The Chronicles Of Detective Roy Arora: Episode-3. The Case Of The Bombings In Goa.

 

No one is born evil. No one is born a hero. Remembering a line from a really old Batman movie, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

Up to 2029, the years were great for Roy and me. I excelled at work, even though the bosses were pretty pissed off about the number of leaves I was taking. The leaves were always with Roy, to solve cases. Different kind of cases. Some involved psychopaths, some with troubled teenagers. Hell, on New year’s eve we were running around to find a freaking ghost. But all is not flowers and butterflies. I’m not saying the cases were easy. But they were not dark. I mean, none of the cases posed a big threat to either me or Roy. But after what happened in the January of 2030, things changed. I can assure you, there was darkness all over Me, Roy, and our friends. No one can curse me to go to hell. Because those years were hell and Roy had to go to the extent of becoming the devil himself. It all began here….

January 15, 2030

Place: 40-C, Victoria Street, New Delhi

“Pikachu? I mean, are you kidding? You have a high-tech watch that can detect possibly any element on earth, that can shoot freaking laser beams, that can work as a phone, that can detect almost all kinds of signals. And you name it Pikachu?” I asked.

“Will you drop it already?!” Roy asked.

“What? I’m just curious. I mean, a person like you…well…cold, heartless, no offense, has something so important yet named so delicate. You like comics too, you could’ve named it after one of the superheroes. So why Pikachu?” I asked.

“All right, all right. I still watch old episodes of Pokemon every day. And I love Pikachu. Happy?” Roy asked. We looked for some seconds and burst out laughing. Suddenly, that was not the only sound that was around.

“You hear that?” I asked. “It’s a…”

“Chopper. What the hell is a chopper doing here?” Roy asked. I peeked outside and there was a freaking helicopter right above our apartment. Hell, the worse thing was that it landed on our terrace.

“They’ve landed on our terrace. This doesn’t seem good, does it?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Grab the guns,” Roy said. We loaded the .37 caliber pistols and waited. After about 3 minutes, the door kicked open and 6 men in black uniforms, heavily armed, bashed in. They pointed 6 rifles at us so we naturally had to drop our weapons. Then a young man in a suit walked in.

“I certainly hope you are Mr. Roy Arora and you are Mr. Arjun Bakshi,” He said.

“That’s a really amazing way to knock on someone’s door,” Roy said.

“Oh, I always appreciate sarcasm. Sorry to enter this way. Orders from above. You and Mr. Bakshi have to come with us,” He said.

“In-in a chopper? Where?” I asked.

“Yes. Though you two won’t have the privilege of sight-seeing,” He said.

“What do you mean, exactly?” I asked.

“This,” He said and just then there was a huge blow on my head from my back. I was in instant pain and I fell. In a matter of seconds, everything went dark.

I was barely able to open my eyes. When I woke up, the first thing I saw was the ceiling. It was huge. There was a huge window I was staring at.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” I looked and it was Roy.

“Man, what happened? Where are we?” I asked.

“Rashtrapati Bhavan,” Roy said.

“Okay….WHAT?!” I asked, shockingly.

“Rashtrapati Bhavan. President’s house,” He said, rolling his eyes.

“Of course I know what Rashtrapati Bhavan is. But, why are we here, who brought us?” I asked.

“I did!” Someone said. I looked. And, holy crap. He was one of my friends from school. Ishan Ray. He was always the kid with evil plans. Making fun of teachers, harassing weak students, bunks. But, he was also one of the most intelligent guys in the school. He wasn’t even in the top 10 because he hated the education system. Always said, “I’m gonna fucking change it.”

He added the f-word in front of a teacher once who scolded him for not doing his homework. Got detained. But still, he never changed. He was also the kindest. The girls loved him and he was, and is, incredibly handsome too. But he said he never had any time for love or care. Said it made the human beings weak. In some ways, he was like Roy. But certainly he was more famous than him. He was wearing a black suit and tie.

“Ishan? What the hell!” I said.

“Arjun. Met after long, eh?” He said. I went up to him and gave him a friendly hug.

“Roy, Ishan is here, dude!” I said.

“Whatever!” Roy said.

“Roy and I meet frequently, AJ.”

“Occasionally. When things go south for you,” Roy said, coldly.

“Okay, but what are you doing here? Some people just barged in, knocked us out and brought us here. And we have no idea whose plan it was,” I said.

“It was me,” Ishan said.

“WHAT?!” I asked in surprise.

“No wonder it was him,” Roy said.

“Why? But why would you do that?” I asked.

“Let me explain. The first question you would want to ask, AJ, is that what the heck is Ishan doing here at the President’s house? Right? Well, the thing is, Ishan is the government,” Roy said.

“What?!” I asked.

“He’s just exaggerating,” Ishan said.

“Thank you for interrupting me, ladies. Now, shall I continue? Great. AJ, all the good changes you’ve seen in the country, with the education system especially, Ishan was after it all. He consults the PM, President and that’s that. He’s the brains of this country and never takes credit for what he does. He doesn’t belong to any party, he just swooped in once and helped Mr. President with an idea at a public conference and was instantly hired as a consultant. And, the moment the six guys and the guy later who destroyed our door to get to our apartment and NOT shoot us, I knew those were Ishan’s orders. He knocked us out and he hid us on the helicopter so that we won’t be seen. Why? Because this is either a very top secret mystery that the “Great” Ishan Ray cannot solve or, something terrible has happened. And I think I know what. The bomb blasts in Goa, right?” Roy asked.

“Precisely. You know about it AJ, right?” Ishan asked.

“Yeah, saw the news yesterday. It was terrible. 54 people died,” I said.

“Ishan won’t call us to track the planners. It’s something else. Shoot it, Ishan,” Roy said.

“Yes. I didn’t call you both to find the people responsible for it. We already have,” Ishan said. Then he showed us a photo. It was from the place where the blast had occurred, everything was destroyed, 3 buildings in total. The blast had caused the cars to be damaged extremely and the buildings had nothing left. Except, there was a single wall in the building, still intact. But what was bizarre was that there was a graffiti of a golden tiger drawn with green colored random numbers surrounding it in a circle. I didn’t know what that meant so I looked at Roy. He seemed shocked. He was staring at the picture with eyes wide open and I never saw him in a shock, in that way.

“The rising tigers. They’re back,” Ishan said.

“Rising tigers? What is that?” I asked.

“It can’t be. Ishan it fucking can’t be true! We destroyed them! We destroyed their traces! I did! It can’t be possible!” Roy shouted in anger. I had never seen him this angry and worried before.

“But what the hell is that?” I asked again.

“The rising tigers is a hacking group founded in 2018. There were changes in the government, I, being the part of it. But they didn’t believe in those changes. They wanted prices to drop, even when it was not possible by us. They wanted to kill the corrupt politicians so they started spreading hate. Even though the government promised to eradicate corruption, they wanted immediate action. And their solution? To kill corrupt politicians and kill people who acted in support of corruption. Their numbers multiplied. They became masters at hacking. First, they hacked some government websites threating them. This was kept under wraps, however as we acted immediately to delete them. Then, I don’t know how, they hacked into the traffic signals, the lamp posts, the generators. Anything that was run by the computer. We tried to trace them, but with no avail. That’s when we called the master hacker-our friend, Roy Arora. Roy found their website and became a member. He chatted as if he were their own and soon planted a bug in their systems. When the hackers tried to remove that bug, it backfired and helped us get their locations. But when we went to arrest them, they said they won’t die in government’s hands and so they all killed themselves with guns pointed at their heads. That was the year 2025. We were confident that the Rising tigers were destroyed but well, I guess we were wrong,” Ishan said.

“Are they with Pakistan or Afghanistan?” I asked.

“No. They are Indians. In fact, they’re all from Mumbai. But they have a specific rage towards the government and exclusive abilities of the digital world that they can control almost anything-now that our world runs on technologies,” Ishan said.

“They took someone’s help. Some investor, or someone with resources. They HAD to take someone’s help to return,” Roy said.

“I don’t know that, Roy. But there is something else you need to see. And I didn’t want to, deliberately, but I think your day is about to get worse,” Ishan said and showed another photograph. It was the same wall with the same symbol but it was opaque and something was written in blue color and visible clearly. It was written:

“SEEMS LIKE MR. ARORA IS A SECRETIVE PERSON. OH COME ON, ROY. LET’S PLAY SOME GAMES. AND LET ME CHECK HOW GOOD YOU ARE. IF YOU WIN THE NEXT GAME, I AM GOING TO SO ADORE YOU. WE’RE THE SAME COIN, ROY. I’M JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE, WAITING FOR SOME PLAYER TO BE ONLINE. AND I FOUND YOU. TA-DAAA! SEE YOU SOON, MR. DETECTIVE. ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEXT BA-DOOOM! :)”

 “What in the world is that?” I asked.

“When on the site, I found the symbol suspicious so I asked to check for some UV rays. And there was the writing, hidden in plain sight,” Ishan said.

“How many know of this?” Roy asked.

“None. Except my team and me, you and Arjun,” Ishan said.

“I think I’ve found myself an enemy. Any idea who that is?” Roy asked.

“I got terrified the moment I got the message so I flew straight here and brought you guys here. You’re in trouble, Roy. And I’ll do anything to help you,” Ishan said.

“Since when do you care for me?” Roy asked.

“Mr. President asked me personally to bring you both and help us solve this case. He doesn’t know about that message, Roy. We have to find the Rising tigers and shut them down once and for all. Plus, they are the direct source to the mystery man who threatened you,” Ishan said.

“AJ and I will help. But not to shut any group down or to help. Things just got personal,” Roy said.

“So, what’s next?” I asked.

“We head to Goa today, AJ. Since you have no office work this week. I want a flight in two hours and I need to get back before the night. Also, I need authorized access to the site. I think I’ve given my shopping list, Ishan,” Roy said.

“Consider it done.”

We arrived in Goa after two hours. Goa was such a beautiful place. But probably this wasn’t the day to define beauty. We went straight to the blast site. Everything was destroyed. The bodies were removed, of course, but there was blood all over. Then we saw the wall with the rising tigers’ symbol. Roy took a glance at it and then took off.

“Hey, Roy, shouldn’t we investigate?” I asked.

“We are. But in the server room,” Roy said.

“Why?”

“Because that’s where all the computers are.”

Then we headed off to the server room down south. There were 20 computers and all of them were bashed up. No, there was no effect of the blast there. Each and every computer was broken and shattered into pieces. Finally we found the main server computer at the end of the room. It had gone through the same fate. The screen was shattered into pieces and the keyboard didn’t survive either. The CPU was smashed inside out. Roy quickly took a flat steel rod that he brought and started to pry open the CPU.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Taking the hard disk out.”

“Why?”

“You’ll know.”

“But everything is destroyed,” I said.

“Do you know one thing about the hard disk?” He asked.

“What?”

“It’s really hard.”

The CPU opened and as Roy said, the hard disk indeed was in perfect condition. He took that and we headed out towards our plane. After we began to move Roy spoke.

“The rising tigers don’t know any other crime except hacking. Without that, they can be called just a bunch of angry teenagers. But the problem is, they are masters at hacking. They can control traffic signals, generators, traffic lights, probably anything which is run by the computer. Now they’re back, and this time the guy who challenged me has paid them big,” He said.

“But, how can you be so sure they hacked and produced the blast?” I asked.

“It’s perfectly simple. If I punch you right in the face, you will get hurt 20 times more than what my hand suffers. It’s the same. The source of the attack never gets damaged. Plus, it should be kept somewhere safe, somewhere out of bounds. No one except some classified people know who risings tigers are. So naturally the news and the people will think that it was just another bomb blast and no one would suspect the source. Thanks to their stupid symbol, we know its them and we know how the caused it,” Roy said.

“Don’t you think they put the symbol deliberately to lure us out? I mean he did challenge you. Don’t you think it was a part of that?” I asked.

“Possible. And, the hard disk. See, whenever hackers hack something, they need to plant a base in the computer. I don’t mean hacking stupid facebook accounts and e-mail ids. I mean hacking big. Whenever they do hack, no matter how experienced or good the hacker is, he needs to plant a base. Means, he needs to plant a bug in the computer. He can’t plant it in the RAM or the disk drive. So there’s only one place to plant it.”

“The hard disk.”

“And I’m about to hack their HD now. It’ll be better if you keep your mouth shut during the process.”

Actually, I got used to the rude words Roy used. He was just like that. Anyways, I left him with his laptop and the hard disk and was seeing out of the plane wondering if that message written for Roy was indeed true. I mean, who would want to challenge Roy just for fun? Fun-being terrorist activities!

“Holy shit!” Roy shouted. I quickly ran towards him.

“What happened?” Then Roy showed me his laptop. It had a timer. It was counting down from 17:43:12. I and Roy looked at each other, knowing he was always one step at a time. Then Roy got a message in his cellular.

“Roy, you got a message. Check it, might be important,” I said.

Roy checked the message and gave the phone to me. It read: “Nice try, detective. Ready for the next ba-doom? Just 17 hours to go! Enjoy the game!” This guy was really steps ahead than us.

“Let’s get back to Ishan and report to him,” Roy said.

“Can’t we do anything right now?”

“I’m saying this for the first time-no, we can’t.”

“So, what is the total evaluation of this case?” Ishan asked.

“Some parts are simple. Some really rusty. Firstly, I don’t think the Rising Tigers have returned totally. I suspect there is only one or maybe at max, 3 members. The second thing is, which is quite easy to notice, is that those messages were not from Rising tigers. A lunatic is openly challenging me, in a really bad way. The clock says 14 hours. Means, in 14 hours there’s going to be another bomb blast. The location, the intel-out of our hands. Thirdly, this guy is intelligent. He knew I would find the hard disk and he deliberately put it there for me to get it. He knew when I triggered the countdown file and he got an instant notification. That’s when he messaged me. It means this guy is not just another criminal. He’s far more than that. I have to say, he might as well be a mastermind, and a type of criminal I never dealt with before. 54 people died in that bomb blast. All was just for getting my attention. And now he intends to blow up more. I cannot let that happen. Especially not when people die because of me, who is the number one target of the lunatic,” Roy said.

“This isn’t on you, Roy,” Ishan said.

“It is. Of course it is. What am I going to say to the families of the 54 dead? They died because some lunatic asshole wanted to get my attention? Huh? That’s what I’ll say?” Roy said.

“THIS ISN’T ON YOU, ROY!” Ishan shouted. Roy shut his mouth. “He is just another madman on the street. And now that you and your heroics are quite famous on TV—”

“I never intended to be recognized,” Roy said.

“Well, your “private detective” cover is blown, dumbass. Everyone knows who you are since that “Ghost hunt” got publicized. When we talked about this, I thought you were clear about being a “PRIVATE DETECTIVE,” Ishan said.

“Enough! Stop it, both of you. There’s going to be an explosion after 14 hours with us having no idea how many lives are going to heaven and you both are arguing like a bunch of five-year-olds on a topic that doesn’t matter anymore!” I said, losing my cool.

“AJ is right. We need to keep calm. Okay. I had sent a team to track that message you got. It is highly encrypted so it’d need a bit of time. So, let’s just assume that The Rising Tigers is just a mask,” Ishan said.

“Or, just a distraction to lead us to a wrong scent,” Roy said.

“Exactly. His precise plan A would be to make the Rising Tigers fall instead of him if things go south. But what if, a member or two of the Rising Tigers do exist? I mean, he couldn’t have painted that graffiti and be there on the bomb site simultaneously. And if the Rising Tigers are a secret, then only—” I said.

“Then only their covert members can draw a graffiti and hack stuff. Of course. The lunatic is the puppeteer. He’s playing them and will eliminate them if things don’t go according to his plan,” Roy said. Just as Roy said, a person came with a laptop.

“Sir, the phone has been tracked. It’s in an apartment in New Delhi,” He said to Ishan.

“Okay, thank you. So Roy, what next?” He asked.

“I and AJ are going in there,” Roy said.

“No, I’m sending a team. They’ll tag along with you guys,” Ishan said.

“We can’t risk it, Ishan. Who knows? The sender of the text message might as well be a hostage. We’ll talk through comms. But I don’t want a massacre there, am I clear?” Roy asked.

“Roger that!” Ishan answered. Then I and Roy headed to the apartment. We reached there after half an hour. It was a two-floored apartment. Roy knew how to pick locks, so he took about 5 minutes to open it. Then we both entered in the apartment. It was pitch black, but Roy had the tracker marked in his watch. It was beeping straight ahead. Guns in our hand, we walked slowly towards the tracker and what we saw shocked us. An old woman was strapped to a chair tightly and her mouth was shut by a cloth. She had a cellphone in her hand. I quickly untied her.

“Ma’am, we need to know exactly what happened here. Why are you with that cellphone?” Roy asked. The woman didn’t reply. Instead, she typed something on her mobile and showed to us: “You are playing the game better than I expected, Mr. Arora. Well, I had this old lady send you a text. She won’t live for long anyways. So, all the best.”

And just a second later, her brains blew out! Someone shot her right in the head. She died on spot. Even before Roy and I could summarize what had just happened, someone beat us in the stomach and we fell down. The guns were out of reach too. Then we saw a face.

“Mr. Arora. I think you saw my wonderful art. And you thought I wouldn’t get vengeance for what you did?” The guy said.

“R-Roh-Rohit?!” Roy fumbled.

“We meet again, asshole,” Rohit said.

“But you died! You killed yourself right in front of me saying you couldn’t die in government’s hands,” Roy said. Then Rohit punched Roy right in the face. Blood was oozing out of his teeth. Our hands were tied.

“What do you think? Only you are the smart guy? A little bit of graphite coat on my forehead easily absorbed the bullet but didn’t let it pierce my skin. Ketchup did the illusion,” He said.

“So, are you the only one left of the Rising Tigers?” Roy asked. Then Rohit got really pissed off and grabbed Roy by the neck.

“You. Because of you and your fucking best friend Ishan, our operations failed. We lost all the money, all the resources. You chatted with me when you infiltrated our website. You made me believe you were a friend but turned out you were the biggest asshole ever. I can kill you right now……” Then he held Roy’s neck harder. Roy could hardly breathe. “……but I won’t,” Then Rohit let go of Roy.

“Why? Because some psychotic maniac paid you to?” I asked. Rohit looked at me.

“Ah. Mr. Arjun Bakshi. AJ. You are Roy’s sidekick. Huh. How about, you stop talking?” Then he punched me hard on the face.

“So what are you ordered to do? Kidnap me? Take me to the bomb site to that maniac and then kill me?” Roy asked.

“Oh, no, no, no Mr. Arora. My employer has clearly asked me not to kill you. But yes, I will kidnap you. And I will take you to the bomb site, where it will be gratefully written, 'Roy Arora: A fake detective, who already killed 54 people has now killed another bunch.' But, Roy, I gotta tell you, I will be the most obliged to kill you right now. Unfortunately, my employer is a powerful man who’s provided me money as well as resources,” Rohit said.

“And you won’t tell the name of your employer, I presume?” Roy asked.

“I did a mistake once. I trusted you when you ‘acted’ as a friend to the Rising Tigers. So I won’t make that mistake again. As far as my employers’ instructions, I’m not supposed to kill you…” Then he looked at me, “….although, I can kill your ‘Robin’ without any hassle, detective.”

He loaded a gun and pointed at me. I was so certain I was going to die but just when I heard the gunshot, Roy leaped in front of me and got shot…in the chest…..blood was oozing out of him…I couldn’t understand what had happened. My mind went dark…there I saw him, lifeless.

“Roy! Wake up. Wake up!!!” I shouted. But he didn’t wake up. I tried to pump his heart, but nothing happened.

My best friend Roy Arora was dead.

“Sir, I accidentally shot Roy Arora…yes, unfortunately he’s dead…AJ is alive…ok, sir…sure.” I heard Rohit talking to someone but, I didn’t hear it clearly. I was just staring at the lifeless body of my best friend who died saving me. Suddenly I felt angry. I felt a rage that now I cannot even explain. I looked at Rohit and tackled him. I took the knife and untied my hands and then I started to beat him.

“You bastard. I’m going to fucking kill you.” I said as I kicked him. He dropped his gun. As soon as I went to reach for it, he grabbed it and pointed the gun at my head.

“Arora is dead. My employer wants me dead. So, why should you live? I’m gonna kill you too,” He said.

“Not before I kill you first,” I heard a voice and a loud gunshot and Rohit’s head exploded. Rohit was dead. Who shot him? Roy. First, I thought my eyes were fooling around and I thought it was someone else but it was indeed Roy.

“Roy. How, how did you survive?” I asked.

“Well, I hate Ishan but I have to admit the things he has are of quality.”

Then he took out something from his chest. It was a bulletproof vest with the bullet still embedded in it.

“But, I saw blood. If it didn’t hit you, how could the blood flow?” I asked.

“A simple chemical reaction. Took help of the ghost of the mill, if you remember.”

I was just too happy and relieved to see him so I went and gave him a friendly hug.

“Well, this is surely going to be in the list of ‘the most awkward and weird hugs ever’.”

We laughed for some seconds then I saw Rohit’s body.

“Roy, you killed him!” I said.

“Yeah I did. And it’s not the first time I’ve killed someone,” Roy said.

“But Ishan said to bring him in alive.”

“The last time this man was in Ishan’s custody, he escaped, killed 54 people, almost murdered both of us. How many more signs to you need to know that he is a dangerous man?” Roy asked.

“So, what do we do?” I asked. Roy took out his phone and dialed Ishan.

“Yes, he’s dead. Shot himself in his head after killing the hostage. No, the hostage’s mobile phone is a dead end and Rohit didn’t bring his. Yeah, take his body,” Roy ended the call.

“You just lied to him. Rohit’s mobile phone is right here,” I said.

“Oh. Thank you for noticing. AJ, take this,” Roy said as he handed me an envelope. I opened it. Inside were flight tickets to Mumbai.

“What are these for?” I asked.

“You’re going to Mumbai,” Roy said.

“For the investigation?” I asked.

“No. For going home. Permanently. I’ve contacted your office, they’ll manage the transfer,” Roy said. I looked at him in confusion. What the heck was he talking about?

“Are you kidding me? Look, Roy if this is some kind of joke….”

“This is not a joke. This man murdered 54 people in cold blood, he easily could’ve murdered both of us through Rohit and it was just a matter of time before he goes after Ishan. There are only a few people I care for, AJ. And you are my best friend. You have a life. You’re an IAS officer, you are yet to find a woman and start a family. You deserve a normal life. Murders, investigations, risking life, that is my job. Not yours or Ishan’s and you need to understand that. I have nothing to lose, AJ. These things are my passion and I won’t let my best friend die just because of my stints,” He said. I looked at him for some seconds and then punched him right in his face.

“I’m your best friend. And you didn’t ask me to join you in your ‘stints’. It was my choice and I am gonna stay here and make sure that piece of shit pays for harassing my friend,” I said.

“But…”

“Shut up. I’m not going anywhere. And do you want to find the bomb? People’s lives are at stake. How much time remaining?” I asked. Roy looked at the bomb timer.

“Shit. Just 7 hours. If you’re to stay, help me with his mobile phone,” Roy said.

I spent the next few hours with Roy trying to decrypt the mobile phone. Firstly, it took around 2 hours for Roy to hack the password. Secondly, we had to do it offline, just in case that maniac tracked us again. When we finally got the password, we searched his phone. It was a real disappointment. He didn’t have any apps installed except the pre-installed ones, his photo album was empty and his inbox was filled with just company messages. Then we did find something. He made around 15 calls through his phone. One was of pizza delivery and the rest 13 we found out the names. Only one phone number was untraceable: 011-28367712. And there was a single text message which said, “NE”. This was surely a landline number and the code belonged to New Delhi. When we called, the number was invalid. We even cross-referenced this number across the country, thanks to Roy’s hacking skills but with no avail. Meanwhile, the clock ticked on: 3 hours. After an hour of thinking and when I was just about to give up, Roy shouted on the top of his voice: “I got it!”

“What? Whose number is this?” I asked.

“These are not numbers, AJ. These are co-ordinates!” He said.

“Co-ordinates, as in latitude and longitude? In a map?” I asked.

“Yes!”

“But the STD code…”

“That’s just to get us to a wrong scent. Rohit received the co-ordinates, planted the bomb and activated it. And “NE” simply means North East. Fast, I need to see where the co-ordinates lead! Search the map, and do as I say,” I quickly opened a map tracking software Roy made.

“Okay. 28 is degrees, 36 is minutes. Similarly, 77 is degrees, 12 is minutes. The seconds must be zero. Enter this: 28⁰36’0” N, 77⁰12’0” E.” Then we waited for another five minutes and then we finally got a location which shocked us:

Chandni Chowk, New Delhi.

“Oh shit,” I said.

“About 5,000 people are there every single hour. And if we go to the location of the co-ordinates, it covers a two mile radius. Which means…”

“Which means around 5-10,000 can lose their lives to the blast. How much time remains?” I asked.

“3 hours. I better get going,” Roy said.

“We. We better get going, Roy,” I said.

“AJ, listen…”

“No, you listen, Roy. We talked about this. I have promised that I’ll help you prevent the blast and plus I will find that son of a bitch who’s doing this. And if you don’t know this, I have nothing to lose too,” I said.

“Okay, as you wish. Let’s get going,” Roy said. We hired a cab and were en route to Chandni Chowk. It took around 1.5 hours to reach there. There were just another 1.5 hours to the apocalypse.

Chandni Chowk is one of the oldest markets in India. It is also one of the busiest places. Almost all of the Delhi visits it daily. Cars, bikes, rickshaws, autos, buses, carts, you name it-everything, everyone is present there. No wonder the psychopath chose to blow up this place. The pile of bodies would’ve been immense. We started to walk, but it was a massive place to look into. Even the co-ordinates displayed a 2-mile radius.

“The bomb can’t be in the open. It must be some house, and an empty one. We should split up. I’m going the North and East. You go Southwest,” Roy said.

“Roger that!” I said.

“And AJ?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t get killed.”

Then I and Roy set off. South-West was around 900 meters. So it was easier for me to get there. I went from house to house. But every shopping mart or a house seemed occupied. And no one who answered the door showed any kind of hostility. It was okay until I reached a warehouse. I knocked but no one answered. And if no one’s answering a place on Monday at 5 pm, it certainly raises doubts. I was taught by Roy on how to pick a lock. I pulled the pin out of my shirt, placed and rotated it and I started to turn it. After 5 minutes, I managed to enter it. The warehouse was dark, so I took the flashlight and the gun out. I searched almost everywhere but didn’t find anything but suddenly I heard something. It was coming from the east. When I reached, someone punched me hard on the face. I fell, down but I still had the gun in my hand. The guy who punched me looked old and was wearing a black shirt and white pants. I needed him alive so I shot at his feet, but I missed and he ran away. I ran after him so that I could keep an eye on him. I informed Roy.

“Roy, he’s heading to your direction. Old, white hair, wearing a black shirt and white pants and well, possibly running,” I ran after him for four minutes before I saw Roy coming from the other end. We both then quickly cornered the guy into an empty street.

“Where is the bomb?” Roy asked him. He didn’t reply. Roy punched him and fell to the ground.

“Where is the damn bomb?” Roy asked again.

“I was supposed to be away. But doesn’t matter, all who’re standing here will die,” He said.

“Okay. You asked for the hard way. AJ, give me your gun,” Roy said. I gave him his gun. Roy immediately loaded it and shot the guy in his right leg. The guy screamed in pain.

“I can’t tell. My employer will kill me,” He said, crying out loud with pain.

“Trust me, old man. Even before your employer touches you, I’ll plant a bullet in your head. I’m asking again, Where is the bomb?” Roy asked.

“No…” The guy replied. Roy again loaded the gun and shot his left leg this time. He was screaming even more and I had to cover his mouth, otherwise people would give attention.

“Guess what? I only have one bullet left. The bomb is going to explode within half an hour. So you better tell me where it is before I plant the final bullet in your head,” Roy said.

“The ware…” The guy said.

“The ware what?” Roy asked.

“The ware…it’s in the ware…” and then the guy passed out. Suddenly I remembered something. The bomb was in the basement where I found this guy!

“Oh shit. The warehouse,” I said.

“The what?”

“I found this guy in a warehouse. He ran so that he could waste our time. Shit. Lets go, fast!” I said and I and Roy ran. It took around 5 minutes to reach there. The time remaining for the bomb to explode was 20 minutes. I and Roy searched the whole warehouse. But we found nothing. No sign of the bomb.

“Shit. Only 15 minutes left and we still haven’t found it yet. Did the guy gave us the wrong scent?” I asked.

“No. No one who’s in the verge of dying would speak lies. In fact, he was planning to escape before the bomb blasted. Where did you see this guy for the first time here?” Roy asked.

“In the garage,” I said. We went to the garage but there was nothing but a car and some tools. There was a computer and a shelf of books, and a cupboard.

“Hmm…a book shelf in a garage? Doesn’t something seem a bit off to you?” Roy asked. Then he went towards the bookshelf and he started to tap the books. He continued that until one book gave out a wooden noise. He immediately removed the book and suddenly the book shelf started to move and slide to the left. There was a staircase that was going down!

We quickly went down the staircase and what we saw startled us. A huge sphere, about the size of a bus, was right in front of us with a timer running. It showed 10 minutes. It was the same timer that Roy recovered from the hard disk. It was the damn bomb!

“Holy crap. A bomb size of that can blow up more than a 2 mile radius,” I said.

“Worse. It can blow up half of Delhi,” Roy said. There was a computer connected to the bomb.

“Roy, can you hack it?” I asked.

“On it. You check the bomb,” Roy booted the computer and did some stuff I didn’t understand. I went out after the bomb. A typical bomb has usually three wires, red, yellow and blue. This bomb didn’t. In fact, the bomb had only one wire which was connected to electricity through an external power source. Which meant, the bomb could not be diffused by bare hands.

“Roy, I think we’re in trouble. There’s no physical way to diffuse this bomb,” I said.

“There isn’t. There is only one way. And I don’t think I know what it means,” Roy said. Then I went near him and saw. The computer booted up an image which read, “What do you want me to do?”

“What is that?” I asked.

“Artificial intelligence. She powers the bomb. Only she can disable it.”

“Okay then hack it!”

“That’s the problem, I can’t and we just have seven minutes. There’s only one way to find out,” Roy said.

Then Roy started to speak to the computer using the microphone.

“Disable the operation,” He said. Then there was a reply from the speakers of the computer, the AI replying.

“To disable the operation, please enter the password. If password verification fails after three tries, the operation cannot be terminated.” 

Roy looked at me and I nodded. Three guesses. There was no other way. The clock was showing 5:30 minutes remaining for the bomb to explode.

“Please enter the password,” AI said.

“The Rising Tigers,” Roy said.

“The password is incorrect. Verification failed. Two more tries remaining. Please enter the password,” The AI replied. Roy thought for another two minutes. It was now 3 minutes till the bomb exploded. Finally, Roy replied.

“New Delhi.”

“The password is incorrect. Verification failed. One more try remaining. Please enter the password,” The AI replied. Roy took off the headphones and came towards me.

“I’m sorry, AJ. I’m sorry that we have to die. I’m sorry that you will have to die. You never deserved it. You should’ve stayed in Mumbai,” He said.

“You’re my best friend, Roy. And there was no way I was gonna leave you in such a turmoil. Don’t be sorry. Every case I’ve solved with you, it was worth it. I guess the psycho who planted the bomb knows about us too much to not put a simple bomb,” I said. Roy suddenly looked at me as if I asked him to donate his kidneys for free.

“What did you just say?” He asked.

“That every case I’ve solved…”

“No, after that.”

“That the psycho knows us too well?”

“Yes! You are a fucking genius, AJ!” He said.

“Roy, this seriously isn’t a great time for sarcasm,” I said.

“No! I’m telling the truth….wait let me think…let me think!!!” He shouted and went back to his thinking pose-arms crossed, heads down. The clock was ticking down and Roy wasn’t saying anything.

30 seconds. Still Roy hadn’t gotten up from his pose.

15 seconds.

“Roy! Just 15 seconds till it explodes! You have to say something!” I was shaking him but he still didn’t answer. Just when the clock hit 10 seconds, Roy quickly opened his eyes, pushed me and grabbed the microphone and replied to the AI.

“Pikachu!” He said. This time, the AI gave a different answer.

“Please verify your password.” It said. The clock hit 5 seconds.

“Pikachu!!” Roy shouted. Suddenly, the color of the AI on the screen turned green and it replied,

“Password verified. Operation has been terminated permanently. Systems shut down.” Suddenly, the timer stopped and the PC shut itself down. It was done, the bomb had been defused! I stared blankly at the bomb. I was more than certain that the bomb was going to go off. Then I looked at Roy. He was smiling and panting. I went towards him.

“Did-What-How-How? How…exactly how did you manage to do that?!” I asked. Then Roy got up and tapped me on my shoulder.

“Because of you, my friend,” He said.

“Can we not play your deduction games? How exactly did you know the password? And how in the world can it be ‘Pikachu’?” I asked.

“Okay. The last line you told me got me thinking. You said that the psychopath knew us. Then I thought, of course! He knew us too well. He knew I was going to get the hard disk, he knew I would find Rohit-he was always a step or two ahead of us. And he is a master planner. He must know who I am in detail. A person can only threaten a person if he knows him and his weaknesses completely. As you know, AJ, I don’t have any weakness. But there are some things I consider delicate. Before Ishan’s helicopter landed on our terrace, you and I were having a conversation about how can I keep the name of my watch ‘Pikachu’. That’s what struck me. The most delicate thing I have is watching Pokemon, and Pikachu being my favorite. The maniac somehow knew this and he put this as a password of the bomb because he thought that I can never guess that the password of something so deadly would be something I really like. Even I didn’t think of that until you told me that he knew me too well. That means he would use my own weakness, in my case being a delicacy, against me. The only delicate thing I have came into my mind and I said it instantly. And it worked!” Roy said. I was just amazed that how incredibly intelligent a person can be.

“You’re freaking awesome,” I said.

“No, he is a fucking douchebag,” I heard someone else’s voice. We turned around and it was Ishan! “Why in Heaven’s name you wouldn’t say something so important to me, ARORA?!” He shouted at Roy.

“Well, I guess you were in Chandni Chowk since the last 10 minutes. Actually you should be thankful to me because if I didn’t defuse the bomb, you too would’ve been blown to pieces.” Roy said.

“You think it’s a joke? The president asked me to help you solve the case and you don’t even tell me?”

“Okay. I’ll tell you the reason. This maniac’s target is me. I couldn’t let anyone get hurt. I even made arrangements to get AJ out of town, but he didn’t go. Plus, if you and your fancy team of black suits carrying guns would’ve involved in this, matters could’ve gone much worse because the maniac is incredibly intelligent and he was tracking our every move. If you stepped in, he would’ve become more hostile and worse things could’ve happened. That’s why I planned this all alone,” Roy said.

“Well, I’m just glad you prevented a massive explosion and I don’t want to say this, but, thanks for saving my ass. But there’s something else you need to know. I think I’ve got the name of the maniac,” Ishan said.

“Who? How?” Roy asked.

“After you transferred the timer from the hard disk to your laptop, my team of experts took it. It was encrypted heavily. It took about 7 hours to decrypt it. There was nothing in the hard disk except a text file. It was directed to Rohit and it was written “do the job fast, be two steps ahead of Arora and don’t kill him. Kill his sidekick AJ if you want.” And at the end of the letter he wrote his real name: Farhan Saini,” Ishan said. Roy looked at Ishan blankly for a minute and then replied.

“So, our fears were true. You’re sure it’s really him?”

“Yes, Roy it is.”

“What did you mean by ‘our fears were true?’ You knew him?” I asked Roy.

“Yeah. Farhan Saini is a criminal mastermind and a mercenary. He has connections too deep. He will do anything for money and his intelligence and knowledge provides him. Almost all the major criminal activity happened in the last 20 years, Farhan has been somehow linked to all of them. What we know about him is that he is of Indian origin and was born in the USA. He joined the Army but suddenly disappeared on a mission in Iraq. Since then he was never found so he was announced deceased. Ishan and I have been doing covert operations long before you came. With the help of Ishan’s contacts, including the CIA and NSA, we knew that Saini was still alive. Once in a covert operation by our intelligence agency, BOCI (Bureau of Crime Investigation) along with the help of CIA, we went to a village in Tajikistan to gather intel. There, we discovered Saini’s name for the first time. We had doubts whether he was even a threat but after the message in the hard disk, we’re now sure he is,” Roy said.

“So, the bomb was planted because someone paid him?” I asked.

“No. He just wanted to play me and get my attention. He knows me now and he wanted to see how good I am.”

“Damn. So he’ll do it again, then,” I said.

“Planting a bomb and blowing people? No. That’s not what he does. His only targets are the anti-criminal organizations and he helps other criminal lords by getting paid. I’m on his radar and I think he’s going to be busy playing with me.”

“So. I guess more is to come.”

“Yes. Much, much more is yet to come. There are dark days ahead, AJ. Really dark,” Roy said.