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Chapter 17
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Lobhilal was not listed in any of the funny lists of the richest people of the world. He believed in playing a low key. He didn’t believe in tom-tomming his riches and then wasting a good part of it by handing it over to the income tax department of the country.
He believed in keeping everything for himself and his family. So he distributed his unimaginably large funds and properties in his wife’s name and in the names of his eleven sons and daughters. He also had opened many accounts in the names of his drivers, cooks, gardeners, and servants of other descriptions who really never existed. In effect his earnings reflected in his income tax returns were just about OK.
He posed as a man of moderate living. Simple living despite being the prime minister of an important country like Desh put him in the ranks of statesmen of very high morals. Also he had carefully cultivated his gift of gab. So his talks often contained some wisecracks that were widely publicized as examples of his high thinking. Majority of 99% league was impressed by his simplicity and his thoughts of wisdom. He had become the darling of the people of Desh.
Newspapers and TV channels sang songs of his next forthcoming event as another example of his simple living and high thinking. The latest news screamed the following content:
“As another example of our prime minister Lobhilal’s simple living and high thinking, he has decided to entertain his official guests president Gushnell of Bigland and his wife Helen not in any seven star luxury hotel but in his modest hut that he has built as his retirement home.”
……….
April 27.
Four days before Lobhilal and his wife were to entertain Gushnell and Helen in the hut, Amar, Victor, Adarsh, and Shakti met each other at an appointed place. Then as decided in their last meeting, Amar and Victor took Adarsh and Shakti to the large hiding den where they had hidden the twins Merciles and Willy- the junkies and the ex-bosses of Amar and Victor. All the four of them took a tour of the hiding place.
Adarsh said, “This hiding den is the perfect place to achieve our objectives.” Shakti seconded it.
Then four of them proceeded toward one of their shacks. After reaching the shack they sat on the faded carpet, poured some coffee in their tumblers, munched their favorite snacks, and kicked off their vital meeting.
Adarsh opened the meeting. He spoke, “Let us take stock of situation. Each of us took some responsibilities. Have we fulfilled them? As far as I am concerned I organized our physical fitness training. I believe the training we all underwent in Bigland was useful. We are physically quite fit and mentally quite alert to undertake this mammoth mission.”
Victor seconded, “I never felt so good before.” Amar and Shakti agreed too.
Adarsh continued, “Well, Uttam underwent the plastic surgery. You cannot recognize Uttam anymore. The plastic surgeon in Bigland did a great face job of Uttam. Then I did a great job of training him for the job of a personal bodyguard of a high profile dignitary. My boss Gushnell interviewed Uttam and was satisfied beyond doubt. He rang Unon’s president Korruptkin and took all the credit for discovering Uttam. I have already dispatched Uttam to Unon and he is serving Korruptkin very well. Korruptkin sent a good feedback of Uttam to my boss. In my last confidential communication with Uttam, I have briefed him about his next move.”
“Good, you seem to have done everything that you agreed to do.” Victor said.
“Let me add one more thing,” Adarsh said. “I had briefed all of you about the big row that recently took place between Gushnell and Helen. Helen is in no mood to pardon Gushnell. Taking divorce is the least of the things she aims at. She hates Gushnell for many things in addition to the adultery. She blames him for many of his decisions that propelled several wars and resulted in killings of millions of military and civilian persons of Bigland and many other countries. She hates him for the fact that he encourages sale of dangerous weaponry to a large number of countries and promotes more wars. As per her, he and his cronies are planning another war soon. They might invade Seher. She overheard their conversation. She feels he is responsible for a very large-scale homicide and he must be punished severely.”
“Her information corroborates with the information Amar dug out from his hacking gig and Shakti’s interpretation,”
Victor said. “What kind of punishment Helen wants to handover to Gushnell?”
“Death. Helen met me once again after the day the fight between her and her husband took place. Helen has many more things to say about Gushnell. As per Helen Gushnell is a mass murderer and he has no reason to live anymore. His economic and financial policies help the moneyed guys to exploit the ordinary citizens in his own country and in rest of the world. She shared with me her plan of punishing Gushnell. In my last telecom with Shakti I had briefed him about that plan and I was to brief Amar and Victor in today’s meeting,” said Adarsh.
Adarsh then told to Amar and Victor what Helen contemplated. He wanted their reactions. All of them seemed to be in agreement but with one definite difference on a specific point from Helen’s plan.
“Coming from his wife, it seems like justice,” Shakti proclaimed.
“I too have devised a similar plan for Lobhilal. I want to share it with you today.”
“OK, tell us about it when your turn comes up. Now I am impatient to tell you the actions I have already taken.” Amar said.
Then Amar started his presentation. He said, “Thanks Adarsh. Guys, now let me fill you up with my activities. My major responsibility was to collect all the information about the suspected villains of our mission. As per my assurance to you, I was able to hack all the 98 high tech communication devices in more than one way. As you all know we are able to tap all the conversations and other types of communications that take place between these 98 devices.”
Amar paused, took a sip of the hot coffee and proceeded with his presentation.
“Not only that we are able to pick up all the communication that takes place in the vicinity of these devices irrespective of whether the communication was made using these devices or not. Most importantly we are also able to retrieve all the pieces of communication that took place over past one year and more by these devices or near these devices. So I downloaded every bit of very sensitive information. I have already passed on all the information collected till date to Shakti for further analysis and interpretations. Shakti has been in touch with each one of us and briefed us on the important inferences he drew out of the information.”
“You deserve our heartiest congratulations. You have proved to be the key of our mission. We salute your technical excellence in information technology, communications, and electronics,” Shakti said.
All of them clapped in appreciation. Now it was Victor’s turn to present his work.
Victor spoke, “It’s my turn to report to you guys. Shakti helped me in locating the robust 4X4 jeep that I wanted. Thanks Shakti. Now the jeep is in our possession.”
“You are welcome,” said Shakti.
Victor continued, “We already had the two most sophisticated motor bikes with the most powerful engines, the ones we had taken from the twins.”
“What is the latest status of their conversion?” Adarsh said.
“By using advanced electronics, sophisticated mechanical engineering, marine engineering, aeronautical engineering, and latest computer hardware and software we can now use them in a standalone way or in various combinations. The standalone vehicles or the combinations can be configured in a jiffy. Each one can be made capable of traveling on road, in water or in sky. If you wish to drive them you are most welcome or you can as well operate them driverless. They are essentially self-driven vehicles now. Also air traffic control or any other agency cannot track the movement of these vehicles because of a special technical innovation I have incorporated in them. Will you not clap for me now in the same spirit as you did for Amar’s feat?”
Everyone clapped without any reservation. Victor bowed repetitively to the three.
He continued his reporting. He said, “So we are absolutely ready with transportation logistics- you have many variants of vehicles at your disposal. You can use them any way you like. Amar used one of the versions of the vehicle recently quite successfully. OK, one more thing. By now you already know how I spotted Uttam in our jungles. I told that story to each of you a few days back. Well, unless you want to know anything else from me, I will hand over the turn to Shakti. Over to you Shakti.”
Shakti said, “Thanks Victor. The war continues between Isonia and Kasban- the two small sized countries, situated in the central part of planet Berth. It’s over a dispute about a holy town. The killings on both sides go unabated.”
“And right now we have no clue over how to contain or stop it. Am I right Shakti?” Amar added.
“Yes, no clue whatsoever as of now for these two countries. But soon we will have to think of some plan for these two countries too,” Shakti confirmed. “But I have something else very important to share. It took place very recently.”
The rest of the three looked at him with a question mark. He then briefed Amar, Victor, and Adarsh on everything that happened to his economics student Minmin. He took them through the entire story of her rape by the prime minister Zintun of Chinhut, how they met his personal secretary who was already a victim of Zintun’s sexual perversions and the plan they made to punish Zintun.
“That is quite a revelation on Zintun. He is quite a bastard. OK Shakti, please go ahead,” Adarsh just could not hold speaking out.
Shakti continued, “By now each one of us has complete information on the evil intentions of Gushnell, Maramar, and Sharifyar. Gushnell wants to declare a war on Seher and win it with the help from Sharifyar- the chief of the armed forces of Seher. Sharifyar will stage a coup against king Maramar to coincide the war. In all of this do you guys remember Zahin- the namesake financial and war strategist of Maramar? I had requested Amar to find more information about Zahin. Have you found it Amar?”
Amar replied, “Not only I found very detailed information about him but I could also retrieve a very crucial piece of pretty private conversation between him and his wife. I have been briefing you about Zahin over the past few days. Just to refresh your memories, Zahin has been a victim of bad circumstances. He comes from a family of noble values. He is a gold medalist of a fine university of Bigland. But unfortunately got caught in the clutches of Maramar and ultimately driven to execute Maramar’s dirtiest designs.”
“Yes I recall it clearly. Tell us about the private conversation between Zahin and his wife,” Shakti asked.
Amar replied, “Lately Zahin wept and wept on his wife’s shoulders. He told his wife about all of his wrongdoings and wanted to repent by committing suicide. Then his wife persuaded him not to think in those terms. She even convinced him that together they should think of something by which they could punish Maramar.”
Amar added, “I could catch all of this conversation by hacking Zahin’s ultramodern communication device. Maramar had allotted him one.”
“This is a big breakthrough for us,” Adarsh commented. “Shouldn’t we contact Zahin?”
“Yes we should and I have already done it. By now I have come to realize that the owners of these 96 ultramodern communication machines easily respond to the calls they receive over these particular machines. They take the caller as an authenticated caller of their device. So I rang Zahin the other day. He picked up his device and spoke with me with a great deal of understanding. I followed up my call by personally meeting him at a secret place he suggested. Victor’s multipurpose and magically configured supersonic vehicle came very handy,” Amar said.
“What transpired in the meeting with Zahin?” Shakti inquired.
“It was an extremely useful conference. Zahin wants action against Maramar as much as we desire it to be. So he is willing to cooperate with us. We have chalked out a plan, which I wish to share with you guys now and seek your approval. After you approve I will give my go ahead to Zahin,” said Amar.
Amar shared the plan with the rest three. They approved the plan with one voice.
Amar didn’t want to waste another minute. He contacted Zahin immediately. He just said, “Go ahead.” Zahin knew the code. He answered, “Done thing.”
Amar then turned to Shakti, “Shakti, could you figure out anything on Lobhilal? I gave you a lot of dope on Lobhilal that I had retrieved from time to time.”
Shakti replied, “Do you all remember we started our mission with a premise of identifying the scheming type people- the biggest rogues of the human tribe. They are less in numbers, say just about 1% but create 99% of all the menaces we see and experience on our planet. Despite their cunningness and cruelty they are likely to leave behind some clues of their dirty acts of one kind or other. So what if they may be rich and famous. It doesn’t make them superior to anyone. They are also made up of clay after all; they too are naked in their bathrooms just like anyone else. So the second premise was to collect and analyze information leading to these clues. The clues would be the key to formalize our plans to fulfill our mission. And thirdly we needed to identify the links- the persons- who would be willing to help in executing our plans.”
Victor added, “And so far so good. We have followed this three point approach and we are heading in the right direction.”
They had got many clues that helped to finalize their plans.
“Yes. Following these premises, we have now been able to pin down Lobhilal too. Lobhilal comes from a very unimpressive background- literally an illiterate but streetwise smart, devoid of all human values and the most corrupt politician on planet Berth. He has already sold his country to outsiders. When he was nobody and young, he fell in love with a girl next-door belonging to his own community. But it wasn’t love it was mere lust.”
“Why do you say this, Shakti?” Adarsh asked. Victor also had the same question in his mind.
“It is because Lobhilal abused the girl but married the daughter of a very rich and influential man- a kingmaker. The kingmaker’s daughter had some serious physical deformities and no man was willing to marry her except Lobhilal. Lobhilal made his girlfriend pregnant but married this kingmaker’s daughter on a condition that the kingmaker should help him achieve his ambitions of becoming a big man in Desh’s elite society. The girlfriend could not bear this shock and committed suicide.”
“Oh, what a shame! Why do we have such insects in our human society?” Adarsh observed.
“They exist and they thrive,” Shakti said. “The kingmaker used his influence to help his son-in-law to join his political party at a pretty high hierarchical position. Nobody dared object him. Lobhilal being the street-smart guy made his way up and up and finally got himself elected as the prime minister of Desh. People of Desh in the 99% league take pride in having chosen a man of ordinary beginnings that too from a downtrodden community as their prime minister.”
“How does this description so far help us?” Adarsh asked.
“What I will tell you next will make sense. Suicide of Lobhilal’s one time girlfriend left her father totally broken. He went to a temple and took a vow in front of the god’s idol, ‘I will avenge my daughter’s killer. I will not die till I finish that Lobhilal. I hate that man’. The latest about Babu- the girl’s father- is that he is in the employ of Lobhilal as his headwaiter. Lobhilal does not recognize Babu as the girl’s father. After all he had seen Babu some twenty years back.”
Adarsh was convinced now. He said with appreciation, “Amar and you have done a great job on Lobhilal. Great!”
“Thanks,” said Shakti. “Let me finish my story. As soon as I landed in Desh for our meeting here, I dashed to the house of Babu. After the initial introductions etc, I assured him of our full support in his desire of punishing Lobhilal. Then I chalked out a detailed plan for him. He liked it. This plan dovetails very snugly with Helen’s plan that Adarsh briefed us about just a few minutes ago. Since Adarsh had already told that plan to me in my latest communication with him I knew about it and could use it for Babu’s purpose of punishing Lobhilal. Babu thanked me and assured me that he would execute the plan as suggested by me.”
Shakti briefed about the plan he had suggested Babu to execute. Everyone agreed with it. Particularly Adarsh was quite happy that the plan really dovetailed with Helen’s plan despite one specific change made now in Helen’s plan. That change needed to be communicated to Helen in time. Adarsh could inform this change to Helen. Being the personal bodyguard to president Gushnell he was supposed to be by Gushnell in the hut at the party time. He would brief the change in the plan to Helen then.
So Shakti suggested to Adarsh, “When you meet Helen in the evening on May 1 at the hut, please coordinate with Helen. She must understand the change in the plan so that the execution of her plan and Babu’s plan go hand in hand.”
“I will ensure it,” said Adarsh.
“Wait, wait,” Victor said. “Before we conclude our meeting, I have to remind you that I’m joining the conference with Korruptkin, Hardnuts, and Darpok on May 1 evening in Unon. I am going there as Vicky- a high profile businessman dealing in real estates in Nuplace. Uttam is already there. His new name is Balwan. We have introduced him to Gushnell and Korruptkin by this new name Balwan.”
“Best luck, Victor,” the rest three said in unison.
Amar added, “Please convey our thanks and congratulations to Uttam. The magic potion made by him will prove to be very useful in our mission. The various formulas for the preparation of magic potions of different categories will be extremely useful to us. His experience of Universal Chemicals really came handy in formulation of the magic potion exactly the way we wanted it.”
Victor said, “I will thank and congratulate Uttam on behalf of all the four of us.”
Adarsh said, “Time for me to attend to Gushnell. I’ll take leave.”
Shakti too bade bye to others and said, “Let us keep in touch constantly as we had been doing so far. That has proved very beneficial in quick exchange of various pieces of information among us. I am flying back to Chinhut by the next flight. I need to be in Chinhut while Minmin executes her plan.”
They were about to part and suddenly Amar literally shouted, “Hear this latest news that my system has retrieved just now. Maramar has bought more than 51% shares in BL Oil Company in Bigland. He has fired Kirchoff. So Kirchoff is no more the CEO of BL Oil Limited. He is nobody now and not in a position to continue filling up Gushnell’s pockets. Gushnell felt highly cheesed off. He has heightened his resolve of declaring the war on Maramar. We will go ahead with our plans- one man less to bother about, Kirchoff is out of our system as of now.”
Then they bade bye to each other.
Systematically coordinated communication amongst Amar, Victor, Adarsh, and Shakti backed up by the use of the technologies they had created was proving to be of immense importance in their progress toward completion of the mission they undertook.
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