Kalki is a 1978 pre/post-apocalyptic novel by American author Gore Vidal. Kalki is narrated by Theodora (Teddy) Ottinger, a Southern Californian aviator ("aviatrix" in the text) and author, who, after publishing a book called Beyond Motherhood, comes to the attention of Kalki, the leader of a Kathmandu-based religious cult. The cult secretly makes its money through selling drugs and then gives it away using lotus lotteries. Kalki claims to be God, as well as the final Avatar of Vishnu, who is going to end the human race on April 3. The planet will then be rid of the wicked and a fresh, clean start will usher in a new golden age. Ottinger suspects that Kalki will create a worldwide nuclear chain reaction which will annihilate every living thing and leave the planet uninhabitable. When the threatened apocalypse does occur, however, it does not take the form which Ottinger had feared, and only the human species succumbs to extinction. The novel covers many cultural and political topics such as overpopulation, birth control, bisexuality and feminism. Plot summary James J. Kelly, a former soldier in the American military, finds out that the American and Soviet governments are about to conduct tests of a new kind of neutron bomb called the model b or the nC, which will kill every living thing on the planet, leaving it uninhabitable for centuries. The American generals know the cataclysmic effects of conducting these tests but they acquiesce to the tests anyway, ignoring a report provided to the National Security Council which predicts the end of the world if six or more nCs are simultaneously exploded. Mistakenly assured that the Soviets would not explode reciprocating nCs, the generals are unwittingly about to destroy the whole world. Kelly decides to save the human race through an elaborate religious hoax, declaring himself to be Kalki and announcing the end of the world. His secret plan is to kill off everyone in the world except for himself and his wife Lakshmi. They would become the Adam and Eve to a new human race by giving birth to three sons and six daughters over the next twelve years, who would then intermarry; in approximately two centuries the world would be fairly well populated again. In addition to himself and his wife, Kalki decides to bring along three more people to his new world, teachers called Perfect Masters, chosen for their knowledge