons of a hundred kilotons each. Another technician fitted the GPS enabled parachute and calibrated the destination, where the nuclear bombs would be dropped. These nuclear bombs were put in a capsule, fitted with two small rockets on its underside to ensure precise delivery of the bombs at the intended destination.
Ground staff placed everything into a waiting Dassault Falcon aircraft. Another technician removed the transponder of the aircraft so that it would fly undetected for many nautical miles.
From Moradabad
The seven Jihadists pretending to be Hindu devotees de-boarded Sadbhawana Express at Moradabad, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. They had to wait in a dilapidated, dingy dharamshala till instructed to move further.
When the Jihadists got the signal to go ahead, they got into the general compartment of 2369, the Kumbh Express. They joined the group of men and women, singing and chanting devotional songs. A few of the onboard toddlers and children watched these strange worshippers curiously, while some of them would occasionally wail because of suffocation, caused by the throngs of people and the extreme summer heat. The slightly grown up and young kids were more interested in peanuts and the snacks which vendors sold at railway platforms. Every time the train stopped, they pleaded with their parents to buy something or the other.
The Indian Railways was operating many special trains from different parts of the country to carry the devotees to the Kumbh Mela. All trains were running jam-packed and many people were left stranded on the platform, waiting to get lucky with the next train. Thousands of private bus operators and cab drivers were doing brisk business. More than a hundred thousand private cars were stuck in a several miles long traffic jam.
Three hours later, when the train was about to reach the destination, the devotees started to sing till their voices got hoarse and their lungs threatened to burst. The Jihadists too would stop for a few seconds, inhale and rejoin the chorus one more time, one more, and then again for one more time.
From the railway station, the Jihadists went to Har-ki-pauri. They ate heartily at a local food stall. Later, they decided to take a bath and what could be more refreshing than the fast flowing cool water of the Holy Jahnavi River. After a lot of bargaining and coaxing, they engaged a photographer, at a dirt-cheap price, to capture their photographs on the pavement. They all looked very pleased with themselves. Only one of them missed all the action, because ever since he had reached the ghat, he had been hit by a bout of dysentery. He could only stand in the long queue in front of the public lavatory, holding his stomach, looking at his friends from afar. The group moved on to the tiny shops in the narrow by-lanes to buy trinkets and little curios. One boy found the cheap steel bracelets and aluminum chains too costly as they were priced at five rupees each. He settled for a two rupee six inch, orange plastic trumpet with a green snout. He blew it loudly and waved the wand high in the air, signaling to the others to join him. They all seemed to have forgotten the purpose of their visit and got lost in the elevating air that enveloped the place. It was as if they were on vacation. The blue sky overhead and the swift current of the holy river seemed to infuse them with the same life energy as she did to devout Hindus and to everything else.
The photographer delivered their photos within an hour. Each one peered closely into them, excitingly pointing their own images. "I am here.""Hey, my eyes are closed.""I am looking so many shades fairer.""Look at the way this fool is crouching."They were full of comments.
It was time to buy bus tickets to the final destination that lay nestled in the mountain. In the overcrowded bus, five of these youths had to find a place on the bus rooftop, ducking and braving the slaps of the branches of the tall trees all along the four-hour journey. Two of them had to make do by holding tightly onto the narrow bars of the back ladder leading to the rooftop.
The bus stopped at the security post. The policemen casually checked the baggage of devotees and asked the driver of the bus to proceed.
With nothing much to do, the youths had dinner, spread out newspaper sheets on the bus station floor and fell asleep.
Before the crack of dawn, a man's voice commanded them to rise and shine. The next stop was to be the CISF office.
NIST
While the Home Minister held a closed door meeting with the Director of the CBI, Siddhartha waited in the PA's room. When they were through, he went to see the Minister in his office. He further brief
ed the Minister about Tupac-II.
"Where is the boy, Aban?"The Minister enquired.
"He is at the guest house of the Army Cantonment."
"What about the daughter of the ambassador? Is she with Aban?"
"No, sir. She went to the Indian Council of Forest Research and Education in Dehradun for the billion-tree campaign. But we have information that she has come back to Delhi to spend some time with her father."
"Isn't Pakistan aware of Aban's whereabouts?"
"They are, sir. Hafiz Saeed came to know about Aban's trip to Ajmer and Pushkar with Juhi. Gunshots were fired at him when he was coming back to his hotel. Since we were guarding him, our men somehow took control of the situation. After the incident, we thought it fit to hide him till we got to the bottom of Tupac-II. And Aban is doing his best to solve the riddle."
"Still the contents of his laptop are as elusive as ever."
"Yes, sir."
"I talked to the Secretary of Commerce at your behest during my last visit to the USA. I requested NIST to help us to break the image password. Even though they could not decipher the Amaru Tupac-II file as they could not find the images to fit the 2X2 grid, they did come up with a definite conclusion. Three image password files are in uncompressed format and should be the size of 480X 360, each of about thirty-three kilobytes, with the same hue, saturation, colour temperatures etc, which will reveal the mystery. Surprisingly, the fourth image is panoramic."
Siddhartha Rana listened in rapt attention.
"Well, I have some good news for you. Our R&AW Agents penetrated the office of the new ISI Chief and got hold of three image files of similar descriptions. I have them with me. Perhaps, these three are the first three images, which will help to crack the password."The Home Minister handed Siddhartha a pen drive. "The fourth, however, is still missing."