Arjun- What?
Anirudh- Yes Officer. I just got the news from Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare. Gayathri Saxena is receiving widow pension. IPS ChandraShekar Saxena died 10 years ago. She is collecting pension from State Bank of India’s Rohru branch.
Arjun- Rohru? Himachal Pradesh??
Anirudh- Yes. She lives there. I got her address & I am forwarding you.
Arjun- Thank You Sir.
Anirudh disconnected the line. After sometime, a beep sound attracted Arjun’s attention. He looked at the address. Rohru!! It’s a town in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, situated at the bank of the Pabbar river. Arjun smiled. Finally, he able to track someone related to Samaira. He is almost sure that Gayathri Saxena is Samaira’s grandmother & her son IPS Reyansh s*xena was Samaira’s biological father. Yes, He is saying this on the basis of circumstantial evidence, but His sixth sense is saying He is on the right path & will not return empty hand after meeting with Gayathri Saxena. Arjun still remembered Samaira’s cold voice when first time he revealed the truth of Samrat Khanna in front of her. She said he snatched her identity. Hopefully, he will be able to give her a positive closure. The tea stall owner served him a cup of tea & Arjun took a sip from the cup thoughtfully. First, he need to go to Headquarter in Delhi to get more details about IPS ChandraShekar & Reyansh Saxena & also about Pranav Sarin, he was an mole & got vanished without any trace, plus ChandraShekar Saxena doubted his son’s death related with Pranav. After that, He will go in Shimla to meet with Gayathri Saxena & that too secretly for the safety of that old lady. He will reveal everything after He himself gets confirmed with valid proofs, till then, he need to take each step carefully & cautiously. Arjun emptied his cup & gave money to the tea stall owner & started his bike.
In Intelligence Bureau’s office, Arjun entered in his cabin & lit a cigarette sitting on his desk. He dialed Samaira’s number.
Samaira- Yes Arjun?
Arjun- Is everything fine? Are you alright?
Samaira- Yes, yes, I am fine. No need to worry. Did you have your breakfast?
Arjun- Yes. I have.
Samaira- Don’t try to make me fool. I know you are lying.
Arjun- No, no. I have a cup of tea on the way of coming to office.
Samaira- Is it enough? Don’t irritate me Arjun. You rushed from Home saying you are getting late, not even giving me chance to prepare breakfast. First, take care of your health, then work for country.
Arjun- okay.okay. I will eat something. But how you guessed that I did not have my breakfast?
Samaira- Sixth sense of a wife.
Arjun (chuckled)- You are behaving like a old, experienced wife! Do you have your breakfast?
Samaira- Yes, I have & also took my medicine, Now, you please..
Arjun- Yeah, yeah! But you still not answered my question!
Samaira- Well, early morning you went to meet with a lady…
Arjun- An Old Lady!!
Samaira- Don’t interrupt, let me continue. You went to meet with an old lady & talked with her. Then, you came in your office keenly thinking about your conversation with her forgetting everything.
Arjun- It’s not like that. How can I forget you my dear wife??
Samaira- shut up. It’s like that. By the way, are you coming home in afternoon for lunch?
Arjun- I can’t say anything now. Let’s see.
Samaira- Try to come & Thank You for calling.
Arjun- Love You & Bye. Will talk later.
Samaira- Love you too. Bye & take care.
Arjun switched on his laptop. Suddenly, he heard a knock on his cabin door. Rajat peeped from the door.
Arjun- Yes Rajat?
Rajat- Arjun, Inspector Aparna Sahay, an Officer from DRI urgently wants to meet with you.
Arjun- send her in.
After sometime, a young lady entered his cabin & saluted Arjun.
Arjun- At ease Officer. Have a seat.
The Lady- Thank You Sir. I am Aparna Sahay from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. ( She forwarded her identity card towards Arjun) & Sir, I am investigating the transactions & Financial matters of Khanna Industries.
Arjun nodded his head in acknowledgement.
Aparna- Sir,I want to share a very important information with you. I already shared this info with my Higher Official & He thinks you need to know this urgently.
Arjun- Yes Officer.
Aparna- Sir, we still don’t have any clues regarding the fake companies, shares & transactions. The channeling process is indeed a cobweb. But the shocking information is Khanna Industries withdrew all their capital from ZK Bank, but surprisingly the company’s own account having Nil balance.
Arjun- So, you are saying Khanna Industries is bankrupt!
Aparna- Yes Sir. The Khanna Industries is showing fake balance sheets & fooling everyone almost for 10 & 11 months.
Arjun- What? So, according to You Khanna Industries having no money, neither in bank nor in their company’s account! What happened with those huge amount?
Aparna- That’s the million dollar question! After checking rigorously, we found out that a huge amount was transferred to some Bronwen Rylan account through dark web.
Arjun was shocked. “through dark web?”
Aparna- Yes Sir. Through dark web using Tor browser.
Arjun looked thoughtful.
Arjun- By any chance, do you people able to track Bronwen Rylan? Though I know it’s quite difficult.
Aparna- Yes Sir. Our Intelligence team able to track down the IP address finally, the account was getting operated from Moldova.
Arjun remained silent for sometime. Yes, the information he got was shocking & definately hard to digest.
Arjun- anything else Officer?
Aparna- That’s all for now Sir & this is the file with all details.
Arjun- Thank You Officer. As you can understand the situation is getting severe, so try to get more information about Khanna Industries money laundering matter as soon as possible.
Aparna- Yes Sir. I will surely.
Arjun (with a small smile)- Great work Officer. It’s nice to meet you.
Aparna- Thank You Sir.
Aparna stood up, saluted Arjun & left the cabin.
Arjun started reading the file.
Almost after two hours, Rajat knocked the door of Arjun’s cabin.
Arjun- Come in Rajat.
Rajat closed the door & entered inside. Arjun is puffing a cigarette & looked tensed.
Arjun- A huge amount was transferred from Khanna Industries via dark web to the account of some Bronwen Rylan.
Rajat- What?
Arjun- Yes, that too before 11 months approximately!
Rajat- well, I am confused.
Arjun- Let me explain. Let’s talk about dark web first. The Dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets, overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations or authorization to access. The Dark web has often been conflated with the deep web, the parts of the web not searchable by search engines. Darknet websites are accessible only through networks such as Tor, I2P.
Rajat- Yes. Heard about it. The Darknet is used for illegal activities such as illegal trade, forums & media exchange for pedophiles & terrorists.
Arjun- exactly! & Khanna Industries money was transferred to that Bronwen Rylan using Tor.
Rajat- Tor?
Arjun- Tor was developed in the mid-1990 by United States Naval Research Laboratory employess, with the purpose of protecting U.S intelligence communications online. The First public release occured on 2003 & in 2004 the Naval Research Laboratory released the code for Tor under a free license. So, Tor is a free & open source software for enabling anonymous communication. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network consisting of more than seven thousand relays to conceal a user’s location & usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis.
Rajat eyes widened, “So, it’s impossible to trace the users!!”
Arjun- Tor does not prevent an online service from determining when it is being accessed through. It’s protects a user’s privacy but it’s not completely erase tracks but reduce the likelihood for sites to trace actions.
Rajat- So, it’s a heaven for criminals!
Arjun (Smiled slightly)- According to Tor Project FAQ, since criminals willing to break laws, they already have lots of options available that provide better privacy than Tor provides. Tor aims to provide protection for ordinary people who want to follow the law.
Rajat sighed. “Is it legal here?”
Arjun- Basic purpose of the Tor is anonymity is not illegal in any single country. But browsing illegal content & deep web content can put anyone in trouble. Our mass surveillance programs are capable of tracking suspicious keywords.
Rajat- Then?
Arjun- Here it’s only use for money transfer.
Rajat- So, what about that Bronwen Rylan?
Arjun- no idea. But our Intelligence tracked that account location was in Moldova.
Rajat- What? Moldova?
Arjun- Yes Moldova, black markets of nuclear materials. The break up of the Soviet Union left a superpower’s worth of nuclear weapons scattered across several countries without a superpower’s capacity to keep track of them. Several undercover investigations highlighted activity in Moldova smuggling of small quantities of Uranium.
Rajat also looked tensed.
Rajat- So, what are you suspecting Arjun?
Arjun lit another cigarette.
Arjun- First of all, these information are too much to digest. According to DRI reports, Khanna Industries became bankrupt almost for 11 months, at that time, we received that incomplete message of our secret agent. “Khanna Industries, money laundering, big conspiracy” & next day we found his dead body. So, let’s assume, he wants us to investigate this transaction. Why should a company transfer so much huge amount to anyone in Moldova that too via dark web? We are 200% sure about the criminal activities in Khanna Industries. Samrat Khanna died but Nandini & Dev is very much alive & hiding somewhere. We need to track them at any cost to solve the mystery.
Rajat- But how?
Arjun- The “How”! There is another similarity. Linda Joseph, using another identity Natalia Vann, came from Kiev, Ukraine. Then, she met with an Air Hostess Sophie Campbell of the same Kiev-Mumbai flight. Definately, both the girls smuggled the packet from Ukraine & delivered to Rana & then Rana handed the same to the “mystery man”. So, let’s assume, the content of the packet may be related with the amount transferred to Bronwen Rylan, because Moldova is bordered by Ukraine to the North.
Rajat- So, what are you assuming about the packet?
Arjun- I don’t know. Nandini & Dev, only they can say what exactly happening! We already get to know Jai Khanna is another camouflaged for Dev Arora & how can we ignore that this man was directly involved in RDX smuggling. What about those three involved in Briju’s car stealing & Samaira’s kidnapping?
Rajat- They are petty criminals mostly involved in extortion cases.
Arjun- So, our informers network can easily track them. I want them in my custody soon. By the way, Rajat, book air ticket to Delhi for me. It’s urgent.
Rajat- Okay.
Arjun- And listen, for any emergency, contact me but if you find my cellphone is switched off, them simply mail me. First, I will go to Headquarter in Delhi, then I have some confidential work.
Rajat- Okay.
Arjun- I already forwarded official letters to the bank authorities to co-operate with us. So, make a team & start scanning all the bank customers in the name of Anju Kiran and Nandini Pandey & also search for Piyali Chaudhary.
Rajat- So, you are doubting Samaira’s mother Piyali is with Nandini? Is she involved in criminal activities?
Arjun- may be, Nandini can use Piyali’s identity. Anyway, we have to find Nandini soon, then we will be able to solve most of the puzzles.
Rajat- Okay Arjun.
Arjun- another important lead you need to track Rajat. ( placing the Group picture shared by Gloria) look at the girl, Her name is Meghna Khanna, according to Rekha Bhatia, she is Samrat Khanna’s younger sister.
Rajat- What?
Arjun- So, track this Meghna soon.
Rajat- I will try my level best.
Arjun- That’s all for now. I need to meet with my informers team. So, my phone will remain switched off for sometime. Forward me the ticket & be careful.
Rajat- Yes Arjun. You go. Best of Luck. I will manage.
Arjun nodded his head.
Almost at evening, Arjun knocked the door of his house. Samaira came & opened the door. Arjun rushed inside, he did not even noticed the fuming face of Samaira. He entered in his bedroom & opened the cupboard. He took out his backpack & started taking out his clothes.
Samaira- What are you doing?
Arjun- Samaira, I need to urgently go in Delhi. I have some work in Headquarter.
Samaira- But…
Arjun- No if and but Samaira. I have to catch flight at tonight 9:45 pm. You know my job. Many times I have to take decision suddenly.
Samaira- for how many days?
Arjun- Can’t say exactly. Depend on my work But I will come most probably in 2-3 days. Gitika will stay with you at night.
Samaira- I will be joining Office tomorrow.
Arjun- Good. Without any fear, do your work. You will be safe. I arranged everything.
Samaira- What about You?
Arjun- I will be fine. Don’t worry at all.
Samaira- I tried to call you at afternoon to ask you about coming home for lunch, but your phone was switched off.
Arjun- Yes Samaira. I was in a meeting.
Samaira- Do you ate anything?
Arjun- No, I did not get time.
Samaira- Arjun, you are looking tensed.
Arjun- No Samaira. Everything is fine. It’s just that I have some urgent work in Headquarter, so, I need to go in Delhi.
Samaira- hmm. Okay. You get ready.
Samaira went inside kitchen to warm the food. Arjun went to washroom to freshen up.
Arjun was getting ready. Samaira is silently sitting on the bed looking at Arjun.
Samaira- I will miss You Arjun.
Arjun- I will miss you too. But what to do? But work is urgent.
Samaira sadly nodded her head.
Arjun- Nothing is serious, right Arjun?
Arjun looked at her & then moves towards her & sat beside her & moves his head closer to her. He lean in, so His forehead rests against Her. They closed their eyes. Both their breaths are shaking. He kissed her & the world fell away. It was slow, soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them & she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest.
Arjun- Trust me.
Samaira- I trust You. Just stay safe.
Arjun- I will.
Samaira- You indulged yourself so much in work that you forgets everything. So, I will call you. Receive my call, else you will suffer. I am warning You.
Arjun- Ha ha. Yes. Yes. But If you find my Cellphone is switched off, please don’t worry. I have to maintain the secrecy of my mission sometime. But I will call you or message you. So, don’t worry. I Love You.
Samaira- Just remember Arjun, I can’t live without You.
Arjun- Don’t say in this way Dear. I don’t like it.
Samaira- Hmm.
Samaira stood up & opened the cupboard. She took out the box of Mangalsutra & thrust the box in his hand.
Samaira- Make me wear the mangalsutra again.
Samaira stood near the mirror. Arjun took out the Mangalsutra from the box. He stood behind her & slowly tied the chain around her neck & hugged her from behind. Her eyes met with His through the reflection of the mirror.
That’s all for Today. Waiting for responses.