It is not necessary that the brilliant boy in the class comes first. The boy who may be having average intelligence, but worked hard would be the one topping the grades. Of all the snow-capped mountains, lined in the vast northern border of India, the ones in Kashmir were hot in attracting more tourists. Other places that are blanketed by snow were relatively not contaminated with tourists and are more salubrious that only few selected people visit them. And, who else can afford more than the Prime Minister of India? Rameswaran was enjoying a massage by an imported masseur in the warmth of a heated military guest house in Sikkim. Two aspiring movie actresses were sitting on the sofa with bare minimum clothes they could afford, sipping hot tea. The female masseur from Thailand was handling Rameswaran softly, priming him for the planned romantic night.

Once the masseur released him from her soft clutches, he got up. He took a swig from the long glass. Swirling the whisky in his mouth, he opened the door and went outside. Clad only in a towel, whisky heating his body, he let the snow cool him from outside. When he was young, he could stay like that for more than an hour. Now, in his early seventies, he could only manage to stay for four minutes. He returned to the warmth of the room and went directly for a bath. After spending nearly fifteen minutes under the hot shower, he came out relaxed, ready to face the conundrums posed by his position. He saw his secretary sitting on the sofa, instead of his provisional lovers, indicating that vacation was over.

“We officially received a personal message from the President of America. It confirmed the nuclear plan by Pakis. No more details available. An alert was sounded to allies of NATO. Almost half of the world is put on alert. News channels are expecting an attack on Mumbai,” his brief was over.

Rameswaran started dressing and wondered, “Since when did news channels double up as intelligence bureaus?”

The secretary smiled. He was with Rameswaran through thick and thin. He probably knew the man better than his wife, who happened to be one of his cousins. “When the agencies can’t guess, they listen to other voices that speak. In fact, all channels were deliberating the probable target of attack. They even requested audience for their opinions. Finally they decided on Mumbai, for the sheer effect. Of course, the original information had not mentioned anything about an India-specific attack. As the perpetrator is Pakistan, it is assumed that we would be the natural choice.”

Rameswaran sighed. His life, till the next elections is going to be miserable. It is immaterial whether the plan of Pakistan will be successful or not. “Anything more?” he posed a general query expecting something that is positive and not related to this news.

“Baba Zarda was trying to contact. Apparently, to deny the scheme. Their high commissioner visited our foreign secretary and denied existence of any such scheme. Of course, he cannot deny if extra government forces have planned something. All they could tell is the civilian government doesn’t know anything. You may receive a call from him shortly.”

Within fifteen minutes, both Rameswaran and his secretary were flying to Bagdogra, in a military helicopter, from where they would fly to New Delhi in the official aeroplane.

Soon after they were airborne from Bagdogra, the call from Pakistan came through. It was Baba Zarda in an emotional voice. “Really I don’t know anything. If this news is true, my position is more vulnerable than yours. If you want, I’ll resign. I believe in you more than I believe in my army.”

“Okay. Control yourself. Try to find out where this Qadar fellow is and who visited Qadar before he vanished. Track other scientists who were earlier associated with Qadar,” Rameswaran consoled and comforted Baba. “I’d like to send my intelligence people, but it’s better if we handle this through Americans. Your people will not question them. Talk to Monty and request his technical and intelligence wings. And give a public statement denying any knowledge, for the sake of you and me,” he cut the line and told his secretary, “How will it be if Rana speaks to Shah? It’ll be better than doing nothing. Tell Rana to call Shah.”

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