The Dangerous Trail

Mistaken Identity

Shravan Malhotra looked at his reflection in the mirror and appreciated himself for still looking the old "handsome Malhotra" as the pretty girls of his college used to call him. He wanted to go overboard but at the last moment, he had decided to keep himself in check because after all it was a party at the DGP's(Director General of Police) place and he was a little apprehensive as to why all of a sudden he held the party and he an SP(Superintendent of Police) from one of the lesser-known districts of Karnataka had been invited on such short notice. The phone rang bringing Shravan out of his thoughts as he looked out to see his official pick-up had arrived. He took a last look at his getup a simple coffee-colored high neck pullover and faded blue jeans complete with a black jacket on top, he looked like SRK is what he thought, and smiling walked out of the quarters. The DGP's official bungalow had a well-maintained garden at the entrance and Shravan noticed that there were not too many guests. Most of them were unknown faces apart from a few senior officers. The female presence was very limited as officers were invited solo and not with family, so Shravan was a little disappointed. As he walked to the bar to order himself a drink, he noticed a pretty lady stirring her glass of vodka absent-mindedly. He noticed she had sharp features, milky white skin, and beautiful hair. She was dressed very formally wearing a blue chikankari kurta paired with blue-colored jeans. Shravan was unable to decide whether she is accompanying one of the officers here or she is a lady officer.

"Do I have the pleasure of providing company to the beautiful lady" Shravan finally asked earning him a glare. " I was not interested in the company but rather a little deliberation on my own but looks like it is not to be" she replied. As she turned to face him Shravan was for a moment disoriented looking at the perfect face adorned by the curls that fell in swathes across her back and lovingly adorned her face delicately like a frame. Her face was devoid of makeup but had a natural glow as her thin lips spread in a thin line to show her irritation. Shravan was lost in the lady's beauty when she flicked her fingers in front of him. He came back to his present state and quickly said "Can I get the beautiful lady a drink at least". To this the lady replied "Such a cheesy line to use on all ladies" and she started walking off when Shravan said "No this line is for you, I have other lines for other beautiful ladies" to which he thought she would not reply but in a second she turned and replied "good try but it's still cheesy". Shravan really wanted to look at her pretty face as he saw her getting lost in the crowd and he ran his fingers through his silky hair promising to search her out. Soon he was discreetly called inside by his boss to one of the inner rooms of the house. There were quite a few officers there and this is the first time he noted that he had his batchmate Aneesh Rai joining in the room. Shravan was quite happy to see him there, at least a known face in a so-so secret mission. The man addressing the small group of 16 people was the NCB(Narcotics Control Bureau) director, Mr. Akash Nayak and he was accompanied by Mr.V Subramanian(Zonal Director, NCB Chennai).

Narco-Terrorism is not something new to the world of crime. Narcotics and terrorism have for years have been having a strong connection as their need for each other has brought these two unlikely allies together. The illegal drug trade needs security and people to protect their trade while terrorism needs money to fund their illegal activities. Owing to India's geographic location you all must be aware that it has emerged as one of the high activity transit routes. India falls in Golden Crescent and GolderTriangle and the recent activities have shown that the activities in Myanmar and Bangladesh have shifted closer to the Indian borders to take advantage of the proximity to the Indian transit routes. All our internal security issues have been fanned by this illegal drug money. Post Dawood era the concentration of the kingpins has been outside India with their intermediaries controlling the trade in India. Recently we had caught in the Karnataka and Andhra border a truckload of shoes. Based on a tip-off we had raided and a thorough search revealed nothing initially but a careful look at the shoes we found that the drugs were hidden in shoes, carefully tailor made and concealed. We are pursuing the trail as the news has immediately caused the shoemaker and the related people to go on hiding. The question is these are normal raids conducted by NCB but why this secret meeting here for which you folks have been hand-picked by your state. Some clues have given us a hunch that one of the state ministers of Karnataka has been directly involved in this trade and is probably the new emerging kingpin of India. This is a hunch, but we have not got any evidence or link still. This network seems to have spread its tentacles quite deep inside the Indian subcontinent from Karachi till Dhaka, from Kabul till Jaffna . They operate in a very corporate style where individual regions manage their own trade while the routes, transit, pricing, and supply across countries and continents are managed by the kingpin. Apparently, they have started funding the insurgent groups in India, and the recent attacks in Gadchiroli were funded by this group.At present we have a hunch that they might plan to overthrow the government so we need to be very careful. This is a very large and confidential operation, so we do not have a lot of people involved but we have selected the best people identified by your state and each one of you will be part of a team of two who will be provided with very specific targets and you are supposed to follow the trail and gather intelligence. Remember this is a covert operation and you will directly report to DGP and NCB heads with updates.

The NCB directors finished their briefing and then mentioned that NCB officers will assist them with all the detailed information and manpower. For now, the team will be assisted by 3 NCB IOs(Intelligence Officer)Shashank Trivedi, Saheb Awasthi, and Suman Tiwari. Shravan looked up at the name announced and turned around to find the lady he had tried to flirt with earlier was none other than IO Suman Tiwari. With her hair tied up in a bun with the strands neatly pinned on the back of the head with hairpins, she looked all made for the role she is to play. Shravan realized that he was ogling at her and immediately closed his mouth as Suman gave him a sideways glance and walked ahead to take the team through all the information that they needed to start off.

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