‘I had expressly left instructions about no calls. Then why is this important?‘ Ludvig was almost seething in anger.
‘I am sorry, Sir. A Professor Ananthakrishnan from India wants to talk to you. He says this is very important and he did not give any other details. He wants to talk directly to you.’
‘Who’s that? From India? What the hell? What does he want?’
‘I am sorry, Sir. I do not know. I checked up the name. He is some hotshot nuclear scientist from India. I thought I should pass on the call to you. I am sorry, Sir. I will take care of the call.’
‘No. It’s all right. I’ll take the call. Nuclear scientist, eh?’ there was some faint and slow recollection about the name, though Ludvig could not remember ever having interacted with him. ‘This guy is the pioneer of the Indian nuclear programme. What could he want with me?’
The call was patched through to Ludvig’s phone after a beep.
‘Hello!’ a heavily accented elderly male voice was on the other end.
‘Hello, this is Ludvig Hanssen. What can I do for you?’ Ludvig asked, trying hard to suppress the residual irritation in his voice.
‘Mr Ludvig. I am a nuclear scientist from India and I know about the gift of immortality that you possess.’
Ludvig was stunned. His head started spinning and he held the table with his hand.
‘Hmm,’ he managed just a grunt.
‘I can explain your visits to the white room too. You are not alone, Mr Ludvig, but unfortunately you do not have much time left here on Earth.’
‘What? How do you know this?’ Ludvig stuttered into the phone.
‘Sorry for having broken it to you like that, but I wanted your attention, Mr Ludvig.’
‘That you have now, Mr Scientist. Now can you please elaborate?’
Ludvig knew that this was no time to play games. He tacitly accepted what the scientist at the other end was saying. He wanted to know more. This was the first person who knew his secret. And it felt strange that it was a total stranger. His hair was standing on end and his heart was racing. He needed to know all this man had to say.
Ludvig fell into a chair, as the professor started his narrative.
Chapter 22
The Final Preparations
Park Hotel
Noyabrsk, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Russia
28 May, 2012
Ludvig could not believe what he had just heard on the phone. The details still eluded his comprehension but he understood that this was definitely a rational explanation for his ‘gift’– well, almost at the border of rational and irrational, but it did explain a great deal. This explanation had been stumbled upon by some nuclear scientist from India and the story of this discovery was equally fascinating. He also learned that the ‘faculty’ he possessed was not unique to him. He pressed him for details but the scientist wanted to talk face to face. He was coming over on a flight to meet him. The scientist had also told him that he did not have much time on his hands and his final death was due in five days from now. This death was supposed to be final from which there was to be no reboot, no rewind.
Ludvig needed answers to his unique predicament and there was no harm in humouring the professor from India. The professor knew more about his immortality than he did himself, and had talked about his imminent death too. He thought for a while, made up his mind and decided that he had to do this.
But there was something he needed to do prior to that. He had to get his daughter back. He owed her that much. He picked up the gun on the table, cocked it and put it to his mouth.
The last thing he heard was the sound of the shot, ricocheting from the walls of the room. Then everything went blank.
***
Domus-Nova
Mouse-tail Galaxy
Domus-Nova Year 2548, Earth Year 7859 AD
Ludvig opened his eyes in the white room. He was in for a shock. The face in the white suit looked back into his eyes as soon as he opened them. He recoiled in shock but did not actually even flinch, paralysed by his immobility.
The room around had not changed save for the disconcerting proximity of the old man’s face. The old man straightened himself up and held a placard in his hand
‘You have four days to get back here.
Both of you have to make it back together.
A team will be here to rescue you.
If you don’t, the Humae’its will execute both of you in five days.’
The words began to fade before his eyes. The light in the room dimmed and he heard the whirring of the machine above his head.
***
Park Hotel
Noyabrsk, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Russia
28 May, 2012
Ludvig opened his eyes. He was back in bed in the hotel room. He turned to the clock in the room and realised it was six in the morning. He got up hurriedly. He had a lot that needed to be done today. He rushed to the phone and called Dan, asking him to meet him in his room immediately.
Dan hurried up to his room within minutes. He did not understand what the urgency was. But Ludvig had made himself very clear – Dan was needed; something had come up. Dan had sensed the urgency in Ludvig’s voice and had rushed from his bed after just a couple of hours’ sleep.
He did not need to change as he had slept in his work clothes. It had been a late night at the police borough, followed by a meeting with his team. He was coordinating his team, strategising for their next move, in light of a significant lead. He had some news to share with Ludvig and had planned to meet him later in the day, anyway. He did not know what had come up now.
When he entered Ludvig’s suite, he found him packing his briefcase, still clad in a crumpled night-suit. He waved him in and indicated a chair across the table
‘We have to leave now. As soon as possible.’
Dan did not understand. He looked at Ludvig and he looked back at him. Ludvig continued:
‘Don’t you have some news for me?’
Dan shook his head, not knowing what to say. Ludvig threw his hand up in the air and then turned away from Dan. He continued, his words measured:
‘Demyan’ from Smolensk.’
Dan was shocked. His boss had done it again.
‘How do you know about…?’ Dan stopped, knowing it was better to steer clear of that question. Ludvig had turned back, glaring into Dan’s eyes. Dan changed his question
‘Where are we going? What is the plan?’
‘Assemble a crack team, load up on as many arms and ammunition as you can. Get a jet. We are going to Smolensk.’ Ludvig stopped. He looked sharply at Dan. ‘We are going to talk to this Demyan’ guy. He has information about Sonya.’
Dan needed to share some information.
‘The Russian police are shifting Demyan’ to Moscow. We can have access to him there.’
Ludvig shook his head.
‘No can do. He will not reach Moscow. There is an ambush for him on the way. We need to get to him before they do. He has information of value.’
Dan nodded.
‘I will make the arrangements.’
Ludvig stopped him.
‘One more thing.’
Dan turned back. Ludvig handed Dan a slip of paper.
‘An Indian nuclear scientist and a couple of his young friends will land in Moscow airport today. You are to arrange for someone trustworthy to receive them and get them to a secure rendezvous point in Moscow. I want to meet them tomorrow early morning, as soon as we land there. This is very important to me. Understood?’
Dan nodded, took the paper from Ludvig’s hands, said nothing, and walked out of the room.
‘The old man has done it again. Sitting in his room, Ludvig has gathered more information than me, slaving my sorry arse off, gathering news from all over Russia,’ Dan thought to himself, kicking his imaginary butt in the air. One of these days he would learn his boss’s secrets. One of these days, he was going to ask him all these questio
ns, and make him answer. He cursed again, muttering under his breath. He had a lot to do. He had just had a hint last night about the informer in the Smolensk penitentiary. He had no idea how Ludvig had come to know of Demyan’. And now he was scurrying around, doing the old man’s bidding like a schoolboy who had been smacked in the first class of the school-day.
He left instructions with the guys handling communications and left to arrange for the jet and to get the old man’s ‘crack team’.
***
The phone call came, precisely at the expected time. The guy manning the phone had clear instructions.
‘Hello,’ he said.
‘Hello, is this Hotel Park, Nebraska?’ a voice in heavily accented English asked.
‘Yes, how may I help you?’
‘I need to get in touch with Mr Ludvig Hanssen,’ there was a pause and then the voice continued, ‘CEO of Hantel Corporation.’
‘May I know who this is?’
‘I am Dr Ananthakrishnan from India.’
‘Dr Ananthakrishnan. This is Ivan from Mr Ludvig’s security detail. Mr Ludvig had left instructions for your call. He is on a very urgent mission and wants me to inform you that he deeply regrets not taking this call personally.’
The voice at the other end was quiet, the shock floating through the silence, across the continents.
Ivan continued:
‘Are you there, Sir?’
Professor Ananthakrishnan mumbled that he was indeed there. Ivan continued again.
‘Sir, Mr Ludvig knows that you would like to meet him in person. He has arranged a charter jet for you and your fellow passengers, ready to depart from wherever you want in India.’
‘I am in Bangalore now.’ Professor Ananthakrishnan’s voice was shaking now.
‘Very well, Sir. If you leave your details with me, I will have our men meet up with you and arrange everything.’
Professor Ananthakrishnan was not sure what to make of it, but he left their address with the man sitting ten thousand kilometres away, who probably knew everything of what they had just about uncovered some time ago. Then it struck him how it had been done, and there was the hint of a faint smile on his lips, and a shake of his head
‘Wily bastard! He has gone back in time.’
***
Police Headquarters
Chennai, India
Ajith Swaminathan had just taken charge as special officer in Chennai, joining the task force that had been formed to track down Jai and Juliet and to solve the mystery of Professor Ananthakrishnan’s kidnapping. He had moved with his things to the police guest house that morning, had shaken off the sleeplessness of the overnight flight from Mumbai, and had reported to the headquarters barely in time for the morning briefing of the task force.
It had not been easy to get into this task force. He had put in a request with the DIG of Police, Mumbai, and had met him personally twice before he had relented. It was important for Ajith to make sense of the mess that this case had been. An unsolved case left a bitter taste and this case had been the foulest of them. There were so many loose ends, so many mysteries, and much heartburn for Ajith. He felt compelled to see this one to its logical conclusion.
Alas, that was not to be.
The briefing had been good. The police had discovered further leads. They had traced Jai to a farmhouse on the highway between Kalpakkam and Pondicherry, where possibly he and Juliet had spent a couple of days. The farmhouse belonged to a friend of Professor Ananthakrishnan and what he said was of immense interest to the police. Police had found that it was Professor Ananthakrishnan who had hidden them at the farmhouse and had later escorted them to a Chennai hospital for some tests. Preliminary questioning at the Cancer Centre had led them nowhere. No one had seen them at the hospital. The investigation was set to resume at the hospital that morning.
Ajith had barely returned to his room, when he was summoned by the officer in charge.
‘This came in just now.’ He handed over a surveillance photo to Ajith. It was grainy but the camera had unmistakably captured Jai in that frame.
‘Where is this?’
‘Bangalore airport.’
‘When?’
‘Today morning.’
‘Where are the others?’
‘He is with the girl and the professor.’
‘Where are they going?’
‘They boarded a private jet to Moscow.’
‘What?’ Ajith was stunned. There were a million questions in his mind.
‘Whose jet?’
‘Ludvig Hanssen.’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Owner of the multibillion Hantel Corporation of Norway.’
‘Why?’
‘What why?’
Ajith kept firing his single-word questions, with his eyes glazed over in shock at the picture of Jai. The officer’s response snapped him back from his shock. He stammered:
‘What... what do we do now?’
His officer looked Ajith in the eye and replied:
‘We do nothing.’
Ajith did not understand. ‘Why do we do nothing?’
The officer handed him another letter.
Ajith looked at the letter. It was from the Home Ministry. It asked for the immediate dissolution of the task force and for the files to be transferred to the Home Ministry for further action. It was a matter of national security and they had been asked to maintain strict confidentiality regarding the whole affair.
‘What does this mean?’
The officer laughed at Ajith’s expression.
‘That means you are off to Mumbai tomorrow to your routine and I to mine here. Your Jai chapter has been closed, my friend.’ He drew closer to Ajith across the table and whispered, ‘I made some discreet enquiries. The order to stop the enquiry was routed to the Home Ministry from the External Affairs Ministry, and that was possibly due to intervention from the Norwegian Prime Minister’s office.’ He laughed a guttural laugh, clearly amused at the discomfiture of Ajith.
‘What has Norway got to do with this?’
The officer smiled amusedly at Ajith, almost mocking him.
‘What has anything got to do with anything, Sir? Best of luck and good day, Sir. It was nice almost working with you.’
Ajith sat motionless in the chair, not knowing what to do.
***
Apprehending Demyan’ was not easy, especially operating on the wrong side of the law in a foreign country like Russia. However, Ludvig was in no mood to listen. He wanted it to be done this way. Dan had studied the map of the route that the police convoy escorting Demyan’ was going to take. Ludvig asked him to study the route and suggest the best spot to spring an ambush on the escort.
Dan suggested one after careful consideration.
Ludvig nodded but asked Dan to look for the next best spot, between that spot and Smolensk. Dan gathered his courage and asked:
‘Why?’
Ludvig raised his eyebrows and then replied.
‘Because that spot is already taken.’
Dan waited but that was all Ludvig had to say about that. Ludvig was being very difficult today. He was in a tearing hurry and that impatience made him irritable and snappy. Dan knew better than to ask any further questions.
The second spot was a heavily forested enclave that lined the road on either side with tall coniferous trees. They hid their armoured vehicles in the bush and waited. Barely half an hour into their stake-out, the police convoy escorting Demyan’ arrived. The escort comprised of a prison truck with two guards and a driver, escorted in front by a police jeep with four policemen.
The six guards gave up without a single shot being fired as soon as they realised that the ambush party outnumbered and outgunned them by three to one. Dan’s team whisked Demyan’ away from there, to a forest cabin where, with a little prodding and a generous promise, he started to sing like a canary.
He told them that Sonya had been kidnapped to be smuggled out of Russia, to Norway and that she
was being held captive at the docks of St Petersburg. The assignment for the Russian underground was to deliver her alive to Norway.
She was slated to be shipped the next day, along with a shipload of girls being trafficked to Amsterdam.
The jet flight to St Petersburg was a short hop. Dan’s private army and some ex-FSB members formed the assault team. A couple of dock-rats cum local informers were employed to lead the way. The location of the mafia lair was not a secret. Nevertheless, it was a heavily guarded bastion within the dock union quarters, from where the mafia ruled over the entire western seafront.
The strategy of the assault team was to shock and awe. Get in fast and furious and retrieve the target, notwithstanding the amount of collateral damage caused.
Dan could, within a day, amass a private army of three hundred armed men who would descend on the docks, with ample ground and aerial support. The FSB provided tactical support from the outside, choosing to remain in the background of this entire operation. They would officially deny any involvement, if the operation went south.
The St Petersburg dock was a huge facility, one of the busiest in the world. Tens of thousands of containers were handled and processed through these docks each day. With more than a hundred thousand employees, the employee union was a very powerful organisation, which had been under the direct control of the mafia since antiquity.
The politsiya guarding the union quarters had been watered down without tipping them off on the planned attacks.
The brute force of the frontal attack took the kidnappers by surprise. Dan’s army threw a cordon around them and then went in. The crooks found themselves surrounded and a fierce gunfight ensued. Dan’s forces were heavily armed and pretty soon, the mafia found themselves out of ammunition.
When the dust settled after about an hour of fighting, Dan had lost two of his men, while the mafia had lost close to thirty. The leaders of the gang were identified and Dan entered into negotiations with his gun pointed at the temple of the boss, a puny old man by the name of Dmitry. Dan had a simple proposition: custody of Sonya in exchange of all of their lives. The mafia boss dithered but chickened out when he found himself out of his depth in this battle. Dan looked straight into Dmitry’s eyes and put his gun down on the table.
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