The Mahabharata Secret by Christopher C Doyle Read Free Book Online Page A

help.’
    ‘India’! Murphy exclaimed.
    ‘Yes. I need you to fly to Delhi immediately. . You leave on tonight’s flight from O’Hare to New Delhi. American Airlines. And the usual terms.
    ‘The objective?’
    The recording ended with:
    ‘All details will be given to you before you board your flight. Our partners operate under the leadership of a man named Farooq Siddiqui. That’s all you need to know for now. ‘
    ‘And I report back to you?’
    ‘Negative. You’ll report directly to a member of the Order. He is in India, personally supervising operations. You’ll work with him and follow his directions.’
    And one last thing. Read up on archaeology and ancient Indian history. You’ll need it.’
    The phone clicked as the caller hung up. Imran looked at Blake questioningly. ‘There’s more, isn’t there? This is pretty inconclusive; hardly what I would call a lead.’
    Blake grinned. ‘I agree. We didn’t think much of it either when we first reviewed it. But you must have heard of Farooq Siddiqui?’
    Imran shrugged. ‘Plenty of men with that name in India.’
    Blake turned the laptop screen towards Imran. ‘Watch this. We came across this video clip on a CD recovered from Bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan.’ He clicked on an mp4 file and the video clip began.
    The image was grainy, an amateur recording, but there was no mistaking the face of Al Zawahiri, the new leader of Al Qaeda. He was speaking in Arabic but there was a voiceover translating his words into English.
    ‘The West will pay for the destruction of Islamic lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,’ Al Zawahiri shrieked, brandishing an AK47 assault rifle. ‘The infidels will die. They think they are superior, but now the Islamic world will have powerful weapons of a kind that mankind has never seen before; weapons that will help us achieve a victory for Islam!’
    He turned and looked at another man, who stood by with a look of aloofness on his face, as if he had been compelled to be a part of the show.
    ‘Brothers,’ Al Zawahiri continued, ‘this is Farooq Siddiqui. He is one of the nuclear scientists who helped Pakistan develop its nuclear bomb. He will vouch for what I have just said.’
    Farooq coughed awkwardly and looked into the camera. ‘We have a plan and funding from powerful sources. We have access to designs of weapons that people have never dreamt of. Our factories are being built to manufacture these weapons. We have the prototypes ready. And once the factories are ready, no one can stop Islam from asserting its rightful place in the world!’
    The clip ended abruptly just as a group of hooded and armed men raised their automatic weapons to the sky and let loose a barrage of rounds.
    Imran sat back, contemplating the last frame of the video which had zeroed onto Siddiqui’s face. He would never have connected the name Farooq Siddiqui with the Pakistani scientist who had worked on the Pakistani nuclear bomb and then disappeared suddenly in 2003. It had been widely presumed that Farooq had been kidnapped or murdered by Islamic terrorists during an attempt to steal Pakistan’s nuclear secrets. His body had never been found. Yet, here he was in an Al Qaeda video, with Al Zawahiri, no less.
    ‘I don’t get it,’ Imran came straight to the point. ‘What weapons is he talking about? And where are their factories? Our intelligence has not picked up any such build-up anywhere. Have you guys heard anything?’
    Blake shook his head. ‘No idea. Farooq was careful not to describe the weapons and sounded deliberately ambiguous. This could be a recruitment video for attracting jihadis to Al Qaeda by promising them a technological superiority they haven’t experienced yet. With Qaeda in tatters, this may just be an attempt to revive the group.’
    ‘Farooq is the common factor between the phone tap and the video,’ Imran summarised. ‘And you think it is the same person?’
    Blake shrugged. ‘Could be. It is difficult to be