“You can buy them online,” Selena said casually.
Charlie peered down into the hole. “So that guy thought he had to jump onto the statue’s platform to get across when in fact it wasn’t a platform but a sodding great big hole.”
They peered down into the hole. It was a carved in the shape of the statue but concave and not convex, and at the bottom of it near the head was a dark tunnel leading to nothing but darkness.
“Precisely.”
“So he just leaped to his own death,” Decker said, giving a low whistle. “That’s nasty.”
“Wonder how deep it is?” Riley said, wincing.
“Maybe they’re still falling…” Charlie whispered.
“Pseudoscopes are usually much smaller,” Selena said, “but the one built by the makers of this challenge is much more impressive — still, it gave the same effect. Once you get past the mirrors you can see the illusion, so that’s why they built the steps with the poison darts. By forcing people to run so fast toward the statue they ensured they never had enough time to stop once they realized it was all fake. By the time they realized what was going on and that they were leaping into a pit it was already too late to stop.”
“Ingenious!” Madan said. His eyes glazed over in a thousand-yard stare. “So how do we get across?”
“This way,” Selena said. She pointed at what had looked like a convex block of stone from the wrong side of the mirrors, but now they could see it was in fact a doorway which opened to reveal the center of the temple — Shambhala itself. “I am not so rude as to deny you your destiny,” Professor Moore,” he said, leaning forward cautiously to check for further traps. “So please be the first to enter Shambhala.”
Selena stepped out of the chamber and found herself bathed in light. She gasped when she saw the source — several hundred yards away at the bottom of a ravine was a lake full of sparkling, glowing water. It was so powerful it was almost like a sun.
She felt a gun push into her back as Madan joined her. He gazed out over the strange underground canyon and beheld a true cornucopia of ancient riches. Statues and ornaments rested where they had been for millennia and golden idols and jewels glittered along the riverbanks, but Madan was only interested in one thing.
“Ah — the Land of White Waters…” he said, his voice trailing away to an amazed whisper. “We truly are in Shambhala…”
Selena was amazed when she saw the lake. It was glowing a powerful white neon color, so bright she almost had to shield her eyes.
“It’s just like Stanhope described!” Diana said.
They continued their way down to the water. “What the hell is all this?” Decker said. “Why is this water glowing, Madan?”
Madan smiled. “You want to know, don’t you?”
“If we’re going to die here then I don’t see why we can’t,” Selena said, forthright.
“Very well. It is my belief that the water is glowing because of a very high lunium content.”
Selena looked confused. “Lunium — what’s that?”
“A very special substance which, as far as we know, is found only here due to its unique location at the foothills of the Himalayas. It was named by Stanhope because its brightness reminded him of the moon.”
Charlie said, “I still don’t get it.”
“Have you ever heard of tritium?”
Selena shook her head. “Never.”
“Me neither,” Johar said.
“Don’t look at me either,” said Riley.
Madan stared at the water. “This is understandable. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is used for many purposes, including as a radio luminescent on watches and other instruments so they glow in the dark. It collects in the atmosphere and falls to earth in precipitation. Then it pools in places like this. It exists only in trace quantities, however.”
“I see.”
Now he smiled. “And it is also used as a key ingredient in the manufacturing process of neutron bombs.”
Selena’s mouth opened with shock and she turned to Decker, staring at him to see if they were thinking the same thing. “Oh my God… you’re making a bomb!”
31
“Wrong,” Madan said. “I already have the bomb — or three of them to be accurate — Yama II, III and IV, but I need the lunium to increase their yield. You see, the lunium is hundreds of times stronger that tritium and will make the bombs more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
“So you want this lunium to make the bombs more dangerous?” Selena said.
“That depends on what my man here reports to me.”
After a brief conversation with one of his men, the man then walked to the water and conducted a short test. He returned to Madan and nodded his head.
“It seems as if my journey has not been in vain,” Madan said with a strange look in his eyes. “Kalki has appeared in Shambhala… and now the new age can begin. I am the Destroyer of Filth and my holy mission is clear.”
“Absolutely fuckin’ nuts,” Riley said.
“Where’s the target, Madan?” Decker said.
“Target?”
“You have your goddam lunium, or whatever the hell it is,” the former Marine said with disgust. “So where’s the target?”
“You are most impertinent, Captain Decker.”
“What city, dammit?”
Madan burst out laughing. “What city? Why all of them, of course…!”
Decker and Selena exchanged a confused glance. “I don’t understand,” Selena said. “How many of these bombs are you making?”
“Just three.”
“Then how…”
“No bomb can be that powerful, Madan,” Riley said. “And that makes you full of shit, mate.”
Kaleka joined the laughter, and then Madan spoke. “No, Corporal Carr, no three bombs alone are powerful to destroy every city in North America, Europe and the Far East, at least not in the way you’re thinking.”
“I still don’t get it,” Diana said.
“You don’t get it?” Charlie said. “Imagine what I feel like.”
“This is over,” Madan said, and ordered his men to transport the lunium containers out to the helicopters. “I told you that I was the tenth avatar of Vishnu, but you doubted me. I told you when I reached the heart of Shambhala I would no longer be Rakesh Madan, but Kalki himself, and that then I would become the Destroyer of Filth with a power so great it can raze entire civilizations to the ground, but you doubted me. Now, I see you still have a lingering trace of doubt in your eyes.”
He barked some Hindi at Kaleka as the final lunium disappeared through the narrow tunnel and headed out to the choppers.
“I still think you’re talking crap, Madan,” Riley said.
“No,” Diana said coolly. “He’s not talking crap. He really is going to end global civilization with just three bombs.”
Decker and the others turned to look at the young Portuguese academic. “What’s going on, Diana?” the American said.
“He’s going to do it with his birds.”
“His birds?” Decker said.
Johar’s shoulders visibly slumped. He understood.
“His satellites,” Diana said. “He has several satellites and he’s launching more this week.”
“Ha!” Madan said. “You were listening to me after all. She is right, ladies and gentlemen, and the launch is tomorrow morning.” He glanced at his watch. “In just a few hours in fact.”
“But just three bombs?” Selena said. “That’s enough to take out three cities, not three civilizations.”
Then Decker got it. “Holy shit,” he drawled. “The bombs aren’t going to destroy the civilizations.”
Selena looked up at him. “Mitch?”