by ARKOPAUL DAS
Alan read out the sentence again. ‘ ''And the place is not grand here, it doesn’t even have a stationary shop in the centre’’, This was the sentence right?’
‘Yes, what does that mean?’
‘I think he mixed a few important words with a bunch of crap words’ Alan went on looking at everyone. ‘The important word is ‘Grand’. Okay so ‘The place is ‘Grand’ leave this ‘place’ thing .So ‘Grand’ then next main thing is the ‘stationary shop’ . The word ‘shop’ doesn’t have a value. It’s just said to form a meaning. So we take ‘grand’ and ‘stationary’ from here. And the last word is ‘centre’ which is essential to form the right meaning’
‘So you picked grand stationary centre, right?’ said Ryan.
Alan nodded.
‘But come on it still sounds shit to me’ said Kevin, looked at the page. ‘Grand stationary centre? Oh come on, what could this possibly mean? Nothing’
‘You can’t find the meaning because you’re too busy trying to prove there isn’t one’ said Alan. ‘The meaning got to be in this’ Alan was still not sure about the meaning himself.
‘It’s just three words, what meaning can it have?’ said Ryan who was also curious about what was the meaning, rather than how could they find out the meaning.
‘Grand stationary centre’ Ryan thought about these words. He had no idea why Alan thought these were important and he will probably never find one himself. It was utterly meaningless.
Henderson listened to them then said after a few minutes. ‘Look everyone; we are damn short on time. So if anyone knows anything, just say it’
‘Okay if you look at this’ said Alan who also realized that they were indeed short on time. ‘It’s just like jumble words. The words are jumbled this time instead of the letters to form this little puzzle type of thing. And I don’t think it will be hard to jumble the words a little more to form the right answer now. First, the ‘Grand stationary centre’ will become ‘Grand centre stationary’. And after that it’s obvious right?’
‘Obvious? It’s still not obvious to us’ said Ryan.
‘Oh’ Alan made a disgusted face but went on anyway. ‘It should be hard for no one now, to make the words Grand Central Station’
Everybody remained quiet for a moment looking at Alan in such a way as if he said something bad in the middle of a crowd and made everyone feel embarrassed. But that was not the case here. Ryan was the first one to make a decision. Others were still wondering about this jumble words thing.
‘Well how do you know it will form a name of a place?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t know that’ said Alan ‘I extracted these letters from this sentence and what I could only think of, is Grand Central Station. There was nothing more to think about this’
‘Hmm’ said Ryan thinking himself now that he got the answer. ‘You’re right it can only mean this’
‘But what does it mean by this?’ said Kevin. ‘I mean what does this kid wanna say through this? That he is in the Grand Central Station? The abductors kept him there ?’
‘Yes, of course he means that’
‘Oh, weird choice, I can say that’
‘So what should we do now?’ asked Alicia who was quiet all this time.
‘First we need to be sure about the location’ Henderson took the lead. ‘If this proves to be a wrong one, then there will be no time to turn back and follow another lead.’
‘We heard the sound of a train in the video, you remember that?’ said Alan. ‘And now it’s the grand central station. You see both of it matches, he’s in a station that’s why we heard that sound.’
‘Right’ said Henderson. ‘I nearly forgot about that’
‘Okay, look we need a neat plan’ replied Alan trying to be practical.
‘You start with it’ Henderson urged him.
‘Kevin and you Ryan, I will let you move with Kevin’s plan’ said Alan. ‘Just do what you wanted to do’
‘Then what?’
‘I will go and look for the kid in the station’ continued Alan with utmost urgency ‘But you both will also need to visit the Bronx because I might be too late searching for the kid, so in that case you will need to show up with the money to the kidnappers . But wait for my signal, if you don’t get my signal within 5, you attack them and try to dominate them, and if you do get the call then you dominate them a little more freely. Okay, so any questions?’ Alan turned his gaze at everyone who was looking back at him.
‘Yeah, sounds okay’ Ryan remarked.
‘And you Ryan take a normal car not an official car with NYPD logo in it. I don’t want them to suspect that there is a cop car in the area.’ Alan instructed. ‘Kevin and you both wait in the car a few metres away from the main area, while you let Mr. McRae go with a empty suitcase, bag or briefcase, whatever , when you see them come. After when...okay after that I think you’ll know what to do, right?’
Kevin nodded joyfully thinking that Alan have faith on them.
‘That’s a solid plan’ said Henderson. ‘But the station itself is large, how’re you gonna find the kid yourself, it’ll take hours to cover up the whole station’
‘I don’t know, but we do have an advantage over them’
‘What’s that?’
‘They don’t know that we now know where the child is, but we know that, so that’s an advantage. They will be less alert and will keep less backup with them’ Alan's voice was so serious that even if his plan wasn’t so solid, people would be bound to listen to him and would have to work it out in the way he instructed them to. That was one of his qualities, actually he’s a listener himself, he doesn’t often like to take charge of the situation , he likes to sit back and listen what others got to say, but when he does that , he carries it out amazingly.
‘And where do I come in the picture?’ said Alicia after listening everything he had to say.
Now that was a problem for Alan. He worked out his plan quite well, but he totally forgot about Alicia. Yes, that was a good question and a tough one too for Alan, everything was sorted out nicely, but he couldn’t just make Alicia sit in the precinct. But what work was left there to give her anyway?
‘You aid Alan in his search in the Grand Central’ suddenly said Henderson. ‘Just like we were talking about, it will be hard for him to find the kid himself, so there you can help him. What do you say?’
‘Yeah, that’ll be fine for me’ said Alicia.
Alan wanted to go there alone; actually, he liked working alone. He didn’t want anyone behind him, it’ll not let him work freely. And of course not someone like Alicia. She would certainly irritate him, or maybe she’s also good at this. He would be able to check out that too. All in all Henderson was right in some sense of course. There was no point arguing about this.
‘Okay’ said Ryan and moved the table so that they could face the computer. ‘Here is the Bronx bridge, where should we be?’
‘We wait on the bridge’ said Alan.
‘No parking in the bridge.’
‘Then you park your car on one of the sides and then you just wait. The kidnappers will surely come below the bridge. So I think you’ll surely find a place to park your car, when you get there and see the positions. You can’t make out everything from the computer’
‘Mr. McRae do you have any questions about this?’ asked Alan.
‘Well, as a matter of fact, I have a thousands of questions to ask’ he said ‘But you don’t have so much time for answering , so better get going’
‘Great’ said Alan and took the blazer from the chair where he tossed it before. He wore it and became ready.
Alicia looked at her watch then also hurried behind Alan.
‘You guys don’t be late to reach the Bronx’ said Alan. ‘Arriving late is the last thing that you can do at this moment’
‘Sure’ answered Ryan.
Suddenly Henderson’s phone chirped as he received and said ‘Henderson...yeah...really?...nice work. Remain outside. Yes, Alan
will get there soon. And keep me posted if there is anything more to say’
He kept the mobile down and said ‘The uniforms found some suspicious men roaming around the Grand Centre Terminal. The security guards there said that they’re there for the past few days.’
‘Nice’ said Alan. ‘That settles it. Grand Central station it is’
‘Okay so you give me the call’ Ryan informed him.
McRae was also in a hurry so Ryan and Kevin both of them entered the elevator at the same time with Alan and Alicia. They also didn’t want to waste much time. They could wait there and relax until 5. And that would be better. They would even get time to work on their strategy.
‘Right’ answered Alan when both the doors of the lift closed.
THIRTY ONE
Alicia drove rapidly through the east street barring the traffic. They had only 40 minutes, and they knew another 10 to 15 minutes would be gone before they could reach their destination. So it would be real tough finding the kid before 5.
Alicia watched her own watch every few seconds and started hitting the accelerator.
‘Relax Alicia’ said Alan. ‘Drive carefully. The last thing we want now is to have an accident and end up in an ambulance.’
‘I got it’ she replied but she had no intention in bringing down the speed.
Alan switched on the GPS in the car and checked the map. He gave their destination and it showed a way to the station but that was not a short cut of course. But he was searching for a quick way where they could avoid the traffic of the main roads, and drive swiftly.
Alicia said ‘Where would we start?’
Alan looked at her. Her face was still glowing and her hair was falling back and the afternoon sun that was adding a reddish hue to it. It was beautiful. Pity, they were on a mission now and that they didn’t have much time to admire each other.
But still after another minute they got stuck in the traffic of the Park Avenue which was when Alan said ‘We will have to start looking at the terminals, the platforms or any hidden chambers, if there is any, after we reach the station’
‘What if we use the uniforms there?’ asked Alicia. ‘They’re also said to be in civil dresses.’
‘We can’t risk that. A bunch of men suddenly arriving at the station, but not catching a train can arise a lot of attention from anyone. And Donovan’s men might be there among the crowds. They’ll notice us and feel suspicious. We will have to act like common people, just like anyone would do’
Alicia understood it and gave a nod. The green signal came up soon and she hit the third gear and zoomed away from that particular street. After a while there car was speeding through the 42nd street and the next minute saw them parking their car in the East 42nd street as they looked at the station in front of them.
The terminal was a old fashioned one made mainly of brick and cement from outside with some of the best vintage design that were available at that time and also the statue of Hermes which was said to be made by John Donnelly company as it represents speed and the god of travellers.
But they barely had time to just give a look at it before entering the main building facing the east side.
As they went inside and found themselves in the great hall, it was full of people with a constant buzzing sound going on in the middle. There was rows of security desks on the left with some reception on the other hand. People here were mostly relaxed, or else in a total hurry. Most of them were carrying luggage, large aristocrats and trolleys, which Alan was often getting bumped with. His eyes were on the up scanning the crowd .So he was bound to get bumped with the luggage on the floor. He could also hear a computerised voice informing people about which train was arriving at which platform, or if the train was moved to the Hudson terminal and this type of things.
As they both pushed through the crowd, they could only see the people who were all casually wondering around, as if they were just sent there to make things more hell for them. Alan also tried to act normal, but it was hard in this high voltage situation.
They soon reached the centre where a classic two sided clock was kept, always. It was shining with the main dial, which as well maybe gold plated, and below it was a tiny room covered with glass, where some authorised people sat using computers.
Alan stepped there near the glass room, stopped and looked around. What he could only see was the faces or the heads of people, but maybe Donovan’s men were also in there, mixed with this entire people, maybe now they were staring at him, smiling, joking, about his ignorance, and his plan that was never going to work out.
Oh! Stop it, he said in his mind. But when Alicia said ‘Stop what?’ he understand that he actually uttered that word physically.
He then shook his head and said ‘Nothing’ as he started scanning the faces of everyone here. Well not everyone was possible but as much as he could. But they all looked the same, some relaxed, some eager, some in a hurry, but no one looked weird or what you could term as suspicious.
This was time consuming looking at everyone and everything, finding Donovan’s men like this was literally impossible.
Alicia pushed two more people out of her way and came near Alan. ‘What do we do now, Mr. Smith?’
Alan didn’t even had time to say that ‘It’s just Alan. Not Mr. Smith’ he felt irritated but kept quiet about it.
‘I don’t know. There got to be someone here, who could take us to the kid. There is surely someone. We’ll just have to find him’ said Alan keeping his eyes fixed on nowhere in particular.
‘It’s impossible to find his man, among all these people, well where are the uniforms, we didn’t see any outside. Did you?’ said Alicia.
‘No, and that’s because they were in their normal dresses and we were not really looking for them’ said Alan.
‘And how do you know, that there will be his men among the crowd, there may not be anyone here, right? Maybe we’re just over thinking ourselves. And --’
Alan interrupted. ‘In that case, we will have to find them ourselves. Come on then; let’s check out the other platforms’ said Alan who nearly had to shout because of the noise that was gulping their words.
They walked past the clock and some security areas as they soon reached the other end where a US flag hung at the very end of the main hall and it was said to be there after the 9/11 attacks.
They moved away, came out of the main lobby, and found themselves wondering on the third platform. Here there was a small bookshop and another stationary shop just by the side of it. They could see a train waiting in the tracks of the 4th platform just on the other side of the third. It seemed like the train was ready to leave and was maybe visiting Connecticut or so was written on it.
Alan still walked through the lobby following the platforms yet ignoring them. Alicia also walked behind him, as she thought it would be better not to talk and irritate him. And this was not the best time to worry about anything or talk.
The first and the second platform were just parallel to the 3rd one as they also crossed this one and came near the fourth one, the train area.
‘Mr. Smith, we will not be able to find the boy just like this’ said Alicia at last. ‘We should inform the uniforms and call for some more backups for canvassing the terminals’
‘Backup won’t work...we have to do this alone. It’s the best possible way we can help out the boy’
‘We can’t find the boy anyway’ said Alicia.
‘That doesn’t make me feel any better’ said Alan. ‘Look the kid cannot be in the middle of the station like, say - here, he’ll be somewhere, where not much people will go, some place hidden. So you see it’s going to be a hard job finding a hidden child’
‘Yes I know that, and that would’ve been fine unless we were this short on time’ Alicia clarified it.
‘Oh, would you keep quiet for god sake!’ now Alan was annoyed. ‘Did you just come down here to talk me out of this?’
‘It’s true, just look at your watch’ she said. But Ala
n didn’t feel brave enough to look at it. ‘Call Kevin and Ryan, tell them we failed, they should move on with their plan now’
Alicia hesitated, as she was not sure if Alan really meant it or was he just testing her to get her reaction.
She waited for a few more seconds but Alan’s face looked serious enough to convince her that he really meant it.
She took out her phone and started dialling Ryan’s number. But just then Alan grabbed her hand and said ‘No don’t’
Alicia was confused now. ‘But you just said that -- ’
‘I did, but that was before this’ Alan swiftly replied.
‘Before what?’
‘Stop talking, just look’ said Alan and pointed at a man who was perhaps 70 yards away from them.
He wore a black suit, black tie, black Ray ban shades, and black shoes, like men in black, only that his shirt was also black instead of white. They could also see a Bluetooth attached to his left ear.
He looked strong and well built, and was turning his head, and wilding gazing everywhere. He wasn’t relaxing or didn’t have any intention of catching a train or something, he just stood there or sometimes moved from one side to another. Clearly, he was checking out the region for some reason.
‘Who’s he?’ asked Alicia.
‘Donovan’s men’ answered Alan keeping his eyes fixed on that man. He didn’t want loose his sight.
‘How do you know that he’s Donovan’s men?’
‘Look, wearing suit, and looking like an agent, that’s what Donovan’s men looks like. Didn’t I tell you that they normally doesn’t look like thugs, they’re more gentlemen than even us’ he said. ‘And see, that he’s just keeping watch on everyone, like a security guard, he isn’t keen on getting up on a train, is he?’
‘So he’s working for Donovan?’
‘Got to be’
‘That means he’s just making sure that no one, like cops or anyone are here to get the child’
‘Yes, the child is somewhere here and he’s just making sure the area is clear’
‘So he’s playing the role of a bodyguard’ understood Alicia. ‘There could have been more of them in the main hall, maybe we missed them in the crowd’