The Royal Signature

Chapter 2

Ashwin Acharya did not like it when his favorite song was interrupted by a phone call. He stopped doing push ups, quickly got to his feet on the soft grass and answered the call by tapping his wireless earbuds once. He turned around and stared at the reflection of the early morning sun in the lake next to him.
"Ashwin, you need to come into the office ASAP."
It was Sanjay Murty, the chief of counter terrorism department at the Lucremesian Organization of Crime Investigation(LOCI), Merrowall office and also Ashwin's boss at LOCI.
Ashwin looked around to make sure that no one was trying to eavesdrop on this conversation.
"We have a problem," his boss said. He seemed to hesitate for a moment and continued, "Its something big."
"Alright I'll be there." He cut the call and glanced at his watch. 7:10 am.
Ashwin needed no further motivation to abandon his workout and immediately leave for his office two hours before time. He cycled back to his apartment complex, took the elevator to his second floor flat, showered, changed, and in half an hour was ready to go to work. He grabbed a small bottle of mixed fruit juice from his refrigerator on his way out of the house. There was no time for breakfast.
As he drove his car on the high street network at top speed, Sanjay's words 'something big' kept ringing in his ears. The choice of words seemed a bit odd. Only a few days ago, the Gramyll Independence Organization(GIO) had released a video threatening the Lucremesian government that if Gramyll, a state of Lucremesia, was not given independence, 'something big' would take place and the country would pay for its sins.

What has happened that needs my immediate attention?
Was it related to the threat? It must be, right?

Ashwin contemplated all of this as he sipped juice from his bottle while driving. When he stopped at a red light, there was already a traffic jam. Lucremesia's capital city, Merrowall and its people never took rest. He drained the rest of his juice just as the lights turned green. He sped off at once and stopped only once he reached the LOCI headquarters in downtown Merrowall. It was a low rise gray building with large glass covered first floor sandwiched between skyscrapers.
He entered it and took an elevator to the fourth floor, the entirety of which was dedicated to the counter terrorism department. He pulled out his key card that he kept in a metal pouch and passed through the 3 factor authentication security system.The floor was pretty much empty save for a couple cubicles occupied by junior night duty officers. At the far end of the floor was the conference room which had mirrored walls only transparent from inside.
Just then, Sanjay emerged from the conference room looking very tense.
"Ah Ashwin, there you are, finally." He was a medium sized pot bellied man with thinning gray hair in his early 50s.
"Yes I am here", Ashwin replied, "Now will you please tell me what on earth is going on?"
"Just a moment man, we have some guests. I'll just receive them and they can explain better. You wait in the conference room.", and Sanjay sped off.
Ashwin sighed and made his way towards the conference room. Inside was a long dark wooden table and a projector at one end.
On a chair nearest the entrance sat his most trustworthy colleague and work partner Rina Awasthi.
"Oh hello there I didn't know even you were going to work on this case.", She told him
"Same here. Any idea what all this is about?""Nope. I just came in"
Ashwin kept his bag down. "I'll go get a sandwich. Haven't eaten anything all day."
"Get me one as well"
"Sure"
When Ashwin returned he was pleased to see that two 'guests' had already arrived along with Sanjay.

Finally. Time for some answers.

"This is Captain Piyush Sharma and Master Chief Harish Mann of the Lucremesian Coast Guard Eastern Frontier.", Sanjay introduced the guests. They were bleary eyed and looked as if they hadn't slept all night.
Ashwin and Rina shook hands with them.
"These are senior special agents Ashwin Acharya and Rina Awasthi of LOCI counter terrorism."
All of them took a seat while the coast guard officers stood next to the projection and pulled up some photographs on the screen. Ashwin began eating his sandwich.