8+ years later – 1st March 2020
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan – 110kms from the Pakistan border – 6 p.m.
The sun was setting across the golden sands of the Thar Desert in Jaisalmer as the wind threw up little dust devils that danced around in the twilight. The jeeps for the sunset safaris were heading out of the camps and into the desert for the spectacular sunset spectacle and an unparalleled view of the milky night sky that can only be seen from the darkness of a desert.
Strewn across the start point of the Jaisalmer desert were a few desert camps, and one of the most renowned was the Sam Sands Desert camp. Being one of the camps furthest into the desert, it made for a great place to experience the desert sights and sounds, especially in the still of the night.
Spread over a couple of acres, the camp could house at least a 100 guests comfortably with various sizes of tents available. There was a huge circular amphitheater in the middle of the camp that had the nightly entertainment program of folk dancing, singing and group festivities. The performers were gearing up for the night program that began once the guests came back from the sunset safaris.
But in one of the tents – that evening – one man was concentrating not on the sights and sounds around him, but he was entirely focused on the screen in front of him.
Alan Fernandes was looking like a man possessed – he was sweating, his eyes were wide, darting around and he was banging away on his laptop keys like a demon.
He knew this was his only window of opportunity.... He had been working on this for over two years now and he felt he was at the cusp of a breakthrough that could throw the entire Indian subcontinent into turmoil.
Banging on the keys of his laptop, he mutters to himself, "Come on man, you can do this. They will spot you, but you are faster than them."
After he had accidentally stumbled onto that one piece of random information over a year ago, he had kept plugging away in secret, and as the threads joined, he felt he a vast vista of subterfuge unfolding right before his eyes. The laptop pinged and as the decrypted data rolled onto the screen, he gasped in shock and awe. He immediately starts to download the file onto a tiny flash drive.
YOU ARE READING
The Enemy Within
Mystery / ThrillerA man is killed in the middle of a desert in Rajasthan, India and is chanced upon by a group of tourists out on a desert safari. They panic and disperse without informing the police. Rohan Kapoor, a NIA agent and his team are tasked with tracking do...
