THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET Read Online Free

little space.
    ‘Thank you, Marco,’ Alice smiled at the student, as he switched off his flashlight.
    ‘The mother-lode, quite literally.’ Damon, the other archaeologist on the team, a pudgy, black-haired man in his late forties, pointed to the entrance to the tomb that they had painstakingly excavated over the last twelve months.
    Alice saw stacks of containers in the chamber. These were padded containers used to gather artefacts from excavation sites to transport them safely to labs where they could be tested, dated and examined more thoroughly. ‘We’re picking up stuff from here?’ She was a bit taken aback. This was against standard archaeological procedure, where every artefact has to be photographed, tagged, mapped and measured to the last detail before being removed from the site.
    ‘Orders from HQ. Our directors gave me specific instructions to remove every moveable artefact and secure them all in the dig hut,’ Damon replied, studying her curiously. ‘Where have you been?’
    Alice shook her head, trying to keep her emotions at bay. ‘I noticed that you sent everyone else away.’ On their way to the shaft entrance, they had passed the other students and workers heading the other way and she had realised that Damon was planning a private preview of the tomb.
    ‘I sent them off,’ he replied, grinning at her. ‘I thought you and I should have the privilege of opening this tomb by ourselves.’ He glanced at the student. ‘With a little help from Marco, of course. Lucky guy.’ He winked at Marco, who grinned back.
    ‘There’s no door here,’ Alice frowned. ‘All the Hellenistic tombs have doors.’
    Damon shrugged. ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’ His face betrayed his anxiety. Had they laboured so hard for so many months only to be disappointed?
    Alice took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. She nodded to Damon who beckoned to Marco. The student hefted one of the pole lights and carried it through the open doorway, into the tomb. As Alice and Damon entered the tomb, he returned for the other lamp, his eyes glistening with excitement.
    ‘There are two chambers,’ Damon whispered. ‘Just like the other Macedonian tombs. Barrel vaulted. It’s Hellenistic alright.’
    Alice found herself standing in a small antechamber, the walls covered with murals of a woman in colourful robes, commanding armies, instructing men and generally assuming the pose of a leader in charge.
    She looked at Damon and saw the excitement on his face as well. They had been right about this.
    ‘The tomb of a queen,’ Damon breathed. ‘At last the world will see her resting place.’
    Alice moved through the doorway separating the antechamber from the burial chamber within, Damon following her.
    As she entered the chamber, Alice gasped. She had been prepared to find a sarcophagus, a larnax, or even a mummy. But the sight that greeted her eyes was something that made her hair stand on end. 

2
    R.K. Puram, New Delhi
    Imran Kidwai, Special Director at the Indian Intelligence Bureau, contemplated the day’s events as he was being driven home.
    Six months ago, after the dust raised by a terror threat to the G20 nations and the discovery of an ancient secret from the Mahabharata had died down, the governments of the US and India had decided to set up a joint task force to monitor and investigate leads to technology based terrorism. The idea had stemmed from the attempt by a shadowy global group to partner with terrorists to use cutting edge technology based on the secret from the Mahabharata with the objective of global political and economic domination. The plot had been foiled but the enemy still existed. And the entire episode had demonstrated that there were enough people out there who would not have any scruples about using technology to achieve their ends.
    Imran had willingly embraced the idea of a task force that was supported politically and had the authority and responsibility to investigate potential