by Abhishek Roy
As of Dimitri Bertsekas, the ghost, he still had no idea where he was or how was he involved in the whole thing. However he was still not sure of one thing; how could Rosmus really utilize the APTS module since the prototypes never had access to the functionality whereby missile systems of nearby nations could be hacked and used. Well he would need to do some more research on these when he got back home. Lucas was feeling tired due to the medications that he had been subjected to. He asked Annie to securely store the containers as he closed his eyes and finally drifted off to sleep waiting for his arrival in India.
ANNT Headquarters Dehradun
The room had the appearance of one that did not have a single speck of dust. The Persian carpets, the velvet curtains, the huge mahogany desk, a big globe of the world, a set of tall mahogany racks holding files and facts that no one would ever know about. The small man was working on something in the computer on the desk. The man was Colonel H. K. Subramaniam alias Serpent, the director of the ANNT. Lucas entered the room and waited for the Serpent to finish his work. Lucas had been released from the hospital in the morning. His left arm was in a sling while bandages covered many parts of his body. The last mission had been tough. He had a lot of questions to ask to the Serpent. The results from the test lab should also have arrived. The Serpent lifted his head and gave him a wry smile. He typed a few more keys, made a few notes and slowly lowered his pen on the desk.
He took a sip from the cup of coffee kept at his desk and said, ‘Well Lucas, do you know why Rosmus’s agents are called Vipers’. Lucas knew it well but he let the Colonel continue. ‘Each of these agents have a tattoo of a snake located on the upper section of the body, mostly on their shoulders or necks. The Vipers maintain a hierarchy among the agents. So if you notice closely, you will see four distinct types of snakes. The krait, the black mamba, the rattle snake and the king cobra. Based on the hierarchy the lowest members of the squad have a tattoo of the krait. The commanders carry a mamba. Dimitri, who is assumed to be the supreme commander of the entire force carries a rattle snake, while the leader of the entire order carries the tattoo of a king cobra. You must have met and eliminated multiple kraits and mambas. However, the bad news is that you did not manage to locate the rattle snake and more importantly get any information on the king cobra and his plans. The good news on the other hand is that, we know a part of their plan for world domination.’
Lucas looked amused by the fact that the Serpent chuckled out loud before starting his tale. ‘As you must have found out, although our top secret project APTS had been shut down several years ago, the prototype modules have been moving around in the black market for several months. We believe someone from the Russian side did not keep their word and managed to smuggle out few of the prototypes before the entire lot was destroyed. The good news is that when the prototypes were developed, the ballistic missile control firmware was not ready yet. So they will not be able to access the missile or the nuclear arsenal. Now coming back to the bad news; Annie had provided me photographs of the containers and circuitry that you had recovered. I know these things too well. The circuitry recovered from the rectangular container is a customized version of the APTS module. Once armed, it can be used to trigger the circuitry attached to the cylindrical container, disbursing its contents, when both the circuits are within a certain range of each other. I have sent Annie over to the DRDO labs to get the contents validated in details, but I believe that the cylinder would be used as some form of a chemical weapon.
Based on the recent reports from RAW and IB, a new strain of a genetically enhanced virus is being developed by Al Qaeda in collaboration with rogue scientists based in Chechnya and Albania. I still don’t know the exact details, but I strongly believe that this customized APTS could be used to trigger the virus. I’ll let you know as soon as I obtain further details. What concerns me the most is the fact that Romanovich’s ship was loaded with a handful of such devices and they intended to enter the US.
There is a major convention scheduled next month where the leaders of the BRICS nations as well as the president of United States are supposed to meet in Dallas. They will be signing up several major treaties on several major issues ranging from counter terrorism operations to global warming. Presence of the heads of state for Russia, China, India and the USA at the same place is supposed to make this conference a historic one. I think they will try to eliminate all the leaders together along with our Prime Minister. Even if they don’t eliminate them all, the panic such an attack is going to create will be a nightmare. Also we cannot rule out chemical weapons if the information about the new virus is true. I believe we need to get as much information as quickly as possible and locate and eliminate these criminals even before they are ready to strike’
Lucas also wanted to talk to the Serpent about what had happened in Cuba. He strongly believed that there was a mole in the system that had been continuously leaking out confidential information about the mission in every step. As soon as he brought up the issue, they were interrupted by Annie’s arrival. ‘Have you delivered them to the test lab?’ asked the Serpent.
‘Yes, we shall have all the information available by evening. They will email you the details. I’ll personally collect the hard copies and the devices from the lab.’
‘Make sure you bring up the reports first to my office. No one should know about these apart from me. I’ll let you know the details and then will divulge the appropriate information to the ministry. The President needs to be made aware as well.’
Lucas was getting anxious on having the conversation about the mole.
’Well, can you tell me how it is possible that the details of the top secret mission that we undertook was already known to Rosmus and his team? We had been compromised from the very first moment after we had selected to accept the mission. How did Rosmus and his team know about our travel itinerary and our hotel? How did he come to know about Maria? She had been operating discretely for a very long time without any problem. So how did she get exposed this time? I really feel that the ANNT headquarters have been compromised and the personnel we are working with can no longer be trusted upon. The mole could be you; it could be me; it could be any one of us. Being the director of the organization, don’t you have any clue regarding this?’
The Serpent’s facial expression had changed. His eye brows pulled down together, his facial muscles tensed and the face reddened up. Before he could provide a response, Annie dealt a killer blow.
‘We also want to know what really happened to Major Kapoor after we left for Havana. Was he really an ISI agent? Based on the reports that I have received, Major Kapoor could have been captured alive; instead you chose to shoot him. What is your master plan Colonel? Why did you value the contents of the briefcase more than Lucas’s life? You wanted me to bring home the contents at any cost. Tell Lucas about the Bleeding Sun. Tell him how you have always known what Romanovich and Rosmus had been working on. Tell him how the lethal gas when released will instantly infect every human being within a radius of one kilometer. Tell him about the Bleeding Sun, how it is just an oil tanker from outside but a genetic research lab in reality. Tell him Colonel. Tell him how you knew all about these before sending us on the mission but didn’t bother to tell us anything. Is there something that you still may want to share with us, Serpent? Like why did you choose your code name as Serpent in the first place? Or should I call you Viper.’
The Colonel had heard enough of these. Annie’s comments took his rage beyond the limits. He rose up quickly, pulled out the drawer and made an attempt to bring out something. Before Lucas could react, a shot on his head silenced him. Lucas was shell shocked with what he had witnessed. Annie had pulled out her pistol and fired a shot straight through the Serpent’s head.
‘Death to the traitor. He betrayed us all.’ She said without any sign of remorse. ‘Can you check whether he is still alive while I inform the IMA authorities? Once we are done with this, come and visit me. I had lied to the Serpent.
I couldn’t risk sending out the devices to the labs even after knowing that our boss himself was the mole in the system. Take care of this Lucas. There is a lot of work to be done. We need to save the Prime Minister’. Annie headed out of the room quickly looking to inform and bring in the IMA officials.
Lucas was still shocked with the events that had occurred. He simply couldn’t come to terms with the fact that his mentor was the mole in the agency. He slowly moved towards the lifeless body of the Serpent. The bullet had gone straight through his head and damaged the wall behind him. The mahogany desk was covered in blood. Lucas touched the side of his neck to double check if he was still alive. He moved behind the Serpent in order to check the drawer that he had opened earlier. To his utter surprise, the Serpent did not have a gun in the drawer. Instead, he was trying to press the panic button in order to alert the IMA authorities that the facility had been compromised. He was shot dead before he could press the switch. Lucas picked up the phone and asked for the IMA officials to be called in along with the police and the medical staff. He also asked for the whereabouts of Annie and requested the guards on the premises to stop her. By the time the officials arrived, Lucas had received confirmation that no one with Annie’s appearance had entered or left the premises of the IMA on that day. The phone number which Annie had provided was not reachable either.
Lucas handed over the Colonel’s body to the IMA officials and headed off to the DIA headquarters. He had specifically requested for CCTV footage to be brought up from the airport, IMA compound and every other place where Annie could possibly have been present during the last few days. He also requested Annie’s files to be sent over to him. He informed the National Security Guards to beef up the security around the Prime Minister and the President. He also obtained permission from the home ministry to alert the airport authorities to ensure that Annie could not travel outside the country. He needed to track down and intercept Annie; she needed to answer his questions. First, he needed to head down to the DIA headquarters to get a holistic view of the entire situation before deciding his next step. He would also need to inform the President and the Defense secretary about the Serpent’s demise.
Epilogue
The response that Lucas received from the Defense secretary was not pleasant at all. He was made responsible for allowing the Serpent’s death and hence would need to face an independent disciplinary panel, when the danger around the PM and world leaders had been averted. Based on the information that he had requested from the DIA, he got hold of the CCTV footage from the Key West airport where Annie had landed before meeting the US coast guards. She had been provided with a fresh pair of shoes and clothes. When she had removed her shirt, the tattoo of the rattle snake wrapped around the dagger was partially visible on her back. Dimitri Bertsekas had fooled them all. The Ghost was not a man; instead it was a woman who was placed deep inside the ANNT itself.
Based on the service records, it seemed that it was not the Serpent who had found Annie; instead it was the other way round. She had slowly managed to manipulate the Serpent and other officials while gaining his trust and entering his good books. Annie had been tracking the activity of the ANNT personnel very closely over quite some time. She had specifically requested that she should be included in the mission along with Lucas as soon as Havana was at stake. It was her plan all the way. She had planted evidence leading to the vindication and elimination of Major Kapoor as a supposed ISI agent. What followed next was the fake kidnapping in Havana followed by a few superficial wounds at the Castle which would ensure that Lucas fell for the amount of suffering she had to go through. She had bugged Lucas with the APTS module to track his movement, while she ensured that Maria’s place was taken down. She had also given away the details of the hotel and room to the Viper agents, in order to ensure Lucas’s demise. However to her surprise, Lucas managed to escape and follow her trail at Tropicana casino first and then at Castillo De La Real Fuerza. So she had to play the role of the tortured prisoner, hoping that Lucas would be taken down.
When her plans failed and Lucas managed to destroy the base and rescue her, she looked for the right moment to take him down. By this time, a new plan had struck her mind. She could use the rescue mission of Lucas as an excuse to transport the triggering device to India territory using Indian logistics itself and work on assassinating the Indian PM and President. So she knocked Lucas down and sent him over to the tanker purposely ensuring that he was not heavily guarded. The rest of the rescue mission was a diversion that served two purposes. Firstly, the tanker got away with the cargo without getting seized by the US authorities. Secondly, it was ensured that that the device that would be used to possibly eliminate the PM and the President, had been brought into Indian soil by the ANNT personnel themselves. To create a diversion and to escape with the device, she had walked up into the Serpent’s office, manipulated the conversation to temporarily make Lucas believe that the Serpent was the mole, and assassinated him before he could plead his innocence and call up the IMA authorities to help him out. Lucas felt like a jack ass. With his level of experience he should have never ever felt for such a trap. Annie had perfectly double crossed them. No wonder she was known as the Ghost. A few days later, an independent panel determined that Lucas was guilty of negligence from his side and was indirectly involved in the incidents that led to the assassination of the Colonel. Officially Lucas was relieved of his duties. However, the President had formed a secret committee who determined that Lucas would need to work independently outside the system.
The rules had changed; there weren’t any rules any more. Lucas would need to hunt down the Rattle snake and the King Cobra by any means necessary. If he was captured or killed in action, his acquaintance with the Indian government would be disavowed. He would once again be the lone wolf. With a clear knowledge of his mission, Lucas set off for the US; the BRICS convention in Dallas.
