by M J Anand
Abdullah had been in the US for round tripping the illegal funds to the Middle East and asked Bilal to spy on a banks’ managing director. If caught, Bilal could lose his diplomatic immunity and spend decades in the infamous US prisons. However, he accepted the task and unearthed the deeper ecstasies of the managing director. With several photographs in compromising positions, Abdullah managed to negotiate a deal for the US bank to issue credit to entities in the Middle East via their Dubai branch in exchange for assets placed in collateral at the US branch. Only later did Bilal discover these entities were front charities for many of the armed groups operating in the wider Middle East. Abdullah had successfully delegated the headache of round tripping the American regulators to an American bank.
That was the first and the last time Bilal had met Abdullah in person. Abdullah had made it clear that he shouldn’t even try to meet him again, that it would not be taken lightly. That was the way Abdullah operated. Once he trusted someone, he preferred them to operate as independently as possible. Abdullah provided resources and push from the topmost levels wherever required to get the job done through his contacts. His extensive network also acted as a check on all the independent assets, and over decades, he had perfected the model. Rigorous cross references and unforgiving ruthlessness had insured no one dared cross him. The ones he liked were bestowed with rewards. Bilal was amongst them. Thanks to Abdullah, he had an envious career in the Pakistani Army. Every time Bilal completed a major mission for Abdullah, he was promoted internally. Bilal’s network and the reward system worked flawlessly. Abdullah had his higher ups in confidence, even then Bilal could never pinpoint their identities. Abdullah’s statecraft was perfect, and Bilal knew he was just one cog in the wheel. Today, Abdullah had initiated the videocall; he rarely did it. Audio messages and couriers were enough. It was an important conversation, and Bilal hoped Al Malik gave him more time to show what he can truly accomplish.
As usual, Al Malik was in time and on topic. ‘I hear the first nuke has been captured. Is that true?’ A black figure appeared on the hazy screen. Abdullah didn’t want to be seen.
‘Yes, Al Malik.’ There was an awkward silence. ‘Give me another chance, please.’
‘You had your chance. We spent millions of dollars on it. Hard earned money of people dedicated to our cause and you have failed them.’
Bilal needed a chance at the mission, a chance at life. He kneeled and looked up at the hazy black figure in dim light. ‘I have positioned Aaleyah close to the mission’s location. I’ll activate Aaleyah, and the glory will be ours. Give me just one more chance, Al Malik.’
Abdullah Bahir went silent for a moment. He trusted Aaleyah. The mission couldn’t go wrong if Bilal had managed to get her in the right location. ‘They can’t defeat Aaleyah. Not this one.’
Bilal gained confidence to stand and felt a little relieved. ‘The mission will be over before they know what has hit them.’
Al Malik was confident, but something bothered him. The silhouette on the screen held its head down for a long time then raised it suddenly. ‘I trust Aaleyah, but give me the facts. How do I trust that you won’t handle Aaleyah the way you handled Jahangir and Akhlaq?’
Bilal had come prepared. He connected his laptop and flashed a few photographs. ‘This is the safehouse they are using. We have done a recce, and tonight, we’ll take it out.’
Abdullah thought for a moment. Bilal’s plan was not foolproof but aimed at the right spot.
‘It will demoralize them, distract them.’ Bilal shoveled through the photos and put Sasha’s photo on the screen. ‘She will be our ticket.’
‘Do we have enough men nearby?’
‘We do, Your Highness. Just give us one more chance.’
Abdullah Bahir wasn’t a man to take chances, but this time, the odds felt tempting. He eyed Sasha’s photo again. ‘If you fail this time …’
‘I understand. Your Highness’—Bilal bowed—‘king of kings, my life is in your hands.’
‘You have one more day.’
‘Ji Janaab.’
They had to attack Bagyidaw’s without wasting any time. That would give them a distraction for long enough to execute the second attack.
‘One more thing. I want Aaleyah alive at any cost. You have her code.’
Al Malik, alias Abdullah Bahir, left Bilal perplexed. Aaleyah was only a title given by the fraternity to the best-trained spies. In his younger days, Bilal had himself tried for that title and failed, thrice. They received the best training across the globe and executed the most impactful attacks. The New York twin tower attack, London blasts, Madrid train blasts, or even the Mumbai local blasts each had an Aaleyah working on it tirelessly in the background. However, they were never caught. They were the faceless warriors who could appear and disappear just as swiftly from the sights. No one knew their identities except the Al Maliks. The process was foolproof.
It was still out of the ordinary for Al Malik to indulge in protecting someone on a mission—especially an Aaleyah, for they were bred for the ultimate sacrifice if needed. Bilal checked the code Abdullah Bahir had given him. It had the mark of the Circle, the mark that made him fret. Only Aaleyah knew that code. Whoever Aaleyah was, Al Malik had a vested interest in keeping Aaleyah alive. It was a blessing in disguise for him. If he executed plan B well, Al Malik would still restore his honor and rewards. So he decided to arrange another module as a backup to the backup with only one task. It had to extract Aaleyah at all costs.
Guwahati Airport
Arup had sent a red memo to all the army units. The next lead was not too far. The Indian Army had last used a red memo in the Kargil war. War was imminent, and all army unit heads had realized it, despite being unaware of the specific threat. Communication specialists had been put to work to man as many frequencies as possible. The MARCOS returned from their recce mission. Midnight was still thirty minutes too far in what was proving to be the longest night of Abhimanyu’s career. In the safety of the base, Abhimanyu relaxed his guard and gathered his thoughts. He shook hands with Lieutenant Abhishek and Lieutenant Shikhar, the army commandos who had proven their mettle alongside MARCOS and patted their back.
‘This way.’
Military Communications Officer Major Bikram Singh handed Abhimanyu a dossier with all the updates they had gathered till then. He looked confident. ‘We’ve detected twenty-four channels so far. Most of them are local radio channels, but five of them are privately managed, hence, are active only intermittently.’
Abhimanyu took the file. Local channels, sports channels, tribal folk music channels, and lines maintained by NGOs dominated the list. Eleven channels had operators whose identities were not known to the agencies. It was a lot to not know. The local army intelligence should have highlighted it earlier, but then Abhimanyu reflected, no one even tracked these channels anymore.
Bikram took Abhimanyu and his team to the control room where Arup and the others were busy interpreting all the data coming in from the various army bases.
With a gentle smile, Amjad acknowledged their work on the first nuke but quickly refocused on the big screen. The mission was not over yet. ‘Satellites haven’t detected anything in the ultra-high frequency bands.’ It wasn’t unexpected. All satellites had migrated out of these frequencies to the more commonly used ones long ago. ‘Army units have traced some rogue signals from Assam, but they were not active for long enough to trace the origin.’
‘If not the frequencies, can we get some satellite images?’ Abhimanyu asked.
‘Even in the best case, the images will only have dense forests.’
Abhimanyu was confused, so Bikram clarified. ‘A tag is something distinct which satellites can lock onto in the night cover. Then the algorithms take over. It could be as simple as a torch light or a vehicle.’
Abhimanyu scanned the private channels on the list. ‘Tell me more about these five privately managed channels and their locations.’
‘Different parts of Northea
st, all with dense forest cover. Many ham radio operators exist in this part of the world.’
‘Do we have the coordinates?’
‘Difficult to pinpoint the exact location, but many of these originate in the West Siang mountains.’ Amjad watched Abhimanyu’s reaction.
‘Weren’t you holidaying there?’ Siddhartha said.
‘Yeah, on my leave,’ Abhimanyu replied, the irony not lost on Amjad. Abhimanyu took the file from Bikram. All the frequencies used were in the VLF band. ‘All five came from forests?’
‘One of them is from Guwahati area. The rest, yes.’
Abhimanyu saw where the team was going with this.
‘The signal from Guwahati has moved its location consistently. The towers typically have a radius of fifteen to twenty miles. In a city with a million plus people, it’ll take us many hours of satellite surveillance coupled with on-ground intelligence to pinpoint the exact location in the city. In the end, it could just be a ham operator moving around the city.’
‘So, we target the four others.’
‘Yes, that’s what we’ve planned. One of them is from the Nagaland mountains and the other three from West Siang mountains.’
Abhimanyu had only one question now, and it was for the ISRO Chief.
Uday knew exactly what he had on his mind. ‘We’ve been surveilling all of them. The Nagaland signal has led us to some pictures, but they’re too hazy.’ He placed the pictures on the table containing at least five people sitting around a bonfire; nothing else was visible. ‘We’re waiting to get better angles with our satellites to get a picture with higher clarity.’
‘How much more time will you need?’ Abhimanyu asked.
‘Not much. Fifteen minutes.’
They could wait for fifteen minutes. He nodded, and everyone resumed work. The thought of the other three signals from West Siang mountains was on top of everyone’s mind, but they had nothing on it yet.
Amjad was wary of losing precious time.
Arup couldn’t bear the uncertainty and returned to follow up with the communication teams of several army units but got no new information from them.
Everyone was tensed to the hilt, and they waited with bated breath for fifteen minutes, which passed as hours. All eyes watched the big screen. The satellite rendered the image, pixel by pixel. Halfway through the photo, it was clear these were armed militants. Most of them had machineguns hanging on their shoulders.
‘These could be our guys.’ They even had a truck parked next to them. ‘What’s in the truck?’ Abhimanyu asked.
‘We can’t know that unless they open it,’ Uday responded.
Amjad noticed a pixel on the truck. ‘Can you zoom in on the right side of the truck?’ One frame deeper and he said, ‘These are not our guys.’ As the photo zoomed in, the flag was clearer to the others. They were the men of the Naga United Army. ‘These are just a bunch of militants.’
‘But we need to know what’s in the truck. What if the local work was handed over to them? They are no friend of ours either,’ Arup said.
As they wondered what the next step could be, one of the militants looked skyward, as if he was watching them. The other one stood and pointed toward the stars.
Even Amjad looked nervously at Abhimanyu and Arup.
‘I would so want to have the audio on that,’ Siddhartha said.
The ISRO Chief shrugged. It was not possible without an on-ground team.
After the militants completed their conversation, two of them approached the truck and opened the slider. All eyes stared at the screen. One of them went inside, and the other one removed a long knife. The first militant pulled a goat from the truck and dragged it to a nearby rock, where the second one slit its throat.
‘Dinnertime!’ Arup said in frustration.
‘He was checking the moon’s alignment with the stars. We have just got into the Naga New Year,’ Amjad added.
‘Back to square one,’ Amjad said as much in frustration as in relief for Nagaland, which was farther from Guwahati. He knew he would need his men to be on the ground to finish this, and Nagaland was not the nearest battlefield to choose.
Abhimanyu got back into his grove. ‘Can you just highlight the probable areas of the other four signals?’
Sonia did; each one partially overlapped the other two.
‘Now, place the timestamps where they were detected.’
Almost immediately, Abhimanyu’s thought process became clear to everyone. The circle moved gradually toward Guwahati as the time passed. Why didn’t it strike him earlier? ‘The signal is from someone who’s moving toward Guwahati.’
‘And they correspond with someone every thirty minutes.’ It was brilliant. Arup was damn impressed.
‘Put on the timestamps of the Guwahati station also.’
Sonia did, and it was clear the two signals were talking, for they appeared together within a space of minutes. ‘They are synchronized.’
‘At pre-decided times,’ Amjad added. They had half a smile now.
‘They will talk again. Arup, get us every hand you can find in that area, and get as many communication tracking beacons live as possible. We need to track the entire Shillong-Guwahati highway.’
‘Absolutely.’ The enthusiasm in Arup’s voice was infectious.
Everyone realized they had something tangible now. The MARCOS stood. They needed to be airborne again and be ready for the intervention when they finally found the truck.
‘Load the fuel.’
Abhimanyu, Akram, Siddhartha, along with the army commandos left the control room and reloaded in the ammunition area.
Amjad walked along to ensure they were briefed properly for this big mission on the longest night of their life. ‘I hope this is the last mission tonight.’ Amjad was more fearful than hopeful.
‘Me too,’ Abhimanyu said.
‘We have never come across such an elaborate threat. We should be ready for surprises, some hard calls.’
Abhimanyu nodded.
‘From what we’ve seen so far, they won’t fold without a thunder.’
Abhimanyu saw Amjad’s concerns. He gave him a confident smile to assure him they were in their elements. ‘I want all of you to know, what you’ve done so far has been exemplary, but don’t let that blindside you.’
‘No, no of course,’ Akram responded.
‘They have planned a backup on a nuclear mission. It also means they’d be willing to sacrifice far more capital—human or political,’ Amjad’s said, trying hard to caution them to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, to not let complacency creep in.
‘Midway explosion?’
‘Yes, that, and perhaps something else too. I don’t know, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and when they know we have spotted their second truck as well, they’ll be desperate.’ Amjad realized, by simple game theory, that if the terrorists didn’t have it their way, they’d try to ensure that the Indians do not have it their way either. So this time, the Indians did not just need to shock them but incapacitate them, paralyze them before they could make a move on the nuke. For this, Amjad had a plan. ‘I’ve loaded the chopper with a box of alpha-grade tranquilizers. Keep on the masks, and don’t hesitate to use them.’
Abhimanyu was not perturbed but surprised. The alpha-grade tranquilizers were made of banned chemical compounds. Its usage was confined only to the contained laboratories. Any detection by international observatory agencies would put India in a tough spot. It would be a diplomatic nightmare. They could even alter the local climatic conditions and posed long-term ecological risks. As per the standard operating procedures, a trained team would later clear the site of any traces. However, it was just theory because the tranquilizers had never been used on live missions yet. Abhimanyu knew Amjad was resourceful enough to get access to it but didn’t realize he would be so eager to use it. Obviously, Amjad didn’t share it with anyone in the command center, and Abhimanyu wanted to keep it that way. Only one more thought bothere
d Abhimanyu. ‘The signals are very close to the West Siang mountains.’
‘I know what’s on your mind. Very close to Bagyidaw’s bungalows, you mean?’ Amjad could preempt his thoughts.
He nodded.
‘You don’t need to worry about her. I’ve already alerted the commandos there. Additional team of MARCOS have also been sent to Bagyidaw’s. She is as much my daughter as she is your wife.’
It meant a lot to him. Amjad’s hands on his shoulder acted like a balm to his stress. Amjad always had his back.
‘We’ll also discuss your other thought. Resolve it once you’re back.’
Abhimanyu wasn’t sure if he really wanted to leave everything behind. He smiled at Amjad and knew this was his last mission before retirement. ‘I can’t be grateful enough. Can we also just get her out of there? I know it’s a tough thing to ask amongst all this, but …’
Amjad was disturbed to realize Abhimanyu was preparing for the worst-case scenario, but perhaps it was the more practical thing to do. If the nuke detonated, he didn’t want Sasha anywhere near, and rightly so. ‘No, no. It’s not at all difficult. You’re right. Instead of additional security, we’ll arrange for her extraction right away. We have a large fleet of choppers. Let’s use them.’ On his part, Amjad could only ensure he had Sasha off his mind completely. Amjad needed his entire focus to be on just one thing—Cortex. ‘Anything else on your mind?’
‘I’ve seen assassins in those jungles, Amjad. Just to reiterate, make sure you help them well in time.’ It was more an emotional appeal than a simple request from Abhimanyu.
Amjad put his hands on his shoulder and nodded. ‘Leave her to me.’
Abhimanyu nodded, smiled from reassurance and finally boarded the helicopter.
‘Remember …’
Abhimanyu looked back at Amjad by the chopper’s hatch door.
‘We are few, but what makes us different is we are also fearless. Don’t let anything take that away from you.’
Those words were always motivating. He had a confident smile on his resolute face. Abhimanyu had to conquer his fears if he were to save his country. He put on his helmet, and the team thundered straight into the air to take on the orbs circling around them once again.