THE REVOLUTIONISTS

Chapter Nine

I was late. I've never been this late to wake up in a while. It was almost 8 a.m. in the morning. I picked up my sleepy head and dizzy eyes to find Vijay or anyone else. My feet carried me away down the corridor and I found both Atreyee and Vijay, in his room. I heard Vijay speaking;

- Whatever; it's really good to see you in the team. You are the first woman to make it.

- I didn't think I'd be here, ever.' She said smiling. 'But He convinced me.' She looked at me as I entered the room.

- Oh, you are awake. I thought you're gonna sleep the whole day. Your eyes still look tired.' Vijay said.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to remove all the dizziness from my head.

- What are you guys talking about? Are we gonna do it or not?' I looked at him.

- Not so fast buddy. We should take a break. I don't know how can we operate with such few number of people?

- I already told you it doesn't matter.' I rolled my eyes. 'So? Are we doing this?'

- Okay, but wait a few days more.' He said. 'We need a plan.'

Atreyee came forward and leaned on Vijay's chair placing her right arm on it.

- You know what? He is right. We shouldn't stop our campaign. I think it's a good idea to do it just now.' She said.

- You too? That's interesting when it comes from you.' Vijay said. 'But we still need a plan. Do you guys have any?' He looked at me.

- As a matter of fact; I do.' I said. 'Just gather everyone around.'

...

We gathered about fifteen people; including me, Vijay, Atreyee and Devansh ji. Vijay was terrified about the idea of taking him in. He was too worried that he might blow our plans. But I convinced him. And his age was perfect to play the role I planned for him. So, everything was settled. I started looking up the names I picked to be exposed. The list was very long. Among all of them, I picked two. They seemed like easy to get and I thought it would be reasonable to catch the small fishes before we start chasing the big whales.

Reluna was the closest town from our location. So, I decided to start with this place. Besides, my sources brought me some interesting information. The Reluna University was offering admissions in exchange of a huge amount of donation. Practically this was a kind of bribing. They were reserving five or six seats each year just for this purpose. And it's been a disease. Many good students got rejected in last few years. And the authority was convincing them that they were not eligible; either there was some percentage issue otherwise they give excuses whatever they came up with. I even heard that sometimes they straight asked for money. So this was my first target.

There was another money scandal going on in the job section. And this time it was inside the Reluna Municipality. There were some vacancy and they were filling in the posts as well as their pockets with a large amount; and this time a whole lot of people were involved, not only the chairman.

Vijay applied for the University; and I convinced Atreyee to apply for the job. I was not sure though if Vijay could manage to like a student. But after grooming and little make up he was convincing. I decided to go with Atreyee. But we needed someone elder to go with Vijay. Yes, we could tell Vijay's parents but it was too dangerous. So, I suggested Devansh ji.

- What?!!!' Vijay's fake glasses almost fell off. 'Have you totally lost it?'

- No...' I said. 'He looks like your father. And he can pull it out.'