Spies & Spice (Completed)

Chapter 4

8.30 PM

Once Naqeeb came out of shower, he and Victor went through all their preparatory work once again, making sure they covered all their bases. Even though, they were chatting, they kept checking the time, waiting for their unknown friends and finished the left over snacks.

It felt like longest hours of wait for Vijay aka Fayiz aka Victor. He was chatting with Naqeeb but his mind was elsewhere. He and his team had taken every precaution, every step necessary to ensure this operation would be run without bloodshed, gunfire or any harm to the civilians surrounding the apartment. But now was the moment of truth. He didn't have the luxury of wearing a bullet proof vest either, but that was the least of his worries. A lot of this mission was riding on his shoulders.

It had been a long journey, which started from the moment RAW team began to intercept a pattern of international money transfers to Naqeeb's account. Deeba and his other informers in Nakhonay confirmed what he had feared, that Naqeeb had indeed joined IS. US intelligence based in Kandahar intercepted some calls from Naqeeb's and other suspects in that area and alerted RAW that IS was planning a major terror attack in India. The IS Cell in Afghanistan was not significant and the US didn't want to spare any resources to track anyone, as their focus was more in Syria.

RAW immediately alerted Government of India and thus began a new mission, and Victor volunteered to go back to Afghanistan and revive the ghost of Fayiz Khan.

He charmed Naqeeb with renewed vigour and poured out his heartfelt zeal for the IS cause, enough to convince Naqeeb and his mentor, to earn a place for himself in the recruitment cell of IS in Afghanistan.

He loved this new challenge, living dangerously on razor's edge, to behave and convince hardcore fascists and terrorists that he was one of them, ready to do anything for the Caliphate. He loved the Adrenaline rush, the mind games he had to play to climb the ladder within the Cell, the challenge of keeping a façade, where a tiny slip up could have cost him not just his life, but the failure of the whole mission. He loved every bit of it. Once he and Naqeeb arrived in India, on their supposed mission, he got full support from RAW and the Intelligence Bureau, that too on his terms. Except a select few like Ashwin and his ex-boss and mentor J P Nanda, no one knew how he looked, and he wanted to maintain that anonymity.

Under the joint command of his mentor J P Nanda, Deputy Director of Intelligence Bureau, and his current boss in RAW, Sanjay Mathur, a special task force was set up. He lead a team of investigators, analysts and local police to continuously monitor and report on every activity of Naqeeb and the mission they were part of.

None of his team knew how he looked. Be it the information on their supposed mission or instructions to his team, to prepare for the counter attack, Victor conveyed only through text messages from his special secure phone, and stayed away from the surveillance at Green Towers.

To gain further trust in the IS hierarchy, he lied to them that he had local contacts in neighbouring regions of Delhi who can provide guns and triggers and even got them delivered on time. The triggers that he carried today were dummies of course, thus ensuring that the whole mission would be a complete failure. He had to come here today, because he realized that the identity of other IS operators would only be revealed once the triggers were ready. And that was the information his whole team was waiting for. His team knew that he would arrive at the apartment in Fayiz Khan's disguise, and they were instructed not to interfere with his movements at any cost.

Till now, the only risk he faced was managing the secrecy of his identity, be it with Naqeeb and his brothers at IS Cell or his taskforce team. But now the safety and success of his entire team was at stake, and Victor felt a hitherto unknown pressure. This is exactly why he hated to work as part of a team, even though he knew they could never have pulled this off, without the contribution of all the members involved.