Chapter 22

“Nitya…? Can you hear me? Are you alright…?” Maanav’s voice hammered into her skull. She struggled to open her eyelids which seemed to weigh their own. Somewhere in the recess of her fudged mind she could hear a wave of voices sweeping over her… was she dead already or was she in transition to the other realm?

Suddenly she felt water on her face as her eyes opened on their own volition. She looked up at a worried Maanav who looked like he would burst out crying any moment.

“Oh, Thank God… Nitya…” His voice was hoarse, and he tried to smile in vain as he pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. He helped her sit up and she felt like an alien as she looked around her.

Shadow who was hovering around gave her a nod and a smile that brightened up his rugged face as he went back to his workstation. He typed in something and the screen came up again. Captain Rawat was the only one present on the other side.

“Nitya, I hope you are better, girl. You have been such a strong girl so far… you can’t give up now. Got it? There is a lot at stake here… and Naman is our priority and everything else can wait, National security or not. Now buck up and get into the groove. We have work to do. …”

She heard the man type something and immediately his voice boomed over the speakers as all of them came close to the Screen.

Captain Rawat put up a slide. It showed some kind of signals like tiny meteorites in the clear dark skies. After a regular shower, it suddenly stopped. “This is the signal we were receiving from Naman’s video game. The smart boy gave us complete coordinates of the travel and those morons must have not known till now…”

“…Oh God Naman…” Nitya placed a hand on her chest hoping to pacify her thudding heart. “…Does this mean his signal stopped… does that mean… they caught him?” she looked at Maanav in alarm. He hugged her shoulder and got her closer to him. But she wasn’t able to calm down. It was her brother, for crying out loud. He was all alone out there. For once she was glad about his condition, he probably trusted Kamble Kaka and he wouldn’t do anything stupid. She felt proud of him for having stood the test of time irrespective of his condition or the limitations the condition put on him.

“Don’t worry, Nitya. I am getting extremely fleeting signals but it’s not consistent….” Captain Rawat explained. “…That means he isn’t caught. However, that means he is beyond the signal range… way beyond.”

Nitya gripped Maanav’s hand. “What do you mean? Where can he go so soon It has been barely a few hours since he left… and that signal was meant to be in the cyber range, so  why…?”

Maanav turned her towards him and held her shoulder. “There is only one place where such a signal can go bleak…” he tried to reason.

“Where Maanav…? Where on earth is Naman…?” She wailed as tears made their way down her cheeks. “…isn’t cyber level signal boundaryless? It shouldn’t matter even if he leaves the country, right…?”

“You are correct, Nitya…” Maanav placed a warm palm on her cheek. “…but the signal will go weak in a place with very low cyber range… I mean where we can’t have wifi or related signals…”

Nitya’s shoulders slumped. She was tired of being strong… she didn’t think she had it in her. Her brain seemed to have frozen… what was she missing here? All she wanted was for her baby brother safe and back home. She promised herself she would never let him out of sight. “Maanav, Captain Rawat, Shadow….” She looked at each of them, unmindful of the tears that kept streaming. “…I don’t have much knowledge compared to you all… all I know is that my brother is out there somewhere… but even aeroplanes have internet, don’t they? Then where on earth is my brother…?” She placed her other hand on her head.

“Naman is safe, Nitya… I promise nothing will happen to him. He is our strongest warrior…” Maanav assured her.

“Then… then Maanav, where is he?” Her voice sounded strangulated with all the emotions churning though her body.

Maanav took her closer to the screen where the map of the area explained earlier was displayed. But this wasn’t just a map. As if reading her thoughts, Maanav explained. “this isn’t just a map… it’s a real-time image of that place where we believe Naman is…”

Nitya stared wide-eyed at what looked like a large expanse of water… in either corner, she saw the Yemen Coastline and the Indian coastline. Where was Naman…?

“So where is Naman…?” She looked around at everyone present and her eyes rested back on Maanav.

He held her shoulders and she instantly knew it was going to be something not for her ears.

“Nitya… he is in the sea… literally…” Maanav spoke softly and she gasped.

“WHAT…?” She found herself screaming.

The picture available on the screen was enlarged and it pixeled out. Its then that she saw a few black dots in the pristine sea. “That…?” She looked back at Maanav.

“Yes Nitya… from our intelligence sources, we feel Naman has been taken there.”

“But why…? Why in the sea?” She couldn’t make out anything… nothing made sense.

“Because they plan to execute their mission directly… from the sea.” Shadow piqued in.

Oh God…

“Maanav… do something… please… Naman is in danger…” She pleaded frantically.

Before he could speak, Captain Rawat’s voice came in through the speakers.

“Listen carefully, Nitya. Irrespective of what they have they can’t do anything because Naman can only use this instrument assembled by your father. The key to it all lies here with us. They have Naman and will now use him as a bargaining chip for the instrument… They must have their experts but will hold on to Naman nonetheless… so till the time this instrument is with us, Naman is safe.”

“But they can have another instrument made… why are they after this one and why are they after Naman?” Nitya was perplexed.

“That’s because…” Shadow stood before her, towering further over her tall frame. “… your genius father customized the instrument in a way that the software used in it is the only one compatible to activate the torpedoes. They are from 15 years ago… so nothing else will work on them. I am sure those people must have tried everything under the sun and failed. Besides the costs for making those devices would have been astronomical not to mention, to maintain them for so many years…”

Maanav held her cold shivering hand, enveloping her in his warmth. “Nitya, Naman was the only one who activated it and he is the only one who can do it all over again… But he is a warrior and a very brave guy.”

She was in tears seeing the adoration for her brother in Maanav’s eyes. “So… what do we do now…? Just wait for them to connect with us?” She asked.

“Come with me, Nitya…” he pulled at her hand and she looked around.

“Why… where are we going…? To Naman…?”

“Just come… trust me, Nitya… come with me.” Maanav pulled again and this time she didn’t resist.

She didn’t bother asking or checking with anyone around and just followed her heart… that now lay with him. Maanav took her to his bedroom and pulled her inside as he shut it. Pushing her backwards till her back hit the door he placed his hands on either of her sides. She felt his warm breath on her face and knew he was struggling with the onslaught of emotions, too.

She raised her hands and cupped his face. “Maanav, you know I trust you, right? I know they are all very good… Shadow, Captain Rawat and all of them there, but for me… its you. Its always you, Maanav that I trust my life with. I trust… Naman with.”

He bowed his head and she knew he was trying to control his emotions and not to breakdown before her. She pulled him closer till he rested his head on her shoulder and she could feel a shudder run through his body. She caressed his back and whispered into his ears. “We will get through this Maanav, we will… I love you, Maanav, I always have…”

Suddenly he jerked his head up and stared into her eyes with a bloodshot intensity she had never seen before. “What… did… you… just… say?” he was breathing hard.

She cupped his cheeks yet again. “This probably isn’t the right time, Maanav. But I… I am in love with you… no pressure at all to reciprocate. I just wanted to be clear about my feelings … I mean…” Nitya didn’t know what got over her to confess it to him, but she looked away. Talk of timing… she would win an award for it.

She let her hands move away from his face. Right then, he gripped them and held them before his face and kissed her hands. “God knows Nitya… I have been longing to hear those words… I love you more than life itself. I love you for the woman you are and I also love the little brother you bring in… Naman. He is a rockstar…”

He pulled her close and hugged her. “Don’t worry, Nitya. Naman will be home soon.”

“Maanav…?”

“…Yeah…?”

“Why didn’t they call yet?”

“That’s probably because they are still getting their bearings… Meanwhile Nitya, our team is working on this too… the Indian Navy and the Air Force are secretly helping us. We are waiting for more intelligence. We don’t want to go unprepared… it will be risky for both Naman and us.” He kissed her forehead. She rested her head on his chest and wished for it all to end soon…

Maanav’s walkie-talkie buzzed and they separated. It was Shadow on the other end.

“Bullet, come in with Nitya. Theres some intel”

“Will be there in a moment…” Maanav signed off and held her hand before striding off to the office.

Nitya could feel confidence steeping in and she knew it was because of this man who stood with her through this all.

As soon as they entered the office Nitya saw the huge screen lit up again and the Ripples song playing again. Shadow had used Naman’s codes, apparently. She saw some more scrolling happening on the screen.

“As you see here there was some more information in the song… more Morse codes but there are numbers too this time. Your father had timed them, Nitya. In case these fell into the wrong hands… I could crack this only because Naman completed most of it…” Shadow didn’t take his eyes off the screen as he typed and spoke. “… these numbers are in some sequence that we can’t figure yet… we don’t know if its some kind of a passcode or information…”

Oh Appa… Nitya made a mental prayer. Please appa… this should be enough… I can’t take this anymore. Naman is in danger…

Maanav walked towards the screen in slow motion and stared unblinkingly at the screen.

“Shadow… halt this one moment…” He spoke aloud.

There was a pin-drop silence as everyone gathered around Maanav. Nitya couldn’t make out anything there were random numbers that came up as the morse codes for numbers got decoded. What was Appa thinking…?

“THAT’S IT…” Maanav thumped the desk sending the paperclips flying. “… I got it…”

He turned around with a triumphant grin on his face as he looked at Nitya.

“Maanav here is a maths wiz…” Shadow spoke and he connected them to Captain Rawat who was immediately on screen.

Maanav nodded at the Captain and spoke. “Look at the numbers here in this order… each four-digit number here is a sum of the preceding two numbers… that means it’s the…”

“… The Fibonacci series” Captain Rawat completed his statement.

“…That’s right Captain and now look at the arrangement of the series… it’s blended with an alphabet… so here we go…” Maanav took up a pen and scribbled something on a paper.

“…Nitya I wonder how long it must have taken your father to do this and then scramble it all… this is a combination of numbers and if we place a decimal after the digits strategically coinciding with the ocean where these people are…. So we now have four such combinations…representing Latitudes and longitudes…” Maanav continued scribbling. And then held up the paper.

“Oh MY GOD…” Shadow exclaimed as he watched spell bound and this was the first time Nitya saw him flustered. “… These are coordinates…”

“Positive…” Captain Rawat spoke up this time his voice filled with excitement. “… These are the locations of the torpedoes under water… meant for firing. Dr. Mohandas had designed them to be placed there without knowing for what they were to be used… he must have got the idea of it all later and did the damage control to the best of his abilities… Mind blowing…” there was silence again as everyone tried to digest the information just received. Captain Rawat made some calls and typed furiously, sending his office at his end into a flurry of activity. “…I am getting in the Navy officials on board who will help us without the red tape involvement… we will confirm the location without them getting an inkling of the same. Meanwhile Shadow and Bullet, you must be prepared… I have called in Razor as well.” Captain Rawat signed off.

Within an hour Shadow and Maanav were ready in their combat suits while Nitya didn’t like the wait. She was however grateful to these men especially Shadow who was going the extra mile and risking his life for Naman. There was a buzz and soon they welcomed a tall good-looking guy with a flirtatious smile. He gave her a two-finger salute as he joined them in the office. She didn’t need any introduction to know he was Avinash ‘Razor’ Thakur. But as the meeting progressed and he was brought up to date, he was serious and soon was dressed up in his combat suit. The trio looked dangerous, but still Nitya was scared for them. They waited for Captain Rawat’s go-ahead.

However, the silence in the office room was jarred by an incessant shrill ringing of an incoming call. It was a private number.

Shadow gestured to Nitya to answer the call.

“Hel… hel… hello…?” She stuttered.

“So, you must be the daughter…” a rough voice, which was probably camouflaged with a software spoke. “…by now you must be knowing your dear brother is in our custody. And you also know what we want…”

“…How is Naman…?”

“Look lady, you have no right to ask any questions. Naman is safe as of now. We want you to bring that instrument to the location I text you in 10 minutes. I want the instrument in the next 8 hours…. But you must come alone to this spot in one hour and my men will pick you up. Bring help and you won’t see your brother… got it…?” The warning was firm

“Don’t you hurt Naman. He is innocent… I will get whatever you want…”

The call went dead and Shadow shook his head, which meant they couldn’t trace it.

“Nitya… here’s the plan. We will…” Maanav began.

“…No Maanav… please no… They have warned me… I can’t get any help. I will go alone. Let me hand over the instrument and get Naman. Then you can take over… please let me do this my way…” Nitya frantically pleaded and walked towards the instrument, trying to detach it.

“Wait Nitya. If you do this, it will destroy the codes in it… it’s fragile from years of wear and tear…” Shadow warned.

Nothing they spoke made sense to her.

Maanav walked towards her. “…Ok Nitya. We will do it as you say. Just have some water. And remember… not to use the washroom anywhere. Don’t drink anything else… not even more water… got it?” he handed a bottle to her. It just had about 50 ml of water and it tasted strange, but she gulped it, nonetheless.

Soon she stood at the threshold of the secret pathway holding the instrument. Maanav stood next to her and spoke. “Just focus on your task at hand, and I will focus on mine. Remember, I am always with you…”

She nodded and blinked back tears as she made her way out… to get back her brother safe and sound.

©priyanayakgole

(Disclaimer: This is a piece of fiction using the backdrop of the attack that happened and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. This doesn’t attempt to change history or facts.)