THE HARBINGER OF NOR'WESTER

The Aftermath of the Storm

"Saikat Sanyal!" Bimal called out, obviously surprised that he was the one to find it out. Vaibhav came over and checked the inspector's work. He indeed found their suspect's identity.

"I think we found him!" Vaibhav exclaimed immediately turning his attention to his tray of alcohol.

"Why do I recognise that name?" Biraj put a finger on his chin.

"His name came up in connection to Master da!" Bimal answered, suddenly looking worried.

"Who is Master da?"

"Old sinner." said Bimal, "currently he has the most active naxal factions in this area."

"Well let's catch him!"

"Yeah, yeah. But we still have daylight left, you should go to the crash site!"

Vaibhav took out the papers from the alcohol and pressed another set of paper on them.

"Are you hearing me, go to the crash site, Biraj will take you. I th ink I can spare some constables!"

"I think this is some kind of manifesto...," Vaibhav was examining a paper.

"What?" Bimal snatched the paper from Vaibhav. It was the same paper from the ziplock bag. Except now the letters were clearer, the document was legible.

"Nice work Dr. Roy," Bimal exclaimed, "I will look into this. Biraj take him..."

They took the road to reach the end of the Matigara area, from where the Terai jungles began. Vaibhav didn't insist on bringing his own car, the one Shefali had given him.

"So, Vaibhav, Sattu told me you had some mishaps while in college. Like it was the whole reason they sent you to Naxalbari in the first place?"

"Do you know how Saikat Sanyal and his friend could've run into lightning strikes?" Vaibhav snapped back.

"Naa, it's just for a few years Naxalbari has faced a phantom. They talk about a goddess who can control the storms. You know the usual..."

"It is usual for people to leave fun things like dissatisfied ghosts behind to talk about a goddess?"

"No, I guess we will never know. Just like about your time in Calcutta University!"

Vaibhav chuckled as they parked in front of the jungle. All of them alighted onto the mouth of the jungle. The constables led the way into the forest. They walked over caked mud, riddled with boot stamps and through winding tree lines.

"Sir there is the truck!" a constable pointed his finger in the required direction.

In a clearing, a little further downhill lied the overturned truck, largely covered by creepers, banked on the slope. The forest seemed to be determined to make the lifeless machine it's own. Vaibhav put on his gloves and looked closely at the barks and the trees. The flora still remembered the brawl two nights ago, with powder burns on leaves and barks scrapped deeply. The animals currently avoided this area, knowing that the human disturbance is not over yet.

Vaibhav trekked down the short slope ultimately balancing himself on an outgrown boulder. Biraj and the other officers spread out across other directions of the site.

"I see the headlights are still on!" Biraj observed.

"It still has power?" said Vaibhav as he crouched to look closer and kept going, "The truck skid on that trail", Vaibhav pointed to four bare stretches of mud, where the vegetation seemed to be crushed out of their roots, "to suffer that much trauma with the combined weight of the cargo.....you sure our friend from the morgue wasn't affected by the explosion?"

"No!" Biraj arched his brows as he kicked of rocks from the ground and looked up at Vaibhav, "Hansda got everyone clear once we arrested them, it wasn't as big as we thought it would be!"

"I can see why," Vaibhav shuffled closer to the truck. He weeded out a few creepers uncovering the charred back of the truck. Almost all the plating was stripped off leaving only the framework visible, "the tank was reinforced, the initial heat melted half the tire, I think all the oil didn't burn in the explosion. They were expecting to run into gunfire!"

"You see something!" Biraj voiced one of the constables. The constable nodded his head saying no.

Vaibhav squinted his eyes and stood up for a better view. Then he noticed the cargo. Immense structures wrapped in tarpaulin littered in an arc across the clearing.

"I don't suppose you checked the cargo!?"

"It was dark," said Biraj turning to Vaibhav, "you were supposed to come, so no! We didn't bother to check it!"

There was a clunking noise that made both of them turn towards the other constable, whose rifle for some reason got stuck on the ground, he kept trying to pull it out.

Vaibhav looked back to the cargo and down on the mud tracks. Biraj was about to step into the clearing to go across. When Vaibhav raised his hand and stopped him.

Biraj questionably looked at him. Vaibhav took out a coin from his pocket. He looked around at the three people and tossed it into the clearing. Everyone watched as the coin went up in the air flipping.

The coin reached maximum height, Biraj started to look down to watch the coin fall. But the coin meandered away midair and started abruptly moving around in the space.

The constable freed his rifle and suddenly the coin shot across to hit the rifle and ricochet back on the ground.

"Magnets!" exclaimed Vaibhav and turned to Biraj, who was looking at him, dumbfounded. Vaibhav said calmly, "Let's collect those cargo!"