You made it back. So, you have the arrows, then? Good! Let me see them. You know, they’re not quite as ornate as I imagined they would be. Do they work like they’re supposed to? Have you tried them? No, I don’t need a demonstration. I’ll take your word for it. Anyways, good work. If you keep this up, you may just yet make a name for yourself.
Let’s talk about the next weapon. This one is called the Vajra. It means both thunderbolt and diamond in Sanskrit. Vajras are typically ritual objects. They are essentially maces with ribbed heads on either end of a shaft. This one is special. It was Indra’s. Indra is the Hindu King of Gods. He rules over their high heavens, and he’s also their god of lightning, thunder, and storms. He’s a bit similar to Zeus in those regards. The reason Indra’s Vajra is special is because it is what gives him the ability to control lightning. With it he can shoot lightning bolts at his foes. Here’s a photograph of it.
It was taken when the Brits originally found the Vajra during the early stages of the Second World War. It hasn’t been seen by the public since. You don’t even want to know the kind of trouble I had to go through just to get this picture.
Anyways, one of the more famous foes he fought against using his Vajra was Vritra. Vritra was a dragon who was the personification of drought. Vritra kept the water and rivers of the world imprisoned with 99 fortresses. Eventually, Indra was able to defeat Vritra by throwing him onto the fortresses. This destroyed the fortresses, and, at the same time, freed the waters of the world.
Lucky for you, Indra is no longer in possession of his precious thunder stick. A couple of our sources have been able to confirm that the Vajra is currently located in a temple hidden high in the Himalayan Mountains. One of our scouts was able to get this image of the temple.
Our sources have also informed us that the temple has been occupied by the Russians since the early 80’s, back when they were still the Soviets. The Russians have been paying off the local Sherpas to keep them quiet. The Sherpas keep tourists and governments out of one of their “Holy Sites," and the Russians get to keep a valuable black site. We have also been led to believe that the Russians have figured out how to use the Vajra to manipulate weather patterns in the region.
In case you're curious, there are a few rumors floating around about how the Russians got a hold of it. Apparently the Nazis were able to steal it from the Brits before they were able to get it out of the country. Soon after, some archaeologist was able to sneak it from the Nazis. He sold it to the Smithsonian, but it was stolen on its way there. Nobody knows who stole it; but, if I had to guess, it was probably the current owners.
So, the good news is that this place is isolated; they won’t be able to get reinforcements there in any sort of a timely fashion. The bad news is that these are the Russians we are dealing with. Scorched earth is one of their specialties. They won’t be afraid to bomb their own site if it means keeping their secrets safe. However you choose to approach this, you can’t afford the rest of the compound being alerted to your presence.
Scouting and surveillance are going to be more difficult on this one. We can try to pull satellite feeds for you, but no promises that they’ll be able to give you anything useful. The ability to think on your feet will likely be your most valuable asset for this one.
I recommend assembling a team. The way I see it, you have two options: hit them loud and fast so they don't have time to react to you, or go in slow and quiet so they never even know you're there. We have contacts with a lot of ex-Special Forces guys. There are also plenty of guys doing freelance work out on the market. Brute force is my preference, but if you prefer a more subtle approach, that is your decision. Either way, you'll likely want some people with wetworks experience. They'll know how to get in and get out as efficiently as possible.
If you need anything, let me know. We’ll do what we can to get you what you need for this job. If you manage to get the weapon, meet me here. Oh, and good luck.
Author’s Note
I am staying pretty faithful to the description of the Vajra for this one. I did make up the part about it being able to influence the weather. My thinking on this one is more that the Russians found out a way to harvest the energy produced by the Vajra to power some sort of weather manipulation machine. According to Wikipedia, an average bolt of lightning contains about 5 billion joules of energy. This is roughly equivalent to the amount of energy you would get from burning 38 gallons of gasoline without any losses. This means that it is equivalent to more 38 gallons of gasoline since there are always losses. Since the Vajra can generate lightning (and I would assume an infinite amount of it), the Russians have a very potent means of power generation at their disposal.
There is another version of Indra’s fight with Vritra. This one states that Vritra was created by a god to seek revenge on Indra after Indra killed his son. Vritra initially won the battle by swallowing Indra, but other gods forced Vritra to spit him out. After that, Vishnu made a deal with Vritra saying that Indra would not kill him with any weapon made of metal stone or wood, anything that was dry or wet, or kill him during the day or the night. Vishnu then had Indra kill Vritra using sea foam at midnight.
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