After the first meeting with both Dr. Singh and Narendra he had become friendly with them. It was not a matter of choice as with his recurring dreams and paranoia Dr. Singh told him not to go to his office and gave him a medical unfit certificate. These two were the only persons he had real talk with for days therefore he became friendly with them. Apart from them only Ashok and mama ji were the other two persons in his life for now and he had cut himself from rest nearly completely. He used to avoid meeting people in person but used to talk on phone and exchanged e mails. Dr. Singh had told him how his brother had told him that he may come to seek help as he had given his number to Ashok. The younger of the brother’s had also told that he would be a good case for him as Dr. Singh was interested in studying paranoia in amnesia patients. Amit also came to know that Narendra Parmar was a relative of Dr. Singh and elder brother of Ashok’s best friend.
These two friends were sitting in front of Amit and thinking of the consequences of his confession. They did not want him of guilty of any crime but their deliberations have given them ample indications about what Amit was going to say. And they were dreading that their worst fears about Amit was about to come true very soon. It was for the first time Dr. Singh was wishing that his theory failed. But after every wish both of them that every thing told by Amit was indication of his sub conscious guilt and that it had to come out in the form of a dream which would eventually tell them a place where the scene of crime was situated. It was decided by both of them that they would go together to that place and would take Amit along with them. They feared that Amit would be able to prevail up on them if any one of them went alone with them. And Dr. Singh had to go with Amit to that place to bring out the guilt hidden in him.
“I am able to see a lake, a garden with trees laden with fruits and plants with flowers. Fruits and flowers are bigger than what we usually see around and they taste and smell far much sweeter than they do here. Also I am able to see just one man every time I dream.” “You can taste and smell in your dreams?” asked astonished Narendra. “He could if had visited the place. His mind would tell him what taste and smell to remember for various fruits and flowers. But tell me about the man you see. Is he know to you?” said Dr. Singh hoping the man would be someone known to Amit. “I do not remember if I ever visited that place and as far as I can remember I have never seen such man all my life” answered Amit. Dr. Singh and Narendra looked at each other thinking their own thoughts. Narendra felt his hopes rising and Dr. Singh was also getting hopeful but he was more cautious in his thoughts as he knew if Amit was such a man he feared he was then he can be very deceptive as well as dangerous when everything finally will come out. So as far he was concerned he was just keeping his fingers crossed and hoping for a better end than his mind was actually willing to acknowledge. He feared that he actually have grown to like Amit. “What kind of a man do you see in your dreams? And does he look different or alike every time?” “He does look the same every time. He is very tall, with handsome face.” “What is this person’s age?” “He is very old but does not look old” “What do you mean by that? Have you seen his birth certificate indicating he is old?” “No I did not see the certificate which indicated his age but he has a very long beard and longer hairs which he has tied on his head and all the hairs including his eye brows are completely white. Not a single strand of hair is black.” “Ok I got your point. And how large is that place?” “Very large indeed as I can see mountains in the background.” “That is interesting” said Dr. Singh. “What is interesting” asked Amit and Narendra. simultaneously. They looked at each other and started laughing. It was becoming a habit of both of them to ask the same question together. “That you did not dream of place where you could put a name to it and neither had you seen someone whom you know.” “But how many places would have a lake from where one can see mountains? We can also narrow down the place starting around Haridwar and moving say 100 km around it.” Said an excited Narendra. “Wow! Narendra is a real detective! And I thought you did had anything better to do so started the office to make everyone else believe that you had something to do.” Said Dr. Singh smilingly. Narendra threw a angry gesture towards the doctor but inside he was feeling elated by the compliment given by him. Amit was also smiling at Narendra. “I think Narendra is correct and we start searching such place right away.” “Right away?” Both of them startled and had their apprehensions surface again. “But we have to pack our belongings and have to tell our families that we would be away for some days. And Amit I will had my appointments which had to be cancelled and some rescheduled.” Said Dr. Singh trying not to sound nervous. “Who said anything about going away? Are you old guys thinking I want to really go back to the place of which I keep having nightmares daily? No Sirs’ I would be sitting in my room and searching it instead. Have you guys ever heard of internet?” said Amit with mock frustration. Both of them gave a sigh of relief when it dawned on them that they could easily hope to narrow down to few of the places just by searching with right key words. So it was decided that Amit and Narendra would go and search for such place and Dr. Singh also ventured that he would ask in brother in Haridwar if he himself knew of such a place or if he can find someone like some travel agent or guide who knew of such place. With this they took leave and Dr. Singh dialed his brother. Internet search gave names of many lakes around Haridwar like Bhimtal Lake, Devaria Tal, Dodi Tal, Hemkund Sahib, Kedar Tal, Masar Tal, Nachiket Tal, Sahastra Tal, Satopnath Lake, Sat Tal etc but none seemed the likely place as they were too a public place for them to no on notice things that would have happened to Amit. Then they next searched various Ashrams which could have a lake and Mountain View. Amit knew their quest for such place is futile at least on internet because even if the place which he sees in his dreams exists it would not placed on the net. Every passing search which ended without any positive increased their frustration which was growing more in Narendra. When they called it a day it was 4 in the evening and they had not eaten any thing. Feeling very much hungry they planned to eat out at a near by Grover’s Dhaba and wait for Dr. Singh to find some thing. Meanwhile they had informed every thing about their search on internet to Dr. Singh and he also said that such place which came in his would be not there on net. As they waited for their orders to arrive Amit had his cell ringing. Monitor showed unknown number and there was no number to which he can call back. He let it ring and waited for the call to end. Then as soon as the call ended he push redial and but no response. All he got was “Please dial the correct number”. In just a few minutes again his cell rang and showed the same unknown number again. He showed it to Narendra who was sitting in front of him and staring a young girl seated at the next table. He just said pick it and kept staring, then his eyes suddenly lit up “Wait, let me talk.”
“Hello” said Narendra in Amit’s cell phone. “Is it Mr. Amit Sharma” said a voice which was firm and authoritative. “If you have dialed Mr. Amit Sharma then its him” said Narendra cheerfully. “I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation you are in otherwise you would not be fooling around at least with me.” Said the voice. “Who am I talking with” Narendra restraining himself to be as polite as he could. “It is none of your concern but I have a warning for you, stop fooling around with that doctor and the useless detective” said the voice in very serious tone. “Do you know threatening is still a crime in India last time I checked” said Narendra with controlled patience. “Yes it is a crime when you have someone to punish but my case you can never come close our shadows” said the voice in a calm but threatening manner. “We will see about that and I do not think I am so lame to be frightened of man who hides beside a secret number. And if you think I cannot trace it then my dear Uncle you are very wrong.” “I am serious and I hope you have actually understood what we can do. And as far as tracing this number is concerned I would not bother because even an executive order would not be able to trace this number. Please stop your search and try to l
ive peacefully as you did before and no harm would come to you. But if did not pay heed to this then no more warnings will be given and there would by a summary execution and you will never be traced as you had already seen that can be arranged easily.” The line went dead and with it Narendra’s face started turning white with fear. They had been wrong about Amit all along. He is actually a victim and people involved are very powerful. Nearly untouchable by any force in the country. He had to tell this to Dr. Singh and have to upgrade the safety around Amit. “What happened? You are turning white! Have you seen a ghost?” said Amit. Yes there are real ghosts thought Narendra, ghosts because they cannot be traced. “No it was not a ghost but some one very near to a ghost.” Said Narendra. “What are you taking about? Who the hell was that?” asked Amit getting agitated. “We were wrong about you and you are in some serious danger. I have to beef up you security and I think its time we should get some one outside help also.” “First we should eat something and then discuss” said Amit on seeing the waiter bring them their order. Narendra also kept quiet because he knew Amit would be able to eat peacefully if he knew nothing about the danger he is in. While eating Narendra messaged Dr. Singh “Don’t go anywhere and cancel any appointments. Amit in grave danger.” Just after one minute cell of Narendra started shouting that he had a message. It read just one word. “Waiting” from Dr. Singh
Narendra was constantly looking around while they eating as the place they had chosen for their lunch was completely open and was besides the road. When he was not able to see anyone suspicious he concentrated more on his plate but was vigilant. As soon as the bill was paid he caught hold of Amit and nearly dragged him towards Dr. Singh office. It was just few minutes walk from where were standing but Narendra wanted him to be out of road as soon as possible. Something was telling him that they were under constant watch. He was getting worried about Amit. What has he got himself into? It seems it is beyond his reach. He had made a decision to seek outside help and it was up to Dr. Singh and Amit to give permission. And even without their permission he would try and seek help. They found Dr. Singh waiting when they reached his office. Nisha waved them in as soon as she saw them. “Will you tell me what are you so afraid of?” asked Amit who was made to keep quiet and just walk by Narendra. They had just ran hand in hand for five minutes to reach the office and had not even taken the lift but had taken the stairs for safety reasons. “We owe an apology to him” said Narendra sitting in front of Dr. Singh “He is in real shit. May be he is buried in shit even now as we talk.” “Apology? What for” asked Amit Narendra looked at Dr. Singh for help. “Son we thought you had either murdered or accidentally killed someone and it was that guilty conscious that made you forget those days. And if Narendra think we owe you an apology then I am sorry for that” Amit saw Narendra had hung his face and even Dr. Singh was looking sorry. “You two are pulling my legs isn’t it?” said Amit playfully hoping this would be one of their tricks. “No Amit we are really sorry. We really thought you had done something horrible and as you were not able to cope up with the extent of your guilt you lost your mind.” “Are you two out of your mind? And all this time I was thinking you were my friend!” said Amit not really understanding what they were telling him “I think I should leave” he got up to go when Narendra caught his arm and made him sit. “Do not behave like an emotional fool. You do not know the extent of danger you have got yourself in. And professionally we were right by including you as the guilty party. Dr. Singh will elaborate on it” “Yes son if we had to help you we had to include you also as guilty party. And all you dreams were saying that you had guilty conscious. And that is why we wanted you to takes us to the place so that I could have helped you see the truth and thus release you from you guilt.” Said Dr. Singh with genuine voice. “Why did you think I was guilty of something?” asked Amit feeling betrayed. “Now we can fight over it after we have solved the mess you have put yourself in. For this fight we would have our whole life time but to have that longer than one day more you have to tell us what have you done to have such powerful enemies?” said Narendra. “I think you are forgetting something here Narendra, he does not remember anything” said Dr. Singh “And what are you talking about?” “I will tell you. I had a call from an unknown number which he listened into. Since then he was behaving like this” Amit then went on to tell Dr. Singh everything that happened before they came into his office. “If I had not known Narendra I would have thought he was really pulling your leg” said Dr. Singh “What are you afraid of Narendra and who had called?” “Some one very powerful” was all Narendra could muster. “He has been repeating this since he got off that call” complained Amit. “I am so sure of this because the call came from an unknown number. With number display facility in every cell phone we can see the number of the dialer every time if the number is not saved under some name.” said Narendra. “Even a child knows this Narendra” said Dr. Singh getting impatient. “But there are some numbers which do not show up because they are secret. Even the person calls a hundred times from that number it will not show. But the problem is not an unknown number. The problem is that the threat call from an unknown number” “And why is that more important than the number not showing up? Just imagine a girl talking to me with such number and I not getting to know who she is” “Precisely because of this such numbers are not freely distributed. There is a strict protocol to be followed to give anyone such a number and private citizen seldom get a chance to own such numbers because it costs huge amount and the paper work involved is very cumbersome. It involves high level clearing. Even with my large number of friends at very high level I was not able to get one as they reject my application on the grounds that I was a private detective and I could misuse it to blackmail someone.” “He had done it once” said Dr. Singh to Amit. “Leave that story for some other time. The most serious thing here is that you cannot trace a call from such numbers. There is no mechanism to trace such calls and you cannot take the help of service provider also as they would be useless as they do not keep a record of such calls. It is total black out and worst nightmare scenario.” Said Narendra. “This means we have a very serious situation on our hands” Dr. Singh said after some time of silence among them. “It means either a high level government silent Amit mission is on or some one very powerful but private citizen is out to take revenge. And which ever the case is true we are caught between rock and a mountain.” Said Narendra. “What can I do?” asked Amit. “Just keep quiet for know and try to think anything which can help us. And I would like both of your permission to bring outside help. I am going to beef up his security but I don’t think it would be of any help as my men are not trained killers.” “I think you have permission from both of us.” Said Dr. Singh looking at Amit who nodded. First Narendra placed a call to his deputy and told him to bring at least 10 men and place them at different positions around office of Dr. Singh. Next he placed a call to some in IB. “Hello doctor. Don’t say anything. I have called you to seek your help. It’s a matter of life and death. Just come at the address I will be messaging you.” He put an end to the call and messaged the person Dr. Singh’s address. “Is he a real doctor?” asked Dr. Singh curiously. “No doctor is his code name. When matters become seriously out of hands then the doctor is called. And puts the danger out clinically so the name.” Both of them understood the hidden meaning in the words left unsaid by Narendra. “Don’t look so gloomy, he is my friend and he owes me big time.” They waited for the doctor to arrive and in the meantime Dr. Singh and Narendra gave a detailed outline of their suspicions against Amit. On hearing their story Amit had a huge laugh. He knew he got some ammunition on them now to pull their legs. They were trying to be cheerful but in their heart they were all depressed about the situation. The silence was broken by a call on Narendra’s phone. As he hung he told his men have arrived and taken their positions. For a brief moment Amit felt he should forget every thing and go on living his life as usual. Then he felt guilt of being such a coward on s
eeing the faces of his two friends who were ready to fight for him even knowing the dangers involved just for the sake of friendship. Dr. Singh on sensing what Amit was thinking said “If you want to back off I would not think less of you.” “Are you reading my mind” exclaimed Amit. “No but it is all written on your face” replied Dr. Singh. “No, I will not back off as it is my life they want to control and I refuse to be controlled” said Amit with conviction. “Then we are with you” said Narendra which was also seconded by Dr. Singh. Just when Amit was about to say something his cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was mama ji who was calling. “Hello mama ji I was…” “Where are you son, I am coming to pick you up. Just tell me and I will be there as soon as possible” said mama ji, his voice betraying his emotions. “I am at Dr. Singh…” “Ok I know that place. I will be there in one hour. Don’t leave till I reach there” said mama ji in hurry and the line went dead. “Who was it?” asked Narendra seeing shock on face of Amit. “Mama ji. He said he was coming to get me. I think he knows that I got that call.” “How could he?” asked Dr. Singh “Have you told anything about to anyone else?” “No I have not but I was planning to tell him at least” said Amit. “How could he know?” asked Narendra this time “Have you hiding something else from us?” “There is something more” said Amit feeling guilty “but I cannot tell you anything till mama ji arrives as he can shed more light on it as I did not took it seriously before but as mama ji also knows about the call then I think I should have taken it seriously” “If he really knows about that call then you should have thought about what he had told more seriously” said Narendra feeling good that they were about to get some more help from unseen quarters. “But what he told me is beyond comprehension” said Amit. “Really but if he knows something this then it definitely makes sense even though whatever you thought about that previously.” Said Narendra. Just then Nisha buzzed in “Some one is asking for Narendra Sir” Narendra got up and went out and brought someone who looked a college professor from outside but on keen observation government was written all over him. Narendra gave him a detailed outline to the newcomer and after telling him his fears he kept quiet. “I don’t think I would be able to trace a call from such a number if you want me to do that. But I can put a word to someone who can be of some help to us in this matter. And I can give two men apart from what veer you are having, I think you have ten around the building right now” said the newcomer with a smile “that will make then 12 member team. I think that will be sufficient. And if something serious come up and I think I will take it upon myself to get involved but pray that it never comes to that.” “Yes I know what that means and we will pray that the matter does not become that serious.” “I will do it but it will be strictly unofficial so think there will be much help coming our way” said the one whom they called doctor. “Yes we know that” “Sir, someone is insisting on seeing Mr. Amit Sharma, he is saying he is his relative” buzzed in Nisha. “Send him in and don’t call again even if there is an earthquake and leave when your time is up.” Said Dr. Singh. Walked in mama ji whom rest of them have seen only on television or news papers sometimes or may be new comer may know who he was more personally. “My God you have team of yourself ready here.” Exclaimed mama ji as he saw three more people sitting in the office. “I expected you sitting here alone with the good doctor here” silently acknowledging the new comer while shaking his hands will all. Both of them played as they did not know each other and were meeting for the first time. But the silent call for help had been delivered and acknowledged. “How safe is this place?” asked mama ji. “We have 12 men around” said Narendra. “There is no strength in numbers. You don’t know what you are dealing with” said an anxious mama ji “Two of them are expert” said Amit for the first time “Government or private” asked mama ji “Government” said Dr. Singh “You don’t understand the best commandoes also don’t stand a chance against the force we are up against.” Said mamaji “I think time is up for any more secrecy and we have to come out in open so that the players involved can know the level of danger they are in and the amount of life threatening situation they would be subjected to if they carry on like this.” Said the new comer for the first time since mama ji came in “Go ahead and enlighten us” said Narendra “As far as I know they are totally invisible and even our best experts have came out with nothing substantial since you roped me in” said the new comer turning towards mama ji “You know each other?” both Amit and Narendra cried out loud and then seeing each outer bust into laughter. They did it again! “Yes but don’t ask how and why” said mama ji “All I can tell you that tried to get them out since Amit disappeared but we were not able to trace even a hint of him. As if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. Then when were returned we tried to gather something from those pilgrims who had left him at the hospital but that also drew blank and since he” pointing towards mama ji “flagged red we have been on few trails but every one of them turned out to be a dead end. As if they don’t exist but I have seen their work myself and I can vouch that they are real and a very dangerous enemy to have.” “That was good speech doctor but what the hell are you taking about?” said Narendra getting annoyed for not able to grasp any thing his friend has said. “It is very complicated and I do not think it would safe for us to continue here even though I think anywhere is safe from them only till they wanted it that way.” Said mama ji “so we have to move from here. I think our government fried here may know one such place. And if I am right he has it ready for us to leave?” “Yes it is ready and we should not delay and leave right away” said the government agent. “I will not leave until someone tells me what is going on here” said Narendra “So you can stay or bear with us till we are safely in that place.” Said his friend Eyeing his friend with anger gave up his protest and thought it better to tag along instead of being left behind. He was not liking as the things were developing too fast and he was not in control. “The vehicle is in the basement and we will follow the stairs to reach it.” Said the so called doctor. As they reached the basement they saw a big SUV with tinted glass rolled up was standing alone in the basement. Office hours were up and every one had gone home or to somewhere else. They all got inside the large vehicle and saw that only the driver was there inside. Once inside they were asked to put the blinders over their eyes as they were about to go inside a government installation which none of them was entitled to see. They covered their eyes reluctantly and then the vehicle started. It moved on the roads of Delhi idly some time increasing the speed and some times moving around very slowly. After half an hour of such moves it continued with a constant speed towards its destination. The half an hour driving was just to throw the passengers off the trail if anyone was trying to map the movements. Even though it was not necessary with the current lot of passengers it was a protocol which was to be followed every time. Every one including the driver was having his own thought. The man driving the vehicle was one of the brightest up coming agents. He was the only one of the lot who was worried. Rest of them where busy in their thoughts so they had no time to worry. This young man had every right to be worried. He had to return home at the earliest as his newly wedded wife had told him that she would eat anything till he shows up. And he was about to panic as it was going to be time for his duty to be off but there were no signs which indicated that he would be able to go home. And therefore he was the worried person of the bunch of men sitting in the vehicle.