C.R.E.W.
“I don’t wanna lie anymore. What if I told you I was the one you were looking for so long!”
I wailed out, “Don’t make my assumptions right! I had such intuitions and deductions but believing them was hard! What the heck! Why did you?”
I didn’t think about this ever! All I was doing was a desperate attempt to not let my guard down.
“What! How did you know that I was---”, Aniruddh gasped.
“Obvious reasons!”
“Really?”
“First and the only conclusion I can draw out from this statement is that it is a prank!”, another very obnoxious attempt from my side.
“Ah! You got me good, there!”, Aniruddh sighed with sarcasm.
“That was obvious. Not even in hell, I could ever try to believe that even if it was the truth!”
“Personal reasons?”
“No! Not exactly, personal! There are some obvious reasons as well.”
“That was surely a lame joke!”
“Maybe you can use it to test the rookies if you want to!”
“Probably nope! They don’t have full trust in me, as of now. I don’t wanna increase that suspicion!”
“I see”
“Jokes aside, let’s continue to recharge C.R.E.W."
I nodded with delirium.
Present Day
"This was not a plan for sure! This was lunacy", Ahmad sneered derisively.
"Yeah, thinking about waiting at countries' borders for that gold to pass was undoubtedly lunacy. We knew that there was a chance that we were being manipulated by the situations to do this! Maybe GTO wanted some information from us and that's why they were planning our capture in this way. But Aniruddh had assured us that if all this happens in an unwanted way, he'll not leak any information out and kill all of us immediately! What do you need more than Aniruddh's assurance!"
"Agreed!"
"My and Aniruddh's relationship was based on a certain kind of mutual acerbity. I could even give the assurance that in even worse situations, I could understand Ani's signals and take steps for my own. Overall, the plan only had our lives on the line and not anyone else's. This forms one of the main reasons why Adarsh had allowed such a mission.”
“Deep down, Adarsh knew too that Aniruddh was trampled upon by his fate. He could have successfully operated Vindicta only if the things weren’t in the way they were.”, Ahmad added.
“Whatever! Adarsh, too, was of the same type. The only thing that he was better at was gambling in life situations. KCR and DR would never allow such missions because they never wanted to gamble votes.”
“Believe it or not, all of this shit was created because of votes. Only if KCR and his subordinate wouldn’t have tried to force Farhan, we could have saved many lives!”
“I’d better call it greed. Well, we shall not waste time because of my health. Let’s complete this before anything goes sideways.”
January 2015
The new year had set in. We had no time to participate or waste on such occasions.
Mathew had sent us a message that was coded in around ten pages (normal paper size). It took us a whole month to decode that. Mathew had learnt the code language by heart. He had sent a whole map overview of what the route is going to look like. According to maps, he had sent us the coordinates of the points and the name of the roads that they are going to follow. He had nailed the code language on a whole new scale.
Meanwhile, Ahmad had passed the test successfully and brought more practicality in his performance. Aniruddh’s major reason to bring him on the mission was to use his exposure and experience that had transformed into hatred after Farhan’s death. Only if we were able to triumph Operation Stigma Removal, Ahmad could get out of the traitor’s life he was living in. And we knew that this hatred was fuelling him up.
Adarsh, too, was taking his own steps to reduce the political pressure around us. Today, all of a sudden, he started broadcasting. We didn’t pay heed to it. But as soon as the news reached us, we couldn’t stop ourselves from even trying to ignore something that holds such crucial importance. He had completed broadcasting and the news was filled only with his statements.
We could capture the headlines in the limelight- “Adarsh Sethi, the Indian Prime Minister, seems to have taken the blame for the infamous Sukkur Disaster in India’s hands. Though after various refusals regarding Indian connection to this disaster, the PM came to address the nation today and accepted that the unknown three to four people whose passport names didn’t match with their respective identities were Indians. What even shocked us today was that this inhumane incident occurred due to the political black slashes across the whole country. The Prime Minister directly attacked the opposition for this! The former Prime Minister and Delhi’s former Chief Minister are accused of forcing Farhan Qureshi, the most mysterious man, into the dilemma of either choosing his family or this attack. For proofs, he displayed the chats of Farhan’s son and some other person. He refused to take the names out but informed us that ‘the other person’ is dead too. He further added that Manoj’s Investigation Team will now be handling this case from now on. Any foreign agency won’t be allowed to interfere as long as the other person’s family privacy is in danger. The opposition, on the other hand, has declared this a convincing story capable of only distraction from some old governmental scams. Still, the proofs remain cogent though it’s still a mystery of how he managed to arrange these!”
We had a setback for a moment. A setback that was not born from disparity but was blossomed from happiness. Adarsh’s flawless announcement would never attract GTO’s attention because they would never be able to postulate that other man (except the fact that Manoj may be the betrayer). Moreover, KCR and DR would be too busy to fight their dilemmas.
I had seen Aniruddh smiling after a century. With a very broad and enlightened face, he exclaimed, “Now after so much help from Adarsh, I might sound stingy but after all, Adarsh is another politician who is supporting us not for the reason to reveal and eliminate that organisation but he, too, is doing to regain his vote bank. The only advantage with him is that he trusts that our gambles might pay off and the former Prime Minister didn’t.”
“I agree with that point. There was a possibility that Adarsh would’ve tried to kill us to dispose of all the facts regarding the Sukkur incident.”, I replied.
“And the reason we’re still alive is Operation Stigma Removal. He wants to use us for the last time. After assessing, I believe that this is a dead-end for us. If we step back from this mission, we won’t have another chance to live if Adarsh tries to remove us from his political journey. On the other hand, if the betrayer’s still among us, we’ll die at the international borders waiting for the gold to arrive.”
“Well, let’s celebrate the positives today because every time, the odds are always against us!”
“Wait a minute, did I never tell you why am I taking Supriya with us on the mission even though in her first impression, she appeared to me as a rebel? You didn’t question that ever, did you?”
“Do I question any of your decisions, my master?”, I mocked.
“You should! You never know who’s the betrayer. Maybe it’s me!!”
“Don’t repeat that lame prank. Go ahead with your question now”
“Yeah, lemme be serious. First of all, there are no chances that she can be the betrayer. Her aptitude and skills fill up for her lack of experience and what else do you need.”
“And what plans do you have for the rest of us?”
“As far as Manoj is concerned, he is the biggest suspect and he possesses threat. But as I told you earlier, I have a plan set up for the betrayer. Ahmad’s exactly like Supriya. His sniping skills are beyond my expectations. He seems to have practised with Farhan in the past. He, too, has minimal chances of being a threat but there remains a doubt in my mind after his father’s so-called ‘betrayal’. And for you, you will stick by my side.”
“I get it. But will you please mind telling me what did you plan for the betrayer?”
“See, if there’s a betrayer and your theory holds true that GTO is trying to get rid of one of its factions, then the terrorists who will be carrying gold on 20th February will allow us to accompany them. See I might’ve told everyone that we will blackmail them and all other shit, but on the realistic ground, even though the terrorists of GTO don't follow the essence of religion, they might share some bigger ideology and it won’t let us penetrate through their beliefs. The confirmation of a betrayer will be made if we manage to blackmail the people carrying the gold. And your theory will start making sense from then on.”
“What if all of our theories are wrong? And this betrayer theory is just like Operation Vindicta, an unexpected failure?”
“See chances are minimal but if all these things are false, I already said that I’ll kill all of us at that same instance.”
“And how do you plan to get into their so-called business?”
“That’ll only be confirmed once the map has been decoded. We can only wait and train till then.”
“So”, I concluded, “If nothing goes sideways, it will be a hint that we are near to erase one of the GTO's factions and too, on the will of that Zayhan guy. He’ll kill us once his work is done. And we will have to take the advantage of all the information he’ll give us in that amount of time.”
“Bingo. It’s a literal suicidal attempt. Think from the perspective of reverse psychology. They will try to give us the wrong information all the time because the betrayer will be providing them the right one. There’s no way that we can hide our intentions from them. On the other hand, to remove the possibility of the betrayer, they’ll give us the right information to develop trust. It’s on our instincts and deduction skills that how we will process the information.”
“You’re confusing me too much.”
“God damn it! I am telling you there are a thousand more possibilities if you think more and more perpetually. Our plan is again of loopholes as every time but we can only rely on hope!”
In simple words, Aniruddh planned to identify the presence of the betrayer and then misguide him to let more information out of the leader. All this will be clear to us at the time of execution.
During all this, Supriya was always busy with her hand-to-hand combat skills. Ahmad was perfecting his mastery at sniping while Manoj was invested in preparing him mentally for the upcoming adventure. After all, he wasn’t cut out to be a soldier and neither did he train like us. He is accompanying us for two main reasons. First is his possibility to be the betrayer and second that if he isn’t the betrayer, his businessman skills will surely be an asset.
We decided not to take false names and passports this time. They proved to be a liability in Farhan’s case. Moreover, the discovery of the fact that KCR and DR were helping GTO deduces that GTO doesn’t follow any particular religion and this was crystal clear. Our whole plan was relying now on the route that the people of GTO are going to follow.
The month passed and the map had been decoded. Aniruddh was busy for a whole day studying the route carefully. The next day, he called everyone in his cabin to discuss the final flaws.
On February 2, everyone including the main members (Manoj, Aniruddh, Ahmad, Supriya and me) and Mathew’s team assembled. Aniruddh started, “First of all, let me revise everything to prevent further conflict. GTO plans to transport gold from Mathew’s organisation in Pakistan to Dubai by road through international boundaries. They want to pull it off as a business thingy. These all are the assumptions that Mathew had already informed. I still don’t understand how one group can transport four trucks full of gold and jewellery internationally. I think they found it better to pay the trade barriers instead of the fuel that would’ve been used if they were to choose the route by sea. If the amount that they will be paying is negligible or even minimal, this would mean that GTO has expanded far beyond our expectations. If it can persuade international pilots and crew staff, then they can easily persuade soldiers with the amount of money they’ll be paying. I don’t comprehend how money creates such levels of loyalty for the group, but all of this is beyond our scope of significance, so let’s get back to the topic.
“HURRY back! Tell us about the route!!”, Manoj blurted.
“To not let every one of you die in suspense, I am very glad to tell you all that the route is too favourable.”
“Which countries?”, Ahmad sounded serious.
“A ton of countries I suppose. Get me a paper and a pen. The best thing is that Mathew has sent us all the highways’ names too. This means that he has infiltrated GTO to its extreme...”
“Or he himself is the betrayer, right?”, Supriya cross-questioned.
“Let’s not focus on the odds. See they are planning to leave Gujranwala in Pakistan and will enter India in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir!”
“What? POK, where everything started?”
“Yes. They are going to use the conflicted areas. For those who might aren’t familiar with the situation, POK is legitimately an inherent part of India. This territory has been under Pakistan’s control ever since the Pakistan Army orchestrated the tribal invasion of the territory in October 1947. So, they are going to use that area to save them from some of the trade barriers that might have been imposed. Under the illegal black market systems, they will leave India at the border of India and Afghanistan. Another country that GTO might have beautifully infiltrated. Then they’ll leave Afghanistan to join the borders of Turkmenistan. Then, expectedly to Iran and Iraq after taking their detour through Karbala. Again expectedly, they’ll enter Saudi Arabia going through Riyadh and then finally, to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai.”
Everyone carried the same reactions as I did. This favoured us a lot. It wouldn’t be nail-biting to wait at the Indian borders. One of our major concerns was to find a way to stand at some country’s borders but that wasn’t a problem now because their route was from India. We just had to accompany them to Saudi Arabia then!
Everyone was flying all around with rapture. I could notice Aniruddh was tensed about this and I knew why. I, now, truly believe in this certain kind of mutual acerbity.
Everyone left while I and Aniruddh remained. After an era of prolonged silence, Aniruddh broke the quietude surrounding, “Didn’t notice me?”
“Did that generations ago. Why would I’ve stayed for so long in this cabin if I didn’t have a reason? Tell me why were you sad?”
“Deep down, I wanted failure. That would have been our success. At least, we would’ve gotten a chance to live with our families.”
I could not read Aniruddh.
He continued, “ We have been running a marathon for more than 10 years. I have never been able to sleep on my birthday because of Ajay’s death. But did you ever feel concerned about our family’s feelings? They were always standing at intervals to bring us a glass of water and we overlooked them. We started running again... I had this deep realisation when Vikram died. Our parents, Amaira and everyone always waited for us to halt but we… We continued running, never thinking that there were two invisible ropes every time. One stretched along the path that made us fall and the second that was always tied to our waists and was pulled by our families to keep us down to earth. We always went to solve the mystery of the negative rope and didn’t even try to thank the one that supported us all the time.”
Aniruddh wasn’t looking towards my face but he knew that I was wailing in my conscience.
“Just think about Amaira. It hasn’t been properly a month since Vikram died but we have found a new mission. We’ll leave this place in 18 days with minimal chances of coming back again. She never complained. Fatima never complained either. These two are the most generous beings I have ever seen. To just expose one damn organisation, we have become so greedy that our families don’t matter anymore. Where I stand today, I don’t have the courage to go to Amaira, to our parents and tell them that I loved everyone. You know why? Because I never did. Unconditional love is what you call the love they have shown from their side but we… We never realised that.”
I suddenly had a beam of guiltiness running through my body. My eyes had drained out and I couldn’t afford to cry.
My mind abruptly went to a realm of unending darkness and I did many times but I have always been able to overcome this abyss. I caressed Aniruddh’s shoulder and provided the support he always needed. The support that was stolen from him as a child, the support that was stolen from him in the family and the support he always waited for.
Days and days passed. Aniruddh didn’t have the courage to express all of this to Amaira. He felt guilty for everything.
Before leaving, he saw Amaira in her eyes. Aniruddh, even today, didn’t accept anything even knowing this is probably the last time they were meeting.
And we left for our awaited deaths!
Present Day
“Ahh! You rushed in the end. Tell us more about what happened in those fifteen days!”, Ahmad cackled.
“I thought about finishing this here. I will sleep for about a couple of hours and then tell you in detail. Well, you already know all of this!”
“I know I do. But it’s good to reminisce. At least, tell about that last photo!”
“He never accepted his love. Never to me, never to your parents”, Amaiara broke in and chuckled with the same tears Aniruddh had all those years ago, “So much like him. He was talking about unconditional love, huh! He never realised what he had done. He is the only reason I can say I am living with such great dignity. He is the reason that Ahmad has been scratched from his father’s traitor’s mark. He has done things far beyond what a human can dream of.”
I could feel Aniruddh’s exact soul in Amaira’s voice. Though they never said that they loved each other yet I could always notice that they both fell into this mysterious paradox of love. And in Ani’s case, it even applied to my parents.
I could not help myself from thinking of what happened after we left. I might have hurried the narration but I knew what feelings we carried. What Aniruddh had told me in those fifteen days had left my boots quaking, again.
After all, what awaited us was grimmer than darkness and the era of everyone's false priorities was about to begin…
False Priorities?
Yes, priorities are always false when you see them from someone other’s perspective.
Beautifully written, especially the last part.
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