An Indian defense scientist tries to ignore the corruption and extremism that is infiltrating his workplace even as his colleagues and his wife begin to suffer from it, until his bosses try to place him in a new defense setup completely invisible to the outside world, and he decides to run.

SYNOPSIS:

This feature is based on my 2005 novel Signal Red (Penguin India 2005). When I first published it, it was a near future hard SF story, but now that almost twenty years have passed, I have updated the story, integrated it with the Antisense Universe and set it between November 2016 and May 2020. Gopal CHandran is a defense scientist in a semi-secret lab in rural India. All seems well until his colleague Mani SHeth tries to attend a climate science conference, but is refused. Sheth complains and is unfairly stripped of his security clearance.

Meanwhile Gopal and his wife Vidura, who was born and raised in Britain, get a visit from an old friend and fellow student at Cambridge, Anuprabha Shastri. Anu is a little shocked at how Gopal and Vidura have changed. Vidura used to be a human rights activist but now she barely watches the news, and Gopal has become an apologist for the hawkish ideologies of his bosses. Gopal is working on something called the Signal Red Project, to analyse a hoard of mysterious glass found in a medieval villa in Rajasthan.

Anu crosses swords with Madhu Prasad, a geneticist who wanrs her mot to poke her nose in the lab's business. Vidura wants to take Anu to visit the Sheths, but Gopal forbids them to go, saying that he can't afford to associate with disgraced scientists. Gopal and Vidura quarrel, the mood is spoiled and Anu returns to Mumbai, where she works as a sociology professor. There, however, she finds she is being stalked by Madhu Prasad's daughter, apparently at his request.

Gopal and Vidura travel to Rajasthan. Much to Vidura's irritation, Madhu Prasad tags along, even though as far as they know he has nothing to do with Signal Red. Gopal gives Vidura a tiny jewel made out of Signal Red glass. She decides to surprise him by making it into a tiepin for him. She goes to the nearby artisan's village to get it made, and there she meets Putlibai, a young widow living on the edge of the village. Putlibai's son Juggu has suffered some kind of neural damage, and Putlibai tells VIdura that he was scratched by a thorn in the 'Death Forest' where the 'doctor people' are always doing experiments. Meanwhile ANu is campaigning against the shooting of Gauri Lankesh.

Vidura returns the next day to pick up the tiepin and give gifts to Putlibai and her children. However she finds that Juggu is missing and Putlibai has gone to the Death Forest to look for him. It is getting dfark anf the other children are afraid. Vidura enters the death forest to search for them, but she is discovered by the scientists, tries to run, falls and knocks herself out.

Vidura is airlifted to the centre and kept under heavy sedation. Gopal is told that she has been exposed ot weaponised pathogens, but she seems okay. She is also pregnant. Gopal is devastated by this news and also the knowledge that his colleagues are working on banned weapons. He tries to speak to the Director on this but is told that a new setup called Chakravyuh, which will be invisible to all but the highest personnel in Defense, is being put in place, and that all the best scientists will be transferred there and given 'full freedom' to work. Gopal is being considered as one of this cadre.

In late 2019 a conference is held in Pune as a recruitment opportunity for Chakravyuh, and Madhu and Gopal are sent to attend. Gopal meets the beautiful and corrupt Aishwarya who tries to recruit him, but instead he runs in the night and hitches rides to Mumbai, where he turns up on Anu's doorstep. Anu is furious: Madhu's daughter is probably watching. He asks her to put him on the 'underground railroad' to get dissidents to safety. She has been campaigning on behalf of intellectuals falsely accused by the government, so surely she can help him. She tells him there is no such thing and he shoudl go home and stand by Vidura.

Gopal then heads into the hills, where he finds an abandoned temple and settles down to wait. Sure enough, his Intelligence Bureau handlers show up. They have been tracking him through tech embedded in his body which he helped to develop. They use this tech to simulate the symptoms of a stroke, rendering him unable to speak or move, then return him to an unsuspecting Vidura.