The Osama Code by Aniruddha Banhatti (top 100 books of all time checklist txt) 📕

will reach Abbottabad within next three hours. They have already started from Islamabad. I'll meet you at Islamabad. I am busy in something new that has come up. Over and out."
The call ended.
Ross went away, and Kevin decided to have a short nap.
When the plane reached Islamabad, George Clooney was waiting for Kevin. A car was ready. They started for Abbottabad. George was driving. After half an hour George got a call on the ordinary mobile informing him that protection was provided to Zarar Ahmed and his family, but Pakistan's I.S.I. agents were insisting on arresting them and putting them in custody. Also, from today morning the two rabbits given to Zarar Ahmed were nowhere to be found. Generally they played in the garden, so anyone could have picked them up.
"Oh!" Kevin exclaimed hearing all this, "We are already late!"
George Clooney stopped the car and requested Kevin to drive, and while Kevin drove, he busied himself in calling Washington and trying to pressurize I.S.I. so that the safety of Zarar Ahmed and family wouldn't be jeopardized.
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Abbottabad.
Zarar Ahmed's mansion.
Kevin put his expertise to test in tracing very faint footmarks on the grass and via a footpath, reached an earth road. From there, following the tracks of car tires, which were quite clear, he went ahead for quite a distance and then he saw it. There were two dead rabbits by the side of the road, hidden in the grass. He called Clooney on the nano-mobile and asked him to come behind the mansion on the earth road stealthily in his car, and he started examining the dead rabbits.
The rear legs of both the rabbits were slit with two long gashes. What could have been hidden in their thighs? Kevin inspected closely and he could see the impression of some rectangular objects on the muscles, even impressions of tiny screws were visible. This information must be kept secret from Pakistan's military as well as I.S.I. and these two cadavers must be immediately sent to Washington for forensic analysis - Kevin was thinking, when he saw George coming around with the car on the earth road. George also examined the dead rabbits closely and then put them in thick, transparent zip pouches which he put in an haversack.
"I had brought a cage, too," he said," I was hoping to get the rabbits alive. Now, a charter plane is waiting for me at Islamabad. We will go to Washington D.C. in it. We will deposit the rabbits at the forensic lab and then I will tell you some new information which has come up. Then you have to leave for Cairo."
"Cairo?" Kevin said, surprised, "Egypt?"
"Ya!' said George and stepped on the gas.
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The report of the forensic lab : Electronic chips were sewn into the thigh muscles of the rabbits and the skin was re-sewn over the gash. There was evidence of four chips, one in each thigh. The rabbits would have lived for years with the chips intact. Traces of plutonium and titanium and their compounds were found. These metals being associated with nuclear devices or atom bombs, there is a great possibility of the chips being the detonators of neutron bombs or other nuclear bombs.
George gave Kevin a short story 'The Leper's Helix' by Robert Coover to read. When he had finished reading the two page story, George showed him the Arabian translation of that story. It was confiscated from Osama's hideout in Abbottabad during the raid by Navy Seals. In that translation, Osama, presumably, had underlined some lines and putting a cross, had written '9/11' there.
"Now see," George said, "We go as described in the story 'The Leper's Helix' and see where we reach."
He took a globe of the Earth which was kept by the side.
"As mentioned in the story, we start here, on this latitude. We go parallel to the equator and the leper goes to the North pole like this in a helical path. Then he comes down from the North Pole , again following the helix, like in a DNA molecule. This is the intersection point of the upward strand and the downward strand of the helix and here the leper falls down on us, i mean falls down on the reader of the story. Here all his fingers, limbs eyes, ears, falling off due to leprosy, are strewn around us - or - around the reader. If we see on this globe, the intersection point falls exactly on Cairo!"
"Oho!" Kevin looked at George with a new respect.
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In Cairo, Kevin got an unexpected lead. He had made a list of any out of the ordinary things during the last few months along with the new Egyptian government officials. In that, there was an unexplained sudden increase of more than five times in the electricity bills of a mosque, situated on the outskirts of Cairo. He had done the surveillance of the mosque along with two of his American assistants. The mosque was in the area called Wadi-al-Hajayib. He had suspected that there must be some new construction done there under the mosque. He put one of his assistants on guard at the mosque and came back to 'Four Seasons', his hotel. He found George there, who had just arrived.
"They have sent a message, threatening to explode one nuclear device in New York and other in London if US does not immediately withdraw all its military units from Pakistan and if Us does not cease immediately all drone attacks. "
"Oho!"
"Any moment now, they will broadcast the same threats on T.V." George said, and the next moment there was breaking news in which Saif-Al- Adel, the new Taliban chief appeared. He was speaking a sentence in Arabic and was waiting till it was translated in English, before speaking the next sentence in Arabic again. Again and again the same loop was played on all the channels and the threats repeated. There was a huge stir created all over the world.
"I am almost sure that I have located them," Kevin said, "Come, let's go."
Saif -Al - Adel had given 72 hours to the world for agreeing to their conditions. Kevin and George sped on in a car via Anjam-Al-Safat, reaching Bir-El-Hamma they went through Bir- Gifgafa and reached the mosque in Wadi- Al-Hajayib. Kevin's assistant was standing guard there. Discussing with him, Kevin and George finalized their strategy. The assistant, his name was Jagger, was telling them that iar is circulated in the basement which must have been air-conditioned. He showed them two huge radiators at the back of the mosque and two huge shining metal pipes. Kevin saw the two pipes first rising about a meter and a half and then turning horizontal for a few centimeters and on their open end was fixed a fine mesh. Kevin took off his tie and threw it up and it was sucked by the pipe and stuck to the mesh. On the other pipe also the same experiment, and then they were convinced that air was being sucked in through both the pipes. They finalized their plan. George and Kevin talked with Jagger.
"Yes," Jagger said, " There is a commando training institute nearby. I'll bring all the things which you want and come along with a dozen commandoes, within say two hours, if not earlier."
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A scientist absconding from Iran and two other scientists from Pakistan were near to configuring the four detonator chips. Two huge computer screens were aglow with green light and numbers and text and diagrams were chasing each other on these screens. Suddenly some pungent smell started spreading in the basement. In addition to the three scientists there were four soldiers with automatic rifles. All of them suddenly started coughing. It was difficult to breathe. Chlorine? Thought the Iranian scientist. But by that time, he had collapsed to the ground with the other two. The guards ran up the stairs opening inside the mosque and as they opened the secret door, they were overpowered by the commandoes entering the mosque. With gas masks on their faces, the commandoes stormed the basement along with Kevin and George.
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The threat of Saif-Al-Adel being played for the millionth time suddenly stopped mid Arabian sentence. Breaking News in tall letters started filling the TV screen. Then it spread to all the channels :
Joint raid by British and American agents on a mosque in Cairo, Egypt. Al Qaeda's threat nullified. Four detonator chips confiscated. Two of the chips have detailed description of places where Al Qaeda has already planted nuclear devices. These chips were hidden in the bodies of the two rabbits which Osama had given to Al Zarar, a twelve year boy. American President Obama has confirmed the news and said that the operation was going on for the last three days.
Kevin switched off the TV.
"Good! It was grand talking with Obama on the nano-mobile," he said, "That way, the excitement ended rather too soon for me."
"Ya! Thanks to you and Jagger and the new Egyptian Government! Now what are you gonna do? I am leaving tomorrow morning on my charter plane. Wanna join me?"
"No. Natasha had a long standing wish to cruise the Nile. She's coming here tomorrow evening."
"Oho!"
"And tonight," Kevin said winking, "I think I will see the skill of Egyptian belly dancers!"
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Publication Date: 11-03-2011

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Dedication:
To Yankees