Wednesday...

Wednesday: - 9:00 A.M

Konark….

“Come on Priya. Get down…we have to reach there soon.”

“I am coming….hold on for a second,” answered Priya who was washing her face. The train halted on time.

“Cab sir….cab sir….,” shouted a cab driver.

“Where do you want to go Sir?” asked the cab driver to John. “To Sun Temple.” “ this way Sir...,” said the cab driver to John.

In less than 15 minutes they reached the temple. John had this gut feeling that someone was following them for a long time. They got down the cab and started walking towards the sun temple.

“So….what are you looking for, in this place?” Priya asked.

“I don’t know….maybe an inscription or a transcript, a direction or even a symbol…”

“Symbol! As in?”

“Symbol…maybe of some God, some animal or bird and….what happened? You remember something?” John said looking at the amused look on Priya’s face.

“I think I remember something…some kind of phrase which my grandfather always used to tell.”

“What is it? Pop it out…”

“It goes something like this:

“When the sun is over and under you,

Take one step forward, two steps backward,

And there you will find something unreal,

You will be one step closer to your goal “

“What’s the first line?”

“hmm….when the sun is over and under you.” And they both looked out at the open courtyard inside the main temple.

“I think, I got the symbol… It’s the inscription of sun here…somewhere on the ground,” said John.

“Does that mean that we have to wait till 12:00 P.M?” asked Priya.

“Yeah…looks like it.”

As they were going in depth of the present situation, someone was watching them…..very closely. It was Rocky. He had followed them for a very long time now. This time he didn’g want to miss his target. He had missed once in Gaya, but considering the development in the past 24 hours, he thought it might be a better idea to contact his boss. He took out his brand new 2 megapixel camera phone with an MMS service.

“Boss….this is Rocky.”

“Yes…Rocky. What is it? Is the work done?” the voice said.

“No Sir, I think you better see this.” He sent the pictures of John and Priya he had taken a little while ago.

“hmm….this seems interesting. You better find out what they are upto and come here as soon as you come to know what they are going after,” said the Voice.

“Ok…boss.”

Wednesday: - 12:00 P.M

The sun was almost at the top of the temple now. And something happened there what they had been waiting for. The sun rays started kissing the courtyard and something started shining as bright as the Sun. it was sun itself. And inscription of sun…..and the phrase made perfect sense.

“Excellent,” thought John.

“When the sun is over and under you,

Take one step forward, two steps backward,

And there you will find something unreal,

You will be one step closer to your goal”

He moved towards the illuminated side and stood over the inscription. And the phrase went he took one step forward and two steps backward; he found something unreal….an unreal brick. He removed the false brick and found another inscription on a paper. And it read….

“Go to the nearest place where I am still alive,

And ask for my last,

And look out for the holy number

Of the saint who has no form

Yet he is resting in a holy grave across the continent.”

“Oh….God! Another code! Where is this heading us?” thought Priya.

John began rumbling his head. “He’s still alive? Where is a dead writer still alive….maybe someone’s heart…..in his writings…..yes! It is his writing. And his ‘last’ refers to his last book.”

They came out of the temple and looked for a book shop around; they found one few yards away.

“Hello….can I get the last….hmmm…the latest book by the Indian Writer, Prasad?”

“Yes Sir…right away,” said the book shop guy. He handed them his latest and took the bucks. What was next on the line….

“Look out for the holy number……of a saint who has no form, but yet he rests in a holy grave across the continent.”

Holy number….is a number considered holy!!! Well John knew about the evil number “666” which was mentioned in Bible as the number of Satan. But he had also seen this number “786” which is considered holy by Muslims around the world. Yes…at last he had found the number….it was indeed 786. And we do see it almost in every front door of Muslims. And the ‘saint’ was their God; Prophet Mohammed, whose gave rests in Mecca. John turned to Page 786….and somewhere in the middle he found….

“There lies a very old saint in a place as small as a nut. It literally translates as a place to go and come. When you reach here, search for a place, where two sisters meet and stretch their arms across a continent. Dig a hole there and you will find the truth. Something which one person knew… but could reveal nothing. But the power is in my blood and that’s my last wish.”

“Does this look like a passage rather than a code?” asked Priya. They read the whole thing again. And it felt that this referred to a place in India where an old saint is resting. The name of the place translates to Go and Come. And it is as small as a nut.

A place as small as a nut in India….lets see in a map…there are only few places…Delhi, Sikkim, Pondicherry, Yanam, Mahe, Daman and Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Goa…..

Goa; John thought was the closest to the description. It we split the name into two, we get...Go and A; and A, if written in Hindi literally translates to "aaa" which means "come" in English.

Perfect. Goa is our next place. And an old saint, rests there for a long time who belongs to Christianity. The description suits Goa. They took an atlas from the same shop and looked for Goa. Trying to find a place where two sisters meet and their eyes lied on one thing. Panaji.

Panaji is the coastal town; the capital city and its location was such that two rivers Zuari and Mandovi meet the Arabian Sea. “Yes….” They both screamed on the top of their voice, inviting attention from everyone around.

“So…Panaji is the place where we are to go now,” said Priya in a relatively higher voice. “Sssshhhhh….don’t scream. Keep your voice low,” said John. Before she could rectify her mistake, nothing could have been changed, because something which was to be kept a secret was no more a secret. And someone who had been looking for this couldn’t have been much happier.

John looked all around to find any suspects who were following them. But he vanished and fear shall have a new face now….