by Rahul Badami
“Shutting down the main engines.” The Engineer Officer said.
“Changing course to two-two-zero, right full rudder,” the Navigator responded.
Khurana heard the diesel-powered engines turning off one by one till all of them were shut down. The ambient sounds of the submarine were immediately replaced by a ghostly silence. It sounded like a buzzing bee in your ear had been swatted away. For a moment, no one spoke.
“Tracking the Shang sub for their response.” The Sonar whispered.
Khurana brought his attention back to the screen in front of him. The ship had now turned south-west. The engine had been shut down, but the momentum would ensure that they travel far away from the location where they had disappeared. Instead of continuing south-east towards the Singapore Strait, they’d taken a ninety-degree turn south-west towards the Sumatra island of Indonesia. The submarine was gliding through the water solely on the inertia of its nearly two thousand ton of mass. With no acoustic signature coming off from their engines, the Chinese would never be able to track them.
They had played their hand. Now the waiting began.
*
In the control room of the Shang-class submarine, the Captain looked at his Sonar technician in bewilderment. “What do you mean you’ve lost them? They were on the screen a moment ago.”
“I’m checking, Captain. It’s either a glitch or–”
“Or…?”
“They shut down their engines. But I don’t understand why. They’ve no reason to believe we are on their trail. We aren’t even within range of their sonar.”
“Whatever it is, we have to get back on their tail once again. We need to get to their last known spot and retrace their steps.”
*
Captain Khurana watched as the Shang sub slowed down near the location where they had shut down their engines. He held his breath as he tried to picture how the Chinese Captain would respond. The Shang submarine had three options: continue south-east further in the Straits, go south-west in their direction or go north-east. It was now up to his adversary to take the decision. Based on what would happen next, Khurana would respond.
A moment later, the blinking contact changed direction.
Towards them.
“That’s impossible,” hissed the XO. “There’s no way they could have tracked us. We have completely stopped. No moving propellers or running engines. The INS Khanderi is one of the quietest subs in the world.”
The Sonar nodded. “How can they possibly track us?”
No one in the room had any answers.
The Captain stared at his screen. A vice-like grip tightened on his heart. Did he miss anything during the evasion procedure? He mentally went over the list. They had made the right moves. But why was this happening? One possibility struck him.
“They haven’t detected us.” He spoke quietly.
“What are you saying, sir?” The XO said. “The sub is headed right towards us.”
Khurana nodded. “I know. But I think it’s a bluff. They know that we realized they were tracking us. So they are assuming we didn’t continue down the Strait so there were only two other directions we could have gone to. North towards the Malaysian coast or South towards the Sumatra Island. It was a fifty percent chance and they took it.”
“You are saying they just guessed we would be here?”
“I’m inclined to believe so. Last time we went north, even if it was for a few minutes. They’d guessed we will try south this time. They are trying to flush us out.”
“So what do we do now?” The XO asked.
“We stay put.”
“And if they come close?”
Khurana smiled. “We will see who blinks first.”
*
Sweat was pouring down Khurana’s neck.
It had been a tense ten minutes. Ten minutes during which he could see no change in the Shang-class submarine’s direction. It kept moving towards them. Unrelenting. Now they had come uncomfortably close to where they were located. He started to doubt himself. What if the Chinese had really tracked them? He tried to reassure himself that with his vast experience, this was just an aberration. An anomaly that the Chinese would seek them so far away from the regular route.
But the doubts were getting louder in his mind with each passing second. He stared at the screen hoping to be right. He looked around him. Everyone in the Control Room was staring at the screen holding their breath. Nobody had spoken a word in ten minutes.
Suddenly, the Sonar jabbed a hand towards his screen. Khurana looked at his own screen. The Chinese sub had changed course and was now going north. He let out a deep sigh of relief. It had been a bluff. They’d tried to make him panic and run away hoping to catch him the moment he turned on his engines. But he’d played the waiting game to perfection.
“What do we do now, Captain?” The Sonar whispered.
“We do nothing except watch.”
Khurana watched calmly for an hour as the Shang-class sub went north almost halfway to the Malaysian coast before turning again and heading towards the Singapore Strait. He waited till the contact signal became faint and then completely disappeared. He waited for another half-hour before he asked the Sonar to view the seabed detector system and confirm no hostile submarines were within their vicinity.
Only then did he give the order to move forward to their destination.
CHAPTER 32
Armaan glanced at his watch.
0:01:23:46
The time was ticking down. They barely had an hour before all hell broke loose. He clenched his fists and watched as Roshan drove their rented car as fast as he could through the dark night. Time was slipping out of their hands. The road leading to their rendezvous was not so crowded and that was a good thing.
“How far are we from our INFIL point?” Armaan asked Roshan.
“We should be there in a minute.”
Roshan turned into a deserted side street and continued ahead for another kilometre. The cyber facility was at some distance from Rawalpindi in a rural area and they barely encountered one or two vehicles on the road.
“There.” Roshan brought the vehicle to a stop on the side of a dirt road. “We’re some two kilometres from the place.”
“Everyone, get your gear ready.”
They were already dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms. They picked up their backpacks and made a final check of their equipment.
“All right. We will move on foot from here.”
Armaan got out of the car followed by the others. He swept his eyes in all directions taking in everything. The street was quiet. The place they had parked the car was in darkness. The road they were on was nearly deserted. Only a couple of vehicles had passed by in the five minutes they were here. It was time to go.
Fifteen minutes later, they had their first sight of the target. A five-storied building with full glass windows that masqueraded as a multinational IT office. But they knew better. This was the National Cyber Security Centre, the nerve centre of Pakistan’s cyber cell. Close to the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi, it was the brainchild of the ISI.
Armaan whipped out his binoculars to take a look. There were buildings sprawled over vast acres of land. He knew most were government buildings that catered for various departments. While security guards were poised in front of most buildings, the target building had double the number of security guards. A barbed fence outlined the building. Even from a distance, he could spot sentries roving inside the fenced perimeter.
Armaan looked at the team. “We are here. Now, let’s go over the plan. Hitesh?”
Hitesh hunched forward on his tablet. “I have the SAT images of the target with us. The live location Venera provided indicates Majid is still inside the building. Our goal is to get in, find Majid or any of his accomplices and get the shutdown codes. Either that or we hack his computers and figure it out ourselves without needing to reveal our presence.
Armaan said, “I suggest we go for the quiet approach.”
>
“Right. Hopefully, we may simply have to sneak in and connect to any of the terminals inside the building and we will be in their network and good to go. The problem is in getting inside undetected. Two guards man both the front and rear entrances and there are another four guards inside the compound. Since it’s after-hours, we won’t see many employees inside, but we will have to escape the guards’ notice.”
“What about guards inside the building?”
“I would assume there would be one for each floor.”
Armaan nodded. “Okay, so we get past the guards in the compound, enter the building, avoid any guards inside and then you can start looking for the decryption codes.”
“Yes, that’s about right.”
“What about our EXFIL plans?”
“We will exit the way we came; Roshan will be our eyes guiding our way inside using the Hornet.”
Armaan looked at Roshan. “You all set?”
“I have the Hornet ready to go.” Roshan patted the miniature toy that was as small as his palm. Made by a Norwegian firm, the Black Hornet Nano was a mini spy drone they had specially customized for their team. It looked like a toy helicopter with a main rotor and a tail rotor. And instead of a cockpit, it had a square camera.
“Good,” Armaan nodded. “Baldev, Hitesh and I will enter the premises once we have your go ahead. We will stay in touch via radio. Call sign Krait.”
“Well,” Baldev chimed in, “let’s get going.”
Armaan looked at the building. It was large, easily spanning an acre. Most of the lights were turned off; only a few employees would be working after hours. Hopefully, he wouldn’t run into any of them. The only challenge were the guards. This was to be a quiet mission. In and out. He didn’t want to risk exposing his team. But he would do whatever he could to get to the bottom of this subterfuge.
“Hornet’s in the air.” He heard Roshan whisper behind him.
Armaan looked up. The palm-sized Hornet was barely visible against the night sky as it rose in the air; a tiny speck of black. A few seconds later, it disappeared in the sky. He looked at the image the Hornet was beaming on the tablet in front of Roshan. The Hornet was equipped with optical zoom, night vision and even infrared. It was a force-multiplier in these kinds of situations.
Armaan could see a wide-angled view of the entire building glowing green and grey in the night-vision image of the Hornet. As they had estimated, there were four guards manning the two exits. And four inside the compound divided into groups of two. The guards could be seen doing a round of the perimeter. He observed a point where the guards were on two opposite ends of the wide building leaving the other two sides unobserved. He patiently measured the time it took them to do one round. Then on the next round, he checked for the line of sight of the guards and the best place to enter the compound.
“Here.” Armaan pointed on the screen. “We will first make our way to the insertion point here. From here, we will breach the fence at this point.” He tapped at another location on the screen. “We will have twenty seconds to run across the premises and get inside through this door. Roshan, you stay here and give us the updates.”
“Right.”
Armaan made a final check of his equipment. Then he made a beeline towards the insertion point he had seen on the screen. Baldev and Hitesh closely followed behind him. The place was an under-construction building adjacent to their target. He stopped behind one of the pillars and looked around.
“Krait One, this is Three. Guards are coming on your end,” Armaan heard Roshan’s voice in his ear.
And sure enough, a couple of seconds later, he could see the guards ambling on their side of the fence. He watched them till they disappeared around the corner.
“Clear.” He heard Roshan say.
This was their chance to breach in. Armaan took two steps forward. Vroom! He froze on hearing the sound of a vehicle motor revving up.
“Get back in cover,” he hissed at Baldev and Hitesh.
They had just got back to the safety of the pillar when the headlights of a car flooded the surroundings as it made a turn at the parking lot and stopped in front of the main entrance to the building. A moment later a second car emerged from the parking and stopped behind the first vehicle.
“There’s activity near the entrance. Someone’s leaving.” Roshan said.
Armaan took a quick peek. It was not one person. There were many of them. All of them in army uniform.
“Five guys.” Roshan said. “Looks like senior Army personnel based on their decorations. Can’t identify their faces from the Hornet’s angle.”
Armaan pulled out his binoculars and peered through them. Three of them were unfamiliar to him, but he knew the fourth. Majid, the man who was responsible for the crisis was in their sights.
“Three, we have visual confirmation of the target.” Armaan still couldn’t see the fifth person whose face was blocked by the others. And then he caught a glimpse and immediately recognized the man.
Ishaq Faizan. The Chief of the ISI himself. At this facility. No doubt to meet his deputy Majid and gloat over their success. His hunch had been right. The ISI was behind the Aadhaar attack. Bleeding India through a thousand cuts. It was not just a saying. It was the de-facto policy. For decades now.
“Target’s boss is also here.”
“Acknowledged.”
As Armaan watched, four men including the Chief of the ISI got into the two cars and then the cars drove away. Majid stayed back and watched them leave. He then walked back to the building and disappeared from their sight.
Armaan spoke into his mike. “Boss has left. Primary target still on site.”
“Roger that.”
The guards closed the gate and the sentries went back to their patrolling duties. Armaan waited for ten minutes as the guards eased back into their mundane routine. Valuable time was being lost, but he couldn’t risk exposing himself. Stealth was a priority.
“Okay, let’s give this another try. Three, give me the green signal.”
“Will do that, One.”
Armaan waited as the guards made one more round of the perimeter and went around the corner.
“Now.” Roshan whispered in his ear.
Armaan raced across to the fence closely followed by Baldev and Hitesh. At the fence, he pulled out metal-cutters from his pocket and started to cut through the fence. Baldev knelt next to him and started cutting his end of the fence. Hitesh stood behind them as their lookout. They cut through the wired fence within ten seconds.
“Boys, the guards will come around in five seconds.”
“Roger.”
They placed the cut part against the fence and hurried back to their hiding place just as the guards rounded the corner of the building. Armaan watched the guards. There was no break in their stride or in their conversation. They had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. He watched them till they went out of sight.
“Go. Go. Go.”
Armaan rushed to the fence. He slid the broken fence aside and scampered through the opening; Baldev and Hitesh right behind him. They were all dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms, but he didn’t want to take a risk with the guards. He quickly looked left and right and then scurried to one of the doorways he had pre-selected. The door required a card reader for entry.
“Hitesh,” he huffed between breaths. “It’s your show now.”
Hitesh held out a card linked to his tablet and tapped a few keys on the screen. The sensor turned green. “We’re in.” He smiled.
Armaan pushed the door open and glanced inside. It was a narrow passageway with doors on either side. The passage was empty. “Clear.” He whispered. “Three, what do you see?”
Roshan whispered in his ear. “I’m switching to thermal mode. Okay, I’m seeing a lot of people. Probably on different floors. Let me move the Hornet to the side of the building so that I can get a three-dimensional view of the place... I see a couple of hostiles two rooms away from you. You’ll need to move
fast from there before they spot you. Go to the door at the end of the hallway. It leads to a stairway.”
Roshan’s warning was enough. Armaan and the team silently sped across the passage and pulled the door open. It had a set of stairs going up. They took the stairs to the first floor. Armaan stopped to catch his breath. He turned towards Hitesh, “Where to, now?”
“The fourth floor.” Hitesh replied. “It’s off-limits to most of the employees. I did my homework on the flight. It may have a restricted network we can tap into.”
“Three, can you guide us there?”
“Yes, just go up the stairs. There are no guards near the stairwell on the second floor.”
They silently bounded to the second floor. The rubber soles of their shoes making no noise on the concrete steps. Armaan was about to climb up to the third floor but Roshan hissed in his ears.
“Wait boys. I see some hostiles close to you on the first floor.”
Armaan gripped his gun tight at the news. They didn't want anyone to know that they were here, but if push came to shove, he wouldn't hesitate blasting his way through this place. He heard the door on the floor below open. They all heard it. He froze in place hoping they won't hear them or walk up to the first floor. Sweat started to pour down his neck.
“My shift ends in a few minutes.” He heard one of the guards say.
“Yeah, you missed the match. It was epic.”
The door closed again and his dread was replaced by silence.
“They are gone.” Roshan whispered in his ear. “Now hurry upstairs before any other guards come to this side of the building. I'm watching them.”
They crept up to the fourth floor and stood in front of the door that led inside.
“You are good to go inside. This floor has two wings separated by an elevator and a stairwell. I can see only one employee sitting in a cabin on this floor. He is at the farther half of the building. If he moves, I’ll warn you in advance.”
“Thanks, Three.”
Armaan pulled the door open. The place looked like a corporate workspace with rows of aisles lined with desktop computers. There wasn't anyone in sight.