Death of Terror [Game of Blogs – Part 30]

#StoryWeavers

Read the first part of the story here and the previous part here.

For extra safety, five of the Shekhar’s team started tailing the terrorists. They followed them to the locker room where the hostages were put in one corner and the terrorists were pacing up and down trying to call someone. “Huzoor is not picking up the phone. I do not understand what should we do. He said someone will meet us here. But, the stadium is damn empty. Should we kill these people and go away from here?”, said one of them. That other answered, “Let us wait for some time”. 

Realizing that these people did not know much about the upcoming operation, the team of 5 decides they can be dispensed with. There fire at the head of one of the terrorists and he falls down. The other takes hold of Tara in bid to save himself. “Stay away from me or I will shoot her”. The team splits up and two of them step out of the shadows and put down their guns. The terrorist thinks himself safe and starts backing away along with Tara. Meanwhile, two of the other people tail him in the dark. As soon as they see his grip on Tara laxing, they shoot him in the heart to kill him instantly. The hostages are taken to safety and escorted out of the stadium. 

And, now, it was a long wait for the mysterious mastermind. Shekhar already knew from Tara’s spy cam that there was someone who was controlling the entire situation. His comrades had informed him about the conversation between the terrorists. And, Shekhar wanted to be there to welcome him. Before killing this mastermind, he wanted to make sure that there were no more surprises hidden for Indian citizens and that too unsavoury ones.

In the meantime, the bomb squad had detected a nuclear bomb in a remote place of the stadium. They came running and the hackers got on to the job. They cracked the password but they could not make it work. Then, they understood it was probably a biometric or voice protected one. They needed the mastermind for it and alive, if possible, and soon. The timer was ticking down and there was only 60 minutes. 

And, then, Shekhar sees someone stealthily entering the place and looking around. His team hides in a corner and the stranger goes straight to the bomb.

“Stop right there or I will shoot you”, boomed Shekhar’s voice in the silence of the pre-morning. That brought Aryan to a halt.

Just as he turned, he could see he was surrounded. “I know you would not hurt me, Mr. Dutta. You would need to diffuse this bomb and you need me for it.”, said Aryan.

Shekhar was unconcerned with all of this. He now realized that this mysterious mastermind had been his new neighbour for a couple of months. “So, you have been spying on my family. Anyways, I have no interest in all that because everything will come to an end with your death and I am pretty sure my hackers would be able to crack the password.”. 

“Oh, you think you have the best hackers in the world but this is my bomb and only I can direct it. Do you think jihad is just a war for us? It is our life and mission and salvation and I shall make sure this country suffers.” 

Shekhar’s mind was racing. Aryan was saying only he could direct it. What if it was protected by biometric access. He had to make him talk. The recording was already started at his command.

“You can not do this. This is really not what you want or need. And, I can always kill you and make my hackers crack the password.”

“You can not. You need my vocal cords. You need my voice for it. This time I did not make it simple like a retina scan or a finger print. You need my voice. And, for that you need me alive and now I am going to kill myself. Soon, the bomb will go off. See, the timer is ticking down.”

“Why are you doing this war? What has our country done to you?”

“This is jihad. Our War. This is our jung. We want to kill each and every man. Ek ek hindustani. Tumhe kya lagta….”

And, just as it is, Shekhar shoots Aryan in the head when he was impassioned with his speech, his obsession.

The hackers had the password. A simple concatenation of the individual words would crack the password. And, they did it. Finally, the recording was played and the timer stopped ticking. The bomb was deactivated. Everything was alright again.

Shekhar could see the light of dawn filtering through the mist of the pre-morning. A lot has happened today and it was time to go home, to Roohi and Tara.

Read the next part of the story here.

Civilians vs Villians [Weekend Post]