The Sniper Projection-----code Charlie

"Charlie's identity can never be traced. I have known him since my school days, still can't say that he can be easily understood. A man who never leaves a clue that can light a way to his hideouts is Charlie. His works and his plans are incomparable. He is mysterious, it sounds more mysterious when I say, he is not one!

Charlie is a code, not a character. The code keeps on varying so does the variation seen in Charlie.

How the story started, it's still a riddle.

He was in love with a girl from a different community and his parents would never allow building a relationship with Endzela. Charlie was married to another girl and Endzela ended her life. For no justifiable reason, Charlie took society as the causative agent for Endzela's end. His newly married life didn't last long and as a professionally trained software Engineer, he took his skills of gaining unauthorized access to data from a computer to a bigger system to its extremes; Charlie, a master hacker, a threat to the entire economic scenario of a country. Still, I don't know his hideouts though we were good friends. He was a professional googler of his time. His past efficiency has now turned into untraceable crimes. I don't know if is he still alive or not, but code Charlie is still on the web, one just has to activate it and in a flash, billions of unauthorized transactions are done."

As Burkan Ghazi reluctantly and lethargically completed his words, he requested a glass of water. But before the glass could be given something odd happened, very odd! Ghazi's body started shivering abruptly and with a devilish smile, he rolled to the ground. Nobody got a chance to interfere with what happened all of a sudden as Ghazi took his last breath! It was a blow to the investigating squad and they had to console themselves by murmuring, "Suicide capsules are sometimes used by terrorists once captured by counter-terrorist units so that they would not give up information."

"How much we have traced him correct, I don't know, but Burkan Ghazi is a perfect orator a trained pathological liar not to surrender mentally at any cost. Though we've drugged him and tried to leak the pieces of information, he kept maximum information hidden inside his core. Code Charlie, what is it?" Mr.Khurana lit a cigar, took a deep breath a signaled the dead body to be taken to postmortem as he let out the smoke escape from his mouth.

Silence took its dominance in the darkroom after Mr.Khurana completed his observations. He took the remote and randomly changed the T.V. channels.

ᵀʰᵉ ᴾᵘˡʷᵃᵐᵃ ᵃᵗᵗᵃᶜᵏ ᵗᵒᵒᵏ ᵖˡᵃᶜᵉ ᵒⁿ ᶠᵉᵇʳᵘᵃʳʸ 14, 2019, ᵐᵃᵏⁱⁿᵍ ᵗᵒᵈᵃʸ ᵗʰᵉ ᵗʰⁱʳᵈ ᵃⁿⁿⁱᵛᵉʳˢᵃʳʸ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᵗᵉʳʳᵒʳ ᵃᵗᵗᵃᶜᵏˢ.

15 ᴬᵘᵍᵘˢᵗ 2021... ᵗʰᵉ ᵀᵃˡⁱᵇᵃⁿ ᵉⁿᵗᵉʳᵉᵈ ᴬᶠᵍʰᵃⁿⁱˢᵗᵃⁿ'ˢ ᶜᵃᵖⁱᵗᵃˡ ᶜⁱᵗʸ ᵒᶠ ᴷᵃᵇᵘˡ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗᵒᵒᵏ ᶜᵒⁿᵗʳᵒˡ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗʳʸ

Seeing Mr.Khurana in a perturbed mood, one of his subordinates, Mr.Asthana, tried to make the situation okay by looking at Mirza and giving a fake smile, though his motive was to change Mr.Khurana's mood.

 

"After all it's just a matter of money though the amount is uncountable, infinite. I think we should approach the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, 

Mr.Khurana rose from his chair instantly and roared,

"No, it is not. It could be a matter of warfare too! Though hacking for everybody is a matter of playing pranks with the system, most common y associated with illegal activity and data theft by cybercriminals, this time it's not about damaging the financial system but entering the defense mechanism."

"Sir, the case seems more critical than we thought. It has its branches spread all over the country," spoke Mirza holding her 303 revolver, as if ready for combat.

Mirza, with a frowning expression and raised eyebrows, admonished Mr.Asthana, trying to make him realize, flirting doesn't suit an intelligence officer.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Some situations are interrelated, but we never know how? It may be that some masterminds are working behind them for a cause which may be for good or for the worse. 

"I'm telling you, again and again, it was a call from the C.N.V.bank. It was just a short call, a very short call, but the messages after the call were unstoppable. I know, I shouldn't tap the cancel button, but had to tap. After all, it was a costly mobile. And then, the odd thing happened; in a flash, my account was emptied. Will you believe, somebody hacked 15 lakhs in almost fifteen seconds," saying so with the conversation unfinished, the man rolled to the ground and became unconscious.

"Mr. Siddhant, Mr.Siddhant, are you ok?" 

::::::::::

Meanwhile in a different location…

"Sir I've called the credit card provider in front of you. It was canceled two years ago as you said."

"But some transactions were made, though it was unsuccessful finally. Now can you tell me, is my bank account safe?"

:::::::::::

The sequences of bank account hacking continued in the city starting with an unknown coded message Charlie 01, Charlie#@3, Charlie23@#..........

"24 ᶠᵉᵇʳᵘᵃʳʸ 2022, ᴿᵘˢˢⁱᵃ ⁱⁿᵛᵃᵈᵉᵈ ᵁᵏʳᵃⁱⁿᵉ ⁱⁿ ᵃ ᵐᵃʲᵒʳ ᵉˢᶜᵃˡᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᴿᵘˢˢᵒ-ᵁᵏʳᵃⁱⁿⁱᵃⁿ ᵂᵃʳ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵇᵉᵍᵃⁿ ⁱⁿ 2014."

The news showed. As Mr.Khurana was busy watching, a gorgeous lady entered the room. Her enchanting beauty was enough to bring about a sense of numbness. 

"Hello Sir, I'm the newly appointed case officer. Myself Zarina. I was the undercover agent who cracked the Pulwama issue. Here are my papers. I was in contact with you, but today I'm lucky enough to be in your squad."

Mr.Khurana rose from his chair, came closer to Zarina, and whispered in her ear.

" 1,2,3,4," with these words, he gave a pen and a piece of paper to Zarina.

" So, Sir, you are the same man I've heard and read of. The man who never believes in what he sees, but believes in who makes him believe," with a mysterious smile, Zarina returned the piece of paper 

             2 444.

Decoding the coded message, the unfamiliar face, and the enchanting beauty made Mr, Khurana believe that she was the newly appointed officer, Zarina.

" Welcome, Miss Zarina, welcome to the squad. I liked your memory. In the last two years, we talked a lot on the wireless, and in every conversation, I tried to end it up with a numeric riddle. We have never seen each other, but your identification was decoding the numeric code. Welcome."

As usual, Mr.Khurana shuffled the news channels on the television screen and continued his talk.

" Do you know, Miss Zarina, why you are here? Have you heard of Burkan Ghazi, the man who tried to shoot the Home Minister? As per our information, Ghazi was a professional killer, a marksman, and a perfectionist in sniper projection."

"Don't you think, he has any relation with Al-Tahied? An attack on the Home Minister is a threat to the country. There can be more in the city in disguise. Though independent, our's is a small country. Our armed forces are less, however, after the URI strike attacks, there are fewer chances that they will rise soon. But, continuous hacking of banks and making the financial system hazardous is turning the citizens impatient, nervous, and ill at ease."

I was hoping for somebody else here in the room, but they were not there. Where are officer Asthana and Mirza?

:::::::::::

The sound of the bullets made a chaotic situation in the shopping mall. People tried to run hither and thither to save their lives. Mr.Asthana ran to the corner of a huge shelf dragging Mirza by her arms.

" I don't know why these momentary blank fires; they don't have any target nor have any motive to rob the shopping mall. All of a sudden, they changed their minds, why?"

Seeing Mr.Asthana confused, Mirza tried to console him.

"Sir, I've never seen you such worried before. Our profession never allows us to be frightened."

Both Asthana and Mirza decided to leave the place, but before they could do so…..

  

……ᶻᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴹᴹᴹ…….

A tiny, almost inaudible sonic boom couldn't escape from Mirza's ear. She was sure about the cracking sound of a bullet behind her back, a sniper projection!

In an instant, Mirza looked back and saw an unfamiliar figure rolling from the stairs with splashes of blood on his head and face.

"Mirza, hurry up. What are you doing? We've to go. ᶠᴬˢᵀ𓂃ᶠᴬˢᵀ𓂅," shouted Mr.Asthana from the entrance. 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Far away from the shooting scene.

"Target terminated, you know, Ghazi never misses a target!" 

"But how can you prove you're not being guilty? After all, you are a criminal in the eyes of law."

" Isn't it enough that I saved the lives of two intelligence branch officers."

"But Ghazi, you can't hide for a long time."

" But Ghazi is dead as per intelligence branch report. He killed himself, I mean to say, he committed suicide. Isn't it? 

" Who is the man whom you shot? Did you really save Asthana and Mirza? Why he was targeting them?"

Ghazi projected the sniper once again and

 ……ᶻᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴼᴹᴹᴹ……

"No, no……..

The bullet pierced Asthana's head and he rolled down to the ground.

::::::::::::::::::::

A dead body was recovered by the locals on the banks of Satvi. The laminated card in her pocket remained safe and intact. 

Zarina Bakshi, the name showed. The news soon reached the intelligence.

:::::::::

"Let me turn off the curtain.

I'm Burkan Ghazi. I'm not dead. Somebody had to sacrifice his life for me. I am not one, I am we, we are the Al-Tahied. We will get our independence. The black sheep was in your squad. The Charlie's chapter is closed."

 

As Ghazi completed his words showing the inefficiency of the administration, several others with turbans on their heads and faces covered joined him.

" Don't worry Mr.Khurana. We'll leave you. You are kidnapped at my instructions. Asthana is dead. Now go and solve the unsolved mystery, who was Charlie? 

::::::::::::::::::::

Some riddles are never meant to be solved. They are intentionally created to bluff a group. Mr. Khurana was left on the highway with his eyes blindfolded and hands tightly tied, but he was not hurt. Finally, he managed to open the loosely tied knots and reached his office 

" How can it be! She was well fit and fine. We had a long talk yesterday. She warned me, though Al-Tahied is a recently formed rebellious insurgency but has risen into power in a short time. They even have managed the latest war weapons from our combatant territory. I thought they paid in millions in making it manifest, but Al-Tahied and Charlie or code Charlie isn't the same or they are the two faces of the same coin," Mr.Khurana as usual was shuffling the Television news channels in parallel with the talk. Suddenly he stopped at a channel that was showing news of the previous year.

   B҈R҈E҈A҈K҈I҈N҈G҈     N҈E҈W҈S҈

ᶜᵒʳᵖᵒˢᵗᵒᶜᵏ ᴮᵃⁿᵏ, ʷʰⁱᶜʰ ᵒᵖᵉʳᵃᵗᵉˢ 150 ᵇʳᵃⁿᶜʰᵉˢ ᵃᶜʳᵒˢˢ 26ˢᵗᵃᵗᵉˢ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵁˢ, ʳᵉˡᵉᵃˢᵉᵈ ᵈᵉᵗᵃⁱˡˢ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵐᵒⁿᵗʰ ᵒᶠ ᵃ ʰᵃᶜᵏⁱⁿᵍ ⁱⁿᶜⁱᵈᵉⁿᵗ ʳᵉˢᵘˡᵗⁱⁿᵍ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵉʳˢᵒⁿᵃˡ ᵈᵉᵗᵃⁱˡˢ ᵒᶠ ᵒᵛᵉʳ 2.5 ᵐⁱˡˡⁱᵒⁿ ᶜᵘˢᵗᵒᵐᵉʳˢ ᵇᵉⁱⁿᵍ ˢᵗᵒˡᵉⁿ.. 

"So, the case turned out not to be exactly as I suspected. Code Charlie wasn't the beginning of warfare. I always wondered, how Asthana could manage costly cars and possession, and a luxurious life. He wasn't the owner of a great ancestral property as we know about him. Burkan Ghazi acted as a king in the game of checkers. Now I realised why he shot Asthana. Now the game is in their hand. We just have to wait knowingly and helplessly for the sure attacks of the Al-Tahied. "