The Honeybee Conspiracy

Part 20

Chapter 18

It was around 9 pm on October 4th when Shyam's first guest arrived. He had to drive his bike for two km down the mud road to open the gate which was surrounded on both sides by the reserve forest where one could spot Samba deers and bears hardly ten feet away perched on the small hilly terrain adjacent to the road. For the safety of the guests, he always recommended that they must checkin before 6 pm but there were some guests who were the adventurous type who didn't mind driving the route in their 4 x 4 SUV's. But, Shyam on the other hand had only a bike and, yes, he did mind when he had to come alone at this awkard time of the night to open the gate for this guest. He was indeed irritated and was muttering to himself, "Why don't these idiots ever come on time." Three Samba deers were staring at Shyam wondering why he was talking to himself when the sound of the horn made them to leap and run leaving Shyam alone.

The booking was made by Julius for John Kuruvilla in the name of Mr. Mohan and they had booked all five cottages. Shyam opened the gate as the SUV neared the gate and stopped in front of him. "Hi Shyam, I'm iMohan and my friends are on the way. I suggest you could leave the gate open." said John Kurivilla.

"Sure Sir", replied Shyam.

They drove back to the bungalow and Shyam completed the check-in. Within half an hour, two other SUV's arrived. Shyam welcomed them and explained the timings of the trek, the do's and dont's of the property. They had an early dinner and retired for the night.

By the time Shyam woke up early in morning 6, the guests were already up and sitting around the open verandah

"Good Morning Sir" said Shyam.

"Morning Shyam, can we have a word with you?" asked John.

Shyam thought they were mad at him for making them wait for their morning tea, he went towards them "Well Shyam, though we have booked all five cottages, we are only three of us but we shall pay for all five cottages. Further, we would like to be left alone, so could you please instruct your staff to leave all our meals on the table and we would help ourselves. Hope you would understand, Shyam." said John.

"Sure Sir", replied Shyam.

"Also, could you please instruct your cook to keep a flask of hot black coffee on the table and keep refilling it. That would be very helpful." asked John.

"On the way." said Shyam.

While the cook was busy with preparing the meals, Shyam was wondering why these guys come all the way to spend time alone. Shyam thought of going and making conversation with them but relented when he remembered about their request of not being disturbed. The three of them seemed to be spending a lot of time under the thatched hut towards the far end of the property overlooking the splendid mountain ranges covered in passing clouds. Out of the three men, two seemed to be defense personnel which was evident with their crew cut army hairstyles. The last person, Mohan, was tall at 6 ft and well built, seemed to be in his late 40's and was in charge of this group.

Having spent some years in the industry, Shyam had a feeling something was wrong, but yet again, he had seen so many guests of different types, so he just let it pass.

John Kuruvilla told the Chief of Army Staff, General Pratap Singh," If the intel we have received is right, this mole is within the Indian bearocracy or the defence establishment. My biggest fear gentlemen, is for how long has this mole been leaking intel to the ISI? And how deep are the tentacles of this mole? These are things we need to discuss and also we must devise a strategy of how we plan to use this to our advantage and counter this threat in view of this country's long term military objectives. This is a decision that we three will have to take in the overall interests of the country. For the next one and a half days, the three men spent under the thatched hut with maps and scribbling pads. They hardly ever came to the main building and except for having their food. The following day, the three men checked out and left very early in the morning. Mohan settled the bill and gave Shyam a big tip of five thousand rupees. He was on cloud nine.