The Disputed Birthday (Chapter-1) || C.R.E.W.

C.R.E.W.

Chapter-1

The Disputed Birthday

Present Day

Secret agents, huh? A term which, in fact, has turned into a genre of its own. Movies, skits and books have a great number of this section of Secret Agents. All of them are muscular with a plump physique and a well-sharpened mind which begins to think where our minds stop. As a kid, I too was intrigued by these stories. I mean these affected my emotions so well that with no possible personal connections, I used to fit myself in the story to connect my own life with it. I considered myself unique and when that fictional world would become mine, I got no idea.

Later, I realised that it wasn't unique. Every other kid was like me...

What I now understand is that the past of a secret agent is so strong and unfortunate that we, who are susceptible, connect these feelings from the core of our heart. Are you that kind of a person? If yes, then, I would suggest you look around yourself. I was one of these until I found Aniruddh on the streets all those years ago! Aghhh! It hurts. I think I should not remember this when I am in a hospital admitted for my illness and that too, at this age.

I am lying on a hospital cot. Amaira, Fatima and Ahmad are all sitting nearby. Each of us has nothing to say. We're in a state of deep dismay though nothing has happened since then. It's just that we don't want to raise that topic again. Well, I think I will break this scary silence.

Who am I; didn't you think about it?

Well, for me, I don't think that's significant (Just for a simple reason that I am never a part of my own stories even!)

I started trying to get a cheerful look on my face, "Let's start this! After all, it is Amaira's third book! The Shades of The Tricolour: C.R.E.W.!  This discussion will surely help her. Don't you all think?"

Amaira was quiet; no words, nothing, why? Fatima broke in, "You know your condition! You have been there... Still, you want to make it a hypothetical story, a fictional one? That hurts you, it might bring you to the verge of death. Yesterday, you had a heart attack and today, this?"

"Yesterday's one was minor! Not a big problem for a person of my age... I'm sixty years old now, it happens quite often! I have knowledge now, not the foolish brat I used to be! Knowledge not in the sense of reading about a hundred books or something; it's that I have no fear of death now"

"But we have! It's all you that we have got"

"Come on, guys! I have never been so emotional or serious. A person who mimics others doesn't look good to be serious right! We should forget to get emotional on that topic! It's 20 years now", I knew what I was doing. Just offending someone!

Rising from the dark, Amaira had just crooked her lips and I knew what was on the other side of her brain, "Let's start! We avenged everyone and that's all! Farhan, Vikram and countless others were the reason for our success...Fed up of these emotional moves! By the way, Abhi, you should know how to pull the words out of your mouth that just doesn’t offend others for a mere reason to start the discussion.​​​​​​"

“You know it’s my hobby”, I chuckled with a beautiful smile that blasted out of my wrinkled old face. It did not take much time to start the discussion and as expected, our eyes glittered with some golden tears of--- Wait a minute, of what? Success, losses, sacrifices or any other emotion that I would hardly think we didn’t cover in our two missions.

December 2014

It's biting cold in these mountains. Though the layers of wool that are wrapped all around us keep us comfortable (just to say… It’s even heavy to wear these.), the chilly and intense winds have clotted my blood and my already wrecked face was looking more eccentric, now.

In the eyes of Aniruddh, I could notice the fate he had written for himself. His eyes were portraying the real description of courage, or in other words, I should say triumph over fear! 

Our feet were drenched with the snow on the mountains. I was following Aniruddh as a staunch supporter and I have been one of many… A man with undistinguished looks who stands on the mountain of success. Deep and thick eyebrows accompanied by an unusually pointed nose, increased his expression of being bold and how can I forget the typical Indian and modest colour he had! For his eyes, I think I am neither worthy nor do I have any words to explain them! It is not in the sense of beauty that I am praising his eyes, but in the sense that they clearly portrayed the friendly as well as the valiant feature of Aniruddh Ahuja! 

For me, I am Abhinav Srivastava, a man who always works for Aniruddh without possessing any extra talents or something like that! I am an average in every field and working for Anriuddh’s success is the only dream that I’ve ever seen. No particular reason for that but this is how it is. Though we are not brothers, yet the connection among us is no lesser.

“You okay?”, Aniruddh turned towards me and gasped in the snowy winds that were flowing across to make our path more invincible.

“As always!”, I screamed to make sure that my voice reached him.

“Good!”, now he turned towards the soldiers and bellowed, “Battalion, be steady! Our camps aren’t far! Don’t you dare to die…”

I don’t know why this sentence brought me an iota of laughter. Meanwhile, we were able to spot our camps now. Without any casualties, we had reached our destination. Among all the thoughts that engaged our mind, the time that took us to reach the spot was nearly equivalent to zero.

We had our seat in front of the bonfires and well-equipped tents were enough for our night’s survival. After all, it was our visit to the borders of Line of Control (LoC) to take an inspection to be sure that nothing goes sideways or there are no breaches in the upcoming time. By the Way, Aniruddh is the Lieutenant Colonel and I am the Colonel of a different regiment than this. 

“Hope, your visit has no complaints, SIR!”, the leader of this regiment saluted and spoke solemnly. We were in the tents talking about something that obviously doesn’t matter.

“Oh, come on, Ajay! Don’t be so formal, our lanes are different but roots are the same. Come have a seat!”, Aniruddh giggled.

Ajay sat beside me and we were all spending the time that seemed like a joy to behold.

Our disparaged talks gained some momentum after Ajay set in the topic of our future, “What do you both plan to do next?”

“We plan to join C.R.E.W.!”, Aniruddh spoke this with remiss but my mouth was wide open. He wouldn’t have done this without a cause.

“Really? Crucial Representation of Eager Warriors?? The Secret Association? Why did you keep me in the grey!”, Ajay’s expressions were clear enough to tell me that he thought of it as a prank.

“We’re doing this, now, Ani? Like I thought it was a secret!”, I exclaimed.

“Well, now it isn’t I think. See, I can trust Ajay that he would not disclose this and also, we’re gonna need him. I am damn sure.”, Aniruddh told this secret to Ajay only after Amaira. Well, Amaira is Aniruddh's wife. They had been engaged for 10 years and had a son, too, who is of about 9 years, Vikram Ahuja. I doubt if he has any idea about this.

“Which post do you decide to serve?”, Ajay asked further.

“I’ll be joining in as the Secondary Chief Executive Officer”

“That’s awesome!! And Abhinav as your assistant in the department, right?”

“You’ve got me”, I mimicked.

By the way, I never feel sad to be called Aniruddh’s assistant as some do… I have got no desires to surpass him. Surpassing him is just like trespassing him for me. I don't know why I don’t have a competitive nature. It feels like loyalty for him just runs through my blood. Speaking frankly, I am also curious to know the reason for the same.

The three of us were, then, busy in our talks. All the snow that was showering as balls from heaven gave birth to the scenery that I, surely, won’t forget. The sun was about to set. The mix of the deep and bright orange colour of the sun with the pearly ice made me sure that I was in heaven. 

Just espying at the night sky was peaceful. The Second Patrolling Group with the most talented soldiers among us had left for their duty. I and Aniruddh were quite satisfied with the peace here. There were no chances of any breaches that may occur due to our fault.

The only way to this particular camp was the path that we covered. I mean that the hills were bluntly cut to set up the camps and only a few roads for transport were made. In winter months that, too, is covered by snow. 

We were all sitting along with the bonfires, enjoying the pleasing temperature. Meanwhile, my ears could comprehend the sound of something. No, not animals or anything. The sound of an engine with some rotating blades. Not much time later, it attracted everyone’s attention. I don't know how but Aniruddh could sense our future and he commanded everyone, “GO INSIDE THE CAMPS! Save ammo and keep guns with you as much as you can. Suit up! There’s been a breach.”, he, then, turned his face to me and spoke, “Call for help! Ask the navigation team and report them. How did they not see anything in the radars?”, he took a sigh, “Maybe they didn’t tell us!”

I contemplated and then, took the best action. Ajay and Aniruddh had rushed to their camps. I, with a rifle in hand, reached the coordinating and communication team. 

I dialled the interior armies for help as my first priority. It was dangerous too but I am afraid I had got no other choice left. The signals received and sent could be traced and may disclose our exact position. My next move wasn’t smart enough or should I say, it was a foolish one. Keeping in mind the fact that our transmissions could be traced if the enemy has that power, I dialled the navigation team. If this was my end, I wanted to know why this situation came up. Why didn’t the security and navigation control team apprehend this dark situation?

“Mayday! Mayday! It’s an emergency. Base Camp-3, LoC.”, I spoke.

“Reporting”, the other side of the transmission replied.

“There’s been a breach.”

“Ceasefire was broken, then”

“No, it isn’t from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or anything. The upcoming danger can be heard. There’s a helicopter approaching. Why didn’t the navigation team inform us in advance?”

“Sir, there’s nothing on the radars, lidars! No unidentified vehicle has been observed around that area.”

At this point now, I probably had lost all my hopes. Not only mine but also everyone in this camp. Moreover, the ‘Second Group’ was out for patrolling and adding to our grief, there remained in my mind that only one path was there out of this camp. The carrots are already cooked and nothing’s in favour. 

As far as I am concerned with the behaviour of this regiment, I can conclude that none of us will stop fighting even if it gives a bitter ending. As of now, I was the most vulnerable person in this whole camp. I can bet that the enemies know our positions. That's just because of the transmissions.

Not a moment later, I had a clear understanding of what was going here. Aniruddh knew that this might happen. He was using me as a bait. The enemies will think that we panicked and used the transmission machine. But the truth is that this camp resembles a circle. Each camp makes the borderline for the circle. The navigation and control centre was at one end (of course, a circle has no end. But the control centre was on the borderline as the other camps).  If the enemy lands somewhere in the middle and rushes towards us. Then, Aniruddh along with Ajay will rush to save me. The bullet sounds will give a signal for the other soldiers to come up. If anything goes sideways, the reinforcements that I called for will be arriving soon. That means the situation is in total control. Salute, Aniruddh, you’ve got an ingenious mind.

I was peeping through the spaces in the woody walls. Also, I was attracting those people towards me. As predicted, there was a helicopter that came all the way over Pakistan or maybe it took a detour to come from Afghanistan and India’s borderline. The only reason they would’ve done this could be for putting the blame over Pakistan and heating the Indo-Pak issue, again.

I could clearly see the helicopter dropping a rope. The aero-vehicle wasn’t armed. As expected, I could spot five terrorists plunging with the help of rope. They rushed towards me. Everything was going as planned. They had prepared no counter plans. My heart was beating aloud. Everyone in my room could sense the danger. The eye that was peeping out was spotted and out of blue, a bullet was fired towards my eye. Ahh! I thank my reflex. It saved me an eye. The bullet shot was significant. Three of them now ran like hell. The other two stood where they were. They provided cover.

They had intelligence after all. But all of their plans were in vain. They were surrounded by all sides. Our room’s door was broken. And one of them was in front of me. My heart went cold…

I did what needed to be done. The rifle I had pierced a bullet straight through his head. And I could see the other two also falling on him. From the gate, Aniruddh entered. Ajay and he had taken care of the two. The other two in the middle were executed by other army men. The plan was a success and also without a single casualty. 

“All well, then?”, Aniruddh remarked, “You carried out your task beautifully. I hope you understood the plan in advance”

“I did that generations ago…”, I exaggerated.

The bodies were taken into the centre where there was enough light. We tried to touch them only through gloves, trying not to leave fingerprints. 

We could discern the buttons of their clothes. The buttons had clearly titivated the text written on them, “منظمة إرهابية عالمية”. We would need a translator for this.

Abruptly, out of nowhere, I could hear a bullet and not even a second later, it penetrated through someone’s head. It was none other than Ajay. 

Everything went ghost silent. We could hear nothing. Ajay dies instantly. Not able to hear his last words, even! The sound of silence was audible. Suddenly, my faith in the world’s humanity had totally run out of fuel. The other sound I could hear was of Aniruddh screaming, “Like hell, this world ISSS!!!!”

He, blindly, ran towards that man and tried to kill him. That man had reloaded his sniper rifle and was ready to shoot Aniruddh. I again took to my reflexes to shoot Aniruddh in his foot to stop at that very instant. It worked and Aniruddh was safe. That man was taken down by other people and I ran towards Aniruddh and gasped, “They had planned to land him there. We’re safe now”

“Where are you?”, Aniruddh shocked me.

“Come again!”

“Come! Come on”

And it suddenly changed my total surroundings. Looked like the realm was changed. The next moment I realised, it was an insane dream of mine.

Aniruddh was in front of me.

“Oh! Nice, you’re alive”, he mocked.

“Hm! That dream again!”, I replied.

“That was exactly ten years ago! It’s December 2014! Come on. Forget it!!”
“I know but Ajay died that day.”

“That was truly a big spoon of shock but it doesn’t matter how hard we try, that can’t be unchanged. I thought he'd be helpful to us when we would be in C.R.E.W.”

“Gotta leave it now! By the way, happy birthday”

“Like the devil. Ajay died on that day. How could I celebrate such a grave day? My birthday has always been disputed.”

“I understand.”

“You realise that we’re being deceived. That day nothing was observed on radars. None! That helicopter came from the west. The Global Terrorist Organization is still alive and we’ve gotta finish this.”

“Yeah, that Arabic translation was quite funny. I have never seen anyone calling themselves as the bad guys! It’s amusing”

“I don’t care whether it is. The thief has a burning hat. I just need to find that betrayer. The world all those years ago said that all our proofs were fabricated. Gotta prove them wrong!!!”

“How’s that going? I mean…”

“Fasten your seatbelts! OPERATION VINDICTA’s gonna be a success now! It’s revenge time!”

-To Be Continued

(Abhinav Srivastava)

(For all chapters of CREW, visit- https://ardourfusion.blogspot.com/search/label/C.R.E.W.)