Death of Terror [Game of Blogs - Part 30]

#StoryWeavers

Read the first part of the story here and the previous part here.

Shekhar has found out the two terrorists and their prisoners as soon as they got down from the vehicle. He and his comrades had taken positions already and were ready to act on sight. Just after a half hour of wait, they spotted the headlights of a car and listened to a van turning in towards the stadium. As soon as Shekhar spotted Tara among them, his heart heaved a sigh of relief. As soon as all the hostages life were ensured, Shekhar ordered his team to take down the two men.

For extra safety, five of the Shekhar's team started tailing the terrorists. They followed them to the locker room where the hostages were put in one corner and the terrorists were pacing up and down trying to call someone. "Huzoor is not picking up the phone. I do not understand what should we do. He said someone will meet us here. But, the stadium is damn empty. Should we kill these people and go away from here?", said one of them. That other answered, "Let us wait for some time". 

Realizing that these people did not know much about the upcoming operation, the team of 5 decides they can be dispensed with. There fire at the head of one of the terrorists and he falls down. The other takes hold of Tara in bid to save himself. "Stay away from me or I will shoot her". The team splits up and two of them step out of the shadows and put down their guns. The terrorist thinks himself safe and starts backing away along with Tara. Meanwhile, two of the other people tail him in the dark. As soon as they see his grip on Tara laxing, they shoot him in the heart to kill him instantly. The hostages are taken to safety and escorted out of the stadium. 

And, now, it was a long wait for the mysterious mastermind. Shekhar already knew from Tara's spy cam that there was someone who was controlling the entire situation. His comrades had informed him about the conversation between the terrorists. And, Shekhar wanted to be there to welcome him. Before killing this mastermind, he wanted to make sure that there were no more surprises hidden for Indian citizens and that too unsavoury ones.

In the meantime, the bomb squad had detected a nuclear bomb in a remote place of the stadium. They came running and the hackers got on to the job. They cracked the password but they could not make it work. Then, they understood it was probably a biometric or voice protected one. They needed the mastermind for it and alive, if possible, and soon. The timer was ticking down and there was only 60 minutes. 

And, then, Shekhar sees someone stealthily entering the place and looking around. His team hides in a corner and the stranger goes straight to the bomb.

"Stop right there or I will shoot you", boomed Shekhar's voice in the silence of the pre-morning. That brought Aryan to a halt.

Just as he turned, he could see he was surrounded. "I know you would not hurt me, Mr. Dutta. You would need to diffuse this bomb and you need me for it.", said Aryan.

Shekhar was unconcerned with all of this. He now realized that this mysterious mastermind had been his new neighbour for a couple of months. "So, you have been spying on my family. Anyways, I have no interest in all that because everything will come to an end with your death and I am pretty sure my hackers would be able to crack the password.". 

"Oh, you think you have the best hackers in the world but this is my bomb and only I can direct it. Do you think jihad is just a war for us? It is our life and mission and salvation and I shall make sure this country suffers." 

Shekhar's mind was racing. Aryan was saying only he could direct it. What if it was protected by biometric access. He had to make him talk. The recording was already started at his command.

"You can not do this. This is really not what you want or need. And, I can always kill you and make my hackers crack the password."

"You can not. You need my vocal cords. You need my voice for it. This time I did not make it simple like a retina scan or a finger print. You need my voice. And, for that you need me alive and now I am going to kill myself. Soon, the bomb will go off. See, the timer is ticking down."

"Why are you doing this war? What has our country done to you?"

"This is jihad. Our War. This is our jung. We want to kill each and every man. Ek ek hindustani. Tumhe kya lagta...."

And, just as it is, Shekhar shoots Aryan in the head when he was impassioned with his speech, his obsession.

The hackers had the password. A simple concatenation of the individual words would crack the password. And, they did it. Finally, the recording was played and the timer stopped ticking. The bomb was deactivated. Everything was alright again.

Shekhar could see the light of dawn filtering through the mist of the pre-morning. A lot has happened today and it was time to go home, to Roohi and Tara.

Read the next part of the story here.

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”

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Choices are what makes us! [Game of Blogs - Part 15]

Story Weavers 

Read the starting chapter of the story here and the previous part of the story here.

Cyrus was trying to capture more of the videos. He was happy that the first upload was successful. He was not aware of the furore it had caused in the outside world.

He had started blogging just because it was the trend now a days. But, being an introvert and having low self-esteem, he had not really told anyone of his blogging proclivity. He had started writing all that he could not really express to people who knew him intimately. And, he had found a dedicated reader soon enough with whom he interacted on a very personal level.

The first upload had not gone really smooth. It was quite an adventure. In fact, this was the first real adventure in Cyrus's life. He was not dimwitted in real life but yes definitely short of common sense and looked dumb in his big specs which covered his entire face.  He had somehow managed to think of his mobile and what he could do with it! He despised mobiles. It made him feel so unwanted. He had no one to whatsapp him, no friends to like his pictures on facebook, hardly talked to his parents once a week and that too the bare felicitations.

Fortunately, for today's meeting, he had to carry the gadget. And, he was gonna make sure that it is used properly. But, first, he needed to take it out of his secret pocket which was not possible with these masked hovering around him. He gathered all the courage and spoke to the masked man standing just a few steps away from him, "Sir, can I please use the washroom. I have a chronic prostrate issue because of which I need to visit the bathroom frequently". He knew simple request to use the washroom was not gonna work so he had to make this excuse. And, as expected, the masked men who heard him laughed and used derogatory words but allowed him to use the loo. One of them escorted him to the loo door.

Since he could not risk not using the loo, he thought he might as well do it and take out his mobile in the same process. The main concern would be how to keep the mobile away from their eyes and record at the same time. So, he pretended to use the washroom for a longer time and said to the man waiting outside, "Sir, I need to use the washroom for some more time". The reply was a rude explicit but the man acquiesced. Cyrus changed his phone to silent no vibration, switched on the recording mode and arranged his shirt to let his shirt tails hang and fixed the mobile in his jeans keeping the lens peeping out in the gap of shirt tails so that the camera could record everything. He splashed around some water, flushed the toilet and came out and was dragged back to join the other hostages. The only hope he had was that mobile stayed fixed and camera recorded what was available.

In the meanwhile, another masked man came strolling with his huge old samsung tablet and started punching something. Suddenly, Cyrus got up and was immediately nabbed. He tried to struggle for a while and then sat down. The man continued talking on the phone as he moved. Cyrus could hear a little and then the words trailed away. After sitting for thirty minutes, he again asked permission to go to the washroom using the same excuse to gain time and was granted the wish. Once in the loo, he just hoped there was network and immediately uploaded the video. He waited with bated breath for the successful completion, embedded in his post and arranged the mobile again on recording mode to record more. This time he tried to gain some other angle of the hotel. He knew more trips to the loo would be difficult but he wanted to try once more till he was caught.

-x-

Roohi remembered the story of danger associated with the bad wolf in the Little Riding Hood Story and knew her mother would understand the term at once so she just barged into the me-lee and shouted “Mummy. MUMMY!!!Red riding hood! RED RIDING HOOD!”.

Tara heard Roohi shouting. Jeniffer, on the other hand, was confused and she did not know what to do. Ibrahim Rehman might have given her purpose but these people had given her life. It was a time of choice for her and she decided to do the right thing whether she lived or died.

She went to inspector Arjun whom she had already spotted. And, took him aside and, "Arjun, I have been inside the hotel. I can tell you the positions of the terrorists. At least as close to what they were a while back.". Arjun aka Shekhar was suspicious of her but decided to play along.

Tara went back to Roohi and hugged her. "Roohi, are you crazy? How could you be stupid to come here? I told you that you should stay at nana's place till I come back, right? Now, go back and stay there. Dad, please take her home and do not start on another 'save Tara' mission", Tara said to her approaching father. After bidding goodbye to her father and daughter, Tara went to join Jeniffer. 

When Shekhar notices Tara coming towards them, he realizes she is coming to join Jeniffer and will not abandon the rescue mission so easily. He hurriedly asks his next-in-command to take over and goes away from there in some pretext.

To maintain the trust of her terrorist friends just in case someone was watching the scene outside from the hotel, Jeniffer called up Kareem, "Kareem, I am going to join the army people to see what they are planning next. This plan can not get foiled like the railway station attempt and we have already lost abba. We can not take more chances". "Ok, Ahana, do as you think is right but please be careful. We can not lose you. Btw, Aryan called up. His mission is going as planned.". "Who is Aryan, Kareem?". "Oh, didn't abba tell you about him? Ok, it is not important. You focus on what you have to do.". "Ohk, I will talk again and do tell me about him. I will get back to you in sometime.".

Jeniffer could not convey this information about some Aryan to any of the army men. She could not risk telling everything about herself so she decided to find out more about Aryan before she revealed this bit of information and, in meanwhile, she would also find out a way to explain how she came across this information. 

Armed with information provided by Jeniffer, the army marched on to regain the hotel and save the hostages though Shekhar was also aware this could be a trap.

Read the next part of the story here.

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”

Related Post:

Civilians vs Villians [Weekend Post]