Against The Law (Chapter-5) || C.R.E.W

C.R.E.W.

Chapter-5

Against The Law

Present Day

"So, politics entered the field now and they got on our wick. We were mostly confirmed that Krishna Chandra Rai and Dhananjay Reddy were under the influence of GTO. There was a probability that they were doing it for personal political benefits and Farhan had no connection with GTO.”, I was still lying in my bed. Unable to move. Still, narrating the whole story again for Amaira. Ahmad knew it already and in some ways, Fatima did too. I started again, “We didn't want that to happen at all! Only if GTO was online, then cutting the online source would have worked in eliminating the organisation. If there was anything like a real terrorist organisation, then just eliminating the leader would not have worked. That ideology would have lived on forever and ever. If CREW was online and according to Mathew, if that was under the influence of that Zayhan guy, then it would have been easier to reach him and finish him off. And also, if KCR and DR were working under the Global Terrorist Organisation, then it would have assured us that the organisation is not based on what you generally call Jihad. Of course, such inhuman crimes have no religion but that's what we thought, not them. If KCR and DR were really supportive of GTO, then the truth would have been something beyond religion and the people joining GTO would be receiving something more valuable than money. These were our theories about GTO.”

“So you guys were planning this much out at that time? Like hell!”, Amaira barked in excitement… (Yeah, she was too excited for planning out her third book based on a secret department. ‘Barking’ is really the right word, I think.)

“You didn’t know what was happening inside all of what was shown. That’s why I am narrating this story again though you already know it. But you don’t know what happened when we started Operation Stigma Removal or that disguised saint part or how brilliant we were in greasing politicians and all! I will come to all of that later…”

“Sure!’

Ahmad was staring at me continuously. Maybe he was just lost in his thoughts, thinking about all the pain that he had to suffer. Who knows? 

“Let’s continue, shall we?”

December 2014

“We were barking on the wrong tree, then?”, I mocked.

“Yes, precisely yes!”, said Aniruddh, “Farhan was just under control.”

“Do you really think Farhan kept his family above the nation? Was there anything else?”

“You just hit the hail on my head!”

“Huh?”

“I was thinking the same thing. Even though we agree that Farhan made wrong choices often but this was a damn blind betrayal. Even if he was manipulated by the former Prime Minister, legally, KCR has no authority over the members of CREW. Even considering he was threatened by someone else to do this, he could have reported and we would have won the court case.”

“We all went through the same training before joining CREW. He must’ve been mentally ready for political influences because CREW’s initial base is faulty and deep down, we knew this but never experienced it, practically!”

“Exactly”, Aniruddh gasped, “Then, what supports his deed? Do you think of that?”

“You wanna say brainwash?”

“Yes… Nothing else supports the chats of Vikram and Ahmad”

Vikram was still lying on the sofa after Aniruddh threw him in. He was loitering around in grief. He was probably thinking about how mean he had been. Over carelessness brings you where Vikram is today. Just paying attention to the desperation of Ahmad writing about the disaster would have saved a lot of lives. We were not surprised by the fact that Vikram didn’t pay attention to Ahmad nor that he didn’t tell us anything about it. Rather we were shocked to see his mulish behaviour that suddenly changed when he was told that a new phone was being bought for him. 

As of now, he had no moves to play. Each step of his was of embarrassment. He didn’t even try to defend himself. Within his core, he felt guilty for what he had done. He stood up from the sofa, left his phone there and headed towards his room while his instincts were clear to us.

“Where are you heading, you foolish-squared up, brat? Still don’t have any feelings? Don’t try to act now…. What you’ve done can’t be changed!”, Aniruddh roared. He definitely didn’t sound like him at all. His anger was popping out impassively.

“Aniruddh, shush!”, Amaira murmured in his ear, “It’s too much! Can’t you see him?”

“I can of course. He’s getting what he deserves”, Aniruddh didn’t try to slow his voice down.

Amaira did not answer, just twisted her head in some opinion of hers. I was just standing stolidly with nothing to speak; so was Vikram. He was heading towards his room. He was able to hear everything but didn’t give us damn heed in his grief. 

“Aniruddh, Vikram can do anything! That boy’s not acquainted with real life! He can do anything… You know what I mean! Spit your anger out for your so——“, I shouted.

“He won’t! Not today”

Probably, it was the first time in life I was seeing Aniruddh doing anything that didn’t match my perception. It was all like a storm in a cup and adding to all of this, Aniruddh got a phone from an unknown number.

Aniruddh picked it up and we mostly knew who it was, “Switch on your TV”, said the man.

“How? They did all the resurrection in two and a half days? Very fast I think”

“Yes! The team was fast and the private team investigating the scenario was of Manoj that he sent from his company.”

“Manoj’s company is famous now… They would have surely asked for help and Manoj also wanted to know what happened!”, Aniruddh sneered.

“I get it! Now just switch on the TV”

“Already done!”

It was a call from the PMO and Adarsh himself was on the call. He, every time, calls us from a different number.

We switched on the television and yes, the truth of Farhan’s body was out as anticipated. The anchor of the news channel was continuing her sentence, “——has heated the situation. Though the pilots and the crew staff of the passenger aircraft travelling to Abu Dhabi had already given their statements yet they are not free of the stigma because they chose to protect their lives over others. They are responding by saying that the crew was not mature enough to take actions on its own and they could do nothing but experience the hopes of people waiting for their despair deaths. But the man that has all ears currently is someone who is named ‘Farhan Qureshi’ according to his birth certificate and surprisingly, he is of Indian Origin and has Indian nationality. The surprising fact is that his real name did not match with his passport and the case for two to three more passengers is the same. At the same time, the pilots have refused any chances of the plane being hijacked but then, Farhan’s mystery proves India to be guilty of this inhuman crime. After all, the passport and nationality were approved by India and the so-called alias that was provided to them aided those people to check-in and have their missions accomplished. Experts believe this to be a suicidal attempt to challenge someone. Updates that are reaching to us at the moment tell that the prime minister has tweeted that he feels consolidated for the people who lost their lives but says that India had no hand in this and the investigation will be further solemnized into the hands of respective authorities. Moreover, an F.I.R. and a charge-sheet have been filed against the suspect’s wife and child, Fatima and Ahmad Qureshi respectively.”, the anchor took a pause, “Stay with us for a while and The Daily Communiqué will be back in a minute.”

The ads started showing up and after that, all the news channels were seen broadcasting this ‘sensational’ piece of news. They were speaking like a broken record.

Aniruddh seated himself for a while and then soliloquized, “Why can no one just give me a day’s break?”

We didn’t have an answer for Aniruddh’s question that was spoken out of pain. India was convulsed into a situation where there was no way out. We didn’t have a damn hint of thunder about this situation. Our reputation in front of the Prime Minister was ebbing away. The revenge that we wanted to take had brought our chests down to the earth, heaving with a mixture of emotions that were slowly agonising not only Aniruddh but also me. As I said earlier, anyone who perishes because of our decisions moves into our account of incapabilities and that account is now increasing its units at a searing rate. We now, knew that bringing another operation to work is not possible. Anybody, at any rate, will not believe us in our venerable feelings.

A little later, Amaira went to seek out Vikram. He was just crying and crying embracing his pillow. Reports were published the next day that riots had spread in the countryside. Hindu-Muslim riots… The country was feeling more insecure than ever and this incident sparked an uprising. Why don’t people understand that the one who tries to oppress another for any benefit turns a blind eye towards his end? Farhan’s deed brought him to his end… People don’t understand that none of the religions spread hatred against one another. It is we who are responsible for the same. Some terms equate to some particular equation; likely religion, societies, races, nations and all the diversities equates to a word called humanity and this is what we don’t understand.

A day had passed and we had some talks with Manoj. After successfully establishing a private investigation team, he was planning to work to start a new MLM (Multi-Level Marketing). We would need to dive into economics to understand this but hell if I want to know what is going with his business.

The time was passing as usual. Our minds were engaged in the controversies. We hardly talked today until Aniruddh, out of the blue, asked me, “You wanna go against the law?”

“For what?”

“We have no other choice but to deceive the political leaders. We gotta bribe them”

I giggled and then boomed in laughter, “You wanna bribe those who bribe us? That’s ought to be funny.”

“I fear that isn’t”, Aniruddh was serious and sooner I understood what Aniruddh was focussing on.

“I see”, I nodded.

“By the way, you don’t get me wrong about Vikram. He deserved what he got yesterday. He needs to understand that not everything that is happening around him is a lie.”

“I agree… I will never doubt your decision”

Aniruddh had a satisfying expression. Today, our mental stress was much better than the other days. 

We had a peaceful day ahead. After a lot of time, this day didn’t have any depressing moments. It didn’t take a lot of time for us to focus on the rising dawn instead of that crimsoned day. A little later, the evening sun started casting long shadows on the ground and in a matter of hours, the shadows went invisible with the coming up of darkness as we looked up at the blanket of stars that stretched to infinity (to find more hope in the stars that needed darkness to make their existence visible). Tired of mental stress, we went to sleep earlier than usual.

I was again dissolved in my dreams filled with joy mixed with a bit of dismay. I always had such contradictory dreams. 

Not much later that night, I could hear a thudding sound from the nearby room in which Vikram used to sleep. We all were frightened and mostly, we knew the reason… That sound was kind of loud and even Aniruddh who was sleeping downstairs was awakened. Amaira and Aniruddh were rushing towards the room while I had already opened the door and could say nothing. All the sounds were followed by a grave scene. A scene which we definitely didn’t anticipate or even think of. Amaira had her eyes closed. None of us could think anything but cry in the depths of despair. All because we could see Vikram’s body hanging. He had committed suicide. His phone lay beneath his body on the bed. His breathing organs and the body and skin near the lungs and trachea had gone blue. I could watch Aniruddh and Amaira not being able to move their bodies even for a centimetre. Then, it became my unfortunate responsibility to test if he could still breathe; breath even for a second. The body was starving of oxygen and slowly, darkness descended our vision. His body laid stiff; his soul was now free in this never-ending loop of the world. Free to go beyond the heavens. While the ones left start lamenting for the one who has achieved freedom as death. The fondest memories pictured themselves in front of our tearless eyes. Never again will I see Vikram working on his phone, never again will I laugh at his foolishness and never again will I hear his voice which not too many moments from now I considered to be irritating. I am not worthy enough either to explain or experience the feelings of Aniruddh and Amaira. They were doing nothing but laughing at the memories that were starting to picture before their eyes.

The weight of my emotions was bringing my mind towards the knees and as I descended my eyes down, I could notice a bulb being broken and lying beside his feet. 

Aniruddh was crying out loud, “Why did that worthless fight have to be the end of all of it? Never will I take a chance to stand up again and sacrifice my family for good… NEVER!”

I didn’t know how to even call his name in this situation. I spoke in the lowest tone I could, assuring that he heard it, “Aniruddh”, he did take a look at me and then I rolled my eyes towards the bulb. That was enough to make him understand what I wanted to convey. Aniruddh inhaled a deep volume of air and then after exhaling it as a sigh, said, “My doubt is becoming a truth.”

“He could never be so foolish to kill Vikram the same day he knew about it. But Manoj’s name will be shifted to the top now in my blacklisted names!”, I roared.

PRESENT DAY

“So who do you doubt till date?”, Fatima broke her silence.

“Speaking frankly, no one!”

Ahmad chuckled and I just kept staring at him. Amaira was mostly in tears and I knew her inner emotions were very different and unpredictable too.

I continued, “Even, it’s kinda funny why the hell that damn betrayer never teased us in the end….” 

-To Be Continued

(Abhinav Srivastava)

Next Chapter- It becomes mostly impossible for us to start the fight once again. Vikram's death not only gave us an ample amount of grief but also gave us a new mission to start our lives again. Even after losing consequently for 10 years, we will have to 'fight' our own countrymen to seek justice. The only way to do that is to bribe the politicians or should I say the heartless creatures of HSP!

Chapter-6: Come-Back

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