on land, Kalki would have a force with which he could begin to put his plans of world conquest into motion. Perhaps his father had not yet seen the other aspect of Kalki's plan — the series of tsunamis that would devastate and cripple governments' ability to respond to the sudden attack by his forces that would follow.
One day, his father had taken off in a fully loaded Sukhoi, his first flight outside of Kalki's base and what was to turn out to be his last flight. He had been flanked by three vimanas, to ensure he did not attempt escape, his job being to test fly the drone, which was being commanded remotely by Kalki, and fly it back manually if the remote controls did not work. He had worked with two experienced test pilots, Jim and Leslie, and had taken their help, enrolling them in his plan. As they had flown out from the underwater base, everything had gone according to plan. As they flew back in, his father had faked a malfunction and jettisoned his fuel tanks as they were entering the opening to the tunnel that led to the base. Three of the tanks bounced off in mid air, as if they were hitting an invisible wall, but one magically enough went in through the opening, right through the tunnel, and landed on the fields below. At one stroke, he had uncovered the one weak spot in the defensive field-the narrow window when vimanas were entering or emerging from the narrow tunnel entrance.
Alerted that something was going wrong, Maya had ordered him back to base, and perhaps realizing that there was no way to escape, his father had turned on his afterburners and flown back into Kalki's underwater fortress. Kalki tried to control the drone, but his father had planned for it and put in a manual override. He then smashed his fighter, loaded with thousands of pounds of jet fuel, into the main hangar at near supersonic speed. The giant fireball incinerated him and his plane in seconds, but also obliterated most of Kalki's fleet of vimanas parked there, and killed all but a handful of the Asuras. At one stroke, he had set Kalki's plans of conquest back, and created new hope for all the human slaves toiling in the fields below. They had finally seen that someone strike back at their demonic captors. Without realizing it, Aaditya's eyes filled with tears, and Kalki put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, thinking that he had been overcome by Kalki's telling of the story, where his father had supposedly been shot down by the Devas while he had been test flying a drone. Aaditya looked him straight in the eye, vowing to end what his father had started.
FOURTEEN
'Come on, Kalki is asking for you again!'
The way Maya said the word 'again' Aaditya wanted to laugh at his petty jealousy, but he knew that he was living on a knife's edge. The last three days had been a nerve-wracking experience. For all his newly discovered friendliness, Kalki would kill without a second thought at the first hint of deception.
The first test of his loyalty would be critical. When Kalki had asked him to tell some secrets of the Devas, Aaditya had not instantly volunteered it. Narada and Indra and gone through the plan with him umpteen times, and at the end, their advice had helped him survive.
He had told Kalki about the one weakness of the vimanas-the fact that their sensors went blind when they rendered themselves invisible to the naked eye. So if someone could lure them into a situation where they were forced to use their invisibility, and at the same time attack them from the air with the Asura's own vimanas or from the ground, they would for once not have the seemingly invincible edge in sensors and weapons they otherwise seemed to possess.
The very next day, he had been invited back to Kalki's command center for a test. A radar display showed an area over Afghanistan, beamed back from a high-flying drone. Maya and four pilotless drones based on the stealthy F-22 fighter were loitering over northern Afghanistan. In the valleys below, a team of daityas was prowling in the shadows with Al Qaeda terrorists, planning to execute a spectacular attack on a US base. Aaditya guessed this was another attempt by Kalki to aid Al Qaeda in return for having them do his bidding. As Aaditya watched the display, he saw three dots representing vimanas of the Devas appear on the screen. They would have picked up Maya and his drones now, and two of them established a patrolling pattern over the area, ready to shoot them down if they interfered. One of the vimanas came closer to the ground, and by now Aaditya assumed it had gone invisible so as not to be seen by the daityas and their terrorist acolytes. In the past, faced with such a situation, Kalki would have feared committing his forces to battle, assuming that the Deva vimanas would pick up his every move, but now he knew that the vimana close to the ground was effectively blind.
Kalki had not told Aaditya what he had planned, but as Aaditya saw the plot unfold, he began to worry that he would indeed cause one of the Devas to die. A single Asura vimana had been lying still on the floor of the valley, all its sensors and engines off, covered by radar absorbent sheets. On Kalki's command, it rose vertically into the air and attacked the Deva vimana. The Asura pilot launched a volley of missiles that the other Devas must have picked up since the Deva vimana near the ground suddenly began evasive maneuvers and the other Devas obliterated the attacking vimana with a barrage of astras then proceeded to wipe out the daityas and their followers. Aaditya heard Maya's exultant voice.
'I think we got at least one hit! He's trying to limp back to base. Should we chase them?'
'Get back, you fool. Now that they know our game, they will swat you out of the sky.'
Kalki had looked at Aaditya in a totally different light since that moment. He had learnt that the Devas were not actually invincible in the sky, and most importantly for Aaditya, he had come to trust him. So Aaditya had been moved to a luxurious room and allowed more freedom to move around some areas of the base.
Maya had resented this, but with Kalki insisting that Aaditya be now treated as a valuable asset, he had little choice.
'Come in, I thought it's time I allowed you see the bigger picture.'
As Aaditya entered the command center, Kalki put down an ancient looking clay tablet on the table in front of him. The tablet had columns of strange symbols etched on to it.
'What is this?'
'This is the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar. Nowadays they just call it the Mayan calendar. The earliest examples date to perhaps the 2nd century AD, but they created a firestorm of controversy when people started interpreting them.'
'What's so special about them?'
Kalki smiled as he reached out to run his long talons along the surface of the tablet, making a screeching noise that grated on Aaditya's nerves.
'Have you seen the movie
Aaditya remembered the special effects thriller he had seen on DVD a couple of years ago. The connection struck him.
'It said that the Mayans knew the world would end in 2012, right?'
'Not just 2012, Aaditya, but one specific date. December 21, 2012.'
Aaditya remembered some more of the movie and another connection formed in his mind.
'Tsunamis, tidal waves wiping out civilization. Is that why you're…I mean, do you know if this is actually going to happen and you're trying to make it worse with the tsunamis you plan to create?'
Kalki looked at Aaditya indulgently, like an adult smiling at a child who has just said something intelligent.
'Aaditya, I have no idea whether the Mayans knew anything or not, and don't know if anything will happen on that date because some ancient priests saw visions brought on by drugs. What I do know is what I will make happen on that day.'
A sinking feeling came over Aaditya.
'Your legends and religions are quite clear. The Mayans had their end of the world, and the Bible actually says that when the Day of Judgment comes, the waters prevail upon the Earth. So I will give them what they predict. On that day, the oceans will rise under my command and swamplands. Then as your holy books predict, I will emerge as the God returned to reclaim his children and cleanse the world of sin.'
Aaditya couldn't help but stifle a laugh at the thought of the massive, horned monster standing before him trying to pass himself off as God. Kalki snorted in anger, and Aaditya quickly wiped the smile off his face. Trusted or not, he knew that he couldn't push his luck too far.
