The Reverter

The City of Dreams

The blue sky reflected off of Chandra's car as he came out of it. Shekhar followed, glancing at the mesmerising Taj hotel and The Gateway of India behind him. A massive flock of pigeons took flight in front of it.

"And why are they here?" Chandra asked Shekhar.

"Well, Mr Roy said that we need a vast network If we are to figure out who these people are,'' Shekhar said.

"That does make sense."

"...and also to keep you at bay."

Chandra stopped walking and glared at Shekhar, who ignored him and kept walking towards the hotel gate.

"Hurry up! Don't want to be late for the meeting, Chandra!" He shouted without looking back.

The pigeons had now flown over to the top of the Taj hotel and were probably searching for a car to defecate on.

Soon Chandra and Shekhar reached the conference room of the hotel. The grand hotel and its history was the reason Chandra wanted to become an NIA officer. And it was also the reason the NIA was created in the first place.

As Chandra and Shekhar entered, loud chatter filled the conference room; silenced by the gesture of the chairman. The conference room was quite big with a golden chandelier in the middle. On an oval round table in the middle of the room, sat about 6 people. But there was one who Chandra didn't recognise. There was also a small stage next to a screen a few feet from the table.

Chandra was surprised to see the chairman. Normally, he wouldn’t be present for such meetings—It is a security issue, and he has other administrative tasks to do—But his presence meant that the N.I.A. was finally taking him seriously. His hard work would be paid off, and he would get the recognition he deserves.

“Good Morning sir,” Shekhar said.

“Good Morning Chandra and Shekhar.”

“Good morning sir,” Chandra blurted, having forgotten to greet the chairman in his vanity.

“I assume that you have some things to tell us and you know that RAW is here as well.”

“Yes sir.”

“Well Then! Go ahead.”

Chandra moved to the stage while Shekhar plugged in Chandra’s laptop to the projector.

“Everyone knows the reverter’s prediction for the fire and the cyclone has been correct. But they were unable to predict an event as big as an earthquake in Mumbai. Since the cause of the earthquake has still not been accurately determined, It could be something that the group did. Maybe something went wrong with their equipment, something they didn’t think would happen; they couldn’t include it on their YouTube channel even though they did say that the earthquake didn't happen in their timeline. This has decreased their views significantly. If you read my report, you know these people are probably using incredibly advanced communication technology and also they seem to operate through Mumbai. I believe this reverter group is an organisation of highly intelligent individuals, and they are planning something big. And if they are the reason for the earthquake's occurrence…then whatever they are planning will have a significant effect.”

Then a man wearing a suit stood up and started speaking, “Good morning, I am Prakash Srivastava, from RAW. I won’t tell you  my rank for security reasons, but I am one of the people acting as a spokesperson for RAW.”

It seemed that RAW maintained a superior system of security (Or so Chandra thought). Having introduced himself, Prakash continued, “So far, the proofs that you have submitted do seem to suggest that there is a stark difference between them and other terrorist groups that the NIA has been investigating. Their warning about the cyclone did save some lives, and they haven’t done anything that a terrorist organization would do, but they must have had some other motives. Good or bad, we must understand who they are and what they want. In the end, it is also possible that reality could be different from what we have assumed. Nevertheless, it is something to be looked into thoroughly. Now, RAW has tried to Identify them using the IP addresses they could have used for uploading the video, but they seem to be using VPNs. However, we could pinpoint a certain area using the HTTP requests made on the upload dates, tracing their VPN to a specific set of servers—they are probably using a very cheap VPN service–and through the EMF data provided by Mr Chandra.”