Chapter 5

“What are you talking about, Dhawan? It’s obvious this is the same choker that the Thug wore,” Missus Gandhi said.

“Those are not the shivalingam, the sacred stones, that were in the choker! What have you done with them?” he shouted. His voice almost sounded tinged with fear rather than anger.

From her chair, Helen said, “We have done with them what should be done with any of those abominations. They have been rendered as safe as we can make them, until or if it finally becomes possible to destroy them.”

His head had pivoted instantly when she began to speak, then his brow furrowed in a look of complete confusion. “How do you know of these shivalingam?”

Helen smiled, her teeth gleaming in sharp contrast to her skin. “I am not dressed formally today, Mister Dhawan. I am Helen Awarai, also known as Helen Lewis. I am the spiritual leader of the First People’s, those that guard the home of our Sacred Souls, what the white man calls Ayers Rock, properly known as Uluru. I am one of the Guardians.”

Dhawan slumped back into his chair, looking like he was exhausted.

Indira Gandhi looked at him. “Are you all right? What is all of this about?”

“Stories, legends. Ancient tales that, until we met the Messenger from Above, I had thought were only myth and fable. With what he has since told the rest of the world, after the day he saved your life, I realized that they were true.” He turned to face her. “And if they were true, then I feared for us. For all of us. Not just our people in India, but for all the people of the planet.”

Singh spoke up. “You mean those stories about Shiva actually existing, being another alien? Those are all true? One of our most sacred gods ... is no more than a fraud?”

Dhawan nodded. “I am afraid so, my friend.” He sounded defeated.

Singh reached up and pulled on his beard. “Something does not make sense to me, I am sorry. I am by nature a skeptical man, and of course, my profession has done nothing over the years to lessen that skepticism. Perhaps, you could tell us the whole story?”

Dhawan nodded. Before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door. One of the Sikh guards said, “Your pardon, Prime Minister, but the American Ambassador is here as per your request.”

“Send him in,” she said.

A man wearing a striped business suit, plain white shirt, and light blue tie, walked into the room. He was about six feet tall, maybe two hundred pounds, with dark hair. He had an American flag pin on his lapel.

Missus Gandhi stood, while everyone else remained seated. “Mister Barnes, welcome to my home this morning.”

“Madam Prime Minister, it is always my pleasure.” He walked up to her, where she held her hand out for a simple handshake. She took it, then motioned for him to have a seat to her left. “Thank you. How can the United States be of assistance to India today?”

“Apparently, the United States, or at least some citizens thereof, have already been of immeasurable assistance, as Mister Dhawan was about to inform us.” They sat down, then Gandhi motioned for Dhawan to continue.

He had used the break to gather his thoughts. “Mister Ambassador, you have served in Bombay and Kathmandu before coming here several years ago, so you’re well aware of our ... variety ... of deities. No doubt, especially after the Messenger from Above saved the life of our Prime Minister, and with his additional actions in your own Congress, you have heard the stories he has told regarding one of our sacred gods, specifically Shiva.”

He paused, obviously waiting for Barnes to reply.

“Of course, Mister Dhawan. After his actions with Ambassador Hinton and Prime Minister Bhutto of Pakistan, and then of course with his actions here, I have made a special effort to try to separate the fact from fiction regarding what he has told the world about our planetary history.”

“Very good. Then you will not be surprised when I tell you that nearly all of what we had hoped were legends and fables are actually based upon fact. We have taken many things upon faith, as he told the Catholic Pope. By his words, his actions, and more importantly, his deeds, he has both confirmed the basis behind our faiths and prayers, and at the same time weakened them by showing that many of those we have revered as gods and deities truly did exist.”

Dhawan shook his head. “Shiva has been the basis of our religious foundation for millennia. At the request of the Prime Minister, I conducted an intense investigation into the truths that we knew about him, versus the legends. What the Messenger has said is true. He came from another planet. He was not an actual god, but with his powers being so much greater than those of men, he set himself up to be worshiped as one. As you’re aware, Mister Ambassador, one of the points of contention between your nation and ours is that our Intelligence Bureau was both trained by, and worked closely with, the Soviet Union KGB. After the formation of the Research and Analysis Wing, that relationship continued with both groups.”

Singh interrupted. “It would have been nice for them to have known what my countrymen were planning, so that it wasn’t pure, dumb luck that we avoided watching our Prime Minister die in front of us.”

“Indeed,” Dhawan said. “There have been many ... changes in both groups since then. In any event ... Ambassador, have you ever heard of Ramaeshwara Randhawa?”

Barnes thought for a moment, then slowly started shaking his head. “No, I don’t believe I have. Randhawa is a common name in the Punjab region, of course, and it is possible I may have met the man without realizing it. Why?”

“Ah, then perhaps you knew him by his other name. The Thug.”

When Dhawan said that, Barnes moved like he’d been shocked. “Of course, I know of the Thug. Who in this region does not? The man is an unstoppable assassin.”

Dhawan smiled. “Was, Mister Ambassador, not is. One of the things our intelligence groups found was that he wore a choker, always. No one had made specific note of it, other than to wonder about why he did so. Perhaps some religious significance, if one who engaged in killing as he did had a specific religion.” He shot a look at Hannah, giving a slight shake of his head as he did so.

“One of the things they received was a file from the KGB regarding him, sent to them by the head of the KGB himself, after the ... well, coordination and cooperation between the Soviet and American governments took an unexpected turn due to the actions of the Messenger from Above. Apparently, he’d had a search done of their records, with any information they had filed and otherwise ignored now gaining new significance. In that file, which was several years old, Randhawa had claimed that the source of his strength came from two shivalingam, part of a group of sacred stones that had been passed down within his family ever since the days of Shiva himself, because they had come from the world where Shiva himself was from.”

Dhawan nodded at the choker, sitting on the table in front of me. “The two shivalingam in that choker.”

Barnes looked at it. “It doesn’t appear to be special, other than quite nicely decorated. May I examine it?”

I said, “I would prefer not.” I opened the box again, then picked the choker up and put it back inside, then handed it back to Hannah. “Thank you, Mister Dhawan, that confirms my own research regarding it. Now you understand what we were saying before, regarding the safety of the stones. And why it is important that we finish up our business here. Someone who does not know what they are dealing with ... that could cause issues none of our peoples want.”

Gandhi hadn’t missed the interaction between Dhawan and Hannah, nor what Dhawan had said about the choker itself. Several things regarding our earlier conversations became clear to her, and I saw her nodding to herself. She turned to Singh.

“Chief Inspector, I’m quite satisfied with the explanation that has been given to the question you asked, prior to the arrival of Mister Barnes. I appear to owe Mister Barnes an apology, for asking you to come to my residence this morning unnecessarily. Mister Barnes, if you would please excuse us, the Prince and I have some things that we need to discuss.”

He looked surprised, but nodded. “Of course, Prime Minister.” He stood, gave a polite bow to her, and left. I could tell from his body language he really had no clue about what was going on, especially since I’d spoken English like an American but had been addressed as a Prince.

Once he was out of the room, Missus Gandhi said, “I will have to do something for him, now, to make up for this. I had requested that he come here as soon as I was notified that you were here due to the death of the Thug. I’m afraid I erred, in thinking that you were like so many Americans, unaware of the dangerous things you were playing with, and that I would need his assistance in convincing you that this was better handled by our own people. I was wrong.”

Constable Singh shook his head, still holding onto his beard. “I sincerely apologize for being dense at this moment, since I am supposed to be the investigator here. What you’re saying is that there were stones ... shivalingam ... that were not that, they were artifacts that had been used by the real Shiva, and that some of them had been in this choker? That it was those artifacts that gave the Thug his unnatural strength and power, and that’s why his family has, over the centuries, maintained their control of the Punjab region? You’ll forgive me, but what does an Australian woman have to do with those?”

Dhawan sighed. “As she said, she is one of the First People of Australia.” He looked at Carrie. “You are not, though. At first, I thought you were sisters.”

“I am Carrie Holsinger, of the Aleut. We are the First People of the Americas, those who remain on what was the Bering land bridge, that was destroyed by the actions of Shiva. Helen Awarai physically is my cousin, but we are sisters as well. I, too, am a Guardian.”

“And you are their King. Now ... NOW it makes sense to me,” Dhawan said, nodding. “Madam, I know we had spoken before their arrival as to the options we had, regarding our course of action.”

She held up her hand. “None of them considered this, did they? Very well, I find that the solution to this is quite simple, then. Chief Constable Singh, you will send ... one company should be enough ... of your most loyal troops, to accompany our honored royal guest to the estate formerly owned by Ramaeshwara Randhawa. The troops will be under his command, and will follow his orders completely, without question. No matter what those orders are. While I sincerely hope not, if he gives them the order to slaughter every man, woman, and child in that estate, to burn everything to the ground, to then cover the land in salt so that nothing grows for generations, then I want that order carried out.”

I could see that Chief Constable Singh was shocked at her words. In Hindi, I said, “I truly hope and pray that I do not have to give that order. I cannot believe, knowing what he did about the shivalingam, that he could have left any orders for his people but to cooperate, because the only one who could defeat him would be more worthy to receive the powers of Shiva than he was.”

Dhawan replied in the same language. “He did not count upon running into a Guardian, though, did he? He thought they were fables and myths. As did I, before reading about the legends of the Sacred Souls of Uluru and of Mount Moffett, in the files of the KGB. And now meeting two women of those people. It seems the KGB considered the souls themselves to be legends, but some pursued the powers of Shiva that you mention. Including conspiring to kill American Presidents.”

Gandhi nodded. “You have a legitimate claim, not just to the region, but also to his title. Go. Find out what is there, You will have troops, and you will have the use of the staff cars. You are acting now as my personal representative, Prince Lewis of the Punjab.” She chuckled. “Don’t look surprised, when I know you’re not. The Messenger from Above has told us that we are to work together. The Punjab region is one that crosses national borders, as do many of the people of that region. I look forward with curiosity as to what you find there.”

“Thank you, Prime Minister,” I said.

“Not at all. I look forward to meeting with you when you return, to find out what you have discovered.”

Having been dismissed, we stood up. Missus Gandhi stood as well, making the añjali mudrā and saying “Namaste, Prince Lewis.”

I replied with the same gesture, saying, “Namaste, Madam Prime Minister.”

Chief Constable Singh escorted us out. Once outside, he said, “You will forgive me, but that was rather unexpected. If I may join you, I can instruct your driver where to go.”

“Certainly, Sir. We are but guests in your country,” I said.

“Not according to what the Prime Minister just said,” he replied.

Our detail retrieved their weapons. Instead of Angela sitting up front, she joined us in the back of the limousine, while Singh took the passenger seat. It took us twenty minutes to get to a large building. Once there, he invited us in, so that we could use the restroom facilities and get something to eat from their cafeteria, while he got a detail together. That took less time than I anticipated, barely an hour.

Once that was done, Singh brought two officers up to our group.

“Your Highness, this is Captain Bhate and Lieutenant Singh. They will be in command of the military details accompanying you. You will be in command of them. Lieutenant Singh commands one platoon of the President’s Bodyguards. Captain Bhate commands a company of the Special Action Group of the National Security Guard. They will follow your orders regarding the people of the region, up to and including the final option given to you by the Prime Minister.”

I blinked in surprise. In Hindi, I said, “Just so there is no misunderstanding, if I – and I alone – deem it to be necessary, then you and your men will kill everyone and destroy everything?”

Captain Bhate brought his heels together. “Your Highness, while we would regret doing so; should it be necessary for the security of the country, we would follow that order.”

“Very well. We are going to the estate of Ramaeshwara Randhawa, just west of Lalru.” I saw Lieutenant Singh’s eyes narrow. “Yes, Lieutenant, the home of the Thug. He is dead, by my hand.”

His reply had a tone of satisfaction in it. “Very good, Your Highness. We know exactly where to go, and we shall be honored to escort you there and provide security for you.”

With that, we headed out to our vehicles. Two military vehicles similar to a jeep, complete with flashing lights, were lined up. One Army truck, with soldiers already loaded in the back was behind them. Our limousines were next, with three more Army trucks and two more jeeps behind them. I couldn’t help but notice that all four of the jeeps had machine guns mounted on the pedestal mounts in the back, with ammunition drums hooked up to them and belted rounds ready.

Once we were all situated in our vehicles, with Captain Bhate in the front seat of our car and Lieutenant Singh in the front seat of the second car, our convoy headed out. The Captain said, “This vehicle is equipped with a privacy glass. Please feel free to utilize it, there is no insult.”

“Thank you, Captain. Before I do, because there are some things we need to discuss, I have a couple of questions for you.”

I spent half an hour talking with him about what he suspected, and what he knew. After that, I raised the privacy glass. Before anyone said anything, I held up a finger, for them to wait. I looked through the car, but while there was a speaker from the front so that the driver could talk to the passengers, there was nothing going the other way, nor was there any hidden radio or tape recorders.

“Okay, Chuck, we’re clear. Just had to check.”

“Oh, I could have told you the cars would be clear. At this level, especially since she was ready to get the US Ambassador involved, they wouldn’t dare do anything other than play totally straight with you,” he explained.

“That’s good,” Helen said. “I’m in touch with Margie and Hannah, so if they have any questions, or for some reason, Wendy or Sharon think of something and happen to mention it, I can pass it along, without Marshal Gage knowing.”

I sighed. “I wish I knew him well enough that I could trust him fully. Not just with what he’s here to do.”

Angela smiled sympathetically. “I think we all understand. The same with our flight crew, and Wally, too. This is just, right now, too big of a secret. More important than the Manhattan Project.” She chuckled a little. “Ideally, you’ll never have to reveal yourself, and we can just keep this going.”

“No!”

We all looked at Carrie, at her outburst.

“I may have an advantage in thinking, courtesy of Madalain. This is perfect. All we have to do is keep this a secret for a little while. Then, when the comet shows up, Cal can inherit the super powers, and publicly be open about using them. That’ll give the Messenger from Above reason to leave, since we’re now under good hands.”

I shook my head. “That’s a good idea, but there’s a serious flaw in it.”

“Oh,” she said. “Having you appear with the Messenger at the same time.”

Chuck shook his head. “Nope, that’s easily done, actually. We could fake it, without an issue. No, the issue is that Cal may not actually survive when the comet gets here. I saw the damage the Thug did to him, with only two of those stones giving him power. Cal said they also drained him of power. Just one stone nearly killed Eve and Dora, based upon what you said.”

“Yes, it was changing and modifying Dora, because genetically, she’s descended from the same basic stock as the Thug, even with the modifications that had been done by her exposure to ... me.” I blushed a little.

That made Angela laugh. “Awe, isn’t he so cute? Discussions about what happens when you have sex embarrass him.”

“Even though he’s knocked five of us up, he’s still a good man,” Helen replied, giving me a hug.

“I try to be, anyway. But the main reason we need the Messenger to still be here well after we’ve dealt with whatever’s in Halley’s Comet is that I won’t even be 18 yet. The other minor detail is that the closest approach to Earth in May, it’ll still be forty million miles from Earth, and that’s on it’s way back OUT of the solar system. If it’s using solar energy like we think I do, then it’ll be fully charged up. I’ve been to the Moon, obviously. There’s a lot of difference between those distances.”

“Yes, but how close will it get to the sun?” Angela asked.

I thought for a moment. “About fifty-six million miles, well inside the orbit of Venus. That’ll be in Mid-February.”

“Is there any lag in the mental communication you have with the other women?” Angela then asked.

Helen shook her head. “Not that we’ve noticed. Why?”

Angela was nodding. “Then, assume that whatever it’s going to try to do, it’ll try to do it in February. That’s when it’ll be fully charged up. By the time it’s on the way back out and closest to Earth, it’ll already be setting itself up for storage for it’s next approach in, what, 2061? If we haven’t taken care of it this time, and we don’t blow ourselves up because by then, you’ll have been incredibly successful, we send a bunch of nukes up and blow it to hell. Or divert it so it crashes into the sun.”

Carrie shook her head. “Neither one of those would work. He’d shrug off the explosion from the strongest nuclear weapon in the world, just like Cal could. And...” She paused, her forehead wrinkling in thought. “I’m not sure what spectroscopy is myself, but she said that when they were brought here, Shiva destroyed their equipment, so she’s never been able to study the differences between our sun and Star-Home’s star. It’s obviously more than just the visible spectrum, since the organ that she had, that Shiva lacked, is why he came here in the first place.”

Before anyone else could say anything, I held up a hand. “I just had a disturbing thought. Madalain, I’m going to make a guess that Shiva made you, your sister, and however many others he brought with him, wear a piece of jewelry that you couldn’t remove. It was only when you managed to get it off that you, Lara, and any others were actually able to fight back.”

“She says that’s right. It took a long, long time for her to do so, and she had to seduce a metalworker to actually get the necklace off, as it was welded in place.” Carrie stopped, looking disturbed. “When Shiva found out about it, he tortured the man to death over two full weeks.”

“Nice guy, definitely. But that means you ... she ... was wearing a device like we found in the choker. Something to nullify your powers. He was wearing something else, maybe the six medical devices we have,” I said.

“I suppose that’s possible. He was incredibly angry when we escaped. It took us ... her ... centuries to come up with enough forces. You’ve already heard about the actual combat. It’s a miracle humanity wasn’t wiped out, and our ancestors nearly were, using kinetic energy strikes into the oceans.” Carrie laughed. “It was amusing to me, to sit in the white man’s church, and listen to him preach about Noah and the Ark. With the help of Madalain, I could have drawn a map of the Earth and shown him exactly where things hit, and explained exactly how the wave interactions caused what seemed to be global flooding. I don’t think he would have appreciated it, though.”

Angela shook her head. “Definitely not. But, what do you mean, seemed to be global flooding?”

Carrie looked at me, for me to explain. I nodded.

“Simple, Angela. There’s not enough moisture in the atmosphere, nor enough ice at either pole or even in all of the mountains, to actually flood the planet like is mentioned in the story of Noah. ‘On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.’ Then, ‘The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.’ That’s about twenty feet.

“Now, we just flew over the highest mountain on the planet. The peak of it is slightly more than twenty-nine thousand feet above current sea level. Since no planet is exactly round due to rotation, I’ll go with three thousand, nine hundred and fifty nine miles as close enough. You figure the volume of a sphere as four/thirds times pi times the radius, cubed. So, the volume of the earth is two hundred fifty-nine point nine billion cubic miles. Pretty big. Now, covering Mount Everest in twenty feet of water means we now have a sphere with a radius that’s now thirty-nine sixty-four point five miles. That doesn’t sound like a big difference, does it? Only five and a half more miles.

“That now gives us a volume of two hundred sixty-one billion cubic miles. That means we needed an additional one point one billion cubic miles of water. The oceans themselves only contain three hundred twenty-one million cubic miles of water. There are one point one trillion gallons of water in a cubic mile. We would literally need more than three times the amount of water that already exists in the oceans to fall, to flood the earth like it says in the Christian Bible. If you took every bit of water out of the entire atmosphere, all at once, it’d cover the entire earth, certainly. With one inch of water. Obviously, there’s groundwater as well, including water deep beneath the crust of the earth, and a lot of it. Still not enough. And something very bad happens if it all came out at once, anyway. Specifically, the crust would collapse on itself, just like squeezing the juice out of an orange, because you’ve taken all of that basically incompressible water out from below ground, and added its weight to the surface. Squish, basically.

“So, he hit the earth with kinetic energy weapons. Those vaporize large amounts of water when moving at cometary speeds. Now, you’ve got all sorts of water vapor that causes massive localized flooding, wipes out the Bering land bridge, which Carrie’s people were using to flee, creates conditions that scour Australia down due to cyclonic winds, and otherwise drown a lot of people. I’m sure that Noah or his equivalent did exist, someone that was warned by one of Madalain or Lara’s contemporaries to help save people and animals. So, thus, localized flooding due to global effects. I’m sure that the local water level rose more than enough to cover things under twenty feet of water.

Chuck nodded. “I get it. If the whole earth was covered, there would be no place for the waters to recede TO, because the whole thing would have been covered equally. You’d only get evaporation.”

Carrie nodded. “Exactly. Cal’s probably right. Madalain didn’t warn anyone about the flooding, because she didn’t know it was coming.”

“That raises a disturbing possibility,” Helen interjected. “Shiva himself warned the people of the flooding, because he knew what his battle plan was going to be. He wanted his preferred slaves to live through the destruction. He just didn’t know that he’d end up losing. Dora just said that this makes entirely too much sense, in line with the legends of her people, and when they fled. She also said that the view from being on the ground while going over the Rockies is neater than simply flying over them.”

“And on that note, we’re getting off the main road now and ... yes, that’s the town of Sarsini. Time to talk to the Captain again,” I said.

I rolled the privacy window down. “Captain Bhate, I see that we’re off the main road now. I presume you intend to cross the Ghaggar River at Tiwana. My understanding is that everything from the river, north of Basma, all the west to Banur Road, and south of Chharbar from the river to the Banur Road, is the estate in question. That includes both Khallawar and Budhanpur.”

He nodded. “That is correct. The locals are primarily Sikh, but pay ... paid ... homage to the Prince of the region. It is my hope that the majority of the people knew nothing about his actions. To that end, we are going to the former Sikh temple on the north side of Budhanpur that is listed as his primary residence. That is also the closest to the Sati Mati that he controlled.”

“Why does that not surprise me? A temple to the wife of Shiva.”

Captain Bhate smiled. “We should be fine, my young friend. I do not believe we shall run into Mola Ram and Chattar Lai.”

At my sharp look, he said, “While the movie is currently banned here in India, I saw it while visiting an American military base. The Thuggee cult is supposedly eradicated in India. Perhaps with this death, now it truly will be.”

It was only a short drive once we crossed the river. The road in front of the Gurudwara Sahib Budhanpur went north and south. The lead jeep and truck pulled into the parking lot, going to the north side, while the other lead jeep took up a blocking position in the road. Soldiers began jumping from the back of the truck, taking up positions along the wall surrounding the entire property, while the passenger in the jeep took up position behind the machine gun on the pedestal mount.

We pulled in, closer to the road, so the Army truck was between our vehicles and the temple. The second truck pulled in to the south side of the parking lot, the soldiers inside again jumping out and taking positions behind the wall. The third truck drove further up, taking a dirt path, and dropping their soldiers on the northern side of the property. I didn’t realize it, but the fourth truck had stopped on the south side, before the road turned north, so those troops were in position along the southern wall and the woods, with the third jeep in position to support them. The last jeep took up position in the middle of the crossroads, the machine gun aimed towards the town, just in case.

Two men came out the door of the temple. One was older, gray hair around the fringes of his otherwise bald head, wearing a very thin choker. The other was younger, a turban on his head, and a sword about two feet long at his waist. They walked halfway to the wall, then stopped, while we gathered into a group behind Captain Bhate and Lieutenant Singh. Once we were organized, with me first, the girls behind me, and our security around them, Captain Bhate started forward.

Once Bhate stepped from the parking lot onto the actual paved outer court, the two men bowed before him. The older one said, “Welcome to the former home of Ramaeshwara Randhawa. I was his majordomo, Jwala Gazda. This is Gopal Singh Dodi, his security officer. We have been expecting you. Won’t you please join us within?”

The two officers stopped, then stepped to either side like we’d talked about while getting organized. I moved forward two steps in front of them. “I will allow you to show me my new home.” I was paying very careful attention to the choker that Gazda wore, but I didn’t detect anything coming from it.