STOLEN HEARTS

CHAPTER - 8 THE KIDNAPPING PLAN

Everything was quite after this incident. Even the owl on the tree outside seemed to be dozing off. Among this silence, there came someone at the gate. He said he had come to meet the Colonel for an urgent rendezvous. The guard confirmed with the Colonel and opened the gate. A lone figure entered.

He started walking briskly towards the mansion. The guard looked at him and wondered what could be so important that a meeting had been called by the Colonel at this hour. But then he thought, God and the Colonel worked in mysterious ways. He sat back on his chair and dozed off. After all he too had to wake up early for the exercise routine and there wasn't much time for the break of dawn.

The owl looked pop-eyed and hooted at the stranger. Something was afoot, the owl's spider sense was tingling. It hooted repeatedly which roused Barky, Sonia's friend and companion, who was about to close his eyes and call it a night after a hard day's work chasing various squirrels up the trees in the garden. It was tedious work, but somebody had to do it.

Barky went to an open window and peered outside and spotted a dark figure walking in the lawns. He decided to investigate. Chasing dark figures was a step up from chasing squirrels, and Barky wanted to see if he could chase the dark figure up a tree as well, like he did with the squirrels.

The dark figure approached the Colonel's mansion and stopped. In one corner of the mansion he saw a light on in the window and two figures pacing up and down inside. He walked towards that room and knocked gently on the door.

And just then Barky ran from the front of the house barking, attacking the visitor.

In the dark of the night the tiny Barky seemed like a ferocious beast who could tear anyone to shreds. As the little beast came nearer and nearer, the visitor feared that he would be discovered and started to knock on the door harder and harder, he was getting desperate, "It's me, it's me...it's Aryan!"

Barky was rushing towards the visitor. For a small dog his volume was high enough to raise the neighbourhood. Barky even seemed to have built-in woofers that made his bark echo in the dark night. Barky might have looked like a large rat, but was feeling like a lion!

And just when Barky was close enough to take a bite out of the visitor's ankle, the visitor turned around, whistled and threw something edible on the ground some distance away. The dog, abandoning the man's leg, headed for a late snack. His nose caught a whiff of something edible that was being offered to him without having to attack and fight for it. Barky ambled off into the darkness.

Just then the door opened and the visitor managed to enter the room.

Inside the room, there was a little light on. Aryan took off his coat and hat. He smiled and said, "Colonel Sir, did you call me here at this time to feed me to hungry ferocious dogs?"

The Secretary said, "Barky is just a small poodle."

Aryan put his coat on a chair as he said, "Hitler was a small man too, but no one told him that and he thought he was bigger than everyone else. And I have a feeling that the poodle too views itself as a Doberman."

The Colonel sat in a dark corner. The Secretary motioned Aryan to keep quiet, "Sshh, please speak slowly, we have to maintain absolute secrecy so that no one sees you."

Aryan whispered, "OK, but my dinner is gone. Barky is probably eating it and unhappy that he should have chosen my leg as its late night snack instead."

"Well, sorry once again."

Colonel interrupted, "Forget the dinner, we have an important task for you my boy. Something only you can handle."

"Only I can handle? Really Sir? At this time of the night? OK then, tell me."

Over the next quarter of an hour the Colonel and Secretary together briefed Aryan on the operation. They talked excitedly, clearly expecting Aryan to be as excited as them.

And finally the briefing came to an end, the story was over and Colonel and Secretary looked at Aryan with great expectations hoping he would be excited and take the mission on.

To their disappointment Aryan seemed shocked. "Is this some prank?" he wondered aloud. But the Colonel and Secretary confirmed to him that this was no joke. It was serious.

After all this was what Aryan's own business model was, his correctional facility. There was a youngster who needed correcting and the parent was giving permission for the youngster to be corrected. This was what Aryan wanted, so what was the confusion? Why the doubt? Now Aryan started to think and was mighty unsure about the whole affair. He started pacing the room and the Colonel and Secretary walked behind him.

A few moments later Aryan spoke up, "Hmm, this is an actual kidnapping...a dangerous mission."

"How is it different from your correctional facility? It's the same thing here," asked the Colonel.

Aryan shook his head, "No it's very different. There is a legality to those cases, they know we have the authority and they know it's not a kidnapping. But here, I can't tell Sonia about the entire plan, can I? That's why you called me in the middle of the night, and told me to remain hidden from everyone under a coat and a hat and all. I'm presuming I don't have the freedom to tell Sonia about you guys being behind her abduction?"

Both Colonel and Secretary looked at each other and nodded.

Aryan resumed his pacing and said, "So at the end of this operation, if I'm lucky and am not sent to jail for life, or shot down by your daughter, or her crazy fiancé or the police or someone else, I get to marry a girl who from all accounts loves someone else."

"Well, yes, but in theory isn't that what you are planning to do with your camp? Correct youngsters? Stop them from taking the wrong steps? So, consider Sonia as a member, participant, or cadet of that camp."

The Secretary too chipped in, "After all your camp is for someone like her. She has become spoilt brat who is about to do something she will regret and so consider her as someone who needs the correction you are offering."

Aryan said, "Hmm... that is somewhat different Sir. In that we tell the person that their family has given us permission and authority to do what we are doing."

"We are giving you the authority and the permission to do this, but..."

"But...the difference is you don't want me to tell her that you are behind all this. In that case I can't tell her and which means, to her, I am a kidnapper."

"Yes...at first it may seem like that...but when you take her to the camp and your process begins then she will know it's not a real kidnapping."

Aryan paced and mused a while then added, "It does require quite a bit of effort. Both Sonia and I will be in for a harrowing time. And I haven't even seen Sonia for years now, it's been like 15 years now or maybe..."

And even as Aryan was saying this...suddenly there was a loud rap on the door and Barky barked from outside. Sonia was knocking on the door, "Papa what's happening inside. It's late at night and what are you still doing out here? Papa?"

Barky gave a few excited barks and whined as if he desperately wanted to come in.

While inside, it was sheer panic as they tried to find a place for Aryan to hide. After trying out under the sofa, under the table, and behind the curtains, they finally settled on the closet, or rather in the closet.

Aryan moved into it just as the door opened and Sonia barged in.