X: The Hunt Begins

by Unknown

  Aditya was gone. His bed showed signs of a hurried departure. The pyjamas he had worn the night before were tossed onto a chair. His slippers had been kicked off and lay one on top of the other near the chair. The bathroom door was ajar.

  Virat stared down at his mobile screen and once again read the message from Aditya. 'Won't be at the station today. Gone hunting. Might be late.'

  Virat scrolled down the screen to the bottom of the message. It had been sent almost an hour ago. He dialled Aditya's number and put the phone to his ear. The call rang for more than a minute before a computerised voice informed him the dialled number was not responding. He went to the drawer next to the bed and opened it. Aditya hadn't taken his gun with him, or his badge.

  There seemed nothing else to do but get on with making breakfast. But Virat's thoughts were still on the message as he returned to the kitchen. What had compelled Aditya to leave in such a hurry so early in the day? The message said gone hunting. Hunting for what? Had he received a message of some kind? Had one of the several leads he had been relentlessly pursuing finally produced a definitive break in his case?

  The questions kept nagging at Virat's mind as he deposited a pair of scrambled eggs on a plate. His phone rang. He picked it up, expecting it to be Aditya. But it was Shahid.

  “Where are you?” Shahid's tone was even more abrupt than usual. Virat could hear several voices in the background. What sounded like a cow added it's voice to the din.

  “I'm at home. I'll be at the station in half an hour.” Virat reached out for the kettle boiling on the stove.

  “No time for that. Get to Suhar ghat as fast as you can.”

  “Why?” Virat was struck by the urgency in Shahid's voice. His arm froze inches away from the kettle.

  “We found Satbir Singh's body floating down the river.”

  * * *

  Suhar Ghat was an artificial embankment situated two miles away from Vasant Kunj. It mostly carried waste from two factories built on it's embankment, and was used by washerwomen who scubbed clothes on it's banks.

  As Virat neared the ghat on his bike he saw a crowd assembled around the bank. Constables were shooing a knot of curious onlookers away from a police van, while higher ranking officers barked orders at the scene in general.

  Virat parked his bike a dozen feet away and made his way over to Shahid, who was talking rapidly to the driver of the police van. He nodded a dismissal to the driver as Virat approached and turned to greet him. “Where's Aditya? I've called his phone three times and he won't pick up.”

  “I don't know where he is.” Virat admitted, coming to stand before him. “He left early this morning without telling me where he's going.”

  Shahid frowned, then shrugged. “You'd think he'd want to see this.” He motioned to the back of the van. Virat approached the vehicle and peered inside.

  A swollen, discoloured dead body lay covered in a white sheet on a stretched. The puffy, swollen features were so distorted that he found it difficult to identify the man he had met a few months ago.

  “Who found him?” Virat asked as Shahid came to stand beside him.

  “A washerwomen currently having hysterics at the police station.” Shahid said. “Spotted him floating downstream after the leg got stuck in some underwater weeds. A few rickshapullers fished the body out and laid him out on the bank. A constable was called in who'd worked with us on tracking down Satbir after he disappered. He called me in, and we've been going over the ghat with a fine tooth comb ever since.”

  “What did you find?”

  “Nothing so far.” Shahid grunted. “There's no telling how far down the riverstream the body floated before it was spotted. We'll need statements from the entire neighbourhood. I'm hoping the factories nearby might have security cameras that could have something useful. Right now I'm waiting for forensics to get here.”

  Virat surveyed the area around the ghat. “Places like these are a nightmare for a forensic team. Open environement with an army of onlookers stampedeing up and down the crime scene. There's only so much they'll be able to do.”

  “They have to give me something.” Shahid muttered, moving restlessly away from the van. “Satbir was the most important lead we had to exposing Delhi's drug cartels. We're going to need all the clues we can find from the dead body and the surrounding area to trace his murderer with.” The frown on his face was replaced by irritation. “Where the hell is Matthews? Maybe a psychologist could get the woman who reported the crime to do something more constructive than blubber and cry.”

  Virat took out his mobile. “I'll try him again.”

  * * *

  Virat spent the morning onsite at Suhar ghat, interrogating witnesses and creating a brief of the case. Aditya was still not picking up his phone, and Shahid was at the station making a report to Commissioner Khurana.

  Towards lunchtime Virat was ready to wrap up his work and head back to the station. Nothing Concrete had been achieved in terms of leads. It had all been preliminary work that would have to be pursued further by every available officer. The case could well stretch out for weeks before they found out anything useful.

  Virat's phone rang. For a moment he was sure it was Aditya. But then he saw the number was Payal's.

  “Virat, are you free to talk?” Payal's voice appeared on the other end.

  “Sure.” He felt a stab of anxiety as he sensed the tension in her tone. “What's up?”

  “I have to talk to you about something urgent. Could you meet me at Lucky's?”

  “Of course.” Virat thought about asking her for details, but then decided against it. “I'll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “Thank you. See you soon.”

  Virat reached Lucky's in record time and entered the restaurant to find Payal sitting alone at the back. She waved him over to her part of the room.

  “Is everything all right?” He asked, sitting down opposite her. Payal's face was clouded as she nursed the cup of tea in front of her.

  “No.” She started to say something, but checked herself. As she bent to take a sip from her cup, Virat got the impression that she was stalling for time. Finally, she seemed to steel herself.

  “Look, I've never asked you anything personal about Aditya, have I?” She demanded. “Even when I knew you two weren't being completely honest about who he is.”

  Virat stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

  “Look, I'm not an idiot.” Payal leaned back in her chair and stared at him impatiently. “I always knew Aditya was hiding something from me. He's never told me the truth about why he's really here and what exactly his work is. But I always thought he was a good sort, and I respected his privacy enough not to pry about it.”

  “I'm going to need some details.” Virat leaned forward, placing his arms on the table. “Why are you suddenly interested in Aidtya's personal life?”

  “Because now he's started including me in it by showing up at my office unannounced.”

  Virat stared at her. “Aditya came to your office today?”

  “He said he needed my help with something.” Payal was speaking in a rush of confidences now. “He visited my office and sat at my cubicle for an hour. I had to leave him there for fifteen minutes while I talked to Bhatia. Then later I get called by a secretary who tells me Aditya made a call from the phone at my cubicle to her boss, someone named Mr. Diwan, and arranged an interview with him for tomorrow in my channel's name.”

  Virat again stared at her, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. “Why would he do something like that?”

  “That's just what I don't understand. If my editor finds out about this he'll be furious. I've been calling Aditya for the last half hour but he's not picking up.”

  Virat leaned back in his seat. “I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. But if it's a question of saving your job, I advise you to tell the complete truth to your boss.” He studied her closely. “Why haven't you done that already?”

  “Because...” P
ayal shook her head helplessly. “Because I thought it might have been something important. I don't think Aditya is the type to do something like this if there wasn't a good reason behind it.” She looked up at Virat. “Or does thinking that just make me an idiot?”

  He shrugged slowly. “I'm starting to wonder the same thing.”

  * * *

  Virat got back to the staion half an hour later to find an exhausted Shahid seated at his desk, staring at the Satibir Singh case file lying open before him. In response to Virat's query, Shahid told him how Commissioner Khurana had been interviewing him about the case all morning. The conversation had been far from a pleasant one.

  “How does he expect results if we just found the body this morning?” Virat asked after listening to Shahid's narrative of the meeting.

  “He thinks I'm not trying hard enough.” Shahid growled. “He thinks we should have gotten to Singh before he was murdered. He found out Aditya has been absent all morning, and apparently thinks that's somehow my fault too. Can you believe that? First he gives Matthews all kinds of allowances at the station, and then blames me when he abuses his liberties.”

  Virat said nothing, but inwardly his anger was growing. Yet again, Aditya's callous disregard for other people and insistence on secrecy was creating trouble for those close to him.

  “We'll have something to show Inspector Khurana in a few days.” He told Shahid. “We're just getting started with this case. The people who live around the ghat are bound to have seen something. It's just a matter of time until someone comes forward.” It was a weak hope, and Shahid knew it, but he merely nodded as Virat rose from his seat.

  Virat spent the afternoon looking up one of the addresses of people close to Satbir Singh and informing them of his demise. It was pointless, robotic work, and it did nothing to improve his mood late in the afternoon when he finally received a message from Aditya.

  He opened the file and read the single line of text. “Get to the appartment at once.”

  Virat felt a wave of anger rise inside him. After all the trouble Aditya had caused. After all the lies and half truths, here he was coolly issuing orders. He stuffed his mobile into his pocket and strode towards his bike.

  He was still seething as he rode his bike at a dangerously high speed back to Hakikat nagar. Truck drivers honked at him and auto drivers yelled obscenities as he weaved through the traffic, but he ignored them all.

  He reached home and strode up the stairs two at a time. The door was slightly ajar, and he pushed his way in, a host of angry words on his lips.

  His anger turned to surprise when he saw the scene in the kitchen. Aditya sat at the table. On his right sat Shahid and on the left sat Payal. All three looked up at him as though his arrival had been expected.

  “What are you two doing here?” He asked. After all the things he had thought about saying to Aditya on the way over, it was Shahid and Payal that he spoke to first.

  “I invited them.” Aditya said. “It's time we all had a chat together. Have a seat.” He motioned to the beanbag chair he had placed next to the other two chairs.

  For a moment Virat hesitated, anger battling with curiosity within him. But then he walked to the chair and lowered himself onto it.

  “Where the hell were you all day?” He asked forcefully, trying to ignore the air cushion compressing beneath him with a hissing sound. Aditya's lips twitched, but he managed to retain a grave expression as he looked at the three.

  “I'll tell you where I was in a few minutes.” He began. “There are a lot of things we need to discuss today. Virat already knows most of it, and it's time you two do as well.” He spoke directly to Shahid and Payal, who both sat up a little straigher, there expressions alert.

  “First of all, I'd like to offer my apologies.” Aditya continued. “I realise my behaviour has placed you all in difficult positions today, and I appreciate your support, even when I couldn't give you a reason for my actions.”

  “I haven't been entirely honest with you.” Aditya was again addressing Shahid and Payal. “First things first. I'm not a police officer. I'm with the Indian Intelligence Agency working on a case under the research and analysis wing. I was sent to Delhi on their orders. I've been working on the case in private for the last seven months. Commissioner Khurana knows about it.”

  Shahid and Payal turned to Virat. He nodded. “It's all true.”

  “That's why Inspector Khurana allowed you so much leeway at work.” Shahid said slowly.

  “What's your case about?” Payal asked.

  Aditya told them. He told them about the secret mission he had been sent to Delhi on. He told them about X. He told him them Satbir's involvement with him. Shahid stared at him without saying a word as Aditya spoke, and did not say anything for a long moment after he finished speaking.

  “A criminal mastermind who's secretly controlling the city.” He said at last. His tone was deeply sceptical. “I'm familiar with every mob boss in the state. None of them have a reach as deep as you say this X person has.”

  “You're thinking in terms of raw power.” Aditya replied. “That's not how X works. He doesn't get directly involved in criminal dealings. If and when he does intervene, it's to remove any traces that could lead back to him. Mostly he provides services to mobmen. Legal advice, talent recruitment, money laundering and data collection on a vast scale. Imagine a giant supercomputer operating in the darkest corners of the Delhi underworld. Every mobster uses the computer, but only a handful understand how it truly works or just how powerful it is. That has been X's function for the last six years. Compiling information that could make or break every mobster, politician and civil servant in the state. His organisation was dangerous enough before, but all that is changing now.”

  “Changing how?” Payal interjected.

  “He's moving out into the open.” Aditya said grimly. “He's getting directly involved in the Delhi crime scene. And he's going international, making deals with arm smugglers and drug barons. That's how RAW first became aware of him.”

  “If this man is as powerful as you say he is, why did RAW send down just one man to track him down?” Shahid asked.

  Aditya stared into the distance in silence for a moment. “We weren't aware of the scope of his reach when was I called in on the mission.I didn't expect this case to take so long. I was supposed to find X and report back to RAW within three months. But I've realised now that's not going to happen. I thought I could get to the bottom of this business on my own, but that hasn't happened either.”

  “Inspector Khurana isn't very happy with you either.” Virat spoke up. “He's given you free rein until now. So what's changed? Why is he suddenly on your case?”

  “Because even after all this time I've found nothing concrete about the man I'm searching for.” Aditya said quietly. “No name. No face. No address. Absolutely nothing that would bring me closer to X. That was the state of things until this morning, when I got to know about the incident at Suhar Ghat.”

  “So you know about Satbir Singh?” Virat asked quickly. “How did you find out about the ghat incident?”

  “Same way you did.” Aditya replied. “It was constable Raghunath who found the body. Half an hour before making the call to the police station he called me”

  “He called you before he called us?” The frown was back on Shahid's face.

  “He'd worked with me on tracking down Satbir Singh after his disappearance.” Aditya said evenly. “He knew I was looking for him. I was the first person he thought of calling when the body was found. And that's not all. While taking rounds around the ghat, constable Raghunath had seen an unmarked van leaving the riverbank two miles upriver from where the body was found. He didn't try to stop it, but he did note down it's number.”