Hoping that The Dust Will Never Settle, India’s first military thriller writer released his second of the four-part series of books on terrorism - Salim Must Die in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Riding high on the popularity of part I Lashkar: Into the Heart of Terror, Lucknow-born Mukul Deva’s latest offering explores the making of a terrorist and the geopolitics associated with him.

“It’s more hard hitting, a work of fiction emanating out of stark reality,” says Mukul, an alumnus of the La Martiniere College, Lucknow.

“It talks about Salim, the brigadier in the Pakistan army, who staged his death in ‘Lashkar’ only to resurface. ‘Salim Must Die’ emphasis on the end of not just the character, but the thought, the breed,” says Mukul, who left Lucknow in the ‘70s.

“My heart was always here and is reflected in the characters I create,” he says elaborating on one Iqbal, who was a Lucknow-born techie-turned-terrorist.

“Incidentally, Iqbal and some more predictions like the formation of National Intelligence Agency that he wrote a year back in Lashker have come true,” he says, clarifying that he is no soothsayer but a writer who takes clues from reality and history.

“And history has a habit of repeating itself,” asserts the martial-turned-litterateur credited with serving in all the four insurgency-prone regions.

“I am one those rare people who have seen Prabhakaran in person,” he says, elaborating on more predictions on his latest offering.

“Salim Must Die talks of nuclear, chemical warfare and predicts some dark days ahead,” he says hoping they don’t come true.

On a call from Bollywood, Mukul says talks are on with veterans like Govind Nihalani, Mani Shankar and a few more.

“Whoever offers me a good sum of money, the script would be his,” says the businessman in Mukul who was an army officer before he took premature retirement and started his security business in New Delhi.