Monday, October 12, 2015

The Peace Crusaders: Chapter 19

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May 2, morning.

The top-level key staff of prime minister Lobhilal’s office was awaiting Lobhilal’s arrival. Lobhilal was to chair a confidential meeting to be attended by defense minister, external affairs minister, chief of the armed forces, and the related bureaucrats from their departments.

The meeting was organized to discuss various issues concerning the ongoing war by one neighboring country on one border of the country and the threat of another war by another neighboring country on another border. The meeting was scheduled for 9 AM to 10 AM slot. 

In the process of waiting for the meeting to start the participants whiled away their time on various activities like online trading of shares, ringing the mistresses, fixing dates, scheduling some clandestine meetings, and watching porn on the handsets.

Suddenly the defense minister raised his head away from his cell phone and addressed the others, “The prime minister always takes pleasure in making us wait in every meeting he chairs.”

Others also raised their heads to hear the defense minister.

The external affairs minister joked, “Otherwise how will you get time to watch the wonderful movies?”

Then the conference room got abuzz with some general gossip.

“Our chief of armed forces is very smart. He enters the meeting rooms just around the time the prime minister walks in. His timings are always perfect. He is also missing today.”

“Oh. The prime minister had thrown a party in the hut in the honor of president Gushnell of Bigland and his wife. Wonder if he got stuck there?”

“I understand that the prime minister of Hayan of our enemy country Pashan was summoned by the president Gushnell. Gushnell is almost like a boss to Hayan. Our prime minister is seeking president Gushnell’s help in declaration of ceasefire. I guess the war currently in full swing between our country and Pashan on our southern border will stop soon. The credit will go to our PM.”

“PM is the candidate for this year’s ‘Berth Peace Prize’.”

The participants of the meetings chitchatted like this for almost half an hour.

Then the private secretary of the prime minister Lobhilal peeped in and declared, “I request you gentlemen to go back to your offices. The prime minister seems to have got stuck somewhere. We are trying to locate him.”

“Did you check the hut?” Defense minister inquired.

“He isn’t there. He isn’t at home either. His wife was very worried. She reached home in the night but her husband didn’t accompany her. She mentioned that she had started feeling sick after taking a few sips of the drink served in the party. President Gushnell’s wife Helen escorted her to her bedroom. Then she slept in the hut. She conjectured that she was perhaps dropped home in a car in her sleeping condition since she wasn’t well. Therefore she didn’t follow all the proceedings of the party.”

“Have you checked up with our chief of the armed forces? He is always late for the meetings. Though he is my subordinate he always comes later than me in all the meetings. One of these days I intend taking him to task for his various insubordinations.”

“Since the chief was with the prime minister yesterday night we thought he might be knowing prime minister’s plans for the day. So we checked up his office. He had not reached his office. So we contacted his home. He isn’t there too. God knows where he disappeared. His wife is equally worried,” the secretary informed.

The secretary took up the call on her cell phone, “Who’s that?”

“I’m Adarsh, president Gushnell’s personal bodyguard. President’s wife rang me in the morning around breakfast time. She informed that she waited for the president to join her in the dining room. He didn’t turn up even after a long wait. Then she went searching for him. She was not able to locate her husband in the hut or in its outer premises.”

“What’s all this? Now president Gushnell too?” the personal secretary spoke in a frustrating tone. “Here I’m already waiting for the prime minister and the chief of the armed forces. Both are absconding, nowhere to be found despite my hectic search to locate them.”

“You mean to say both of them are not traceable just like president Gushnell? In fact I rang you to tell me the whereabouts of the president. I thought he might be with your prime minister. I checked with the security staff here. They did not see president inside or outside the hut since quite early morning.” Adarsh sounded puzzled on the phone.

The secretary’s phone buzzed again.

“Excuse me. My phone is ringing. Please stand by. I will attend to it and revert.”

The secretary then spoke with the new caller. She heard him and then they continued their conversation for a few minutes. After she was done with this new caller she reverted to Adarsh and said, “Now listen to this latest breaking news. Our enemy country Pashan’s prime minister Hayan is also missing- the prime minister of our neighboring country who also attended yesterday’s party in the hut. The general manager of the hotel where he was put up informed about this second missing prime minister. Prime minister Hayan’s accompanying aides and the entire hotel staff searched every nook and cranny of the hotel but they could not locate Hayan. What’s happening?”

“It seems a serious matter. Let us alarm all the concerned agencies.”

“I will get all of them working. Four big guns are missing-one president, two prime ministers, and one chief of armed forces. Never in my life I ever came across such an illustrious missing persons’ list.” The secretary felt amused as well as baffled.

Then she rang all the concerned departments to investigate the entire matter.

Adarsh rang vice president of Bigland. The vice president asked him to return to Bigland with Helen immediately.

……….

May 2, early morning.

Early morning Zintun’s private secretary attended many telephonic calls in her office. One was from a minister. Zintun’s minister of industries and commerce wanted his appointment.

“He has not reached the office as yet. I will check and revert to you,” the secretary replied.

“How come? He is very punctual in attending the office. He should have been in the office half an hour ago. Have you checked his residence?”

“I did. He isn’t there too. His executive assistant who accompanies him in the morning to the office from his residence found that Mr Zintun wasn’t at his residence when he reached there. He thought that as an exception he might have started for the office earlier than the usual days. When I told him about Mr Zintun’s absence in the office, he sounded quite puzzled.”

“That’s strange and quite unlike Mr Zintun,” the minister remarked. “Please connect me to him when he comes.”

Zintun’s secretary didn’t want to share with the minister the rest of her conversation she had with the executive assistant.

Executive assistant had said, “I had handed over that new girl to you yesterday evening at 7 PM as decided. Didn’t you meet the boss there? You were to introduce this new girl to the boss?”

“I took the girl inside the villa, made her feel comfortable there. Then when the boss came I introduced the girl to the boss and then promptly left the villa for my home. That’s the usual practice, you know about it,” the secretary bluffed.

“So that’s the last you saw the boss?”

“Yes,” the secretary confirmed. She knew that no one other than her knew about the orgy at the villa.

A few more phone calls came. Also a few top officials personally came to her office and inquired if the boss was in office. By now a good one-hour had passed.

She called the chief of the security department on his cell phone. She sounded quite disturbed as she spoke with the chief. She managed to say, “Hey there, the boss is not traceable. Do you know about his whereabouts?”

“What do you mean?”

“He hasn’t reached the office as yet. I thought you must be knowing. You cover him all the time.”

“Not when he goes to the villa. Yesterday evening he specifically asked us to leave him alone. He does it occasionally. Who are we to question his wisdom? He also has his private army at his disposal and we know about it. Did he go to the villa yesterday night after the close of the office? The electronic security system in the villa is absolutely foolproof; better than what my security staff can provide him.”

“How do I know? He doesn’t tell me everything,” the secretary said.

“He doesn’t tell me either about his visits to the villa,” the chief of security quipped. “But his not reaching the office has become a matter of concern to me now, I must locate him.” Then he promptly disconnected the call.

……….

May 1, night.

In Seher, when chief financial and war strategist Zahin’s wife returned to the bedroom after a few minutes of whiling away the time inside her house she found that her husband, king Maramar, and chief of the armed forces Sharifyar were not present in the room.

She searched the entire house. She didn’t find them anywhere in the house or outside the house. She wanted to make sure if they were in any other area of the house.

She rang king Maramar’s office. His executive assistant picked the phone and politely said, “What can I do for you madam?”

“Tonight the king and the chief of the armed forces had a conference at my home with my ailing husband. While they were deliberating, I went away for some ten minutes from the bedroom where the meeting was in progress. When I returned I didn’t find all the three of them. Have they reached the king’s office by any chance?”

“No madam, I am alone here. The king had asked me to stay back in the office till he returned. That’s why I am still in the office. But I wasn’t aware of this meeting.

“My husband was quite seriously sick. He wasn’t in any position to get up and walk. I wonder how he is missing. Can you please ring the chief of the armed forces whether the three have gone to his office?”

“May I keep you on hold for a while? I will revert quickly.”

The executive assistant got busy telephoning Sharifyar. First he rang Sharifyar’s office phone. He didn’t get any response. He then rang Sharifyar’s home number and inquired.

Sharifyar’s wife mentioned, “He is not home yet. I’m worried. He left his office in the evening but has not returned till now. By now he often returns home. Please locate my husband and inform me.”

The executive assistant switched on the connection to Zahin’s wife and said, “Madam, your husband and the king are not in the chief of the armed forces office or house. His wife also wondered about the whereabouts of her husband.”

“Please inform your security department and the secret services. They may be able to locate the three gentlemen. Please keep me posted.”

“Yes madam.”

The executive assistant alerted all the concerned persons.

……….

May 1, late night.

In Unon similar things happened.

Unon’s president Korruptkin, Universal Chemicals CEO Hardnuts, Nuplace’s president Darpok, and Vicky, Nuplace’s real state tycoon all went missing from presidential vacation home where their meeting took place.

Korruptkin’s wife was the first to ring Hardnuts’s wife. She inquired, “Has you husband come home after the meeting? Mine hasn’t. It is quite late in night. By now they should have driven back home. I tried to contact my husband and even your husband on their cell phones. I got no response. I am quite worried. President’s personal bodyguard Balwan is also unreachable on his phone. He was supposed to be their car’s driver for the night.”

“Same with me. I’m worried too. I did almost the same thing. I tried to contact them all but without any success. What should we do now?”

“Keep your cool. I am alerting all the concerned agencies of Unon. They will launch a quick search operation. They are quite efficient these days, particularly after the terror attacks in Unon. Please inform me if any other development takes place.”

“I will. Thanks,” said Hardnuts wife.

Korruptkin’s wife then rang a number of officers in the relevant departments. She urged them to hurry up the search operation.
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