A Week Before Vindicta (Chapter-2) || C.R.E.W.

C.R.E.W.

Chapter-2

A Week Before Vindicta

Again and again and again! That dream or should I say, that night, flashes too many times in front of my eyes. It’s not like I have never experienced bloodshed. 

As one of the leading commanders for a battalion, I hold the best aptitude only second to Aniruddh. The soldiers that die move indirectly into my account of incapabilities. I have seen worse situations where all the hopes fainted but this was kind of different.

There’s never been anyone except Ajay whom I have been close to as half as Aniruddh (excluding my family from this list). Watching him die before my eyes, listening to the sound of silence accompanied by Aniruddh’s first aggressive scream was as painful as hell. Let me be frank to myself, I am a very emotional guy who sometimes even cries in ‘not-so emotional scenes’ of movies. Relating this, you can easily conclude how tragic that night would have been for us.

Let’s forget that now! It’s been ten years! Our professions have changed, we have morphosed and also the world has become more brutal than it was before. 

For us, I and Aniruddh have become the ingenious members of the C.R.E.W. department. Nine years ago, Aniruddh joined the department as the Secondary Chief Executive Officer. A couple of years later, he was promoted to the highest post and I filled the vacancy for the Secondary CEO. 

The feeling of vengeance for Ajay has always kept us working. After all this time, we have waited to accomplish this operation. THE OPERATION VINDICTA! In Latin, the word ‘Vindicta’ stands for ‘revenge’ and that’s what we desire.

Today, as usual, I walked to my bathroom, had a morning routine and headed to the down floor. Aniruddh was already on the dining table. Amaira was there too, sitting beside her. Vikram, probably, was still asleep. A boy, a bit above the age considered as adults, has his own digital world of imagination and entertainment. I seriously doubt if he has any interest in his father’s work. He is a commerce student and wants to live a happy life without any risks or endeavours. This is a very contrasting nature compared to Amaira or Aniruddh. It often hits my mind if he is a son of both of them … Ah! Lame jokes, again!

This reminds of one thing about myself. I am extraordinarily good at mimicry (not boasting). You tell me anyone’s name or any voice, I can copy it to any extent. That’s why I always say, a person who mimics others doesn't look good to be serious! This is the reason you will hear these lame jokes all through my journey.

I sat beside Aniruddh. Had some usual talks and it seemed like time had wings. I have become a part of Aniruddh’s family since generations. After all, he owes me. Where he stands today, all the base was set up by my father. Rich and kind hearted businessman (they are now in Mumbai) who adopted Aniruddh from the roads. My father accidentally dropped a thousand rupee note when we were on the way back to our home from a hotel and Aniruddh, a generous and a mere ten year old poor boy came to us, returned that note and left. The footsteps that he went back with, I haven’t a damn clue how, heard like steps of the most amiable person I would ever meet. My father reached that boy. He didn’t seem to us like an illiterate poor fellow who was born into these harsh circumstances. He was forced into these. His eyes had the reflection of the rays of his past. He didn’t want to give up. He was exceptional!

On asking him, we found that his parents Mr. and Mrs. Ahuja recently died in an unfortunate accident and he was left with no family. None of the relatives of his took him. Just how it was! That day my father took the possession of that child and gave him the same amenities as me. 

I was actually one of those children who are termed as ‘Useless children of rich fathers’. I don’t demarcate or target anyone from real life but I was one of them and proved this statement to the extent of the heights it could reach. After watching Aniruddh with the struggles he faced, I realised how cruel life was.  He directed me a path to walk on. He gave me a friend to rely on. He provided me everything I could thank him for! Without each other, we both won’t have found our ways we are walking on today. Aniruddh understands how affectionate parents are; he has experienced that sacrifice. Vikram is indirectly the same as me, but he will surely find his way too!

Aniruddh’s story is definitely like a legend; people indirectly throw the stones at the protagonist and our hero passes through all the quandaries and predicaments to waive the flag of success. The difference is this time that Aniruddh has never meant this position to be his victory. He is always thirsty for more (not in a greedy way). The death of Ajay has given both of us a new mission to live!

Well, after passing a long time in our useless talks, a sentence that was enjoying a long-awaited renaissance came up from my side, “Sorry for interrupting Aniruddh but the fact is that only a week is left and the ins and outs aren’t clear enough. A misdemeanour can lead to a massacre at a time when we are still suspecting a betrayal!”

“I know the plan isn’t flawless. We need to carry it out. Will discuss everything!”, Aniruddh replied calmly.

“Do you think going to Manoj’s residence at a time like this is right? Anyone can trace our movements.”

“None in the world other than the selected members of C.R.E.W and the government have a damn clue about Operation Vindicta. Moreover, who would suspect a private businessman to help us and none knows we are in this department. Haha! This department is so curious.”

“I agree! I still remember when we were marked as retired soldiers and behind the scenes, we joined this.”

“That was kinda funny”, Aniruddh took a sigh, “We’re being late. Farhan would’ve easily arrived by now. Let’s leave, Amaira… Vikram’s coming, isn’t he?”

“He is”, Amaira replied. She is the most decent woman after my mom I have ever seen in my life. I didn’t marry and decided to stay with Aniruddh for the rest of my life. Amaira never had any problem with that. A person like me would’ve always interfered in their privacy but Amaira never complained. Maybe because she knew how deep and complex my relationship was with Aniruddh. Amaira, without a doubt, is indefeasible. 

Aniruddh can blindly trust her and Vikram. Therefore, they knew about Operation Vindicta.

Vikram came in a hurry and I was right, he was still sleeping. We left in the next ten minutes and it didn’t take much time for us to reach Manoj’s house. Farhan, too, was here with his wife Fatima and son, Ahmad. Maybe they also knew about this mission. 

Manoj Singh Tiwari, one of the biggest businessmen in India, the CEO of a reliable smartphone company. He earns in crores everyday! Without him, I am sure that we won’t have lasted a second in this mission. Indeed, he is a generous and a down to earth man. These are one of the main reasons Aniruddh has always trusted him and he’ll always do that… Farhan Qureshi is also one of the few trustees of Aniruddh. 

We entered the graceful house. This couldn’t have been better. Tiles that seem and glow like diamonds. The false ceilings and the designs attracted our eyes in every direction. This time Manoj also looked different. His eyes were glimmering with the hopes of this mission getting successful. His hair had a new cut and this time it was simple and truly, it looked more sober with his modest colour. And Farhan, as always, was full of humour. Ahmad and Fatima were not engaging a lot in the discussion and so weren’t Vikram and Amaira.

“Oh! My friend… long time, no see”, Manoj spoke up in excitement after seeing Aniruddh.

“Which type of fool would forget you mister? You have been our source for everything”

“It’s my pleasure to serve the nation. Well, have a seat.”

Aniruddh sat beside Farhan. Ahmad greeted Aniruddh with respect and Vikram seemed to have no relation with this matter.

In some usual talks, Aniruddh asked Ahmad, “How’s your study going?”

“As good as gold”, Ahmad replied.

“What do you plan, next, then?”

“I have always admired my father and I have a hell lot of desperation to join C.R.E.W. It will work out for me, I think. I don’t want to enter as the son of Farhan Qureshi but as a new member of C.R.E.W!”

“That was lit! We need people like you. In six months, you will be able to apply, I suppose”, Aniruddh was impressed.

Ahmad nodded in reply. I don’t know if it was jealousy or just a concern as a father, Aniruddh stared at Vikram in an eccentric way…

Meanwhile, Manoj started “Let’s revise, then, shall we?”

“Of Course! The mission has been granted permission from the President and the forces have been supplied.”, I said.

“But before, Farhan, have the results for the training corps for the C.R.E.W. been announced?”, Aniruddh questioned.

“Yes”, Farhan replied, “Supriya Sharma has topped the list this time with extraordinary talent and fast decision making”

“Hmm! Will wait to meet her”, Aniruddh set in, “Now, as the masterminds of this plan, we trust everyone in this room and thereby, I, as the Chief Executive Officer of this organisation proclaim that if this information is leaked out, then the whole responsibility will fall on my shoulders! The plane has been booked with no flaws. Arms have been loaded and we have full trust in Mathew Oliveria accompanied with the facts that we have gained in this time. The plan shall be discussed in detail now. A plane from the national capital to Dubai has been booked for this mission. Each and every seat of the aircraft has been acquired for the Indian Soldiers to reach Dubai. An identical aircraft loaded with arms will leave that day. Delhi, being an international airport, accounts for the chances of our failure. Our Indian troops and officers will help us to launch that same aircraft. Once that is done successfully without giving any clue to foreign passengers, pilots, workers or employees, we will succeed. Loading an identical airplane would be dangerous enough to expose us and therefore, we will try to load the arms in the same plane by the help of our trustees. Our arms and soldiers will be under the leadership of Farhan. I and Abhinav will be in the control room directing the next steps to them. After reaching Dubai, they will try to infiltrate the Global Terrorist Organisation (GTO) with the help of facts given by Mathew Oliveria. If anyone betrays us or even if it is Mathew behind all this, then our armies will cover for these agents. Once we disseminate the Global Terrorist Organisation, we will definitely find proof to expose their deeds. The buttons that inscribed Global Terrorist Organisation on them were considered to be fabricated by the world. We gotta prove this wrong. If there are any doubts, then let’s solve them…”

“How do you exactly think Mathew is betraying us? You know the fact that he has done a lot for us?”, Manoj was curious.

“See, those 10 years ago, on my birthday what happened is the main reason why we are conducting this mission. You have been in the Indian market for 11 years and you know that the visit Abhinav and I made to reach PoK was publicly funded by your company. That was the day we found the buttons on which GTO was embroidered with dignity. Relying on some names of buttons that may have been fabricated for a conspiracy against us is idiocracy. But we all know that GTO is out there in the world. It is infiltrating the armies without giving anyone a damn clue. They are non suspectful elements in the society that carry out their works either in no-man’s land or maybe online. Who knows? Mathew has surely helped us to give us the exact locations. Six months after that attack, the buttons on which GTO was inscribed were sent for investigation and a conclusion was squeezed out that these were made in Pakistan. They have their base worldwide. Even Pakistan doesn’t have a clue about this. A Goan agent, Mathew Oliveria, was sent to Pakistan to examine the situation 9 years ago. He has been there since then. Maybe he is dead by now and someone’s distracting us or maybe he is the one betraying us but I can rule this possibility out. He is not dead because the code language is still the same in our talks and the positions for the headquarters matches our theory for the helicopter. That helicopter which attacked us 10 years ago was mostly TES-60 made under UAE firms. A very old model for helicopters in this age but that was it. Mathew also informed us the headquarters are in Dubai. They can have no personal connection because the time gap between him joining the GTO and the helicopter attacking us is more than a year. That’s why Mathew isn’t the one. But I don’t want any flaws.”

“See, I get your point but how can you be so sure about the helicopter not coming in the radar is a factor for considering some betrayal? I mean aircrafts have the technology to avoid the radars”, now Farhan was curious this time.

“Abhinav’s got a mind for this. He’ll explain”, Aniruddh coughed. He had been speaking for long.

I started in my bit high-pitched voice, “From 15,000 feet, radars can detect aircrafts and even vessels all of the way down to the surface of the ocean out to 200 miles. It is certainly possible to fly "under the radar." The pilots practice a type of flying called nap-of-the-earth for exactly this purpose. And moreover, stealth aircrafts are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radar, infrared, visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio. This is collectively known as stealth technology. But for aircrafts as old as TES-60, it is certainly impossible that it can fly ‘under the radar’ or even can use stealth technology. Adding to our suspicions, at the same time, the most powerful regiment, the second one was out for patrolling. A coincidence? Maybe! Then, no RPGs and grenades were used to destroy us. Rather, snipers were used which is extraordinarily uncommon. It looked like as if they came for a suicide mission. Just to activate us so that we could take revenge and they would’ve some plan regarding that. Also, there were no drones used. Radars can mostly detect all types of drones regardless of whether it uses RF communication, GPS programming or WiFi (or cellular) communication. The only limit to radar detection is the size of the drone. High chances were there that the drone should’ve been detected. But that wasn’t the case. A drone, too, wasn’t used. These are coincidences? All these? That’s why there’s a whiff of danger.”, I had really burnt up my vocal chords by now.

“The only reason this attack was conducted could have been to activate us so that we could take revenge. They must’ve had some counter-attacks which would eventually defame India. As simple as that! That’s why I took 10 years to modify this mission. They probably would’ve lost their hopes that we would attack them. The reality is that only a week is left now. We are going to rain like failure on them! Been on a backfoot for years, it’s now the time to pay all this off!”

Aniruddh had his blood flowing with confidence and vengeance. Between all this heated surrounding, everyone abruptly heard cracking of a glass. Everyone was eerily cautioned and eventually, it was nothing but Vikram had broken his phone into pieces. Manoj’s house’s tiles were hard and the phone slipped off Vikram’s hand. It hit hard and the ultimate result was in front of our eyes. This incident caught my eyes towards Farhan who wasn’t sitting much far from Vikram. I noticed something strange and peculiar. Why was he wearing a dress of Arabica descent in winter and that, too, in Delhi?

-To Be Continued

(Abhinav Srivastava)