CHECKMATE
RAW Headquarters Delhi Headquarters—Home of
Agastya rai, head of personnel (AR) enters…his secretary stands and wishes him...
SEC: good morning, sir.here is the papers to be stamped and signed.
AR: ok……any other priorities.
SEC: sir, here are some greetings in the envelope and this one is from the pm’s office-
AR: what a bunch of hypocrites! I have bee a straight talking pain in their neck for the last 25 years and now they show concern.
SEC: Also sir, you have a conference today.
AR: today! That too a conference!
SEC: sir, it’s important, it’s about tyagi.
AR: ok fine. The last day in office .I will miss this place. I actually had imagined retirement differently but…this thing is still pretty good. When is the conference?
SEC: Actually it will start in a few minutes. You must start now. By the way sir, I have also filed my resignation.
AR: Ok, give it to the head in the conference. Now let’s move.
(In the conference room ...there is a table in the centre, a projector... RAW head and four other directors are sitting, Placards read. External intellugence, Crypto and cipher, internal affairs, Communications and Head of Operations)
AR enters...
AR: Last day par bhi conference...
Comm. J.D.: Arre yaar (hugs) happy retirement...Agle saal main bhi aa raha hoon…
Head: If your Oprah moments are over, can we please start with our work!
Mr Rai, you must have forgotten the importance of today... so let me brush your memory. Tomorrow Abhimanyu Tyagi is being executed in SERNA prison in
AR: Enough I very well remember.. Age never degraded my mind. Right now I actually don’t give a shit for RAW(takes the envelope , crumples it,) all these greetings mean nothing to me. Nor does this bureaucracy..( Throws the paper in the bin)
Ext JD:Sir we need to close this file Tyagi was your agent and protégé . So help us fill this missing information in this file and then you are free..
Crypt JD: Common now, Gussa thuk Last day par toh khush rahe
AR:Thik hain.So what do you want to know about Tyagi.
Head: everything. His name,place,shoe size. Spare no details. So lets begin,(Tyagis profile on screen)tell us how did you recruit this person and why.
AR: I was in charge of the Ludovico project and Tyagi was my creation
Int JD:
Ludovico project was conceptualized by internal affairs and Personnel Dept.We wanted to create agents who did not have a conscience.These agents don’t reflect retrospect or object. They just do what is told to them
AR:
In short I was to make a killing machine without remorse. After going through various applications I found this person, Abhimanyu.No family , hardly any friends , ready to do anything..Ready to die ..Our perfect weapon.
Cry JD:yes sir, I personally took him under my wing…kamala ka banda tha.usko infiltration aur sniping to
Int JD:apne!apko magnum kya hai pata bhi hai?
Head: will you please!
Comm JD:He was made to go through various trainings and tests. He killed people , he was made to cut them. We destroyed his soul , his conscience. He could kill in 256 ways and knew how to make 29 different poisons using kitchen articles
Cry JD: He had an IQ of 160 . Brilliant code breaker ,knew 7 languages and had more than 10 identities.
AR: I succeeded in making a perfect monster . He was our James Bond . a one man army.
Head: And his file says he was involved in many important RAW operations apparently
AR:He was the person who killed the CIA mole in RAW .The CIA still thinks that he died due to his peanut allergy. The MI6 infiltration to find the nuke deal details was engineered by Tyagi. His biggest achievement I feel was the killing of the ISI agent in the embassy,Tyagi killed him in a theatre using a champagne glass and a nylon ball. He was a superlative!
Comm JD:
He also headed a operation to plant a communication tower at Siachen.We are receiving class A intelligence from that tower till now
AR: Arre , you remember that,
C JD: This kya , meri toh ab tak sikudi hui hain,,
Head: Can you please come to the point .your friend’s reunion for a later period perhaps.
Int JD:Arre jaldi karo yaar bhook bhi lagi hain, insulin lene ka bhi time ho raha hain
Head: Ok ,let’s hit the topic now , operation Silver Fox, let’s begin. I want to know everything what happened This is going on record any lies can affect you later .somebody can get hurt. Keep this in mind,mr.rai.
AR:Just because you are the head doesn’t mean you own me .
Int JD:Calm down sir , don’t work on your Bp too much..
AR:Operation Silver Fox Burma was in a state of civil war ,the govn. and the refugees along with the civilians were up in arms and rioting. India has a non-interference treaty with Burma .A US humanitarian Shalini Bhattacharya alias Jane was in Burma to nurse the wounded in the civilian area.She was caught by the soldiers and put in the prison of SERNA,Burma. We had been told to extract the officer from SERNA, and deport her safely back to the US of A.
Int JD: Can we please take a break ?I need to eat my lunch and take my insulin shot.
Head: OK, 30 min lunch, These things are deteriorating the quality of work at RAW.Everyone works at his own leisure..(storms to his office)
(conf room ,,directors sitting for lunch..)
Cry JD: Salla , this Head toh gets on my nerves, PM’s Office main setting hain is liye apne sir pe baitha hain…
Int JD: ( comes after taking his shot) Rai tu toh bahut lucky insaan hain yaar . abhi toh full family man banega
AR:Pata hain!! Main toh aaj raat ki flight se hi
Cry JD : Any plans for the evening?
AR: I am actually going out on a dinner with my wife .I hope this meeting ends and I can go..
Comm JD: I know , I rarely see my grandson … I too am contemplating VRS now.
( office murmurs continue .. Head’s office …head on phone )
(voices on the other end of the line ..)
So have you taken care of Rai and Tyagi..?
Head:Tyagi is getting executed tomorrow ..I think I will get the location of the humanitarian official by evening..
Voice:
She is of importance to the
Head: I will take care of her myself ,,she will disappear from the face of the earth.
Voice: At least be your money’s worth..
(back to conference hall)
SEC : Sir you have a call..
AR:Excuse me(ans the phone)..Ya surely, its confirmed,I will send it .Just do as per that.Ya Dinner Out is a Go. Chal.See You.
Cryp JD: 25 years main RAW ne teri English badal di. Wife ko “It’s a go”. Bechari kaisi bardaashth karti hogi tuze!!
Int JD:Don’t pull his leg too much ,Last day toh enjoy karne de.Head ne toh uska din waise bhi kharab kar diya hain..
Head (entering): So we were in
Ext JD: Our Embassy in
AR: Under such adverse conditions Tyagi managed to infiltrate SERNA.He had devised the escape plan .He planned the prison break impeccably. The plan was flawless
Ext JD: Was he successful?
AR: let me complete! He located the officer ,but at the prison he came across someone else
Cry JD: Kya baat kar raha hain!
AR:He saw his ex-wife there .She was working for an NGO in Burma and the military police caught her .Tyagii successfully managed to rescue the officer and she was deported from Burma .Then he did the biggest mistake o his life.His emotions killed his decision making skills .He went back to rescue his ex wife , but this time he failed.He got caught by the govn..Tomorrow he will be executed..
Head: Nice story.But whatever you said for the last 5 mins,is the most moronic fairytale I ever heard. The officer never reached US.
Ext JD: We sent our agent at the airport, but she wasn’t even in the plane.
Head:She vanished into thin air(rises ).You thinks we all are buffoons out here..The truth is your most dear agent failed in Silver fox, He failed and you are covering up for his failure..You have been hiding information for the last three yrs..
Int JD:The officer might have really disappeared or the Burmese could have captured her..
Head : You think I didn’t find that out .She is missing from US,from
AR:I don’t give a damn as to what you think, she could be anywhere why do I care .!And who are you to point my mistakes. Enough!!
Head: Remember you are talking to the Head of Operations..
AR:Everyone knows who am talking to ,you think your contacts in PM’s office will deter me bring it on!. You political games cant do anything to me..
C JD: But why didn’t we try to save Tyagi, after all he was one of our best agents…
Ext JD: Because he wasn’t supposed to be in
Head: Plus I didn’t want to waste my time behind such incapable agents and directors…
AR(Stands):Just because you are going to sign on my retirement certificate you think
you can do anything. Well I don’t need this ,(throws certificate in bin..)
I don’t need you pension, canteen benefits, free liquor .I don’t need RAW .I’m going right now .Lets see if you can stop me .the conference is over. I have told everything that I know.
Head(shouting):rai….you will pay for this…come back this instance.
(AR walks away, others still around doing paper work, Jane bends and finds paper from bin..)
SEC: Sir, I know that Mr.Rai was rude. But sir, He has been in this institute for 25 years. Please sign the retirement certificate .It will be a memento for him. Half of his life has been RAW. Even if he tries he can’t take RAW away from him.
Head: Ok (signs)
Jane: Sir even I am resigning with him, here is my resignation. Thank you sir.
Head: Hello, please transfer all phone lines of Rai to my office. I am in charge of Personnel till a new director is appointed. Also tell security to check that rai departs from the building as soon as possible.
(In anger. throws the vase on table in disgust)
Some time later... (Some one comes and gives Head a fax...)
Head: What the hell, operators call all the directors, it’s an emergency meeting. And get me all employment records and files on silver fox in the conference room fast.
(All directors in conference hall. head enters.)
Head: there has been an emergency. Can we get the records of silver fox?
Int JD: yes sir, but according to standard protocol, we delete important information after the operation.
Head: I want to know about the officer.bhattacharya.she had a code name right.
Ext JD: it was Jane sir.
Head: do we have any photos of her?
Int JD: no sir, as I mentioned standard procedure. But why is she so important?
Head: check this employment record.rai’s secretary’s name incidently is Jane. Jane menezes.her date of appointment is exactly 1 week after silver fox. All this time he kept her in one place no one would bother looking.right in raw headquaters.under our noses. (Very furious).can you please check the bin?
Int JD: (checks bin) there are no greeting cards…and this is rai’s retirement certificate!
(All directors stand in shock)
Comm. JD: so what did you sign sir?
Head: there were no greeting cards. And what I signed was a sanction for an extraction operation.rai was playing with us all along. Here have a look at this fax.
(Fax on projector. it reads)
OPERATION DINNER OUT WAS A SUCCESS.ABHIMANYU TYAGI AND HIS WIFE ARE SAFELY EXTRACTED FROM SERNA AND DEPORTED TO
Head: talk about checkmate!
No comments:
Post a Comment