ARJUN'S POV:
Even though you voluntarily dye your grass as a bright red color, the feeling of helplessness and anger over seeing green grass on the other side is overwhelming! Right now, I was drowning in that feeling. Feeling of jealously over being stuck here with Officer Siddharth, Chief and Sir while the rest of the team is enjoying.. Probably drunk off their asses and partying or sleeping. I know I would want to do both!
What am I doing here? I'm putting my ass on display!
But I promised I would work my ass off! Yes, I know. I have to prove to him that I deserve to go on this mission and stay on this team. I just wish I knew what I was signing up for?
Well, not really! Because then, I would have never joined. I'm a certified cautious never-take-a-dare person.
"Concentrate here, Arjun"
*Thud*
Before those words even register, I'm on the ground! Great shot, Sir! Now, I'm going to paint myself green, black and purple too. I really should stop being stupid and fearful!
"No, stay down. Start pushing. Officer, join him" Shit!
"Viva for you, scatterbrain. Full name"
"Rustom Irfan Rastogi"
"Walking style"
"Straight back, little rounded shoulders with eyes ahead"
"Is that the complete answer?" I'm dead now!
"Umm-- right leg first, one hand on his side bag and other carrying coffee- chilled vanilla latte"
Questions start coming faster than I can do push-ups
"Nervous tick"
"Massaging his right pinky finger and no eye contact"
"Titles for office staff"
"Umm- Sir/Madam- no, ma'am for all except Tim, the secretary and Jim, the es--"
A plate of 10 kgs got added on our shoulders before the sentence was even complete.
"Reaction for constant staring"
"Squirming in his seat and hiding behind his screen"
"Peeing style?"
Umm-what? Did he just asking me about peeing style? Since when there are peeing styles? I'm no pervert who observed him peeing! Do they do that there? Fuck!!
"Peeing style, Arjun?"
"Sir, I-I.."
"Plank. Officer, keep pushing"
I try to make myself invisible, just like Chief. He is here with us, watching us train and giving instructions to Sir with no breaks but he is not visible to us.
"What about his size?"
"Does he hold it with his left hand or right?"
I remain silent, not knowing the answer to this questions. Heck, I didn't even think of these.
"So, how long can you hold your bladder?"
No answer is the correct answer here. It all depends on how much water is forced down my throat.
"5 hours, sir" I mean, a lower figure would anyways mean instant death.
"You will definitely be there more than that. What will we do then?"
Oh fuck! "Sir, I'll learn.."
"And people won't get suspicious of why you avoid the toilets which you generally went to every few minutes?" The plate from Officer's back is transferred to mine.
Groaning and embarassed, I'm thankful I'm in plank "Sir, I'll observe and learn his p-peeing style"
Small laughter is heard from both the men. Fuckers! They were messing with me.
"Does he do a celebratory chicken dance?" I fall from the plank and add more to my misery
"Sir?" That breaks the damn. I have never seen Sir so carefree to let loose. He covers his mouth with a fist and takes deep breaths to continue his roast like viva.
Rustom and Dan are our inside guys. We have spent hours talking to them and learning everything there is to know about them. From the people in their lives to recent conversations with colleagues - I have information that makes me feel like a gossip magazine. We have also learned their walking style, their behaviour during work etc etc by creating a similar office kind layout and making them re-live their day and create a live demo for us. I have learned his typing method and speed too.
My brain is ready to explode now.
---
---
OFFICER SIDDHARTH'S POV:
Confident in our training, I stride in just as I rehearsed. We have gone over the whole plan a million times. It is a muscle memory now. I only have Dan's walking style now.
Each of my nerve is shot with fear and excitement but nothing shows outside. We have made it through the security checks and I think that in itself is a reason to calm my fucking heart rate down. We are in with no communication to anybody. It is now our job to get this show on road.
Arjun has already logged in his computer and I stomp down the urge to keep looking at him. We both need to look and work on our daily jobs. Nobody can suspect anything.
---
ARJUN'S POV:
Clamping down my nerve to fidget, I manage to get past their security and to my desk. Imagination is a powerful thing. All I need to do is imagine that we are back at the training grounds.
Subtly extracting the pendrive from my coffee cup, I get to work. As explained by Rustom, I start with his first job of the day - approving the details of deliveries to be received during the day. Each truck number and driver is checked through the database before approval.
I try to move my fingers as fast as I can without making the sound of the keyboard too noticeable. I need a lag in Rustom's routine work to get to the system.
Adjusting my screen so that only half is visible to the camera, I snap the windows to keep making it look like I'm scheduling deliveries while I start working through the first hurdle - ensuring that my computer's IP address or markers are not on the hack.
"Hey Rustom" greeted Mike with a hand on my shoulder. Trying not to shit my pants for the screen I have opened up, I hardly hear him ask , "how was the game?"
Racing my fingers to minimize the hack screen, I turn around covering that part of the screen and answer him as cooly as I can - "It was awesome, sir. Worth every buck I spent" while trying not to look like I'm having a hard time catching my breath.
With another pat on the shoulder and a thumbs up, he leaves me positively up - atleast in terms of heart beats and reduced life expectancy.
Back in the seat, stopping my shaking fingers, I open the window and get to work again - this time with one ear firmly listening on the outside world.
Switching back and forth with Rustom's actual work and looting the information, each tick of the second plays on my nerve. Every movement feels like guards have caught us. I mean, why else would the guards walking around our workstation thrice with a mean glare and a baton?!
Breathe in, breathe out. Panicking will only make it worse. Keep my thoughts tightly shut, I quietly type my way around the bunch of firewalls set by Aarham.
The more I type, the more respect grows for Aarham. He has one hell of a protection against all his data. I can bet my ass even our nuclear systems are not this protected. We protect the base but forget the computers. This guy does both. If he weren't evil, he could have used his potential to change the world.
I guess that makes us similar. How cool! I could be a scary villian in an action movie!
Fuck, Arjun! Get your shit together. He may be an evil genuis but you don't mutilate or torture people like he does. Don't ever forget that!
When I'm in the system, I glance at Officer Siddharth and allow myself a small smile. My smile triggers an alarm.
Shit! Fuck! They caught us. Rustom was playing us. We are dead. He is going to torture us first. Fill us with adrenaline to keep us alive. Then, chop up pieces of us and kill us.
Before I can make a run for the door, a fucking realisation hits me. Nobody has come to escort us to our death. Infact, it is the damn lunch hour alarm.
Fuck! Shit! Deep breaths! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Breathe, Arjun, breathe!
Logging off the computer, I go through the motions of eating lunch. A meal that I would have otherwise cherished is now a nightmare. Each bite an exercise in controlling my gag reflex. I need to pretend to be excited about a break. Pretend to enjoy my meal while all I can think about is the consequences of being in the backdoor of the system for this long. Does it change the electricity reading? A computer in sleep mode saves 90% power. Mine is pretending to sleep while it has penetrated the system. What if that consumes power? Do they monitor that?
This sounded so easy in training. I mean, learn and act. What could be so difficult about this? Man, I was so wrong. If you want to drive a person crazy, make them dance with random, negative, self destructive thoughts.
Putting a lid on my thoughts and emptying my mind again, I go through the motions of eating, crossword and napping. A nap that drains my energy by keeping all my other senses on high alert.
Once the damn godawful lunch break is over, I walk to my table, genuinely happy to be back to work. See. Nothing can go wrong.
Bending to put my tiffin in the bag, I manage to insert the pen drive and start the background task of copying the data and launching the virus.
While the data is copied, I get to the rest of Rustom's work. Each time somebody moves behind me, I resist the urge to look. I pretend to deeply concetreate on my work.
Once that is copied, I put the virus in the system and wait for it to hide before releasing a small breath. Now, fingers crossed for him never finding us out.
--
Subtly glancing at the watch, I hold in a groan. I can barely hold my head up. The tension of having pulled out the data from Aarham's base, inserting a virus and still behaving like a fucking employee is driving me nuts. Rustom's method worked. The fucking genuis knew the exact way around the system and firewalls and now I'm left wondering if anybody else knows. What if it is a trap? We have no comms. We won't even be able to inform others if we get caught.
Crushing each of these thought like a bug, I concentrate on sucking my way through the day. We have done Hell Week and a million other things I never thought I could do but nothing beats this. I would rather go through a Hell Week again. Nothing can change from the pressure, fear and tension coursing through my veins. I can't tap my feet. My breathing has to be normal. No sweating. No showing on face the irrational fear that is slowly squeezing my heart. In my head, I'm dancing and panicking. Outside, I'm typing away forms, entering invoices and logging in data of new customer and supplier master. A routine day of Rustom.
To avoid worsening my situation, I count the seconds down in my head. 7200 more to go. Then, I shall walk out of these heavily secured fort with the jewel in my coffee mug. I'm awesome.
Woah! Wait a minute!
This is why they taught us silent counts. I can keep typing and working while that count is the centre of attention in my chaotic head. Awesome Sir! Hats off Chief!
I think I need to drink water. Being dehydrated is making me crazy and giddy. Can't come so close to end and lose it.
---
AGENT PRESCOTT'S POV:
So close to Aarham's facility and yet I'm standing here, effectively useless. The vile man murdered my parents and I never got a chance to even say goodbye to them. No bodies to bury.
He creates a heinous crime and I have to behave like a snake. Sneaking in and using other people to do my job. Fucking sucks! I just want to get my hands on that man and make him pay slowly until he can't even beg.
Keeping my calm, I standstill waiting to see my champs bring in the whoopload of information that starts the domino-effect downfall of Aarham. He would go ballistic if he ever finds out the kind of mission we did right under his noses. That is still a big question. Whether we let Rustom and Dan continue as employees or not? If the news of information being stolen is ever found out, there are no words for the torture they will endure. But if they don't continue, Aarham will definitely know something is wrong. He will also start a manhunt for them and our data may not be good for long.
I check my watch again. 20 more minutes. Come on. Come on. Fucking move on already! It is one thing to be inside that premises doing work. Out here, I can feel the ants crawling up my skin and the clock taunting me by going slower. If it were my cadet, I would have taught it a lesson.
A tiny smile escapes me at that thought. I am the world's biggest idiot for not having the guts to ask Colonel before going on this mission. I mean, this is no small base. We are not blowing it up but we might as well be. If or rather 'When' he finds out, he is going to kill me. But it is better to ask forgiveness than being denied permission.
---
CHIEF:
I have walked up and down his beach atleast a thousand times today. Without communications, the silence seems deafening. There is no way of knowing if they are even alive. Have they been caught? Tortured how much? Did Prescott and Roshesh have to intervene? Are they caught?
Each question bangs against my head like these waves crashing the shore. They retreat in a dark corner only to come back crashing. Since they left last night, I have walked up and down here battling these questions. I have another important decision to make too. A decision that can potentially save or animalistically kill two families.
I can see an anxious Kyra, Darcy and the team watching me. But none dare approach. My instructions to them were clear. Continue training if you want to or take the day off. Do not disturb me. I know Darcy wants me to eat. Ashwin had to beg her not to approach me with food. In this chaos, he is the only one who seems unaffected. Almost as if he does not care for their survival.
---
Author's note:
What do you think would happen on the mission? It is just minutes to end.
Please vote, comment and enjoy.
Yes, it was a long wait. I'm sorry for that. Despite my best efforts, this is the earliest I could do. I want to give updates just as fast as you want to receive them. But, my work takes priority. That I cannot change.