Collateral Damage

Everyone in this office, especially Abhishek’s teammates, call him the “Bacchha”. Not that he is the youngest of all, but because of his chubby but small face hiding under a big layer of unorganised, yet carefully uncombed hair, gives him an appearance of a twenty-year-old college student.

Before this organisation, Abhishek was into a product development company in Bangalore, a very high paying one as Security Engineer. He was the blue-eyed boy over there, not only for his educational background but also, he was the best mind among his peers, not to forget among his batchmates during his college days.

This office is rather a very small and very simple one compared to his previous one. One can find all sorts of people across all age groups working together here, that’s the only difference he could find.

Four years back, when Hussein Sir introduced him to the rest of the team members, Sharma ji pinched Abhishek's cheek, and ask Hussein Sir "where did you get this Bachcha from".

Abhishek still remembers what Hussein Sir said "Yeh Bacchha nahin hain, Ravaan hain Ravaan".

To that, Sharmaji replied, "Yes, I have heard from Shashank about his misdeeds, have heard this boy can work and stay glued to his computer for 3-4 continuous days. We need such badass Bacchhas, I can't work like that". Sharma ji is supposed to get retired in another 5 years.

Hussein Sir said "No Sharmaji, we need someone who can think for a couple of days, how he can finish our job without a trail, or how he can break the enemy's network easily, even if a single thing does not fall in place according to plan, should be able to keep his cool. After many trials, we found out this is a must to survive here".

Sharma Ji nodded "Yes that's what your boss says".

"Isn't Rathore Sir your boss. Last I heard, he was".

"You are our boss Sir Ji" quipped Sharmaji. Some say Sharmaji and Rathore Sir were batchmates in college. A minute's silence followed.

Finally, Abhishek responded ”Please, don't call me a Bacchha, this will make me irritated, my irritation can make me lose my concentration, which can degrade my performance, which can further be detrimental for this organisation and which will not be good for the country as well. Sharma Ji...".

Hussein Sir was not happy with that kind of overconfident response, but Sharmaji smiled "Yes no more Bacchhas for our family". Everybody was amused.

Four years have passed on since then.

Abhishek has been part of many assignments till now, initially, it was all from offshore, but within one year Hussein Sir started putting him in field assignments as well. Not because he relies on Abhishek’s technical knowledge. It was more because of Abhishek no-nonsense nature, his clear-thinking process.

Above all, for his bright but cold and deep eyes. Compared to any other person in his age group, Abhishek is far more composed, nobody could guess what is playing in his mind.

At the same time, Hussein also wanted to have young blood in his team. He has also seen Abhishek could mingle easily with anyone from any age group, this also is something he liked about Abhishek. He is a conversation starter, which makes him a perfect fit for interrogating suspects.

During all these assignments, Abhishek observed more, rather his action was lesser. But he has slowly adapted to this organisation, he really assimilated into this office like a true chameleon. Hussein Sir also has his eyes on Abhishek all the time.

In these four years, Abhishek has matured enough, he has now some shades of grey hair also. Not because of work pressure, but it's the nature of pressure that he has dealt with silence. And that has definitely put a mark outside, maybe more within. On his family front, he had to explain to his parents that he was moving out of corporate jobs and rather he is joining a PSU.

Actually, Abhishek became more stone-hearted, when his engagement was called off two years back, that too because of this job. Just two days before the ceremony, the girl’s family got to know that Abhishek was no longer having a high paying job, rather he was working in PWD.

Hussein Sir had created a profile in PWD for Abhishek as part of the regular process.

He never discussed the ceremony incident with Abhishek.

Actually, Abhishek was closer to Shashank who evaluated him during recruitment. Maybe because of their similar work profile, similar educational and family background. Hussein heard from Shashank only about this whole engagement incident.

But Shashank made sure Abhishek understands the hierarchy, and he does not supersede Shashank in any matter.

Hussein did realise this uneasiness in their equation, once he asked Abhishek if he could be of any help.

Abhishek assured him, but give him a cryptic response "Sir, if things are not working for me here, I will not hesitate to move out. I still have time to get into IAS IPS, and I can move out of this for a better career, only bothered about my background verification, which will be in your hands".

“No worries, Abhishek”.

It's Friday today, but it's not a normal one. Abhishek is not in his regular mood either. It's December now in Delhi, and it's raining continuously from morning today.

But the weather is not bothering Abhishek. So many things are happening in the office.

For the last three weeks, there is no news of Hussein Sir. Three weeks back, he went for an assignment, but he never made it to his destination. Everybody was scared for him when the news broke out today.

What is more strange to this news, just two days before his assignment, Abhishek had told him about his suspicion of possible data theft from the secured servers. Data can be of anything to everything, only Hussein Sir and his boss would know what that data could be, but Shashank Sir would know how to deal with it.

This thing got into Abhishek’s radar due to a certain pattern not being followed during that period, the data theft detection algorithm gave an alert. Abhishek was working on this for the last couple of months silently. This assignment, nobody knew about it in this office, this one came directly from the Headquarters.

After this news of Hussein Sir broke out, Shashank Sir stopped behaving normally, more specifically rudely, maybe he is too worried for Hussein Sir. In general, he can't take to people easily.

Not only him, everybody in this office is scared to talk. They call it "Devil's silence". They say it like that because sooner or later, something bad is definitely going to happen. Abhishek just sat for the entire day and left at the end of the day, just like that. Did he make a mistake by telling Hussein Sir about the data compromise? God knows.

Two days have passed on like that. Sunday means early morning for Abhishek, for his weekly medium intensity workout. But this Sunday, he is in no mood, he didn't plan for a single thing. But at 6 a.m., his mobile buzzed twice, first, it was a call, followed by an SMS.

The SMS read "Switch on to any news channel".

Abhishek got up at 8 a.m., and at 8:30, without checking his mobile, he directly switched on to his favourite music channel. At 8:45 a.m., his phone rang, it was a call from his "Super" Boss.

"Can you come to my house at 9:30"?

"Yes, Sir I will be there".

Abhishek looks at his mobile, and he reads the earlier messages. He now switches to his regular new channel, headlines were flashing "A top Government official has been arrested for espionage from Dubai, more details awaited".

Another SMS comes "Will meet you soon".

Abhishek tries to guess who that can be. He quickly tries to visualise what might have happened. Just tries to solve the missing pieces of the puzzle. So, so he prepares for the 9:30 meeting.

All his team members, excluding the Super Boss, stayed across the outskirts of the city. Everybody knows how expensive this city has become, what kind of salary this government-run agency pays, easy to guess why they are in the outskirts.

"Super" gets his government accommodation, almost at the heart of the city.

At 9:30 a.m. sharp, Abhishek is at the boss’ place. He is just about to press the doorbell when the door opens from inside. It's Hussein Sir.

"Surprised"?

Abhishek indeed was, but he said "Oh, not at all". He again keeps on thinking.

"Hmm, Rathore Sir is waiting for you, come in".

As they enter the lawn, they could see Rathore Sir was sitting in front of a table, and in a polite manner gestured them to sit and asked "Tea or Coffee".

“Green Tea only”.

“I have bad news and good news for you, the bad news is.. “

“Let me guess Sir, Shashank Sir is the person in today’s news” Abhishek almost interrupted Rathore Sir.

“Great, then you tell the good news also”.

“I am going to be awarded for this discovery of the data breach issue”.

“Hussein, I am really like this boy, impressive”.

In the next 30 minutes, they shared the details in a chronology, how Hussein identified it was Shashank, they mobilized assets to check his actions. Hussein Sir told them that this was not the first time, but this time the data was riskier. 

Hussein Sir intentionally disappeared, just to make Shashank think that Hussein had the data, and he could sell it before Shashank. Rathore Sir worked with another country’s agency to get hold of the buyer first, and just when Shashank was trying to sell it, he was nabbed with evidence.

After another 30 minutes, they came out of Rathore’s house.

Hussein Sir asked “Feeling good”?

Abhishek nodded “Sir, I want to quit”.

Hussein Sir almost remained dumbstruck “Just now you have done a brilliant job, you are required here Abhishek, and now you are saying this, why Abhishek”?

“Sir, I don’t want to do this all my life. Somebody, who will be doing this petty ‘Chor-Police’ thing, will be thinking he or she is doing a great service to this country, but not me. This is just notional that we are on the right side, we are just following orders, and that’s it”.

“So, we have not done the correct thing”?

“Sir, you and I, we both know, that you actually got hold of the data before Shashank Sir did, literally. So, you are equally guilty”.

“Desperate time needs desperate actions”?

“Sir, I have no business about you or your boss’ methods, maybe you are correct. But I don’t want to play these games at this level, I just want to get into Services, and be the playmaker, not the expendable pawn”.

“Ok, but what if your departmental background verification is not cleared by Rathore Sir”.

“Sir, I knew it, that’s why I have the evidence with me, unless you clear me, it’s going to come after you”.

The next day, both Hussein and Rathore were discussing Abhishek, “Hussein, I don’t want to lose this kid, but I don’t want to get beaten in our own game”.

“Sir, this guy has kept no other option for us”.

“What do we say, his exit would be collateral damage”?

“Maybe Sir”.

So, you are asking me to clear his verification. Tell me one thing, five years down the line, will you be able to accept him as your boss”.

“Sir, he is far better than my current boss”

Both of them laughed….

Almost five years later, Hussein went to Malaysia for an assignment. As he was checking in, he got an SMS “Will meet you soon”. Hussein nodded his head, remembered how he used to send this same SMS to someone special. He smiled at himself….