Operation Chaos: A Gripping Action Thriller (26 page)

David, on the other hand, had a lot of things to handle. He had managed to save the President, but he had lost some of his Black Cat commandos down there. They were not just his team- they were his brothers. He had handpicked them, trained them, fought beside them and had promised to protect them. But today he couldn't keep that promise. With a heavy heart, he called on the HQ and conveyed the news of the President being safe.

''This is David D'costa. There was an incident on Tughlaq road and I lost many members of my team, Colonel Rana and some NSG commandos there. But the President is safe and secure. I am currently with him and we are heading for the Black Cats HQ. I need some answers right NOW!''

''HQ copies all, David.''

''And whatever happens, I don't want the news that the President is safe being leaked to the media. To cover up the incident is up to you. Keep me posted. Out.''

David put down his mike and glanced at the man sitting beside him. That man was not the President he had seen earlier this evening. This man had fear in his eyes. He was shivering and mumbling. Ajaysingh stared through the reinforced glass window of the chopper at the parting clouds in the clear morning sky, his eyes bleak and remote as if he was playing a scene in front of his eyes.

Chapter 66

Project Testing Site, Pokharan

Operation Shakti

10 May, 1998

Time
-  10:
00am

29 hrs 43 minutes left for the tests.....

It was one of the hottest summers of Rajastan. The mercury levels were rising fast, even at 10.00 am in the morning. Sweat trickled down Jacob's neck. The increasing heat brought him back to consciousness. Almost three hours had passed since he had given up answering the questions fired at him by the military officials. Blood that had been dripping down from his forehead four hours ago had now dried up. His wrists had been bound for the last six hours and he had survived some severe punches in the stomach. Eyelids were heavy, but he put in effort to lift up his head and look around. He was in the same interrogation room- the room which was now empty and dark, but had been the centre of activity the night before and had also been visited by a few high ranked military officials. The interrogation room was at the far corner of the facility away from all the activities of the atomic program. Jacob closed his eyes shut and re-winded his memory to the day from where everything had gone wrong.

Things had moved fast at Pokharan base ever since Ajaysingh had discovered a solid proof against Jacob. That day Ajay did not stop at the door after Jacob had seen him with the note  in his hand. He had dashed to the security office and reported his suspicions to the military authorities. Shashank joined Ajay and both of them narrated to the officer in charge every single detail they knew about Jacob's behaviour, his activities and odd work shifts.

''... and today I found this note on his desk. It was cleverly hidden in Jacob's table drawer,'' said Ajay, handing over the '
BE READY TO STRIKE ON
10th' note to Major Sinha- the officer incharge.

Sinha seemed quite convinced after Ajay described to him the red gloves incident and showed him the note. ''It was a lucky thing that you reported your suspicions Dr. Ajaysingh and Dr. Shashank. This man could be a serious threat and may be here to sabotage the entire operation. We are going to take him in our custody right now,'' responded Major Sinha.

Jacob was dragged into the interrogation room by four officers and was made to sit right in front of Major Sinha. Sinha was a man like Jacob himself- used to talk very little. But he had a habit of expressing himself with his fists. Jacob got a little lucky because Sinha had to wait until he reported the full incident to his higher authorities in Delhi. Sinha needed the clearance to interrogate a scientist who was involved in a high priority national project.

''Keep this man in the room until I come back. Don't be mean to him. Don't ask any questions. I want him all for me tonight during the investigation,'' said Sinha to his soldiers and walked out without even looking at Jacob. The four soldiers tied Jacob to a chair and waited outside the room awaiting further orders from Sinha. Ajay and Shashank had given their statements in writing and were off to complete their work.

An investigation team from Delhi arrived late at night. Sinha wanted Ajay to be present during the interrogation and had convinced the officers that Ajay would be of use during the interrogation.
 

''And what am I to do there?'' Ajay asked. He was not comfortable interrogating an enemy spy. Asking questions was never the part of his job profile, but it felt right. He needed to get some answers from Jacob.

''You have been living with this guy for a long time. You will go in and talk to him. Make him comfortable, gain his trust and ask him why he did it. He may not speak initially, but you need to keep trying calmly. Ask him questions about the note, the red gloves and the map. My colleagues will take care of the rest,'' the officer said reassuringly.

Six minutes later, Ajay found himself facing the most mysterious guy he had ever met in his life. There was some unquantifiable tension mounting between the two scientists in the room as they sat staring at each other. Major Sinha was sitting in another room watching the feed from the CCTV in the interrogation catching Jacob's every expression. A military officer banged the weight of some files they had brought with them on the desk right in front of Jacob's face as he pulled back the chair and sat down shuffling through some papers in the files. He slowly pulled out his spectacles from the case in his coat pocket and wore them taking his own time. As the interrogation progressed, Jacob began to reject any charges the officers would press on him. After half an hour, the investigation by the military officials seemed a waste of time. Major Sinha asked Ajay to intervene.

Ajay, furious after the Jacob's denial of all the accusations, went for an all out assault.

''So let us say- you are not the one whom we accuse you to be. Then how come you were out late that night wearing red gloves?'' asked Ajay.

''I just thought of taking a stroll around the facility, but I couldn't find my regular gloves. So I wore my spare pair of gloves and walked out of the room. The next thing I knew was you coming running to me.''

Ajay was shocked to see the way Jacob gave his alibi so calmly. He forwarded the next question.

''What about the map we found in your cupboard?'' Ajay thought he had trapped the rat now.

''What map? I had no map in my cupboard. Someone must have planted it there,'' replied Jacob.

Major Sinha was losing his temper every passing second
.
He got up, picked up his overcoat and began making his way towards the interrogation room.

Ajay knew there was something fishy about the story which Jacob had told him and so he decided to play his best card. He pulled out a small steel box from his pocket.

''Remember this box, Jacob? The soldiers found it while going through your room. You want to tell us about the contents of this box?'' asked Ajay.

Jacob stayed calm and denied the accusation yet again. It was as if he had been thoroughly trained for such interrogations. The voice remained cold and the gaze was steady. No blinks of eyelids. ''That does not belong to me. I don't know how it got into my room and...'' Before Jacob could finish his statement, Sinha came marching in with the other four officials.

''I want the room all for myself,'' Sinha announced.

All the officers started clearing out the room. ''Lies after lies! I am pretty sure you are a trained spy Mr. Jacob. You just don't give up. Want to know what's inside the steel box?'' Sinha asked, opening the latch on the steel box. The soldiers had already broken a small lock which had held the box shut earlier when Ajay had seen it for the first time.

Jacob watched Major Sinha pulling out a revolver from the box and placing it in front of him.

''This,'' said Sinha, pointing to the revolver, ''was in the box and I need to know why.''

The session of questions and answers went on throughout the night with Jacob defying every charge put on him. Sinha tried using his fists, but the answers didn't change.

Around 8.00 in the morning, Jacob passed out and Sinha gave up asking questions. He posted four guards outside the bunker and went on to carry out his daily tasks.

In the afternoon, Sinha decided to give Jacob another dose of his fists. He walked up to the far corner of the facility towards the interrogation room. He did not have any company, as most of the troops were busy working at the shafts for the final tests, now that only 25 hours were remaining. When he reached the room, he couldn't see any soldiers.
They must have gone for lunch. But at least one of them must be guarding.

He froze in his tracks when he saw a pool of blood near the door. He realized that the lock on the door was tampered with and the door no longer remained shut. Taking a deep breath, he swung the door inside and levelled his pistol.

Lying at his feet were the dead bodies of four soldiers covered with blood and the man he had come to interrogate was nowhere to be seen. Jacob- the biggest threat to Operation Shakti was on the loose. Again.

Chapter 67

Wheeler Island, Bay of Bengal

Co-ordinates- 20° 45
′
 28.94
″
 N, 87° 5
′
 7.92
″
 E

Time- 6:32 am

The terrorists sitting inside the control room at the southern corner of the facility had no idea that a team of twelve personnel had reached the wall on the north side. The surveillance cameras on the outer wall had been placed a certain distance apart, which left some blind spots for Capt. Pratap and his team to slip through. Their next task was to get on the other side of the 20 feet tall wall standing right in front them. The ten commandos and Ranjeet assembled around him as Capt. Pratap as he began drawing a tentative map of Wheeler Island on the sand.

''You could use the tablet instead,'' Ranjeet offered.

Capt. Pratap took the map from Ranjeet and enlarged the satellite image of the island. His team could now clearly see the location where they were standing, the position and the distance of Modules and the control room. The Modules were in the central portion of the facility while the control tower was in the far south. Capt. Pratap turned towards Ranjeet.

''The best place where they might have kept the scientists as their hostages would be the Modules on the island. Currently only two Modules are open and operational as per the information by HQ-Module 13 and Module 14. That's where we will be looking for the scientists. What are we going to do about the security camera feed?'' Pratap asked.

''I would have tried looping the video, but for that we would need to locate the central cable of all the security cameras which may be half a meter below the ground level. Locating it and digging it up may consume a lot of time. Instead we can try something else. We can take down the power,'' Ranjeet suggested.

''How do you intend to do it?'' Pratap asked.

''That won't be difficult, believe me. The entire facility runs on solar power and the main grid is located in the northeast corner- that is around 500 meters to our east. Although, taking down the power won't solve our problem completely. The system here has a backup generator located right at the base of the control tower, but we will get four minutes after we have taken down the main power grid until the power gets back on,'' said Ranjeet.

''Would four minutes be enough for us to retake the control tower?'' asked Pratap.

''No. But after the power is back on, the system will take 8 minutes to reboot itself and feed from the security cameras would be displayed on the screen around 2 minutes later, which gives us a total of 14 minutes to clear out the Modules 13 and 14. Once we are there I can hack into the security camera feed easily. I hope your commandos will make a good use of those 14 minutes,'' said Ranjeet.

''I think 14 minutes would be enough time, Ranjeet''. Pratap looked at the map of the island momentarily and figured out a way to get things done. ''So here's what you will do- Divide yourselves into three teams. Two teams with four commandos each and a third team with two commandos. The third team of two commandos will scan around the perimeter of the facility and eliminate the patrolling terrorists while the other two teams will strike both the Modules simultaneously. I will stay with Ranjeet and we will disable the power,'' said Capt. Pratap, laying out his plan.