THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  3.2: The Drone Operations

  After months of planning, the day for the reconnaissance operation at the Manipur center was planned for 25th July. Christina was supplied with three drones and a specially trained crew from the think tank to carry out operations in the forests. It was afternoon when Christina and her team reached the designated location which was about ten kilometer away from the military facility at an elevated location set up as the base for launching the drone.

  From that region there was a clear line of sight to the facility. Also visible was a small opening in the forest with a lake, a few miles from the area where Christina and her team had camped. Smog hung over the lake like a dark cloud reeking of decay. The very first look made Christina say,

  “This is a visible miasma.”

  The lugubrious howling of the dogs added to the sadness of this place. “Only a holocaust camp could have been a sadder place than this.”

  One of her companions replied,

  “It seems like they are dumping some sort of chemical and biological waste from the facility over there. We might have picked a perfect spot.”

  He pointed to the direction of a small stream running into the lake and said

  “It seems that limpid stream is feeding the lake from the facility. Judging by the stench, I don’t think the military people are standing any close to this stream and it could be an ideal place for inserting the drones.”

  “We need to be careful because if it's a military facility, they might have installed skyward looking radar to check any drones or other attacks. We need to be fly low and be very careful”.

  Christina replied, “It seems a good idea but I wonder what that din of machines might suggest. I am just curious what it could be and if the drones are first sent to that direction.”

  The other guy responded “From my experience these noises come from coolant systems used for large computer processing units; it´s the sound of opening and closing of valves. But then, why would they be using such resources in this part of the world?”

  Christina wondered and said. “We´d better find out the truth.”

  The first drone released by the team moved through the fog cover over the lake sending visual signals to the monitor of the team. The images suggested that the sound came from an old fort type structure at the south end of the complex from where the stream of liquid was coming. Christina asked the team to peep into the fort and report the information.

  The walls of the dungeon were damp and slimy. The drone got inside through a small window at a corner of the building. To the left they saw three men dressed in military fatigues repairing what seemed to be a massive generator. To the left they saw a series of connected generators. Christina said,

  “These guys are using a lot of energy and there might be something interesting for us to find out here. What do they need that kind of energy for? Let the drone follow the switchyards and wires and see where it leads to.”

  What Christina and her team saw inside the facility made the hair stand on the edge for the entire team. A second drone was sent to take external photographs of the facility. The third drone was kept to watch out for any stray military units on patrol in the region. When they got what they wanted they exited from the region with utmost stealth. Since Christina had to keep her cover intact, the new report was submitted under the name of a dummy reporter.

  Next week a complete article along with videos were posted on The Washington Post. The report read

  “There seems to be many demonic means of torture being devised against the inmates in the medical facility in Manipur by the armed forces. Our sources from the finance department have informed that the government willingly spends astronomical amounts of money on research being conducted in the facility. This reminds the world of the experiments conducted in concentration camps during the Second World War.” The article ended with a question “Why was the Indian government interested in this research?”

  3.3: The Government Cover-up

  The report got instant attention and most people criticized the practice. Worldwide many protested outside Indian embassies. The reports hit the government like a bolt from the blue. It had not expected their secret to get revealed so easily. A secret meeting was called by the Prime Minister comprising of few from the cabinet and the military. The concern was what they were going to tell the world about the activities in the facility. They could not totally rubbish the claims, as complete video footage of the entire operation was available.

  Col. Chauhan, who now was promoted to a full colonel, was called in to the Prime Minister’s office as the military attaché. The Colonel said,

  “I think the government has permitted the media too much latitude in this matter and we should increase the security in and around the place to bring down any acts like this. We could black out the media as we have done before.”

  To this the Prime Minister replied, “Well this is obviously the hand of some very expert operation and any such act on our part will only encourage more media attention in the region.”

  Technically Col. Chauhan was not the most suitable person to be part of those discussions because of his inability to understand international policies, but he was the one who was responsible for most of the people in the medical facility. Guruji, who was standing beside the prime minister commented,

  “Don’t worry, people do not remember their faces, they have been wiped out from history. I will take care of their families and no word will come out from their side; we now control everything.” Guruju waits to blink his eyes while thinking about the next statements.

  “But still we need to tell the world a story. One thing we should do first is to reduce the activities in the facility so that all the peeping private satellites do not capture any infra red signature”.

  The prime minister reported, “Well then let us relocate the staff and keep only the necessary people working there. Remove the security strength to the bare minimum. Reduce the importance and the media will get disinterested. But what story are we going to tell the media?”

  Guruji replied, “In a press conference, Col Chauhan will inform the media that it was a medical facility - testing - ayurvedic drugs. Also most of the people in the facility are either prison inmates who volunteered their body for such experiments and also those suffering from chronic mental illness who were not responding to modern treatments; their relatives had given their consent.”

  “Also comment that the media reports had exaggerated the issue of the number of inmates to get unnecessary publicity. We will show some fake experiments conducted in the facility and let some of our own scientists speak. It related to ayurvedic research and the jungle was used for getting herbal products.”

  “I think the westerners are still confused about ayurveda and this will give us the necessary excuse of being inside the forest. Also this will explain the images of the fog over the lake as a result of fermentation of these herbs.”

  Col Chauhan responded, “Then what about the presence of armed forces in camouflage?”

  “Well, we can say that this was a precaution against the attacks from Maoists around the region and I think I can use my contacts to minimize role of international media to look the other way.”

  The Prime minister said,

  “Guruji you are a genius! You solve all our headaches!”

  Guruji smiled , turned to Col Chauhan and said,

  “We will move the inmates to a nearby bunker hidden from plain site and organize a conducted tour of international press in the building and show how some ayurvedic experiments are conducted. I guess you can arrange for some herbs and few prisoners as well as terminally ill patients. Remember to make them look like those who were on the report.”

  Col Chauhan replied, “Yes we can do that.”

  Guruji looking at the Prime Minister continued,

  “Guess we are done with what the facility has to offer and we can let go the funding and activities.”

  The Prime Minister r
eplied “Very well sir.”

  Then looking at Col Chauhan the PM said, “But we should find out who were behind the operation.

  Col Chauhan nodded and assured,

  “I will put my best men to do this.”

  Meanwhile in the Delhi office Christina came back to her desk job. Having completed her task successfully, she relaxed and began concentrating on her fitness and fashion. The change in her behavior irked Sagarika. She had always suspected Christina’s role in the operations and her new fitness routine made her believe that Christina had a military background.

  One fine morning she asked Christina to come to her cabin and asked her,

  “Have you heard of these operations in Manipur. I heard you were in the same region at that time. Do you know who are involved?”

  Christina did not expect Sagarika to ask her directly this question. She at once became guarded. She did not want to create further suspicion in the mind of Sagarika and give her any opportunity to interfere in her travel plans. She chose to be coy and replied,

  “I was in Assam in the city of Tinsukia living in the house of Jhumpa Barua a school teacher popularly known as Jhumpa Baido. I think I can give you her number if you wish to confirm. Manipur is really far from that place and as for you other question I don't think I know who these people are. "

  Christina knew Sagarika was the type of individual who could persuade her friends and well wishers to get for her what was required for a successful story. So Christina asked,

  “Do you require the phone number of Jhumpa Baido?”

  Christina's straight refusal of any knowledge of the event made Sagarika pause; any bold stand would actually make her look stupid. She decided to try to enforce her authority on Christina. Sagarika asked, “I see you have been spending a lot of money doing your research. I hope you must have come up with something interesting.”

  Christina replied, “Yes, I am thinking of sending my articles to BBC tonight.”

  Sagarika said authoritatively,

  “But you should first show it to us before sending it to them.”

  Christina did not say anything but walked straight to her desk and took out two articles from her drawer.

  She brought the two tailor-made articles sent a day before from the think tank on the languages of two tribes in Assam and Meghalaya. Sagarika made Christina sit next to her while she went through the entire twenty pages of the article. After reading the article Sagarika commented,

  “I think you should curtail some portion of the interview as you have gone into details that readers might not like to read.”

  Christina took offence. “This is for a research journal and they require case studies.”

  “I understand that, but where is the future of this type of writing? I am just thinking about your career. I seriously believe that writing articles of this nature is deleterious to your career as a journalist as not many people will enjoy reading this. You should concentrate on something else.”

  Christina could not understand how to respond as she was commenting on an article which was already peer-reviewed. She had no choice but to listen to Sagarika’s nonsense.

  But Sagarika was up to something! Christina sensed that a new round of questions were about to begin.

  Sagarika said, “Christina, I wanted to tell you something. We have this fund crunch and most of the money coming for your research has been diverted to administrative costs. I suggest that if your agency is dilatory in paying the bills, I am afraid we will have to let you go.”

  “I think my fellowship covers everything.”

  “Well your fellowship was under our guidance and we don’t see any reason why we should continue with your research. I will write a letter to your agency telling them how we feel.”

  Christina could not understand the reason for the sudden mood swing of Sagarika and during the lengthy diatribe delivered by Sagarika, she remained calm and self-controlled. Sagarika went at great lengths trying to explain how she had managed to reach this position and insisted that Christina should follow her footsteps if she wanted to forge ahead in her career.

  Fearing that her cover might be blown off if an alert was raised from an Indian news agency she said,

  “Ok, I will do whatever you want me to do, just please don’t revoke my fellowship.”

  Sagarika smelling victory replied,

  “You are a fine reporter, but I fear that you may dissipate your gifts by chasing useless stories. We will put you into something interesting that I am working on.”

  Christina knew that now she would be transferred to write Page 3 articles and work on projects that seemed more disingenuous to her type of work, but she had to keep her cover intact.

  3.4: A mysterious man escapes

  September 2025

  After the raucous conducted by international media on the military facility in Manipur, the whole region was under the radar of various rights groups from around the world. Col Chauhan took careful note to see that all the inmates were removed from the main building and shifted to a nearby bunker and replaced by new ones. As was ordered by the Prime Minister, the security of the whole establishment was lessened and only the most essential staff stayed back.

  Col Chauhan had arranged for an international team to visit some of the areas in the facility and the remaining regions were cordoned off. But this led to a series of events which was going to rattle the political scenario of the whole country. After doing his job Col Chauhan was again shifted back to his Delhi position.

  The whole facility was totally evacuated and the main chamber was only inhabited by new individuals, mostly from Col Chauhan’s unit to act as dummy inmates who agreed to undertake experiments. The main group of individuals on whom the experiments were conducted were shifted to a different room but were still connected to the machine. A few scientists and doctors were assigned to visit them once a day to keep the profile low in the makeshift facility. But this relaxation cost them dearly. As fate would have it, one man woke up among the scores of others still lying unconscious.

  He was dazed, confused and disoriented. He had no idea of the time of the day and even about his own self he was unsure. After the daze somewhat cleared, the man realized that he did not have a single strand of hair either on his face, his head or eyebrows. He looked to his side and saw a row of individuals wearing neatly ironed pajamas in an unconscious stage. All of them had clean shaven heads and were connected to something protruding out of their heads which looked like tentacles built of glass fibers.

  He placed his hand on his head and felt the same unit connected to him too. In a jerk reaction, he removed the module that was connected to his head and the whole system fell to the ground and broke. No alarm was raised. He then took off the pipe that was inserted in his stomach through his mouth to feed him and removed all the other units injected into his body, sometimes screaming with pain. He then tried to sit up and move his leg, but waking up after many years led to blood flowing to the limbs causing agonizing pain and he screamed. He was in that stage for an hour trying to get his limbs to work and come to an ambulatory stage.

  Finally he mustered enough strength to crawl his way to the only door in the building. After reaching the door he struggled to stand up and get enough strength in his legs to go forward. Once confident that he could carry his weight he planned to leave the room. Before leaving, he looked back and saw scores of individuals bound to their beds. He wondered what could this place actually be but then he stopped thinking. By this time he could muster enough strength to take his body through the corridor and into the forest.

  Next to the door he saw a stack of ready to eat meal and a few bottles of water. He put them in a plastic bag and tried to crawl to the door. He saw a lone security guard at the left corner of the building taking a nap. Fearing detection by other sentries on duty, he eased his way from the medical facility with great stealth. His feeble figure wobbled through the long empty halls of the building which looked depressingly clean and vacan
t.

  The olive green paint on the wall suggested that it was a military establishment. Without going for the main entrance the man crawled out of a broken window pane in the bathroom of the building and ran to hide in the bushes.

  It was a muggy afternoon when he saw the sun after about ten years. The glare almost blinded him and he fell down to the ground. Before he could recover from the sudden shock he saw an obstreperous horde of drunken military personnel carousing through the medical facility. He recovered from the fallen position and waited for the men to clear the facility. The men, after collecting few more bottles went back to the bigger facility.

  Grasping his courage the individual ran towards what looked like a small opening in the electrified fence. He crossed the fencing and tried to run as far as possible from the facility but after covering about 500 meters he was exhausted. He thought to wait for the darkness before making a move into the forest guided by the moonlight.

  3.5: The recognition of self

  He waited in the bush till the sun came down. It was a full moon night. Somehow he gathered enough strength to follow a trail through the forest cautiously taking every step. No alarm was raised at the facility. The fugitive moved with a brisk pace till he came to the shore of a small lake. The moonlight shimmered on the water. As the moon broke through the clouds he tried to see his face in the reflection.