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

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  Within half an hour the comrades were able to clear the entire compound from the enemy. On hearing “all clear” Raghav entered the building to finally figure out what actually was his home for the last ten years. He went from room to room in the dungeon trying to understand the functioning of the facility but could not make any sense of it. Finally he entered the room from where he had escaped. There were scores of men lying on the beds, all having probs connecting them to a machine that was monitoring their conditions.

  The pungent odour of the research facility appealed to Raghav but it made the other comrades gasp for fresh air. Raghav had breathed the same air for the last ten years. He went one by one to each individual lying on their beds; he found all of them were lying in the same state as he had found himself many months ago. Raghav could recognize some of the faces of the fallen comrades. They seemed docile plugged to the system compared to what was described in the media about their ferocity.

  The ankles of all the inmates were shackled to prevent them from escaping from the facility. This was something new as Raghav did not have shackles. It was very clear that the government proscribed all those who dared to speak against them and brought them over here. He tried in vain to find his wife.

  He moved across the room and recognized some of his friends and comrades who were very famous at his time. This brought tears in Raghav’s eyes as he moved his fingers through their hair. Watching the tearful reunion of Raghav with his fallen comrades who were lying plugged to the machine, the others were touched by the poignant scene. Raghav said,

  “It seems all of them are lying in a state of induced coma. Where are these wires protruding to their heads connected to?”

  Debashish took Raghav to the other room where there were two major containers filled with a liquid and a series of hard drives. Raghav asked,

  “What is this place? What is happening in here”

  Debashish replied,

  “It seems this is some sort of storage unit. The signs and these manuals suggest that the opalescent bluish liquid is some kind of storage for brain waves.”

  Raghav asked,

  “What are they doing by this experient? Was I really a lab rat for the government to perform experiments on for the last ten years? What purpose will these people serve? Why have they maintained this facility until now?”

  All the senior comrades on seeing the level of sophistication could not believe what the government had planned against them. They felt humbled by the fact that it was only by luck that they did not end up in the facility. One of the senior comrades, Kutty, who had joined recently said,

  “I think this has something to do with what has brought the movement down. I still don’t know how but I think this is how the government machinery was able to crack down on the hardened Naxalites. This was also the reason for the secrecy maintained by the government officials after the press release on the facility.”

  He moved towards Raghav and said,

  “I think it was the heroic effort by the international journalists that secured your release from this facility. Otherwise there was every possibility that you would have spent your entire life here and we would have not known about it or anyone else here.”

  Raghav replied,

  “Till now I had considered the war crimes committed by both sides during the conflict was venial but what I see today has changed my mind. The people of this country should get rid of this tyranny as soon as possible.”

  With the results that followed Raghav was able to silence all his adversaries who had questioned him in the past about the justification of resorting to violence against the state. Raghav emerged as a venerable leader and with the respect he began to command it would be difficult to deny his leadership in the future. On the political scenario most politicians and military men in India were not aware of the advent of Raghav on the scene. Raghav now was a rebel with a cause.

  5.6: Christina Informed about the Attack

  The think tank had deployed remote monitoring units over the facility to track the movement of the military over the region. They had placed remote cameras on the top of nearby hill to monitor the activities inside the facility. The comrades who disabled the security system were not aware of the system installed by the think tank. Thus, Christina was immediately informed about the attack on the facility by a group of armed guerrillas.

  The images, though not of very high resolution, clearly showed the mayhem created by the group. There was no doubt in the mind of Christina that these individuals were none other than Raghav and his team. She could hardly believe what she was seeing. How could have Raghav amassed such a huge strength of men to carry out such an ambitious attack?

  She wrote in her diary,

  ‘In these halcyon days people were not worried about such attacks and bombings by the rebels but if what Raghav said was true then is this attack justified?’

  She went back to the old recordings of Raghav to understand the motive behind this attack. Christina had never known a moment’s pleasure since she started researching about Raghav. Not knowing what to do she impulsively wrote in her book

  ‘It seems civilized nations must immediately stop the use of humans as objects of lab experiment if we expect our society to survive.’

  Then she realized that putting her thought on paper would not mean anything as this report would not see the light of the day in the setup she was working on.

  She turned the pages in her diary to see what she had written down in the past few days. One page read,

  ‘In an effort to inculcate religious devotion the officials have made it a law to start any public performance, even a movie, with the singing of a hymn.’

  She stood up from her desk in a state of confusion. She could not understand why she was getting crazy about something that she was not even paid to work for! She moved to the mirror in her room and stared. It seemed after working in the heat in India, her complexion looked little florid. Her once round face looked surprisingly gaunt after she had lost weight fighting the system and it seemed she had aged in the past few months battling Sagarika.

  But she still carried the grandiose notion of the supposed importance of the neutrality of the media in maintaining the world order. She went back to the laptop to see the latest images sent from the camp. The guerillas were seen moving the dead soldiers from their stations and throwing them into the ditch. She shrugged off the grizzly sight.

  Christina also could not understand what purpose it would serve Raghav as now the government forces would spend their full resources searching for Raghav; or worse looking at how the government functions in India, it seemed that they would get into the stage of denial of the event. This will follow with blame games and most of the efforts would be routed towards finding the culprit.

  It suddenly dawned on Christina that the government might place all the blame on her arrested team. It was very clear that their lives were in grave danger. A noted versatile journalist, Christina was a hit writing on any assignment. She thought of using her skills to protect her team from the government. This was against the protocol set by the think tank but somehow she needed to find a way to publish it under the very nose of Sagarika.

  Thoughts rushed into Christina's mind? How would she go about writing so as to shame the government? She could draw plenty of facts from the video about Raghav plus her own researches. She rejected the idea of taking more interviews of fundamentalist leaders as Sagarika was particular about fine points regarding observance of rules and etiquette. So that window about seeking interviews was closed for Christina.

  New images came on her screen which showed the guerillas executing the soldiers at point blank range. On seeing these Christina went into a shock and could not feel her hands and legs. She kept sitting in the same chair looking at the images on the screen. She was slow to recover from her trauma and even a short walk to the bed tired her. The Raghav she had studied would not in her wildest imagination order an execution of the soldiers.

&nb
sp; What could she write? The public would not buy any article about a man who had just butchered unarmed individuals. Any reference to Raghav would mean the intelligence would be after her. If it was a sleazy article about the events in the past than it would not go down well with the publishing house as there was no doubt that the media was paid to spread government propaganda. Completely clueless of what she should and could do about the situation Christina opened a bottle of vodka from her refrigerator and took some neat shots .she flopped down on her bed unable to think or move.

  Chapter 6

  Understanding of Truth

  6.1: The Combing Operations

  The facility in Manipur was equipped with the best security system but Raghav’s men successfully incapacitated it and no SOS was sent to the mainland about the attack. There was no imminent threat of any reaction from the armed forces. Raghav’s men had captured few soldiers who were patrolling the region. They were brought in to be interrogated by Raghav. He asked them,

  “What do you think was going on with these people over the years?”

  The CISF staff did not say anything as they did not know about the research. Raghav again asked,

  “Who is conducting these researches?”

  One CISF personnel said,

  “There were few scientists in the facility who were posted here to take care of health. You should ask them.”

  Raghav looked at Debashish and asked,

  “Are you aware of any scientists in here? Did you kill anyone who looked like a scientist?”

  Debashish replied,

  “I don’t think so. We have killed only uniformed men.”

  “Then they must be hiding somewhere. Find them out but do not kill them. Bring them to me and I will talk to them.”

  He moved towards the captured soldiers and asked,

  “Are there any other patrolling going on in the region?”

  The soldiers replied in the negative. Raghav looked at his comrades and said,

  “They seem to provide us with no more information but we cannot keep them as they will be liability. I will ask you to get rid of them.”

  The comrades initially could not understand the command given by Ganguly. He shouted,

  “You were ordered to execute them. Do as a soldier needs to do.”

  Ganguly looks at Raghav in disgust after giving the order. This was not ethical to do but Raghav was in a rage against the system. As ordered, the comrades took the men outside and made them kneel down before shooting them at close range. Raghav also ordered a reconnoitering party to be sent to check if any other units were active in the forest area and to cordon off the region. Some of the team members left and took positions in the forests hiding themselves in the thick undergrowth until further instructions came from Raghav.

  In the meanwhile Debashish and his men went from room to room in search of the scientists. They were all hidden in an attic. On seeing Debashish entering the room, all of them surrendered without making any attempt to escape. In all there were seventeen scientists and doctors hiding in the small attic. They rounded up and presented to Raghav.

  6.2: The Scientists Confess

  Raghav continued to search for any signs of his wife in the facility. He moved from one room to another searching for any trace of his wife; but there was no sign. He became very depressed as he realized that his last hope had faded and the inevitable must have happened. He came back to the main facility and and saw among the inmates one person with whom her wife was reported to have been seen last in the newspapers.

  He wanted to wake him up by shaking him but there was no response. A tear dropped from Raghav’s eyes and he got lost in his thoughts trying to find any other clue from what he had memorized. Just when he was in deep in his thoughts the door behind him shut with a bang. The sudden sound gave him a shock. It made images of his ambush flash in front of his eyes and he took out his gun from the holster and shot in the direction of the sound.

  The bullet nearly hit Debashish but he quickly ducked. It slammed into the chest a prisoner who was standing behind him. Blood oozed out staining the floor and the clothes of Debashish. Debashish lay in shock next to the hurt scientist as Ganguly rushed towards him. Suddenly Ganguly pulled Debashish out of the room who was still in a traumatic state. In the meantime Ganguly asked the other comrades to take Debashish away from the area and clean him up.

  Everyone was shocked with what they had seen and nobody else moved for the next few minutes. The person who was hit was lying in a pool of blood and screaming in pain. He looked like a man in his forties and was dressed in the uniform that scientists of the facility wore. Raghav was also shocked by what he had done. It was very clear to him that revenge had taken over his mind.

  But this was the time to act and not to react. He moved towards the victim and took an aim at the individual who begged for mercy. But Raghav showed no remorse. He said,

  “This is for what you had done to me and my wife.”

  and pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the victim’s head and his brain was scattered all over the floor. Nobody in the room could have imagined Raghav to be so brutal and unforgiving.

  After another five minutes the body was removed leaving a trail of blood on the floor. The remaining scientists had been moved to one corner of the room. The hostages were held under duress until Raghav decided what had to be done with them after he came out of his fit of rage. They were frightened and shaking as if standing in front of the firing squad and ready to be executed. There were now sixteen of them standing at the corner with Raghav checking on each individual.

  Raghav felt there was no difference between them - each one was a scoundrel, timidly helping the government in performing acts of tyranny. If only he could kill and burn them, but he needed to know the story behind this facility. Raghav moved towards Ganguly and said,

  “I want you to interrogate each one of them to figure out what actually was being conducted in this facility. I also give you the freedom to use any form of torture necessary in case of non-compliance.”

  Just as Raghav finished his statement, one prisoner in his fifties said, “That won’t be necessary. We will tell you everything. We are tied to the same fate as these individuals for the last ten years. Have some mercy on us.”

  The death of a fellow scientist had shaken them to the core and it seemed no one was ready to go through the rounds of interrogation. The prisoners said,

  “We will tell you all that you want to know without any glitches.”

  Raghav said,

  “Very well then, bring him to me and I will ask him the questions.”

  Ganguly took the prisoner by his hand and made him sit next to Raghav.

  Raghav asked, “Name and position.”

  The prisoner replied, “Dr Raman Sir, Chief Medical Officer in this facility.”

  “And what is this facility?”

  “This is a research center of the government - a project to map the conscious brain of the rebels like you Raghav.”

  Raghav replied, “You know my name?”

  “I do, I served here for the last ten years and I know who all have been here. Your escape was the fault of the guy you just shot.”

  “He failed to give the right dose that night when the breach happened.”

  Raghav looked at the blood stains and the irony of the situation hit him. He said,

  “So I shot the guy who failed to do the job correctly? But without his help I would not have been here – it’s ironical!”.”

  He looked at Dr Raman emotionless and asked,

  “So what do you do by mapping the conscious?”

  “By mapping the conscious we were able to create the memories of the people here in this machine. This helped us to create a repository of the collective memories of the people who were involved in any type of movement against the state.”

  “The idea of the military was to amass more brains from the movement and then destroy the leadership of the movement. As per their theory
this would help to destroy the movement.”

  “So you supplied the military with the intelligence required for the operations?”

  “No initially there was a move of using advanced warfare technology to get the people who were not the hardliners. From their brains we found out the locations of people who were the hardliners and captured them.”

  “Then the military destroyed the complete infrastructure of the movement. This knowledge has played a vital role in providing the government with information related to their activities. This is how the government was able to curb down the Naxal and other allied movements in the country.”

  “So, why only so few people and not many?”

  “These tests were conducted mostly on intellectuals who were involved in the rebel movement. Those with clear thought process were our targets and that was how the military was able to aggregate the intelligence that took the movement down.”