The Anurag Van

Rana was stumped! His uncrackable safe lay open and empty in the tree trunk. He turned towards Manish and said, "Go find the phones! Grab whoever you can and search the woods. He can't have gone far."

As Manish left, Samar sat below the safe-tree and said: "My employers will not be happy. There is no coming back from this."

Rana was still holding his gun and replied in a falsely confident voice: "Chaos can be turned into opportunity, a skill I picked up in war and I have been..."

"using it ever since?" Ranjit had walked into the tent to an astounded Rana.

"How are you alive?", Rana asked Ranjit.

Ranjit: "You were never smart Rana. Mistakes after mistakes. And when bodies piled up, you used them as stairs to climb up the ladder."

Rana who was now getting tired of having his failures pointed out, lashed out in anger: "That's what soldiers are for. They're disposable. They're pieces in the game to be sacrificed for power and position." As he said this, he pointed his gun at Ranjit and said, "the explosion did not kill you but I will shoot you myself." But before he could move his finger, Saurabh and Adwit jumped between them, facing Rana.

Adwit: "Yeah, that's not going to happen!"

Saurabh: "You are a coward, Rana!"

Ranjit: "Saurabh, no!"

Rana: "So, you are Saurabh!"

Saurabh: "And you will have to pull that trigger yourself. No hitman for your aid this time"

Rana: "Shut up. You don't know anything."

Adwit: "We know you caused the fire in Sri Lanka that killed fifteen people."

Rana: "Who cares about a bunch of nobodies. They deserved to be killed."

Saurabh was breathing fire now though his voice remained calm: "I know that no matter how many times you repeat a lie, the truth always comes out."

Rana: "What Truth?"

Ranjit: "That we stole valor. You got Vir Chakra because we lied!"

Rana shouted back: "So what? What was I supposed to say, that I got four of my men killed? They were dead. They were not coming back. We're the only ones who knew what happened there! And after today..." Rana pulled the trigger of his gun; Ranjit tried to get away from the gun, and pull Saurabh and Adwit out of harm's way as well but they didn't even flinch! They knew that there were no bullets in Rana's gun. Realization crashed over Rana like a mighty tidal wave, determined to dismantle his sandcastle of lies. He turned around to look at Samar, his eyes wide.

Samar grinned smugly: "I took the clip of your gun while you were reliving the moments of your false glory." He continued, "what a performance! And in front of an audience no less!"

Rana, now looking terrified: "what audience?"

That was when Ankit peeped through the canopy of the tent and showed him the walkie talkie that he had taken from the guard earlier. When Kabir had removed the satellite cloak of the area, the channel used by Sentinel Security had gone public. Everyone including the police and the media heard everything that Rana had said on their scanners. Rana realised that he was in a big fix and ran out of the tent. He headed quickly to his car, got into it and drove off in an attempt to escape. However, he had barely driven a mile down towards Joshimath when he was intercepted by the local police and arrested for corruption, fraud, extortion and murder. This arrest, which was highly publicised in the media, saw Rana crying and whimpering trying to escape the handcuffs and the police.

Back at the tent, Samar was saying, " TS Eliot rightly said, ...(the) world ends, not with a bang but a whimper!" And sighed! Then looking back at the team (Kabir who was still at Joshimath, was present through the earwig) and said, "Good work everyone! And Ankit, I am impressed at the way you handled the guard." Then looking at Dr. Ranjit, "We are very glad that you are alive and well."

Ranjit: "Thank you for helping me! Thank you everyone!"