The Zero-Cost Mission/The Wily Agent

by Amar Bhushan

  ‘This operation is over. You are no longer Kabir. It’s time for you to return to your real self and name. I cannot pay his wife when her husband is no longer working for us,’ Jeev said.

  Arun was astounded by the insensitivity of his boss.

  They never discussed the case thereafter.

  The Aftermath

  Jeev was busy reading a report when his assistant buzzed him. ‘Sir, there’s a man on the line who insists on speaking to you but refuses to give his name. He is also not willing to explain the purpose of his call.’

  ‘Put him through,’ Jeev said.

  ‘Hello, it’s me. I had an envelope delivered to your residence. You will find it flattering,’ the caller said.

  ‘Thank you. But for you, the man would not have survived. It’s a debt I will never be able to repay,’ Jeev said.

  ‘Don’t worry, we will settle it over a cup of tea,’ the caller assured him before disconnecting.

  When Jeev reached home that evening, the guard handed him an envelope. It was stapled and sealed with tape on all sides. Although he was curious, he kept it in the drawer of his bedside table to read later as he had to leave soon to attend an official dinner. After he returned, he wasted little time in taking out the envelope from the drawer. As he switched on his bedside lamp, Manini pulled the bed sheet over her head and turned away from him so she could sleep. Jeev pulled out a single sheet of paper from the envelope. On it was a typed, unsigned message.

  ‘Thank you for the help. Typically, your delivery mechanism left no footprints. Except for Rubeiya, neither my friends nor relatives nor my lawyer could identify the source that provided the funds to fight my case and save my family from starvation. I have lost my job but I am a free man now. The case fell through in the absence of any evidence. I never had any admiration for you while we lived dangerously together. But I was wrong.’

  Jeevnathan felt a lump in his throat and stared at the roof.

  ‘What is it that you are reading? If you are finished, please switch off the light,’ Manini said.

  ‘Read it,’ Jeev said and gave it to her.

  She switched on her bedside lamp and read through it.

  ‘I always knew that you were a good man but a bad husband,’ she remarked, patting his cheek lovingly.

  Acknowledgements

  I owe this book entirely to Mr Vishal Bhardwaj, the extraordinary film-maker and Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, editor at HarperCollins India. But for their prodigious indulgence, these stories would have remained buried in my dusty papers.

  Vishal-ji, as I endearingly call him, was the first to read these stories. Since he found them readable and illustrative of what goes in undertaking covert intelligence operations, he persuaded Shantanu, who insists that I address him only by his first name, to go through the script. Shantanu did not have it easy to sell the idea of publishing spy tales that were a crossover between fiction and factual account of events to his colleagues. But his faith in his instincts finally paid off. Once the deck was cleared, he helped me with his invaluable suggestions to rewrite the original short stories and harnessed Shreya Dhawan’s editing acumen to ensure that the narrative remained concise, free flowing and devoid of technical jargons. I would also like to thank Rea Mukherjee of HarperCollins India for her work in the final stages of the book.

  My loving daughters also deserve a pat on their back – Keshani, for always providing a different perspective on how to script the events and Nilyanka, for making sure that I enjoy writing.

  About the Book

  The Wily Agent details the pitfalls of gathering intelligence in a foreign country, a delicate and complex business. A good source, however, can make the risks worthwhile. So, when Jeevnathan, head of the Dhaka unit of India’s external intelligence agency, is introduced to ‘Rehman’, he decides to test him to determine if he has the potential to become a valuable long-term asset. As an employee of the Bangladesh Foreign Office, Rehman is well placed to gather sensitive information that would be of great interest to India. Rehman proves to be a hard nut to crack, taking his handlers on a rollercoaster ride through the murky world of intelligence gathering, keeping them on edge, testing their operational skill and nerves as they all play the high-stakes game of espionage.

  Soon to be a major motion picture by Vishal Bhardwaj, this double-bill of pacey thrillers highlighting the exploits of India’s intelligence agency will have your pulse racing.

  About The Author

  Amar Bhushan joined the Indian Police Service in 1967 and was assigned to Madhya Pradesh. For seven years, he dealt with crime and law and order problems but remained a reluctant policeman. When the opportunity for working in intelligence organizations came, he grabbed it and never looked back till he retired as the chief of India’s foremost technical intelligence agency. He began the second innings of his career by briefly serving in the BSF intelligence, State Special Branch and Intelligence Bureau and ended up with working in the Research and Analysis Wing for the next twenty-four years.

  His last published work, Escape to Nowhere, remained on bestseller lists for eleven weeks. He lives with his wife and daughter in Bangalore but seldom misses an opportunity to visit his granddaughters in the US and his mother in Jasidih, a village in Jharkhand.

  First published in India by

  HarperCollins Publishers in 2018

  A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India

  www.harpercollins.co.in

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Copyright © Amar Bhushan 2018

  P-ISBN: 978-93-5277-903-1

  Epub Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 978-93-5277-904-8

  This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Amar Bhushan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.

  Cover design: Pinaki De

  www.harpercollins.co.in

  HarperCollins Publishers

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  The Zero-Cost Mission

  Amar Bhushan

  To my wife, Manju, whose bittersweet remarks kept me on course to survive and prosper in jobs that offered huge temptations to stray easily from principles and professional integrity.

  Preface

  Within days of the release of my book Escape to Nowhere in 2012, a junior colleague who had served under me years ago came to see me. He marvelled at my good fortune to survive in India’s external intelligence service, an agency that thrived on cronyism, mediocrity and arrogance. He recalled how he had been made to suffer for his operational wizardry and for his habit of speaking his mind. He wished that he had been more tactful and had not followed my example of fighting those who created obstacles in serving the country’s security interests. Before leaving, he wondered whether I could share his travails with readers, as I had shared mine in my book. I asked him to write about his operational experiences and send them to me.

  In the following days, he spoke to other colleagues who had similar experiences. Within weeks, I was flooded with accounts of op
erations run by junior and mid-level officers, filling hundreds of pages. While sifting through the material, I couldn’t help but admire their courage and their ability to suffer and survive. I sat down to write, to acknowledge their heroic actions and to explain how they operated despite the indifference from petty and incompetent officers and hostile working conditions, both in India and abroad.

  I have avoided mentioning too many technical details to make the narrative intelligible. Despite pruning the material, the narration is not always fast-paced because life in intelligence agencies is often dull and repetitive. For operational security, I have opted for the medium of fictionalized storytelling so that sources are not exposed and their trust is not betrayed. The plot of each operation, however, stays close to the facts. Most of the characters have since died. Those who are still around will hopefully enjoy revisiting the part they played in carrying out the missions. But some who hindered missions may find reason to be less than pleased.

  Of the thirty-nine operations that I received material on, I have selected two for this book as part of the Spymaster Series. Each one is different in terms of the nature of the assignment, the method of execution, the characteristics of the agents employed and the eccentricities of the handling officers. Hopefully, the officers who led the operations and their agents in the field will have reason to cheer when they see their accomplishments in print. It is my hope that their experiences will help intelligence officers understand that there is no greater joy than executing missions. To readers who are not familiar with the workings of the Agency, these stories will help unravel the mystery behind running agents, provide an insight into the trauma an agent goes through while undertaking perilous operations and highlight the qualities that make a real spymaster.

  The Zero-Cost Mission

  Delhi, 1992–93

  It was 7.30 p.m. Jagjit Singh Aulakh, chief of India’s external intelligence agency, left the South Block of the Central Secretariat, which housed the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Defence, after attending a meeting chaired by the principal secretary to the prime minister. As he walked to his car, he called the officer on special duty (OSD) to find out if Vijay Shukla, the desk officer for Bangladesh operations, was still waiting for him. The OSD confirmed that Shukla was indeed still in the office. For a moment, Aulakh thought of asking Vijay to go home but changed his mind in view of Vijay’s repeated insistence on the need to reach a quick decision regarding his plan for a top secret operation. Always correct in his manners, he called Vijay, apologized for keeping him waiting, and informed him that he was on his way to the office.

  As the car glided down Rajpath, Aulakh reflected on the pointless deliberations he had just witnessed. Attended by the cabinet secretary, the secretary (personnel), the principal secretary to the prime minister and himself, the meeting had lasted for over two hours and ended with the stalemate intact. They had continued to drag their feet over breaking the eight-month-long impasse over filling two posts for special secretaries from a panel of four eligible officers to manage critical operational responsibilities. Aulakh found the indecision and the repetition of the same arguments frustrating; no one was willing to do what was necessary to break the logjam and accommodate the Agency’s two most deserving officers. The problem lay in the fact that these officers did not have the minimum of eight outstanding reports during the last ten years to back their promotion. One of them, whom he wished to promote out of turn, could not be considered because he was junior by a whisker. On the other hand, the officers in the running who had both seniority and excellent records were poor analysts and failed operatives, and did not deserve to hold crucial positions at such a senior level. It was disheartening to see the mandarins eventually decide to keep all appointments on hold till retirements settled the issue in due course. He was apprehensive about how his officers would take the decision and how it would impact their motivation to continue to work with the same verve and commitment.

  For the first time in his long career, Aulakh regretted his habit of recording generous comments in the annual confidential roll of officers irrespective of their level of competence, thus enabling them to vie for promotions for the wrong reasons. However, when it came to assigning work, he seldom compromised on merit. He had a keen eye for picking the right officer for the right job. This knack enabled him to handle officers of all calibres, from below average to outstanding, with ease. He would often say that an army with only outstanding generals was a recipe for disaster; it would breed jealousy, indiscipline and fierce rivalry, eluding consensus on any plan or initiative.

  As the driver turned into the lane leading to the entrance gate of the Agency’s headquarters, Aulakh saw that apart from the executive floor, where his office was located, and the seventh floor, which housed the offices of Vijay and his boss Vishwanath Reddy, the building was almost entirely dark. Everyone had left, barring those who manned the twenty-four-hour operational services. The driver stopped the car briefly at the gate for an electronic verification and then drove past the sprawling lawn towards the main building, which was bathed in muted light. The area around was enveloped in total darkness and nothing was visible beyond five metres. This was for security reasons.

  As soon as Aulakh entered his office, he buzzed the OSD and asked him to send in Vijay. As he waited, he pulled out a file marked ‘Top Secret’ from a drawer in his desk. As he was perusing its contents, Vijay entered, greeted the Chief and sat down.

  ‘Have you discussed this proposal with Reddy?’ Aulakh asked after he finished reading the proposal.

  ‘Yes, sir. He has made no changes,’ Vijay said.

  ‘He should be involved in our discussion. Let me see if he is still around.’ Aulakh dialled Reddy’s extension and when he answered, requested him to join them.

  Reddy thought of informing the Chief that he had to leave soon as it was his fifty-eighth birthday and his wife and children were planning to take him out for dinner, but he decided against it, thinking it would be better to first find out why the Chief wished to speak to him at this hour.

  As he walked down the stairs to the Chief’s office, he called his wife to let her know that he had been delayed and would join them at the restaurant as soon as he could.

  Vishwanath Reddy, head of the South Asia division, was an intelligence officer by default. Given a choice, he would have loved to be an officer in the Foreign Service, or a banker, or an event manager. His heart lay in handling administrative matters, pursuing welfare schemes for employees at the Agency, and socializing and interacting with politicians, businessmen and well-placed bureaucrats. He was extremely good at making friends, not necessarily for intelligence purposes. The secrecy that inevitably shrouded an intelligence officer’s life weighed on him, as he loved to live an open and extravagant life. He enjoyed seeking and doling out favours, generously entertained friends and colleagues, and took pride in his connections with power brokers from diverse fields. He was sharp-witted, intelligent and charming. No one had ever seen him angry or ruffled.

  Reading reports received from sources in the field and analysing developments were, however, anathema to Reddy. So he spent the better part of his career serving outside the Agency’s claustrophobic working environment. When he had to finally return to the Agency after a long stint at the Ministry of External Affairs as the chief liaison officer, Aulakh surprisingly assigned him to handle the volatile South Asia region. Initially he was lost, his experience being in handling administration and protocol, but slowly, aided by common sense, astuteness and a team of bright and dedicated officers, he began running his area of responsibility well. Shrewd as he was, he gave his officers full liberty to operate and they, in turn, rewarded his faith by executing operations successfully, leaving no room for the Chief to complain or be disappointed with his performance. In due course, Reddy rose to become the Chief’s right-hand man.

  When he entered the office, he saw the Chief going through a file and Vijay Shukla seated before him, waiting pa
tiently for him to finish. The Chief waved him to a seat.

  ‘I’ve gone through Vijay’s proposal. But as you are the head of the Southeast Asia division, I want to hear your view on the operation’s feasibility before making my final decision.’

  Reddy realized that the Chief was referring to Vijay’s proposal to destroy the facilities of the Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Ever since India’s partition in 1947, Jamaat had been promoting Pakistan’s political, strategic and religious interests in the then East Pakistan. During the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, it actively collaborated with the government of Pakistan and the Pakistani Army, and fiercely fought the Bangladeshi nationalists who were demanding a separate state due to the years of suppression of their cultural and linguistic identity and exploitation of their economic resources. Following the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 with the help of the Indian Army and the formation of a government by the liberationists in Dhaka, Jamaat went into hiding temporarily, but it slowly emerged as a powerful Islamist group committed to setting up an Islamic state in Bangladesh ruled by the Sharia legal system. Unable to reconcile itself to the liberal values of the new political dispensation dominated by the Awami League, Jamaat emerged as Pakistan’s frontline arm in the east of India to contain Indian influence in Bangladesh, neutralize the consolidation of liberal forces in the country and help in the growth of political parties, social and religious groups that opposed India. As such, it lost no opportunity to carry out anti-India activities. Its camps and facilities were being used to help Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) send its agents to carry out acts of terror in India and to push illegal Bangladeshi Muslims into the country to alter the demography of the eastern border states of Tripura, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.