On Brahma's command, a section of the giant holographic screen turned blank and Aaditya heard a voice that he realized with a shock he had heard before.
'Greetings, Father. Hello my enemies, old and new.'
It was Kalki.
***
There was pin drop silence in the room as Kalki's message continued.
'Many ages ago, you began this war against me. I never started any aggression against the Devas. If only you had let me do as I saw fit with the humans, with my creation. You began that war, but I will finish it. What you are seeing today is but a small preview of what I have in store. I will have what is rightfully mine. This world and its inhabitants will be shaped as I see fit, and you will be able to do nothing but watch. Save yourself more loss and grief, and go back to that pretentious alliance. Humans are my offspring, and I will watch over them, better than my own father watched over me.'
Aaditya saw even the normally unflappable Brahma flinch as the message ended.
'Why don't you just nuke his base?'
Vishnu answered Aaditya. 'We considered that. First, if he is underwater, there's no telling we'll get him, and if he retaliates in kind, then billions could die on Earth. We could not risk destroying this world again. Second, even if we succeed, what would we say to the humans? Why would they trust or believe us if we unleash a nuclear war on their planet?'
'So, what do we do?'
Brahma was now pacing the room, his hands folded behind him. 'It is a peculiar stalemate. We cannot get him in his lair, and he cannot get us. But we cannot just wait to see what new evil he has in store.'
Aaditya remembered what Kalki had said in the message he had sent through Maya. 'Does he know where our base is? Why doesn't he attack?'
'Because we still have one trump card.'
Aaditya waited for Brahma to explain, but Indra brought up a display on the screen. It showed the Earth, with dots orbiting it.
'Satellites.'
'I don't understand.'
'Aadi, when we returned here, we had our satellites crisscrossing the Earth to offer us near total surveillance. But when Kalki returned, we quickly took out each other's satellites in a space war that humans were oblivious to. Since then, neither of us has our own satellites up in space. Kalki is thus blind outside of his short term sensor range of his vimanas and his base.'
'Are we as well?'
Indra smiled.
'So Kalki thinks.'
Ganesha pointed to several of the dots circling the Earth that were now blinking.
'I've hacked into several of the US and Russian spy satellites and put in a couple of our special sensors into them. The humans don't even know it, but through them, we get twenty-four hour coverage of the Earth. Every time an Asura vimana takes off, we know.'
Indra tapped the screen. It showed a video of a missile in flight, and then disappearing as a bright blue light connected with it.
'1968. That was the year Kalki discovered our base. He launched four nuclear missiles. We saw them the moment they took off, and we intercepted them. The US and Russia also picked them up and put their strategic forces on alert. Ganesha had to mess around with their computers so they thought it was a malfunction in their radars. Otherwise, the Cold War you humans talked of would have turned very hot.'
A chill went down Aaditya's spine as he realized the implication of what he had just heard.
'He launched four waves of vimana strikes. Again, as soon as a single vimana took off, we were ready. We ambushed and slaughtered them. He doesn't know how we did it, but he knows he cannot attack us here.'
'So, what do we do?'
Brahma sighed.
'If only we knew the secret to Kalki's base. If only we knew how to break through his defences. If only we could get even a small glimpse into what's happening inside his base.'
Aaditya realized that as omnipotent and powerful as the Devas seemed, they were as clueless as he was now. They disbanded, planning to meet the next morning.
Aaditya had a rough night. He kept thinking of Kartik, of his last conversation with the young Deva. Not able to sleep, he called Tanya, and the two of them sat near the hangar, both gripped with despair and sorrow at Kartik's loss. He held on to Tanya, and she tried to comfort him, but she knew the guilt he felt would perhaps heal only with time.
At about four in the morning, when Tanya had finally fallen asleep with her head on his shoulders, Aaditya fell into an uneasy slumber, his mind a jumble of thoughts. The dogfight, Kalki's message, the stalemate the Devas found themselves in, the sudden spurt of tsunamis, Kalki's reference to his father, Kartik's death. All the disjointed thoughts swirled in his mind, as he tossed and turned, and then he had a sudden flash of clarity.
When Tanya woke up, Aaditya debated whether or not to tell her about his plan. At first, sure that she would refuse, he decided that he would go straight to Brahma, and if he agreed, then try and convince Tanya. However, when he saw her looking into his eyes over breakfast, he realized that he could not do that to her.
'Why are you looking at me like that?'
Aaditya just smiled and asked Tanya to join him for a walk. They walked all over the base, covering the length and breadth of the hangar, then walking to the underground chambers where some of the Devas slept and where their research and production facilities were hidden away. Aaditya brought Tanya to a bench overlooking a repair area for vimanas, where Indra's vimana was currently being tended to by two robotic mechanics. Over the dull hum of the machines, Aaditya told her what his plan was.
Tanya refused outright. Then, when he told her the full story, she fell silent. She held on to his hand, as if unwilling to let go, as if afraid that once he left, she would never see him again. Finally, she kissed him and held him so tightly it felt as if she would crush him. Then, she simply let his hand go. She kept sitting there, staring into nothingness, as Aaditya got up and began his long walk to the conference room to meet Brahma.
'Are you out of your mind?'
Aaditya had guessed that Brahma would not welcome his plan, but even he was surprised at the outright rejection from the elder Deva.
'What other choice do we have? Did you yourself not say that the only real way to find out a weakness in Kalki's base was to get someone inside?'
'And why should Kalki ever believe you? Why would he not just kill you as a possible spy?'
Aaditya thought about that for a second. He had not yet told anyone other than Tanya about the message he had got from Kalki, and even now, he was not sure he should be revealing it to the Devas. He was less worried that they may question his loyalties, but that if they ever got to know that Kalki himself had reached out to him, they would never let him go. And with that would disappear any chances of his ever getting to know what had really happened to his father.
'Brahma, I'm not sure he will believe me, but you yourself said that his biggest weapon is temptation. He knows the one human weakness he can count on to exploit-our greed for money, for power. He has been doing that for years now. I could pretend that I have been seduced by an offer of money or power?'
By now, Indra, Vishnu, Shiva and Narada had come into the room. They had overheard much of the exchange and Vishnu spoke next.
'Aadi, it is brave of you to make such an offer, but there are too many unknowns. He may never believe you, the Asuras may just kill you outright the moment they see you, even if you do make it inside, and there is no way we can guarantee we can get you out.'
'And, my boy, there is also the risk that if he does want to extract information from you, you end up revealing too much of what you really know. After all, being the one human to have got so involved in our struggle, what you have in your head is what would make you most invaluable to Kalki.'
