Son of Bhrigu Read online

  Son of Bhrigu

  Christopher C. Doyle is the author of the hugely popular The Mahabharata Quest Series. Along the way to publishing his debut novel, Christopher pursued a career in the corporate world after graduating from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and IIM, Calcutta. Christopher is also a musician and lives his passion for music through his band called Mid Life Crisis. He lives in New Delhi with his family.

  Christopher can be contacted at:

  Website: www.christophercdoyle.com

  Email: [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/authorchristophercdoyle

  The Quest Club: www.christophercdoyle.com/the-quest-club

  Also by Christopher C. Doyle

  The Mahabharata Secret

  The Mahabharata Quest Series

  Book 1: The Alexander Secret

  Book 2: The Secret of the Druids

  A Secret Revealed

  First published by Westland Publications Private Limited in 2018

  61, 2nd Floor, Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600095

  Westland and the Westland logo are the trademarks of Westland Publications Private Limited, or its affiliates.

  Text Copyright © Christopher C. Doyle 2018

  Christopher C. Doyle asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  ISBN: 9789386850478

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organisations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  All rights reserved

  Typeset by R. Ajith Kumar

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  This book is dedicated to all the teachers in my life

  who built me up as a person and made me what I am,

  who enabled me to find my own special powers in the gurukul of life

  and

  to the memory of Asha Michigan.

  Contents

  Start Reading

  Prologue

  Chapter One The History Teacher

  Chapter Two The Mystery Deepens

  Chapter Three The Miseries of History

  Chapter Four Meeting the Police

  Chapter Five A Bolt from the Blue

  Chapter Six A Visitor

  Chapter Seven New Suspects?

  Chapter Eight Son of Bhrigu

  Chapter Nine Maya’s Amulet

  Chapter Ten The Notebook

  Chapter Eleven Some Unexpected News

  Chapter Twelve An Urgent Call for Help

  Chapter Thirteen Yet Another Mystery

  Chapter Fourteen Hidden in Plain Sight

  Chapter Fifteen Kapoor Investigates

  Chapter Sixteen The Rescuer Arrives

  Chapter Seventeen The Diary

  Chapter Eighteen The Dream

  Chapter Nineteen Panna

  Chapter Twenty The Pandava Falls

  Chapter Twenty-one At the Cliff Wall

  Chapter Twenty-two Maya leaves Delhi

  Chapter Twenty-three The Valley of Music

  Chapter Twenty-four The Gandharva Council

  Chapter Twenty-five New Mysteries for Kapoor

  Chapter Twenty-six Answers & Questions

  Chapter Twenty-seven Shukra Reflects

  Chapter Twenty-eight Some Answers

  Chapter Twenty-nine The Story of the Past

  Chapter Thirty More Revelations

  Chapter Thirty-one Arjun Learns the Truth

  Chapter Thirty-two Unhappy Reunion

  Chapter Thirty-three Into the Park

  Chapter Thirty-four Driving in the Park

  Chapter Thirty-five Terror in the Park

  Chapter Thirty-six Flight through the Forest

  Chapter Thirty-seven Terror in the Clearing

  Chapter Thirty-eight Kapoor’s Files

  Chapter Thirty-nine Shukra’s Army

  Chapter Forty The Battle of the Gurukul

  Chapter Forty-one Gurukul

  Chapter Forty-two The Mahamati Council

  Chapter Forty-three The Council Debates

  Chapter Forty-four More Questions for the Council

  Chapter Forty-five Exchanging Notes

  Chapter Forty-six Welcome to the Gurukul

  Chapter Forty-seven Maya Reflects

  Chapter Forty-eight Gurukul Day 1

  Chapter Forty-nine About the Sangha

  Chapter Fifty First lesson

  Chapter Fifty-one Kapoor’s Investigations

  Chapter Fifty-two Tracks and Tricks

  Chapter Fifty-three Kapoor’s Discovery

  Chapter Fifty-four The Archives

  Chapter Fifty-five Maya Dreams Again

  Chapter Fifty-six Maya Shares her Troubles

  Chapter Fifty-seven Tiwari Explains

  Chapter Fifty-eight Maya’s Plan

  Chapter Fifty-nine Looking for Answers

  Chapter Sixty Arjun Reflects

  Chapter Sixty-one Arjun Gets a Shock

  Chapter Sixty-two Combat Practice

  Chapter Sixty-three More Secrets

  Chapter Sixty-four Secret Plans

  Chapter Sixty-five Back to the Gandharva Valley

  Chapter Sixty-six Audience with Visvavasu

  Chapter Sixty-seven More on Brahmabhasha

  Chapter Sixty-eight Hot Water

  Chapter Sixty-nine The Council Debates

  Chapter Seventy Maya Travels Again

  Chapter Seventy-one Conversation with a Maharishi

  Chapter Seventy-two Satyavachana’s Advice

  Chapter Seventy-three The Search for Vishwaraj

  Chapter Seventy-four Satyavachana’s Arrival

  Chapter Seventy-five Maya’s Secret

  Chapter Seventy-six Time for Travel

  Chapter Seventy-seven The Siege of the Gurukul

  Chapter Seventy-eight The Lost City

  Chapter Seventy-nine Doubts

  Chapter Eighty The Hidden Island

  Chapter Eighty-one Last stand

  Chapter Eighty-two Too late

  Chapter Eighty-three Assault on the Guesthouse

  Chapter Eighty-four The Final Battle

  Chapter Eighty-five The Saptas

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Pronunciation Key

  Acknowledgements

  Have You Joined the Quest Club?

  Illustration by Priyankar Gupta

  Prologue

  September, 1799

  Giza, Egypt

  Louis Alexandre Berthier looked around and shivered.

  But not because it was cold.

  It was their location.

  The night had not yet begun its retreat before the advance of the sun, and its last vestiges still clung to the edges of the vast canopy of stars that stretched above the desert. It was cool but comfortably so; not frigid enough to cause a chill in the air.

  It was something else that was getting to him. A veteran of many battles, there was little that could rattle him. Yet, tonight, he felt a sense of disquiet that he had never experienced before.

  Berthier glanced at the faces of the two soldiers with him. In the light of the torches, their faces reflected his own anxiety, nervousness and — though he was loath to admit it — fear.

  They had spent the better part of the night in a small, makeshift camp at the base of the largest pyramid of the three that towered over the Giza plateau. It soared hundreds of feet into the sky, its tip lost in the darkness and its base barely scratched by the flicker of the flames from their torches. />
  Not far away loomed another silhouette — the head of the enormous sculpture of the man-beast, with its inscrutable expression, commonly known as the ‘Sphinx’. The inexorable advance of the sand dunes over centuries, had covered the bulk of the stone body of the Sphinx, leaving just the head exposed.

  There was something unnerving about this place. He wouldn’t have been here of his own accord. Yet, what choice had they been given?

  Berthier reflected on the events that had brought them here. The last twelve months had been spent in military campaigns in Egypt, not all of them successful. But the highlight of the expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte had been the wondrous architectural ruins — stone temples that soared towards the sky, defying gravity; giant statues sculpted thousands of years ago out of stone, depicting the rulers of yore — and the broken stone stele that had been discovered just a month ago by Captain Pierre Bouchard. Dubbed the ‘Rosetta stone’ it had caused unparalleled excitement among historians since it presented a means to finally decipher the hitherto incomprehensible Egyptian script that was so commonly inscribed in the temples and tombs of the country.

  And then, Napoleon had suddenly decided that he would spend a night inside the largest pyramid of the trio that stood on the Giza plateau. Someone had told him that Alexander and Julius Caesar, too, had done this, and Napoleon was fired with the ambition of matching those great generals.

  Berthier, who was Napoleon’s chief of staff, had argued with his general, trying to dissuade him using logic, but to no avail.

  ‘It is nothing more than a story, a myth,’ Berthier had asserted. ‘We know that the Great Pyramid was sealed and unviolated until Mohammed al-Mamoun tunnelled into it, thousands of years after it was built. How could Alexander and Caesar have entered it then? They lived centuries before the birth of our Lord.’

  Napoleon, however, had made up his mind. So it was that, on the previous evening, Berthier and the two soldiers had accompanied the French general through the narrow and low ceilinged passageways that led from the hole, made by Al Mamoun centuries before, in the north face of the pyramid. They had clambered with great difficulty, by the light of torches, up the steeply sloping tunnels and into the highest chamber that contained the stone sarcophagus that was supposed to have been built to hold the body of the pharaoh, Khufu, who had constructed the pyramid as a grand tomb for himself. Of course, Khufu’s body had never been found, the pyramid having been discovered to be empty, with no sign of either the Pharaoh’s mummy or treasure and bereft of the ubiquitous inscriptions found in Egyptian tombs.

  With grave misgivings, Berthier and the soldiers had left their general in the chamber and, in accordance with his instructions, gone from the building to camp outside and wait for his return at dawn.

  Napoleon, himself, had shown no signs of anxiety or fear. He had appeared curious, excited even; poking into the corners of the room and the sarcophagus, examining the bare walls of the chamber in the light of the single lamp that was to be left with him.

  Berthier shivered again. It was a mistake; he could feel it in his bones. The chamber that Napoleon had decided to conquer had an eeriness about it. He had felt it last night when he had accompanied Napoleon to settle him in. It was almost as if there was an invisible presence in the stone room. The sarcophagus may have been empty, but Berthier could not help feeling that there was something in that chamber. The pyramid had been empty and sealed shut for thousands of years, its original entrance concealed by the builders. Was it possible that some spirit or demon had taken up residence there in the intervening centuries?

  He shook his head, trying to convince himself that he was imagining things. Others had been inside the pyramid since Al-Mamoun’s intrusion. Yet, no one had ever spoken of hauntings or spirits.

  A shout from one of the soldiers broke his reverie.

  He glanced towards the base of the pyramid. A dark human figure could be seen, staggering and stumbling as it made its way towards them.

  Napoleon!

  Berthier rose swiftly and ran towards his general, the two soldiers hurrying behind him.

  He reached Napoleon before the others and recoiled in shock as he saw his general’s face.

  The normally robust features had been replaced by an expression that combined horror and desperation. The excitement and confidence of the previous night were gone. His stricken look, on a face that seemed to have been drained of all blood, gave him the appearance of a cadaver and his arms were outstretched as if searching for succour; for a means of support, help and rescue.

  Berthier grasped Napoleon by his arms and supported him as the mighty general leaned his weight upon him, as if collapsing with relief.

  The two soldiers were still a short distance away.

  ‘What happened?’ Berthier demanded. ‘What did you encounter inside that monstrosity? Tell me!’

  Napoleon shook his head and looked Berthier in the eye for a fleeting moment of lucidity that seemed to cut through his confusion and fear.

  Berthier’s blood ran cold at Napoleon’s response. The general’s voice was hoarse with terror.

  ‘You will never believe me if I told you.’

  Chapter One

  The History Teacher

  Day One

  Present Day

  New Delhi, India

  Dhananjay Trivedi hurried along, casting nervous glances around him as he walked.

  A deep, dark fear seemed to engulf his very soul.

  And he didn’t understand it.

  Dhananjay was a history teacher in a reputed school in New Delhi. A gold medallist from Allahabhad University, the world of academia had been waiting to welcome him with open arms. He had surprised many when he became a teacher. He loved his job and more importantly, his students at school loved him. There was hardly a student who wouldn’t gush about Dhananjay’s classes, which were known to be fun. He was a wonderful guide, walking his students through the trails of history with stories that kept them mesmerized in class. Dhananjay’s strategy was simple. He believed that if his students enjoyed studying history, they would be more attentive, more curious and learn more.

  Some of the other teachers would grumble about how devoted the students were to Dhananjay. It was almost as if he cast a spell upon them from the moment he walked into the classroom.

  What no one knew, was that the much-adored history teacher had a secret of his own.

  It was this very secret that had led to the encounter today, which had left him in his present state of disquiet.

  It had started innocuously enough, with a young man approaching Trivedi as he stepped outside the school gate. The youth seemed to be in his late teens; definitely not more than nineteen or twenty.

  ‘Good afternoon, sir,’ he had greeted Trivedi with a disarming smile. ‘I am Vishwaraj.’ His voice had then lowered conspiratorially. ‘Can I please have a word with you?’

  Trivedi had recognized the name. He had heard of it before. The young man was a member of the Gana . Trivedi’s curiosity had mounted. What could the young man want from him?

  Without further ado, Vishwaraj had drawn him aside. His words were brief and to the point. Trivedi listened, astounded at what Vishwaraj had to say.

  ‘So, you see, sir,’ Vishwaraj concluded in the soft tones that he had adopted at the start of the conversation, ‘I know that the boy is alive. And I want to know where he is. You will tell me or pay the price.’

  Trivedi appraised the young man in front of him. This was an unforeseen development. A member of the Gana gone rogue. He couldn’t fathom what Vishwaraj’s intentions or motives were but he knew that the Sangha didn’t know about Vishwaraj’s apostasy. But there was nothing he could do for now. The Sangha would have to decide how to deal with this situation.

  ‘I don’t have to tell you anything,’ he scoffed. ‘Your words are an empty threat. If you try anything, you will find yourself in deep trouble. And you know it.’ He paused, then added, ‘In any case, I have no idea what you are tal
king about.’

  Vishwaraj said nothing. His youthful face was hard as his eyes bored into the schoolmaster.

  Suddenly, Trivedi felt a nameless fear in the depths of his heart. Despite his casual dismissal of the youth, he felt there was something that he was missing. Something that was gnawing at his subconscious mind, but wouldn’t come out into the open.

  He turned away. This meeting was over. But one thought ran through his mind repeatedly as he made his way home.

  How did Vishwaraj know about the boy?

  As he stood outside his apartment and fumbled with the keys to the front door, his mind raced with possibilities. This incident could not go unreported. Especially since it concerned the boy.

  He opened the iron grill door, then unlocked the inner, wooden door and stepped in, locking both doors from the inside.

  For a few moments, he leaned against a wall, breathing hard. He still couldn’t understand his own anxiety. Vishwaraj was just a powerless youth, incapable of delivering on his threat. So why had the brief conversation with the boy unnerved him?

  He whipped out his mobile phone and dialled a number. As the call connected, he began speaking rapidly, describing what had just happened. His breathing slowed as the person on the other end of the line seemed to offer him words of assurance, calming him down.

  By the time the conversation was over, Trivedi had almost recovered his composure. He ended the call and placed his phone on the dining table.

  That was when it struck him. The reason why he had been feeling uneasy since the encounter with Vishwaraj.

  Why hadn’t he seen it earlier?

  As the realization dawned, the apartment erupted in flames. The fire was everywhere. It was as if every atom of the flat had spontaneously ignited at exactly the same moment.

  Trivedi now knew that he had been wrong about Vishwaraj. He had made a big mistake. And he was going to pay with his life. But that didn’t bother him as much as the fact that it was now too late to tell anyone else. He could only hope that his death would warn the others.

  The future of the world was at stake.

  Chapter Two

  The Mystery Deepens

  Day Two

  New Delhi

  Superintendent of Police, Raman Kapoor, stared at the preliminary autopsy report on his desk. An ambitious young police officer from the IPS, he had been put in charge of the Trivedi murder case by the Commissioner of Police himself.