In every universe: Arjun and Riya

Operation 7/5

Against the backdrop of snow clad mountain, tall lush pine trees, river flowing in front of him, it was a ugly sight to behold.

His gun pressed tightly in his palm.

A beat passed, then the other one joined it, finger ready to pull the trigger.

On the other side of barrel, stood a familiar face. Unflinching brown eyes staring back at him, spine firm like a rod, chin lifted at him with determination.

Just her elevated heartbeat revealed what was happening. what was going to-

His heart beat matched hers in rapid succession.

"Its time." He could not recognize his own voice.

She stood in front of him in silence.

A gunshot rang out the next moment.

Her body fell in the flowing river in a blink of an eye. The white waves looked quite furious to him, as they took her away.

"Its time." Rathore's quiet warning snapped him out of it. Arjun blinked a few times- back to this reality, only to see a group heading towards them in conference room. Dustin sir, Raghu sir with a few unknown faces, their faces looking quite grim.

He shook himself off, ignoring the shakiness of his two feet as he stood up.

Emergency Task Force, the unknown heroes of India.

By Sakshi Anand

A group consisting some of the elite minds of our country, ETF has always stayed in shadow of secrecy. The public hardly knows about the existence of such a team, and higher officials and bureaucrats from CBI, NIA, RAW-IB let it stay that way. In the murky roads of espionage and national security, its a gift where the missions of ETF isnt known much. It gives them freedom to navigate their ways, but with secrecy comes hardships too. No one to praise them for good jobs, stewing in guilt when things go sideways.

Its where I step in.

Sakshi Anand, former senior journalist of Mumbai Times. I hope my writing does justice to this prestigious team, and shed spotlight on the men and women who steadfastly guards our country day in and day out.

The team consists men and women from Police force, former RAW IB agents, ex army personnel, consisting brilliant minds for research, forensic analysis, arms and ammunition expertise, extensive combat experience, along with interrogation skills and high end technical support. As of now, the group consists 7 people, including myself. I have been assigned as a PR face for the renowned team, a liasion between them and the rest of departments, and I could not be prouder of such task granted to me.

The Chief, Sameer Damsingh Rathore, has a decade of experience in police force. A sharp analytical mind capable of finding proverbial needle in a haystack, a renowned interrogator who had helped various departments in cracking dangerous criminals, I cant find anyone else more capable of leading this team.

Shreekant Sen, taken straight out of his internship days in IB team, leads the IT department in ETF. Well versed in coding which comes across as magic on computer, master at encryption and data mining, he is as serious about his gadgets as he is about joking around to lighten his colleague's moods.