C.R.E.W.
Chapter-4
Vikram's Secret
Present Day
“Whatever the reason was, what father did was undefendable!”, Ahmad exclaimed who was sitting at one of the sides of the room beside the cot I was lying on.
“You know why and it was not his fault. You too were involved, remember?”, I said when I got a bit serious at this moment.
Fatima, Farhan’s wife, started shedding tears and when I looked at Ahmad, he was eccentrically staring at me while Amaira winked to stop me right here or the situation could worsen.
“A person who mimics others doesn’t look good to be serious, right?”, I giggled, “Let’s start again. By now, Farhan’s death was almost confirmed and Amaira knew what happened to Aniruddh for the next few days. She might explain it better than me in her book.”
Amaira interrupted, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! When he came back to his senses in a day or two, he understood how hell his life was because the whole world was against you and the C.R.E.W.! Initial flaws of your department were going to be like a trigger of a gun directly aimed at Ani’s mental health.”
“Yeah, plus Vikram, too”
“Don’t talk about that crazy——“
“Hold on!”, I broke in. She was really angry and I feared if she would say something to a boy who———….. I will leave this topic, now. “After all, he was your son!”
“Fine! Hell, if I care”, these were surely not the emotions she felt. The real emotions would have been contrastingly different but Vikram did something we cannot even fortify a bit. Well, who am I to talk about this; I can’t even fortify my deeds…
“Leave, Vikram”, Ahmad continued, “What was that ‘tour’ thing you were talking about? With Aniruddh”
“Nothing, just our everyday usual talks. I remember that tour because I felt so lonely at that time. Aniruddh was out for a month in January 2004 and I was alone in Delhi. My parents were in Mumbai and I had no one to spend my time with. Nothing useful”
“Okay! Then let’s continue, shall we? Let’s start reminiscing again!”
“We are not ‘reminiscing’ this and I am sure of it”, I mimicked.
DECEMBER 2014
“Why the hell did that happen?”
“What should I excuse, miscalculations?”, Aniruddh heaved.
“Talk properly to me! Do you know who I am? I don’t care what happened to you in the past two days. What do you call that? Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! Rubbish!”
Aniruddh calmed himself and then said, “Of course, I know that you are the Prime Minister”
Yes, Aniruddh was talking to the Prime Minister. Two days have passed and Aniruddh went through a bad time after he realised what sin Farhan oversaw. He knew what was going to happen still he made that suicidal attempt.
“What do you want me to do now, Aniruddh?”, Adarsh Sethi, the Prime Minister of the Republic of India leading the Indian Leader Alliance/ Party yelled on a call with Aniruddh from the Prime Minister’s Office. I, too, was listening or should I improvise my phrasing, I was overhearing the two.
“What should I say, huh? What can I do if this happened? I had been telling everyone that we had a betrayer among us. Farhan was not the one. He was forced into these conditions… Care on what you will do now when we are thinking out of the box on the fact that countless people are now selling themselves to commit crimes and sins to get rewards or simply, money. Those rich pilots were funded… Why do you think they and the aeroplane crew didn’t die? They escaped with a parachute… What were such several parachutes doing in a passenger aircraft? Leave this aside, they escaped by breaking the windshield of the aeroplane! A shield that can withstand such high amounts of air pressure wouldn’t have been broken so easily with a small weapon. You cannot forget the fact that the outer pressure is too high to break the shield. They were ready for it. They survived because they jumped when the plane was descending and the pressure was bearable. How can one do this unless it was all planned?”, Aniruddh replied in his grief. He was irritated because the Prime Minister wanted to fulfil his political desires.
“What the hell can I do? Farhan’s the one who’s body will not be matched with his given alias or the fake passport he would be registered with. When his body will be taken out of the debris, he will be considered as an eccentric case and on digging deeply, the investigation team will eventually find that ‘I am Sorry’ message of yours… India will be accused of this crime. And adding to this, Sukkur is in Pakistan… What more reason would the world want to accuse us? How do you want me to reply to them?”
“Have two options!”, Aniruddh was being savage, “You need a vote bank, then act on people’s feelings and say that we took revenge for some of their inhuman deeds”
“This is more inhuman if we say this. Aniruddh, first calm down”
“Yeah, I am sorry! We have no option but to say that we weren’t included in this. Till then, wait for a miracle.”
“No choice, I see. You have some rest and don’t you consider me as all the other cliched prime ministers. I understand what your problem is. So, if I had been rude to you, then I am sorry”
Aniruddh took a deep sigh and gasped, “I, too, am sorry. I don’t even understand what is going on around me… I have been betrayed by one of my best friends!”
“Take care!”
The call ended and the talks were made confidential.
“We should not have joined CREW”, Aniruddh said in his lugubrious mood.
“We didn’t know this was gonna happen nine years later! And Aniruddh you don’t talk like yourself. Have faith——“, I encouraged him.
“In whom?”
“You have a family! Have faith in them; have faith in me…”
“Maybe you are right. But I will rather choose to die than to again be betrayed by someone. We are standing on a platform today where I can trust no one. We don’t know when we would be decapitating our friends’ heads off!”
“Why are you thinking that way? Don’t you believe me?”, I stared at his distressed eyes.
“Not trusting you would be like beheading myself. Ah! I am thinking so negatively…”
“Yes, you are! Have faith in eternity. I want the Aniruddh back who returned my father that thousand rupee note with the most generous eyes one can have after fulfilling such a deed.”, I said while Aniruddh was listening to me and I could see a beam of encouragement streaming through his eyes. He was again ready to take revenge for all the things that he was made guilty of.
“I get it now”, Aniruddh had an appealing voice now, “I will have to fight till the bitter end to pay for the lives that were lost. This is where destiny has brought me, huh?”
I nodded.
Aniruddh was discharged from the hospital and the mental stress didn’t attack him severely.
On the other hand, around 20 families were completely lost, a hundred were wounded and the plane passengers had completely lost their lives in the attack. The aeroplane crew members excused that a blast occurred at the back of the plane and they (being in front) were saved from the direct impact and they had enough time to escape through parachutes. What a story they have come up with. This was surely not a mere coincidence and deep down, we all knew this.
Meanwhile, we reached home and everyone was already standing at the gate to welcome us. Amaira knew what Aniruddh had been through and Vikram also had tears in his eyes after seeing his father. His face seemed more tedious and remorseful than anyone. After seeing Amaira, Aniruddh was reminded of someone who was going through a worse time, Fatima, Farhan’s wife. She had no idea how swinging her life is going to be from the moment now. She not only has lost her husband but in future, she was going to be renamed as the traitor’s wife.
“Where are the two? Fatima and Ahmad”, Aniruddh asked me.
“At home! Filled with remorse”, I replied hesitatingly.
“Keep me in a loop!”
Amaira was waiting for her turn to be noticed. Last two days, she had been calling me every minute to ask if Aniruddh was convalescing. I was still observing Vikram. Why was he looking like some kind of ghost or a pie in the sky? Whatever; no one has ever understood him nor anyone will. Maybe I am just ‘A doubting Thomas’, but the things that have happened in the last few days just brings my mind back to Farhan who was wearing Arabian clothes.
Aniruddh approached Vikram and Vikram stuttered, “H-How are you, papa?”
“A bit under the weather, I suppose”
“I see”, and then Vikram suspended again in his thoughts.
A moment later, Aniruddh, out of the blue asked him, “You want a new phone? I want my mind to get distracted in any field. Your old one went through a hard time, didn’t it?”
Aniruddh was smirking and I knew what he was doing. He was trying to get into the swing of these things and not ruin his personal life because of C.R.E.W. With not a spark of decency, Vikram was ready to buy a new one. He didn’t even try to hesitate for a bit, considering his father’s current scenario. Abruptly, Vikram was in a mint condition. Even if he was feeling guilty for something, did it not hand back? All of it vanished in a second? He is just like me, a greedy fellow.
After Aniruddh had enough rest, he took his car out to hang along with Vikram for a while. I was with them, too. We sat in Aniruddh's Sedan and then headed towards the market. Not a second later, did I realise that I was laughing inside myself without any particular reason to laugh for. Some reckless joke must have struck my mind but I don't feel sometimes that I have full control of it. It happens often to me when I sit in front of a mirror looking at myself to understand myself. Just like a human brain trying to decode itself. I was provoking Aniruddh not to be negative and here, I am! I am being more negative than him. I just popped my little head out of the car (of course, considering the traffic). My hair were swaying and waiving in mid-air. I was doing nothing but commemorating the play my conscience had been playing since the day I was born. (Ah! I am being negative again!!) As the air was eclipsing my body, which was popping out of the window, I was seeing the world with new eyes that were now open as an omniscient being. "We, humans, are always on the verge of extinction. Maybe a disaster occurs now and we see nothing but disparity. Then what on the earth are we fighting against or for? Running behind money would have been our goal rather we are exposing ourselves to politics… Why? Why the hell? What are we fighting for?", I was thinking…
"We've reached Abhinav", Aniruddh spoke up.
"Huh?", I was still revolving around my thoughts.
"Did you forget? We were going to get a new phone?"
I came back to my senses and understood that this was just my made-up thinking and nothing else.
"Oo! Yes! I do remember"
We went inside and the shop was luxurious like any other mobile showroom. Vikram, in my opinion, had gone truly mad after seeing so many replacements for his old love (his old phone). He was mostly thanking God for bringing his old phone to an end. He's unconscious about his greed but sometimes that greed of his brings a hilarious smile to my face after observing his jocose nature.
After noticing every single model, Vikram decided on the model for his new phone. Quite expensive though! All the formalities were done and then Vikram's old phone was taken by the shopkeeper. He took out the memory card and then backed up all the files in the new one. Vikram's eyes were glaring in happiness (contrastingly different from what he was looking like not very moments ago). All the files were backed up. His most favourite chatting app was installed and signed in. All the chats were automatically reloaded after all the old phone's files had backed up.
Vikram was quite jovial until he saw Aniruddh seeing his chats.
"You have been talking recently to Ahmad, I see. Let me take a look. Ten new messages from him. That's hilarious."
Aniruddh was just reading the chats and he had dissolved all his attention in what he was reading. A minute later, he stared at Vikram and said in a low tone, "That's why you were so gloomy for the whole day. But after being guilty of such a thing, how can you be so selfish? How can you come out to take a new phone and forget how many families lost their loved ones? How did you even move on considering this sinful stigma? I didn't train you ever in this way. (Now changing his face's direction towards me). Congratulations Abhinav, politics enters the field and a few foes have made a return."
"Have you gone mad? I don't understand a word that you're saying…", I blurted.
"This is what the chat says. Pay for the phone fast and then let's head home."
Aniruddh, in rush, paid for the phone and on the way back, he didn't speak a word but his expressions were enough to tell me that the chats had revealed a new secret.
We drove up to the house and until we were in the middle of the house, Aniruddh didn't say a word. He believed that the walls had ears. He grabbed Vikram's hand solidly and with much wrinkling of his brow, he threw him away onto the sofa. Vikram had lost his balance and Amaira had harked the voices. She couldn't apprehend the situation and neither could I.
Aniruddh swivelled towards and roared, "You remember KCR and DR?"
"Those devils, you mean?", I boomed in interrogation.
"I do! We mostly forgot these people… The ones that were dethroned in 2014 and 2009 respectively."
"Krishna Chandra Rai, the former Prime Minister of India and Dhananjay Reddy, the former Chief Minister of the national capital from the Hindustan Sanrakshan Party."
"Yes...yes…", Aniruddh continued, "These chats say that Farhan was being kept under serious control by these people. Death threats and many inhuman threats that he even hesitated to tell Ahmad were given to him. And not just only him, but his family, too. They were just forcing him to do this and tell them the whole plan. When this all had gone out of his hands and he had lost his mental control a few days ago, he eventually told everything to them… I know we weren't trained in this way. He should have told us everything but you know, from the start, Farhan has been taking some or the other wrong decisions which lead us to the wrong way. Ahmad knew this and still, they were acting so well that they knew nothing. Ahmad did his deed. He told Vikram to tell me the truth because Farhan wasn't. Ahmad didn't have the courage to and Vikram didn't have the brains to decide. He considered all this a fabrication of Ahmad's prank. He didn't understand that no one does a prank for a month. Ahmad was continuously jostling these talks in Vikram's brainless mind but this boy didn't even care for a bit. I can understand Ahmad's emotion, but what about Vikram. Farhan, indeed, was wrong and what he did was of course no less than a betrayal. As expected, he was forced into these conditions. Why Vikram had been gloomy for the whole day is the reason that he understood now what Ahmad was saying wasn't a prank. Still, this boy has no shame that because of his misconceptions, so many families have lost their loved ones. Ahmad lost one too!"
I went into my deep thinking and thought if that Arabian dress was a clue of the upcoming disaster. It wasn't because Farhan never knew why KCR and DR were doing this. That was a fluke after all or just a distraction.
I took a sigh, "Leave Vikram! He has just too much to worry about. I know whatever happened is wrong. But let's now focus on consequences… Why do you think it was done?"
"Why do you think?", Aniruddh backfired the same question.
"Dirty politics?"
"Of course. Because Delhi elections are going to take place later this year. HSP will use this incident as the base to deteriorate the Indian Leader Party's reputation and eventually win. With this, they will set up a vote bank for the Lok Sabha elections of 2019"
"How did they know us? We're secret agents, aren't we?"
"Didn't expect this question from you Abhinav. Well, the initial founders of the C.R.E.W. department decided that the Prime Minister will have enough control in our judgement, unlike other organisations. This is a flaw in our department. Since KCR knew us in advance, he is using us as bait. He knew that Operation Vindicta was on hold because he was the one to delay it earlier. He already had deducted that Adarsh will allow this mission and since then, he's been trying to get things out of Farhan."
"So, there's enough possibility that KCR was being fed by GTO just as the pilots were because of their personal benefits."
"Of course and our judgement of considering that terrorist organisation to be online has proved to be right once again!"
"So, removing the stigma of so many deaths that have already been added into our account of incapabilities will now have to go through politics?"
"Of course, it will"
"You plan to tell this to Adarsh?"
"I don't think I will! Rather I am left with no choice but to grease these politicians out."
W O W. Twist alert!
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ReplyDeleteMind Blowing man !!!
Thanks😀
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