Together Forever

The Catalyst

Saanvi gave a cheer, looking up from the laptop. It had been couple of days since she sent the mails.

"The fish just bit the bait. They clicked on the link. Hold on, let me execute the script."

Vikram sat with bated breath, waiting for Saanvi to break through the hospital's firewall. Finally, after she started copying the folders in their server, she got up and stretching "It would be easier if I could do this from home, with my laptop. I can just let you know of the progress."

"No!!!"refused Vikram in a strong tone.

Surprised, Saanvi retorted "So you don't trust me, despite all the risk I am taking here. What we are doing right now is a criminal offense. I could be arrested."

Vikram patiently explained "Exactly because of that, I don't want you using your laptop or anything which can be traced back to you. It's not just the police,  even the hospital guys should not be able to link any of these activities to you. I don't want to endanger your life."

"But what if they trace back to you?"

"I belong to the army, Mam. Risking my life is part of my daily job."

Dhruv smiled as he joked "It would be easier if you just admitted that you wanted Saanvi to come here every day, so that you can spend time with her."

Vikram lost his temper "Shut Up, Dhruv! Either you help or you can leave."

Dhruv put up his hands in a sign of surrender as he left the room. Saanvi felt bad for him.

"That was harsh. He was just joking." She reprimanded Vikram

Vikram went back into his brooding mode, as he replied, "There is nothing to joke about when it comes to the country's security."

Finding that the copying of the files were completed, Saanvi sighed.

"Ok We are in business. I have picked up tons of files from a restricted folder on their server. Though most of them are encrypted, there are couple of audio files which we can access. Let me open one."

The audio was of a conversation between 2 men, but in an unintelligible language.

Vikram recognised one of the voices.

"It is definitely him. Nawaz." He edged closer to the laptop when his hand touched her shoulder. He could smell her perfume, which was so pleasing that he took a deep breath. For a moment his mind wavered.

She smells so nice. Her voice also sounds soft and pleasant. Wonder what she looks like.

Saanvi interrupted his thoughts "Do you understand what he is saying?"

Cursing himself for getting distracted, he responded "It's in Arabic. I will translate, and you can make a note."

As he listened, memories rushed through his mind of the last time he saw Nawaz. Saanvi saw the colour fading from his face and held his hand out of concern.

"Vikram, are you okay? What happened?"

For a moment, Vikram held onto her hand tightly as he sat down on the bed. The voice from the laptop reverberating around the room, while he was engulfed by darkness took him back to the moment, he had met Nawaz for the first time.

Slowly Vikram related the story of Nawaz and how he turned out to be the turning point of his life.

It had been a capture operation assigned to his team. He and his friend, Suraj along with their team had set out to find a terrorist hideout in a dense forest area, situated near the border. Having located the hideout, they spread out and entered the old, dilapidated house. As they stealthily entered the house, to do a reconnaissance, they heard voices from deep inside the house. Vikram gestured to Suraj to wait outside the room while he barged in. He found the terrorists gathered around a table with boxes scattered all around the huge room. As they started shooting at Vikram, he ducked behind a large box. As he started shooting back at them, he called out to Suraj. Suraj rushed in as the team gave him cover fire.

Even as Vikram was shooting at the terrorist, one of them threw a grenade in his direction. He dived out of the way and crashed into a door leading into a smaller room. Inside he found a guy huddled in a corner.

The guy seeing the Army uniform, screamed "Don't shoot me. I am not a terrorist."

Vikram shushed him as he took position behind the wall and kept shooting at the terrorists. He saw them taking shelter behind the large boxes. Based on a hunch, Vikram started shooting the box. Within a few seconds, the explosives inside the box exploded, killing the terrorists hidden behind it.

Silence prevailed after the huge explosion. Suraj picked off the rest of them. Finally, they had eliminated all the terrorists. Amid the smell of gun powder, Vikram led the man out and handed him over to Suraj.

"Suraj, this guy is a key witness. We will need to interrogate him to find out if he knows anything about their plans."

Suraj took the man back to their base even as Vikram and the team opened the remaining boxes, to find them filled with artillery. Trucks were summoned and loaded with the artillery to be taken back to the base. When Vikram entered the base, he found Suraj was waiting outside the interrogation room. Suraj shook his head.

"He is not speaking a word. Even Chief tried, no luck."

Vikram walked into the dark room and sat down in front of the man.

"Listen, we found not just weapons but also materials to make bombs. I need to know if there are others who are out there and when and where they were planning to use these bombs. If you don't talk, we will assume that you are also a terrorist and put you in prison. I promise you that you will never see daylight again."

The man broke down and covered his face as he sobbed. Vikram put a comforting hand on him. He took out a picture from his pocket.

"This is your son, isn't it?"

The man looked at the photo in Vikram's hand. It was a photo of him with his teenage son. He nodded, wiping the tears away with back of his hand.

"Yes Sir, my son is all I have. I am an innocent man. Those terrorists kidnapped me. I haven't seen my son since a month. I just want to go home to him. I will tell you everything I know."

Vikram asked him "Start with your name."

"Sir, I am Nawaz." The man answered.

Nawaz:

Vikram stopped narrating about how he met Nawaz to Saanvi, at this point.

Saanvi asked, "So what is this Nawaz saying in this audio?"

Vikram held the chair tight as he replied "He is training that guy on how to assemble the bombs."