Another Heaven. Annu Subramanian

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      Advance Praise

      “Another Heaven made me painfully aware of the enslavement associated with terrorism which is contrary to the popular belief that terrorists are always willing participants. Subramanian has created a fascinating story with a suspenseful plot and rich with characters you care about and root for until

      the end.”

      – Holly Mckenna, Professional Media Lecturer, University at Albany

      “Another Heaven is compellingly and artfully written, and it takes the reader into places most of us cannot even conceive of. Subramanian has a grasp of the complexity and depth of issues related to human trafficking and terrorism.”

      – Dr. Rudy Nydegger, Ph. D., Chief, Division of Psychology,

      Ellis Hospital

      “The author takes the reader inside the world of religious fanaticism in this novel about manipulation and human trafficking in India. The results are suspenseful, haunting, and extremely enlightening. I found it hard to put Another Heaven down!”

      – Janet Hutchisen, Open Door Bookstore

      “Another Heaven is an affecting read which delves into the intricacies of a terrorist’s mind. A novel which addresses both human trafficking and terrorism, it showcases the detrimental aspects of the system and the society.”

      – Nikhil Sharda, Managing Editor – eFiction India

      “I was hooked to the novel right from the prologue! This spellbinding page turner has it all...intrigue, innuendo, religion, greed, fanaticism, suspense, relevance and a surprise ending.”

      – Inez Bracy, Inez Bracy International, Living Smart and

      Well-Online Radio

      “A vital book for our time. The pages of the novel almost turn themselves, and the reader really cares about the characters in Another Heaven.”

      – Joan Mary Hartigan, CSJ; Professor, Maria College

      Another Heaven

      A Novel

      Annu Subramanian

      Apprentice House

      Loyola University Maryland

      Baltimore, Maryland

      Copyright © 2013 by Annu Subramanian

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).

      First Edition Printed in the United States of America

      ISBN: 978-1-934074-87-9

      This is a work of fiction. All the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously.

      Cover design by: John Dievendorf

      Internal design by: Estefanie Zurita

      Back cover by: Jeff Goronkin

      Published by Apprentice House

      Apprentice House

      Loyola University Maryland

      4501 N. Charles Street

      Baltimore, MD 21210

      Ph: 410-617-5265 • Fax: [phone]

      www.ApprenticeHouse.com

      [email protected]

      Dedication

      The Diameter of the Bomb

      By Yehuda Amichai

      Translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell

      The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters

      and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,

      with four dead and eleven wounded.

      And around these, in a larger circle

      of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered

      and one graveyard. But the young woman

      who was buried in the city she came from,

      at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,

      enlarges the circle considerably,

      and the solitary man mourning her death

      at the distant shores of a country far across the sea

      includes the entire world in the circle.

      And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans

      that reaches up to the throne of God and beyond,

      making a circle with no end and no God.

      d

      This book is dedicated to mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives—all the souls who have been unwittingly snared by human trafficking and cruelly victimized

       by terrorism.

      You will always be in my thoughts...

      Annu Subramanian

      Preface

      Another Heaven, a thought-provoking novel by Annu Subramanian, addresses the horrors of human trafficking and terrorism. Focusing primarily on three factors—human rights abuse, fanatical religious beliefs, and the psychological fraud of terrorism—the narrative objectively speaks to a universal audience.

      The novel begins in Pennsylvania, USA, where a young doctoral student of psychology is doing research to understand the insanity of a terrorist’s mind. Her search for counterterrorism efforts takes her to an internship in India. Here, she encounters a victim of human trafficking who has been abducted to play a vital role in one of the missions. Consequently, readers discover an organization, orchestrated by a terrorist, that is recruiting and training missionaries for mass destruction and gradual degradation of humanity. While not a typical terrorist story, Another Heaven exposes a terrorist’s mind, with psychological fraud as the core of the narrative.

      Another Heaven takes its readers to various vignettes—missions that involve human trafficking, missionaries who are subjected to lifelong servitude or terminal missions, and ordinary humans who are extraordinarily affected by one man’s destructive decisions. The novel, while portraying the collapse of mankind that is triggered by fanatics and violence, tries to stress that global discord is everybody’s concern.

      Another Heaven aims to call for a bold campaign against a system that systematically demolishes humanity.

      Prologue

      Circle of a Mission

      Kuyil Extension, Seloor District, South India

      October 15, 2009 • 2:45 p.m...

      A young woman walked gently down the dirt road along the railway tracks facing the perimeter of the railway colony. Gathering a dirty cloth bag to her breast and covering her head with a scarf from the light drizzle, she quickly went past a couple of scrawny dogs and sat under the overpass. Her nervous glance reached up to the palm trees, to the branches swaying gracefully in the October breeze. Then her furtive glance ran to the railway schedule in the bag and jumped to the coded instructions scribbled on a crinkled note. In spite of the gentle breeze, she began to sweat profusely and wiped her clammy face with the fringe of her frayed, bright-green, cotton sari. Looking to her right and left, she picked up a cell phone from the cloth bag. When her other hand touched her padded blouse, she gasped in pain as the craftily assembled wires crushed her young breasts, and she let her hand slide to the dirt with a new