RESONANCE (6 page)

Triangulation

Siddhartha Rana requisitioned
the telephone numbers of the AIG of the CISF, who was shot dead on the Noida Golf Road. He asked the telecom service operator to provide the details of the movement of the officer on the day of his death.

The telecom company extracted each of the tower positions, which had caught the AIG's cell phone network on the fateful day. The AIG had stayed home for the entire day and then from Noida, driven over the Kalindi Kunj Bridge, turned to Mathura Road and finally arrived somewhere near Connaught Place. At the Connaught place location, his cell phone had caught the signal from three towers at different points of time during his three-hour long stay: a tower on Oriental Bank of Commerce, another near LNJP Park, and the third on Bhagwan Das Road.

"A person on some secret mission needs a secluded place. Restaurants now-a-days are too crowded. Some innocuous apartment could be an option. However, the most probable location would be a hotel room, where the hidden truth may be easily buried,"thought Siddhartha as he spread the map of Delhi and concentrated on the Connaught Place area. He took out a pencil and a scale and joined all three places. A triangle lay bare before him. "What would be the best position for a cell phone to catch the network from three different positions of a triangle?"He was thinking aloud, "The median!"

When he calculated the median, it pointed to one place ' Lalit Intercontinental Hotel.

Nausheen

One afternoon, Nausheen
dozed off and dreamt about Aban when he was a toddler. Aban was on his father's back, tapping Imran's shoulder as if Imran were some Arab steed. On the weekend, in their small Rawalpindi apartment, father and son frolicked the entire day until little Aban got tired and slept. In the next sequence, Nausheen was running after Aban to get him to have his milk and a meal, but he was as ever raring to go on with the next game, and the next, and the next. Moreover, his father was ever willing to invent ingenious and imaginative games for his son.

Then Nausheen saw herself pushing a stroller in Ayub Park. Suddenly an old man, with a long flowing beard, lifted Aban from the stroller and sprinted towards the War Hero Monument. She wanted to run after him, but her legs failed her.

Nausheen woke up in a cold sweat, "Where is Aban?"

A mother's instinct told her that something was wrong.

She had already tried to contact him on his cell phone, but it was switched off. She then spoke with Aban's professor and a few students. They confirmed that Aban had not been seen on campus and were unaware of his whereabouts.

Nausheen wanted to get in touch with her husband, but his phones did not respond. She went to her bedroom and opened the drawer, hoping to find some clue. If only she could find the US addresses from where Aban had written the letter to her, then she might be able to trace him.

In one of the letters, Aban had written, "Dear Ammi, I'm fine. I'm sorry I could not drop a line. My friends and I are doing the Dirt Bike Cross-country Race from New York to Duluth and back. Right now, we have just crossed the stunning Delaware Water Gap. The gorgeous sight of the Delaware River cutting through the huge ridge of the Appalachian Mountains is out of this world. The biking is great and we are having a good time. In our next leg of the journey, we will meander all along the Great Lakes and also cross the cities: Cleveland, Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, and hike across the beautiful countryside. We will be back in Cornell after a week. Pray to Allah for my bike-team's victory…"

Nausheen sighed, "Oh Dear! This boy prefers his bike to his
Ammi
."

She found another email from the Dirt Motorbike Racing Company, inviting Aban to participate in the winter race. The contest was scheduled for two days after Aban had left for the US.

Nausheen called up the company to enquire about her son. The company promised to call her back if and when they had any news.

She waited.

In the meantime, the company received a message from the FBI. Finally, Nausheen received a call from the company, telling her not to lose sleep, stating in the most enigmatic terms that her son was on a great journey.

South Block

The Director of IB went to South Block to see the Foreign Secretary. He explained the situation to the Secretary and how the FBI was dragging Juhi, the daughter of the Indian Ambassador to the USA, into a controversy.

The Secretary was worried. He asked his PA to connect to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs of the US Department of State. After explaining everything to the officer, he hung up.

The Secretary turned his attention to the Director of IB, "The situation seems to be messy. The FBI has already reported the matter to the Secretary of State, stating that they will need to call the daughter of the Ambassador for questioning. They say that Juhi may throw light on the Mumbai attack, since she is in a relationship with Aban."

"Sir, the riddle is full of twists and turns. We still need to join many missing dots: the AIG's murder, Mr. Malik's instruction to his son to take the backup of his computer to the US. Aban's closeness with Juhi seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. There is certainly more underneath. The AIG mentioned something 'bigger' than a certain Project Karachi. However, we still don't know what it is and what could be bigger. Then, there is this '
To Pak To
", which we have not been able to decipher.

"What do you propose then?"

"I think our Foreign Minister should talk to the US Secretary of State. He should talk to the Director of the FBI to keep us in the loop. I'm sending my Joint Director, Siddhartha Rana, to New York in order to coordinate the investigation."The Director went on to explain every lead in the case.

"The Foreign Minister is in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Once he is back, I'll ask him to work out the nitty-gritties."

Lalit Intercontinental Hotel

Siddhartha Rana reached the Lalit Intercontinental Hotel and went to the front desk. The reception staff escorted him to the spacious chamber of the General Manager.

Siddhartha showed the photograph of the AIG to the General Manager and wanted to confirm whether any staff member had seen him. The GM called the Concierge and asked him to help Siddhartha.

The Concierge took him to the Maître d'hôtel and asked him the name of the servitors and butler, who were on duty on 26/11. The list was more than one hundred names long. The manager called up each of them, one by one, in his chamber and showed them the photograph.

One of the butlers recognized the AIG as he had attended the visitors and was rewarded with a handsome tip. "Yes sir, there were four people in the Presidential suite."

"What time did they leave?"

"Just before midnight."

"On the same day."

"Yes."

"Did anyone stay the night?"

"No. All of them left."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes sir. I went for clearance to the room the minute they left since the next guest was to arrive in half an hour."

"Can you describe what they looked like?"

The butler recalled everything that he could. Siddhartha noted down each description and then asked the butler to report to his office the next day so that the graphic experts could draw a fairly accurate sketch of the three remaining people.

Siddhartha went back to the office of the GM and asked him to get the video footage captured by roof-mounted cameras at: the Lalit Luxury Lounge, near the Presidential Suite, elevators, along with any other place from where the guests might have entered or left the hotel between nine pm and midnight on that day.

Siddhartha once again called the butler and asked him to go through each of the images and try to recognize the people. The Butler concentrated on each footage, frame by frame, while Siddhartha wondered if he should have caught a flight to New York, instead of solving a murder mystery and dwelling upon some unknown Project Karachi.

He turned to the GM, "Who booked the Presidential Suite?"

The GM extracted the details from his computer terminal, "Hussein Pharma Ltd. of Dubai."

"Who are they?"

"They are our corporate clients."

"Any telephone number or business card of the company?"

"Oh yes,"the GM printed out the details and handed it over to Siddhartha.

"Can I use your computer?"

"My pleasure, sir."

Siddhartha typed the web address of the company. The site mentioned that it was an export company that specialized in bulk drugs. Siddhartha visited the 'contact us' web-link and found telephone numbers, names of executives and email ids and a Post Box Number in Dubai. There were links for placing export orders. Nothing looked unusual.

Siddhartha Rana rang up the registered number of the company. "Sir, I'm calling from Lalit Intercontinental Hotel, Delhi. There is excess payment of bill by your company. Please let me know where the hotel management should send you the cheque."

"That's not needed. Please charge it to your staff welfare fund."

"We don't do such a thing, sir. It's against the policy of our company."

"Let it remain as a credit in our company's ledger account."The line went dead.

Siddhartha seemed to have hit a dead end. Except the AIG of the CISF, who had been captured by the camera, the butler could not find any of the other three persons in the video footage.

Siddhartha asked the GM, "Are there any other exit points, where you don't have any video camera?"

"No, sir. As per the new government guidelines we have to monitor every visitor and guard each point."

"Oh!"Siddhartha sighed.

The Butler cut in, "If someone uses the fire exit, we don't have cameras there."

"Isn't the exit guarded?"

"It is. But an inferno doesn't strike every day. So, that is an excellent place for the security guys to doze off."

"Who knows,"thought Siddhartha, "India may have to pay a big price because someone chose to snooze!"

Miram Shah, North Waziristan

Sundaram Iyer received
a telephone call from Miram Shah in North Waziristan, Pakistan. "We received a message from the Director of Hussein Pharma. He says that his company received a late night call from the Lalit Intercontinental Hotel in New Delhi. We crosschecked with our Indian Agent, who confirmed that IB officer Siddhartha Rana is snooping around. The AIG officer's murder seems to be his area of interest."

"This is surprising since a murder normally interests the police and not the IB."

"Then try to find out why he is poking his nose around."

"I will. However, you should also convey this to the Shura members of Tupac-II."

"Right."

"Have you told Aban's parents about his arrest?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I talked to Saeed al-Masri. He says we are not supposed to mention the arrest since Imran may hit the panic button."

"Do you still have access to 65th Street?"

"Do you mean the office of Consulate General of Pakistan in New York?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Sundaram, you should know that we have access to every place on this planet."

"Did your man approach the top?"

"For what?"

"Aban."

"We are not interested in him."

"Why did the FBI arrest Aban Malik?"

"We know only a little bit."

"Tell me."

"See tomorrow's newsflash."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"I'm not authorized to. Sleep tight and you'll know everything before tomorrow sundown."

"Still…"

"Listen very carefully. In our kind of work, we never ask too many questions. We just execute what we are told to and put it into operation. Your AIG expected too many answers. You know what happened to him? My dear friend,
Shabba khair
."

Ajmal Kasab

On 26/11, Mohammed
Ajmal Amār Kasāb created mayhem at Mumbai railway station CST gunning down close to fifty people including women and children. He also killed four police officers at different places and sprayed indiscriminate bullets on the streets, while fleeing in a Skoda vehicle with another assassin, Ismail Khan.

The police at Marine Drive received information about the duo and they put up a road barricade at Girgaum Chowpatty
naka
. The Skoda stopped fifteen metres before the
naka
and steered to take a U-turn. The car hit the road-divider and came to a standstill.

Kasāb and Ismail fired at the policemen. The policemen returned fire and shot Ismail Khan dead. Kasāb lay motionless, playing dead. When an officer with a baton approached him, he pumped five bullets into the officer. The lion-hearted officer, instead of falling, continued running towards him, and clung to Kasāb's AK-47. Kasāb continued firing without any mercy. Other police officers then captured the frenzied assailant.

Onlookers gathered and started to beat up the assailant. The police somehow controlled the situation, and rushed to Nayar Hospital with the injured police officer and Kasāb. The doctors declared that the police officer had been 'brought dead'.

In the other room, Kasāb pleaded with the doctors, "I don't want to die. Please put me on saline."

The doctors gave Kasāb painkillers. Outside the emergency room, the officers of the police department and other investigating agencies waited to interrogate Kasāb. However, the doctor declined any access to the patient until recovery.

While condolences and promises for cooperation from all countries were pouring in, Pakistan went all out to deny involvement of any Pakistani national or organization operating from their soil. They even claimed that it was the handiwork of Indian Intelligence Agencies executed with the sole purpose of maligning the image of Pakistan.

Two days later, when interrogators started questioning Kasāb, a senior ATS officer received a call from Siddhartha Rana, asking him to extract categorical answers on Project Karachi from the 'gentleman'.

Though Kasāb was unaware of 'Project Karachi', he spoke about the involvement of the ISI and LeT and narrated how the terrorists, during the attack, constantly received instructions from the Lashkar control room, which was setup in the locality of Quaidabad, Karachi. He also mentioned how other terrorists and he himself were given commando-like training in the jungles of the Kashmir valley along with marine training in the Mangla Dam of Pakistan.

The officer sent a copy of the interrogation report to Siddhartha, who kept wondering if there was a connection between the Mangla Dam training, Project Karachi, the brutal butchery of the AIG officer, and the still mysterious 'To Pak To' operation.

The hunt to unearth the truth was on, but many questions remained unanswered.