Imran allowed the shadow of a smile to play on his lips. ‘Actually, I didn’t say who I was with. I was working undercover. If your definition of undercover includes an IB officer playing a local policeman!’
Colin introduced Shukla and White. ‘Is this regarding the case?’ he asked. ‘We really don’t have much more to tell you.’
‘Oh, yes you do.’ Imran’s face was grim. ‘I know about Vijay and Radha. Trouble is, you don’t know about Farooq Siddiqui. He is a very dangerous man. He is linked to Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. We have been on his trail for a while, but we didn’t want to move in on him until we knew exactly what he was after. Now we know.’ He told them about the threat issued by LeT to bomb the G20 summit.
Greg White’s face was ashen and Shukla too was white with terror. His daughter was being held captive by one of the most dreaded terrorist groups in the world.
‘And I know that you were engaged by Bheem Singh to come to India,’ Imran addressed White, ‘So I’m sorry to inform you that he, too, was mixed up with Farooq in this web of intrigue. What’s worse, Bheem Singh was one of the ringleaders. But we don’t have to worry about him now.’
‘You’ve arrested him?’ White’s face had turned a darker shade of grey. He wasn’t taking the news very well.
Imran shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, no. There is much he could have told us. But he’s dead.’
He decided to come to the point. ‘I know that Farooq has been in touch with you and wants you to decipher some sort of verse for him,’ Imran continued. ‘We tapped Vijay’s phone and we’ve been listening in on the conversations he’s been having with you. Now, here’s what I want you to do.’
He looked around at the group. ‘Have you deciphered the verse?’
Colin nodded.
‘Good.’ Imran smiled grimly. ‘Now, when Farooq calls in around 30 minutes from now, I want you to tell him the answer to the verse but only after a very long negotiation.’
‘How will that help?’ Colin enquired.
‘We’ve located his hideout,’ Imran explained. ‘It will take us 45 minutes to reach. I need you to keep him engaged in conversation. So negotiate for Vijay and Radha’s release. Put forward terms and conditions. Give him a detailed explanation of how you solved the mystery. Anything. Just keep him talking. Please. It will give us time to reach there.’ He held Colin’s gaze. ‘This is our only chance of getting Vijay and Radha out of there alive. Believe me, Farooq has no plans to free them. Once he gets the information he needs, your friends will die.’
Colin pondered this for a few moments, exchanging glances with Shukla and White. Both men nodded. This seemed to be the only way out.
‘Fine.’ Colin exhaled sharply. ‘We’ll do as you’ve asked. Please get them back.’
Imran nodded grimly. ‘I’ll do my best.’ Inwardly, he wasn’t so confident. He had a plan, but it depended on so many other factors, there was no way to be sure what would happen.
As Imran left the room, White said, ‘I’m sorry but I need to go lie down for a while. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Sure, no problem,’ Colin said, half distracted, as White left the room. Shukla stayed, still looking pale and petrified.
A thought briefly crossed Colin’s mind but he pushed it away. There was no doubt the news about Bheem Singh had come as a shock to the archaeologist. But it seemed to him that White looked more angry than unwell! But that didn’t make sense. Colin shook his head. He was imagining things. He had more important things to worry about right now.
A Moment of Happiness
Vijay sat on the floor of the room in which he was being held captive. For some reason, his captivity didn’t bother him. But his mind was still in turmoil. He struggled to come to terms with his hopelessness. He questioned the use of trying to understand his emotions when they were confronted with death. Farooq intended killing Radha and him. There was no hope for them.
Something went off in his brain. He realised what had happened. He had fallen in love with Radha. For a few moments, he allowed the thought to wash over him and luxuriated in the warm, ecstatic feeling that accompanied it. Then he pushed the thought away. What a time to discover love! When they were doomed to be killed. But then, if they lived, would she reciprocate his feelings? She had shown no signs of any special feelings for him.
He sighed. Life was a bitch.
As if to reinforce his conclusion, two of the LeT fighters entered the room. An AK 47 was pointed at him and one of the men gestured for him to rise and follow them.
A Daring Attempt to Escape
The room where Radha had been dumped had no furniture apart from a hard, lumpy cotton mattress that had served as her bed in one corner of the room. The floor was dirty but thankfully there didn’t seem to be cockroaches or rats around; at least, she hadn’t seen any.
The power situation in Patna wasn’t very good. The lights would go off every few hours or so and the blackout could last for anywhere between half an hour and several hours. It seemed that the building didn’t have a backup generator or inverter, at least not one connected to this room. During these blackouts the room would be in complete darkness with each sound amplified a thousand times. She had heard lizards scraping along the wall as they scurried from one shelter to another but no other sounds had disturbed those hours of solitude, silence and darkness.
She really hadn’t any cause to complain about the way she was being treated. She was given three meals a day; simple food, but she never went hungry.
Farooq hadn’t made an appearance since the first day when he had spoken to both of them. Neither had she seen Vijay since then. She, too, had been left alone though Farooq had kept her mobile phone with him. She wondered how Vijay was faring, and hoped he was safe.
Her solitude over the last two days had been difficult for her, though she fought to keep her hopes alive. Often, when the lights went off, the darkness and silence weighed down on her mind, enveloping it, numbing it and distorting her emotions and thoughts. It was in those moments that she felt most disheartened.
She longed to be able to get away and tell the others. The Indian government needed to know. Other governments needed to be informed. If what Farooq had shared with her was true, the world was running out of time.
There was a sound at the door and she looked up. One of Farooq’s men entered. He looked at her and wordlessly indicated that she was to follow him.
Wearily, she got to her feet. The gunman strode away, not bothering to look back at her, confident that she had nowhere to run.
The guard led her down the corridor, until they came to a large room with rattan furniture strewn around in a haphazard fashion. Farooq occupied a large sofa , directly facing the door. A bottle of whisky and bottles of soda stood on a table in front of him. He held a half-empty glass of whisky and soda. Some of the other men held glasses of whisky as well.
Vijay stood before Farooq, his hands bound behind his back. She realised that Farooq wasn’t taking any chances after Vijay had escaped from his clutches on an earlier occasion. She also realised that the men believed that she was easy prey, which was why she was allowed more freedom than Vijay. After the initial feeling of resentment at being considered weak just because she was a woman, it dawned on her that this gave her the slimmest of chances of getting away. She decided to stay alert and look out for the slightest opportunity for their escape. No matter what the odds, she wasn’t going down without a fight. And she knew that neither would Vijay.
Despite her strong resolve, she shuddered at the lascivious grins that appeared on the faces of the men as she entered the room.
Vijay looked relieved to see her. He didn’t look very well, though there was no evidence that he had been physically mistreated in any way.
What was that emotion behind the concern in his eyes? It shouted out to her that he reciprocated her feelings for him. Her heart quickened. The man she loved was standing next to her, but she couldn’t tell him that she loved him, too.
‘Forty
minutes to go,’ Farooq said by way of a greeting. ‘Your friends better have been successful in figuring out the location of the secret.’ He ignored Vijay who was staring angrily at him and focused on Radha. He grinned, an evil, leering grin. ‘And after I get what I want, we’ll take care of you.’ He looked at his men. ‘Won’t we?’ He laughed and the other guards in the room laughed as well. She didn’t like the look in their eyes.
Vijay was standing like he was carved out of stone. Radha could see the fury in his eyes. He was making a conscious effort to restrain himself. His face, stony and black, betrayed his anger, his urge to fight and break free. Farooq was mocking her, mocking him, knowing fully well that they were like birds with clipped wings, able to flutter around but incapable of taking flight.
A shiver ran down her spine. The true extent of their predicament struck her like a blow in the face. These men had no intention of letting them go. Any hope that he would eventually set them free was now gone. And now, it was also clear that they didn’t intend killing her immediately. And she knew what that meant!
Tears welled up in her eyes as she realised the hopelessness of her situation. But she was determined not to show her fear; she knew it would only embolden the men.
Smiling with grim satisfaction, Farooq lifted his glass. ‘To the weapon of Lashkar-e-Taiba!’ He exclaimed in Urdu.
‘The weapon of Lashkar-e-Taiba!’ The other men echoed the refrain, some of them thumping their boots on the floor.
Radha tried to hide her trembling hands behind her back.
Then, it happened.
The power went off and the room was plunged into darkness.
‘Radha, go!’ Vijay’s shout was immediately followed by a thud, the sound of the sofa overturning, a crash and the sound of glass shattering. She heard Farooq yell out in pain and curse. The room exploded in commotion.
For a moment, she froze. Then she realised what had happened.
Vijay, seeing the opportunity, had jumped Farooq, knocking down the table and the rattan sofa. By the sound of it, he had probably rolled over after that, unable to stop himself with his hands bound, and crashed full tilt into some of the other terrorists.
She realised that her opportunity was at hand.
It would mean leaving Vijay behind, but she knew what he was thinking. One of them had to escape and get word to the government about the threat. Vijay had created this opportunity knowing the risk he faced by being the one left behind.
The fact that the lights had gone out meant that the house didn’t have an inverter. Even if there was a generator that fed power to this room, she had a few precious seconds before someone started it.
Someone shouted in Urdu. ‘Secure the woman!’
Radha racked her brains, desperately trying to recall the direction of the door through which she had entered the room and realised that it should be directly behind her. She turned around and sprinted out of the room. Shouts rang out as men closed in on where she had been standing and realised that she was no longer there.
Farooq’s voice rose over the clamour, speaking in Urdu ‘Fools! She must not get out of the room!’
A light came on behind her, dimly lighting the room she had left. Someone had lit a candle. Its weak light did little to pierce the gloom in the corridor that stretched before her, though it did help ensure she didn’t bump into anything in the dark.
She ran down the corridor.
The passage forked before her. Darting down the passage on the right, she ran blindly, hoping she was going the right way.
If she was caught...
She shuddered, not wanting to think about the possibility. She noticed rooms on either side, with their doors shut, on either side of the passage.
A beam of light pierced the darkness. Someone had switched on a torch.
There was a shout as the torch silhouetted her in the passage. The men following her had reached the fork in the corridor and had seen her.
The light from the torch also outlined a door at the end of the corridor. Where did it lead to?
Radha increased her pace, her breath coming in short bursts. How long would she be able to keep this up?
Reaching the door, she jerked it open.
A landing led to a staircase that descended to a lower level. She just caught herself from tumbling headlong down the stairs.
For a split second, she hesitated. Was she going the right way? Or was she getting herself into a dead end?
The sound of the men pursuing her grew louder as they approached.
Quickly making up her mind, she sped down the staircase, moving as fast as she could in the darkness.
While the darkness had helped her escape, it was also slowing her progress. The men pursuing her had no such handicap. They could move faster than her and would catch up soon.
There was a window at the next landing. She paused to steal a glance outside. There was a moon in the sky which dimly lit up the surroundings. Though the streetlights were off she could make out one thing that mattered.
The street was one level below.
Her gamble had paid off.
Her hopes rising, she darted down the rest of the staircase using the balustrade to maintain her pace.
The stairway ended in a large room. Through the curtainless windows, she could see the street outside.
The lights came back on again.
Behind her the men raced down the staircase.
The stairway led down one more level, into the basement, which was enveloped in darkness. She noticed a door each, to her left and right. Both doors were latched shut.
Radha hesitated. She had to make a choice of which door to try and she didn’t have time for mistakes.
The door on her left. It was directly below the window from which she had seen the street. That had to be the front door.
She raced to the door and struggled with the latch which seemed to be jammed.
She rushed back across the room and tried the latch on the other door. It slid back smoothly and noiselessly. She turned to see where her pursuers were and saw them enter the room.
They saw her immediately and advanced towards her, evil grins on their faces.
Desperate, Radha backed up against the door she had just opened. It gave way behind her and she lost her balance, falling back into the room it led into.
Suddenly, shouts erupted from upstairs.
The group of men stopped, looking at each other as if trying to make sense of what they had heard.
The shouts came again, spurring the men to action. All of them, except one, raced back up the stairs. The lone remaining man walked up to the door and stared at Radha, anger in his eyes. Wordlessly, he slammed the door in her face and Radha heard the bolts being shot home. She heard him shout something back to the men upstairs. He was probably letting them know that he’d locked her up.
She was a prisoner once more.
37
Day 10
Somewhere in Patna
As the lights blinked on again, Vijay found himself being hauled up roughly and hurled across the room. He crashed into a wall and lay there, dazed, breathing heavily. He tried to sit up but before he could, Farooq was at his side, pulling him up by a handful of his hair.
Vijay shouted out in pain but it only seemed to encourage his tormentor.
‘Think you are smart, are you?’ Farooq hissed in his ear. ‘If I didn’t have to keep you alive until I got my answers, you’d be dead by now.’
He flung Vijay away from him, then kicked him hard in the ribs, following it up with another kick for good measure. Vijay buckled with pain but clenched his teeth and forced his screams back. He was not going to give Farooq the pleasure of knowing that he was hurting him. But he knew he couldn’t hold out for much longer if the man persisted. Just then, Vijay’s mobile phone, which was with Farooq, rang and the LeT leader looked at it with astonishment. As Vijay looked on, he disconnected the call and put the phone back in his pocket.
It promptly rang agai
n.
This time, Farooq answered. ‘What the hell do you think you are doing calling me on this number?’ he demanded angrily. ‘You know the plan. I...’
He stopped midsentence, as if abruptly cut off by the caller and his jaw dropped. Vijay surmised that he was getting some news that he hadn’t anticipated. He wondered what it was.
‘Are you sure about all this?’ Farooq asked finally after hearing the caller out.
He fell silent again, listening to the reply.
‘Fine. Change of plans. We’ll leave immediately.’ He disconnected the call and looked at Vijay. ‘Your friends have deciphered the verse,’ he smirked. ‘And now they’ll be joining you. All of you will die together.’
Vijay wondered how Farooq knew, because he certainly hadn’t been speaking to any of his friends. But he didn’t have time to think further. ‘We leave immediately!’ Farooq barked to his men and immediately they galvanised into action. Two of them dragged Vijay to his feet and supported him out of the room.
‘What about the woman?’ Vijay heard one of the men asking Farooq in Urdu.
‘Forget her. We have more important things to worry about,’ Farooq shot back. ‘Call the others back. The Intelligence Bureau knows our location. We have to leave before they find us.’
Vijay’s heart leaped. This meant that he and his friends weren’t the only ones who knew about Farooq.
‘She has been locked in the room downstairs,’ one of the men informed Farooq.
‘Doesn’t matter. Let’s go,’ Farooq responded.
Vijay smiled to himself. If the IB was hunting the LeT leader, then they would come to this safehouse sooner or later. Even if Farooq and his men escaped with him as captive, Radha would be found.
Farooq’s next words, however, dashed his hopes to the ground.
‘Burn the building to the ground.’
A Little Too Late
Imran’s phone rang. He was in a police jeep, being driven to Farooq’s safehouse. He looked at the number. It was from one of his men in the surveillance team, who had been despatched to the safehouse as soon as its location was tracked down. Their job was to keep a watch on Farooq and his men and report in if they noticed any developments.
The Mahabharata Secret Page 23