New Story: Shamisha - Part 3

‘What?’ there was disbelief in our voices.

‘You mean to say he made up all these. He did not receive those calls. But, I can vouch for him. I have seen some of the numbers…’ Gulati was the first to react.

‘I never said that he made up all of these. I just said that none of the numbers actually exists.’

‘But how can both be possible at the same time?’ It was Mithilesh’s turn to intervene. I was too shocked to react.

‘After talking to him, I pulled out the data from the network operator – his story corroborated. Not that I had any doubts previously. But, when I enquired about the origin of the calls – everyone was in for a surprise. These numbers do not exist. This is some hi-tech stuff. What are you up to Rahul? Why would someone harass you with hi-tech stuff?’

‘Sougata’ I muttered under my breath.

‘What?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Anyways, I have involved the cyber department into it. They have not been able to find any trace as of now. But we would nail this soon.’

‘This is strange.’ said Gulati.

‘Yes, it is. One of my subordinates here believes that this is a supernatural act.’ I am not sure but I did sense some nervousness in his comment.

‘Wow!! We are in for an adventure. Kya twist hai baap? First hundreds of calls, then Shamisha angle and now hi-tech wizardry or supernatural act. We would have fun.’ Mithilesh was visibly excited.

‘This is a no-brainer. No one other than Sougata has the expertise to pull it off in our group.’

I called him on our way back. He is settled in Finland doing what he does best – creating technology.

‘Dude!! What a surprise? I was going to call you. I am coming home next month. Am going to stay at your place for a few days. Will that be okay?’

We talked for 10 minutes and I was sure he did not do it. Yet I asked him ‘Bhai, am I a subject of one of your latest experiments?’

‘What?’ he was shocked at the bluntness of the statement but he is used to me being blunt many times. 

‘What has happened?’ he asked. I explained the story in detail to him. ‘Send me the numbers. I will see what I can do’ he promised. As soon as I reached my place, I sent him the details. I also updated Shekhar about the recent developments over the mail.

I was restless. If Sougata had not done it then who else could have pulled such a fancy thing. For a moment, there was a thought of embracing the supernatural angle but I rejected it.

‘I heard you went to the police station’ was her first sentence when I picked her call in the evening. I did not know from where she got this information. I was not willing to cast an arrow of suspicion to my group anymore. So I ignored it against my instinct.

‘Yes.’ I replied.

‘You don’t trust me. Do you?’

‘I barely know you. Trusting doesn’t come in the picture yet?’

‘Ha ha. You can be blunt. You know that?’

‘I know.’

‘Would you like to meet me?’

‘Of course. Tell me the place and I will be there in a ziffy.’

‘What is the hurry my prince? Have some patience. We will meet tomorrow night at 9 PM sharp.’

‘Where?’

‘I will text you the location.’ And she hung the phone.

‘You should wear this perfume.’ advised Mithilesh.

‘I need no perfume.’

‘You need additional fragrance support any day man and more so on a day when you are going to meet a mystery lady.’ Arvind quipped as he sprayed the liquid in generous quantity on my clothing. It was 7:30 in the evening. We were at his place as his was relatively nearer to the meeting location. The location was at the outskirts of the city and was still a jungle.

‘I wonder why a lady would choose a deserted place like this for the meeting.’ Gulati echoed this thought for the 15^th time that day.

‘It is not safe and is notorious for crime.’ Arvind joined the reasoning. It was also one of the reasons why all were hell bent on accompanying me to the spot. Arvind forced his inclusion once he came to know about the scheduled meeting from Gulati. ‘Why didn’t you tell me earlier?’ was his reaction when he called me after that. I had no answer.

At 8:30 PM we reached the scheduled place. We parked our car at a distance to observe the setting. It was dark and the faint light from the moon was our only source of illumination. Nitin and William were also stationed in a car a few kilometers back as a backup plan. I was of the opinion that this elaborate arrangement was unnecessary. Of course in the absence of public transport, I would have to use Mithilesh’s car or hire a taxi but they did not pay heed to my logic. Shiv Kant was also informed about our ‘adventure’.

It was a dull night. Nothing, not even a leaf, moved in the absence of wind. Just before the scheduled time we moved to the exact spot. We had not found any trace of suspicious activity and hence were partially relaxed. 15 minutes passed and no one came. Not even a single vehicle had crossed during our stay of 45 minutes there. The area must have been very notorious.

‘She would not come. It was a ploy.’  Arvind gave his verdict.

‘But to what end?’ Gulati asked.

‘Hey Guys look.’ Mithilesh drew our attention to a source of light which was stationary at a distance of about half a kilometer. It was off the road and it was certainly not of a vehicle.

‘We shall check.’ Mithilesh said as he ignited the engine.

As we drew nearer we realized that the light was coming from a cabin of a sort. There were some 10-12 men busy in loading a large cargo container.

‘This looks fishy.’ said Gulati.

Mithilesh had not switched on the light while covering the distance. He parked his vehicle some 200 meters from the cabin.

‘We should go.’ I said.

‘No. We should stay. Just check out what these guys are doing. Whatever is going on is definitely not legal. I told you this area is notorious.’ hissed Arvind.

‘And for precisely this reason I want us to leave this place. This is none of our business.’ I tried to reason.

‘Bhai!! Ruk jaa. I always wanted to do something like this. James Bond type wali feeling aa rahi hai.’ Mithilesh was again getting excited.

‘We had come here to meet a girl. She had not shown up. That’s it. Let us go.’ I did not want friends to land in trouble because of me.

‘We appreciate your point of view. Don’t worry. We will do it cautiously.’ Gulati has an expert opinion on everything.

So, Mithilesh opened the bonnet of his car and pretended to work on it as if something was wrong with it. To make things look genuine, Arvind was using torch to guide his actions. Gulati and I were out of the car looking at the cabin trying to make sense of whatever was going on there. With my limited eyesight, even with the glasses, it was difficult – and yet I saw a movement in one of the sack bags which were being loaded.

‘Trafficking?’ I looked quizzically at Gulati who had the same look. Before we could discuss anything, however, the roar of a bullet bike created panic in us. Some of the people from cabin would obviously have noticed us – the monster of a bike was coming directly to us. I could foresee a big thrashing or even worse coming our way.

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