Operation Chaos: A Gripping Action Thriller (5 page)

''We can't just let him go, Sir. He is a threat to the nation. People like him are responsible for the bombings....''

''He is escaping sir, and we can still stop him,'' one of the commandos suggested.

The commotion about stopping Imtiaz seemed to have no impact on David; a serene smile appeared on his face as he took his time switching on his radio.

Capt. Rakesh could take it no longer. ''I am going after him, Sir!''

David put a comforting hand on Rakesh's shoulder. ''Relax Rakesh. You have done enough job for the night. Let our sniper do some work now.''

He took out a cigar from his pocket and lit it- his old way of celebrating the completion of a mission. After a deep puff on the ancient Cohiba, he spoke into his radio.

''Big Bird, an escaped terrorist just broke out of the main barracks and is heading east. Do you have eyes on him?''

The chopper pilot took a sharp curve, lowered his chopper and started searching with the spotlight. In the dark and eerie desert beyond the windscreen, he could see a tiny dot running hurriedly towards the border.

''Affirmative, sir! I have eyes on him. He's in my spotlight.'' The pilot approached the tiny fleeing dot.

''Good. Sergeant Harish, you still there with sniper support?''

''YES SIR!'' A crisp reply.

''Bravo! Consider this as your evaluation test. I want that bastard down in 3 shots.'' The calm in David's voice would have led an observer to believe that the task was rudimentary. It was not. Not even remotely.

But there was a reason Commander David was feared and highly respected amongst the Black Cats. He was no ordinary Black Cat Commando. The NSGs had a special tag for his category: Phantom Commando- something almost no civilian in the country knew about. He was amongst the top 1 percent of the sample NSGs who achieved the status of 'Phantom' on a 7 point scale. The only other Phantom in the squad was the newly recruited youngster now aligning his shot on the tiny dot getting even tinier every passing second.  

The helicopter was shaking abruptly, the convict was running wildly, the drift of the bullet owing to wind correction and the drop of the bullet had to be considered.

Harish took a deep breath, held it for ten seconds, aimed his rifle and pulled the trigger. David heard 2 roaring shots in the silent night sky. The bullet found its mark and Imtiaz's dead body collapsed on the cold desert sand, a form lying still and curiously relaxed in that huddled shapelessness of death.

David and his team gathered some more evidence and made their way to the chopper.

''Central, this is Commander David D'costa. Me and my special task force had been assigned to mission AG158H9 earlier this evening. We successfully completed the mission taking no losses. I request you to direct the BSF to take over from here. Returning to the Headquarters now. Over. ''

''This is Central. Congratulations for the accomplished task. Now, as per the events of today's evening your task force has been re-deployed at Delhi. There was a blast at the Rashtrapati Bhawan almost an hour ago. We will be sending you the complete details. Report at the Rashtrapati Bhawan premises ASAP.''

Chapter 13

The puzzle is now assembling itself to perfection. The blast was just the beginning- Beginning of the darkest night Indian Intelligence would have ever anticipated. They have no idea how grand my 'Operation Chaos' really is.

There was no nervousness, no slightest hint of doubt in his mind and no reason why there should have been any: with two years of solid preparation behind him, he would have been amazed if anything should have gone wrong. The operation had to be executed with a surgically military precision, marked with a perfectionism that matched the scope of an U.S Marines Op. It was. The preparations had to be made in total stealth and confidentiality. They were. A split-second synchronization had to be achieved. It was. Every possible outcome of every move made and every possible departure from the plan had to be considered. It was. 

Through the damp, almost translucent glass of the window, he could still see the smoke hovering over Rashtrapati Bhawan. Sitting in a wheelchair, his right hand tightly grasped the copy of one of the oldest manuscripts human eye had ever seen. He knew that the manuscript was the key to all the missing questions even before he had read and decoded the true meaning hidden in it. He had studied it and solved every puzzle, every code which was just another poem or a
shloka
to the normal eye. And yet he had these questions. And yet his map was incomplete. There were many dark corners in his path, and today he was going to find all his answers. The wound on his right thigh reminded him of the pain he had gone through, the ways he had suffered. Today it was his turn to make someone suffer. The smoke cleared up in the sky as thoughts began to cloud his mind.

Hidden in these books is the key to acquire the artefact. I spent years of my life searching for this opportunity and yet I couldn't lay my hands on it. But today I get two things. I settle my old score and I get my artefact. 'Operation Chaos' will be something that these bastards will remember for years to come.

I will make them pay and disgrace them.

Let's see how much pain he can take tonight.

He had no command centre or control room. All the setup he needed was ready on his table- the 3 LCD screens in front of him gave access to all the locations his cameras covered
.
The state of the art technology had made it easy for him to monitor every move his enemies made. His table was filled with ancient scriptures and the rarest of maps- his study of years. No wonder he had designed it as a game. A game that was going to change everything for the Indian Intelligence. His two major enemies, his age and his inability had always slowed him down in his work, had not let him find the object he was seeking. But today he had a trick up his sleeve. He had his N.U.M.

Chapter 14

The Flashback.

About 2 hours ago.

A man in a black leather jacket, climbed on the terrace of the fifteen floored 'Timber Heights' on Motilal Nehru Marg, Delhi.  He had a clear view of the crossroads lying to the west of the building. He wasted no time in assembling his M24 sniper rifle from his briefcase and mounting it on the tripod. He talked into his microphone as he adjusted his scope to zoom in on the roads.

'' Azar, I have a direct view of the street. Hasib is going to cross that road and you would just have a 10 second time frame to place the explosive. The first vehicle would be our target. I can see the sewer entrance on the road. Have you reached it?"

''Affirmative, Muhammed. I am just below it. I have activated the explosives and the timer has been set to ten minutes. Alert me when Hasib makes his move.''

Muhammed then called up Razak, who was their tech-expert.

''Razak! Where are we with the call?''

''The tape just finished. I have activated the jammers so that their tracing algorithm can just locate that it was made from Rashtrapati Bhawan but not the exact location. I suppose Chief Prakash would be handling this and we know his modus operandi.  I have set up a surveillance camera right outside the IB sub-station. Will let you know as soon as he leaves with his team.''

10 minutes later.

''Azar, this is Muhammed. I can see five SUVs coming up your way in my scope. Hasib, you know what to do. We have only one chance, Azar. Do it and do it right.'' Their entire operation rested on this split second co-ordination.

Just as the SUV was going to take a sharp left, Hasib got in the way, forcing the driver to immediately apply the brakes. The SUV skidded to a halt right above the manhole. Azar's hand moved swift and smooth like a machine on a lubricant. The lid was removed, the explosive was placed and the lid was closed again. All in a jiffy.

''Everything is set, Muhammed. Now the other team has to get the work done at Wheeler Island.''

***************

Wheeler Island, Bay of Bengal.

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

Time: 17:54 hrs

A task force of 25 soldiers guarded MODULE 14- one of the abandoned missile launch centres of India. Although announced as 'abandoned' to the rest of the world, it was a prime centre for development of the hypersonic technology for the new BRAHMOS project. MODULE -14 was officially closed down for the world in 2008 as a measure to remain 'off the grid' for the ever hovering spy satellites. Increase in armour and military enforcements were easily traceable on CIA satellites and those areas were immediately marked as 'hot zones' on satellite mappings. The hypersonic missile was scheduled for its first test three days later and the head of the project Dr. Kapoor was supposed to announce the success of this project at a press conference in the capital about an hour later.

Cpl. Gurmeet Singh was one of the security officials guarding the South East check post of the facility. Activity on the island had begun to cease in the past couple of months as the project was almost complete. Only two groups of scientists worked for the final tests of the scramjet engines at the lab. In the control room, Suhas was responsible to manage and keep a track of everything that was happening at this R&D facility.

A few miles away, four men in black leather jackets had taken over a coast guard launch. Armed with the best training skills and tactical weapons, they were now ready to execute the phase two of their mission.

Just in a few minutes, four 'soldiers' got down from the coast guard launch on the south east entry of the R&D facility of Wheeler Island. The badges on their shoulders invited an instant salute from Cpl Gurmeet at the check post. As he made an entry in the register, he curiously asked his supposedly senior officers about the purpose of their visit. Of course, he had no record of any prior information been sent about their visit. Abbaz cleared his throat and spoke with an air of authority, ''This is an unofficial visit so no need to check in with the Central Command. With 3 days remaining for the trial launch of the missile, we suspect a potential threat from a group of terrorists. It is a direct order to re-plan the security here and to send in more reinforcements. I want to discuss some security measures, and I want each and every soldier present here to assemble at the MODULE-14 central hall in fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, we would require the maps of the island to study the current security arrangements.''

Trusting the ingeniously forged ID's of the fake officers, Cpl. Gurmeet handed the imposters some maps of the island which were enough for them to understand the security threats and sentry posts. The disguised terrorists split up in different directions and took care of the tower sentries and radio communication systems. After fifteen minutes, the only threats to the terrorists on the island were the soldiers who had now assembled in the central hall of MODULE-14.

***************

Muhammed slowly adjusted his scope towards the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The evening Delhi skyline restricted his view of the target building. But he only had to see the smoke rising up in the sky to confirm the success of their mission.

He was waiting. The timer had been set for ten minutes and every passing minute was a test of his patience. It seemed like ages had passed by the time Muhammed heard a subdued blast at a distance.

''The bomb must have gone off. I can see the smoke. Proceed to plant the things in the Durbaar hall,'' he said. Hasib and Azar, disguised as the fire brigade crew, had got into a stolen water tanker and rushed on the streets of Delhi towards Rashtrapati Bhawan. They had a package wrapped in a brown paper to be placed in the Durbaar Hall. It was now time to hook the bait for the fish.

***************

Wheeler Island had quite a few buildings on its southern side. Most of the northeastern area was unoccupied and was referred to as the 'woods'. Nearly all the houses were of the wooden chalet type, with great sweeping eaves and balconies running the full width of the front of the houses. These had served as the living quarters for the scientists that had worked on the earlier projects. A few were comparatively modern construction, with shingled walls, small double glazed windows and incomplete wrought iron grille-work, but most were very old and low, planked with rough adze-cut wood, and having the interlocking wall-beams projecting at the corners. The lab was centrally located in the southern building complex while MODULES 13 and 14 stretched across the southwestern part of the complex. The control tower was housed inside an old light house near the southeastern shore. This entire facility was surrounded by a 20 feet wall on the southern side and by an electrified fence on the north.

MODULE 14's central hall was now occupied by soldiers who were the only remaining security of this island. With Abbaz making up some stories of a terrorist threat, the remaining three terrorists took positions behind the soldiers. Abbaz was so realistic while telling the new security arrangements that the engrossed soldiers never realised suppressed weapons being targeted on them. On Abbaz's signal, the bullets burst out of the barrels, tore through bodies and bones and skulls- a ruthless massacre happened.
The three terrorists firing from behind had no expression of rage or ruthlessness on their faces. Their faces were stone cold and their hands steady as they handled their weapons with extreme proficiency. Before anyone could realise what was happening, Abbaz opened fire from the front. Sandwiched between the rain of bullets Cpl Gurmeet and his mates didn't have a chance to survive.  Walking in the pool of blood, Abbaz relished their
small victory for a few seconds. But he knew that this was nothing compared to the victory they were going to achieve tonight.