Chapter 8

PART-7

 

 

Rajveer, Huda, Naina and Alekh were all standing in Naina's cabin discussing that call from Major Rastogi. They all looked vexed. They were yet to find an answer for any of their previous issues and here they were standing with yet another grave problem.

"Where did he tell you he was abducted from?" Rajveer asked Naina.

"His flat. It's around an hour's drive from here."

"I think we should check the place."

"Sure I can take you there."

 

All four of them left. They reached there in an hour. They found that the door wasn't locked. They entered inside and what they saw gave them an impression of a cyclone having crossed the place. Not even a single thing was on its place. The entire place was ransacked. Sofas were lying upside down. All the papers from the files were scattered all over the floor. Clothes were out of the cupboard lying on the floor and the mattress on the bed was all badly slashed.

 

Rajveer was walking around inspecting the entire place and his feet struck something. He looked at it and found that to be a metallic vase. It shape was distorted as if it had hit something hard and at the bottom of it there were blood traces. He showed it to others.

 

"There are the remnants of a shattered crystal show piece in that corner. Every sign of a struggle is here." Huda observed.

"I just hope he is fine." Naina looked concerned about Major Rastogi.

"I hope so too but I wonder what was it that he knew that resulted in him being kidnapped." Rajveer asked.

"From what it looks like we are not left with anything here that can take us to those answers. And as Naina said Major Rastogi sounded in bad shape I think I'll assume these blood traces to be his."

"I think you are right Huda."

"But it looks like those people were looking for something." Alekh interrupted.

"But the question remains... what?" So many unanswered questions were bothering Rajveer now.

"Naina, Alekh... Do you guys know what papers Major used to keep here?" Huda questioned them. But both of them shook their head in a negative answer.

"We are all his subordinates. He was supposed to keep some of the things away from our knowledge." Naina answered.

"In that case Raj I would suggest to go back to the base and see if we can figure out if there is any document that was supposed to be there but is missing" Huda suggested.

"I guess that's the only option we have as of now."

"Let's seal the place till then."

For the next two days, four of them worked day and night to see if there was some document which should have been there but has gone missing. They concealed the information of Major Rastogi gone missing from the rest of the staff to avoid panic situation. After so much of hard work, they could not get any clue of the document they were looking for.

 

"Each and every paper is in its place. Waise bhi sir you both have checked the records room earlier as well. Nothing is missing." Alekh told Rajveer and Huda.

"I guess you are right." Rajveer agreed.

"By the way Huda what do you think?" He asked.

He kept quiet for a while. He was thinking hard. After a considerably long pause he gave his opinion.

"I can see only three possibilities."

"And what's that?" Naina asked.

"First, the people who abducted him didn't find what they were looking for because it was already here. Second, they found what they wanted, took the papers and someone from this base who is working for them, replaced the documents here. In which case this kidnapping is very much related to the case of missing ammunitions, for sure. And lastly, we are being deliberately misled."

 

"What?" Rajveer exclaimed at the last possibility. Naina and Alekh were equally shocked.

"I think it has to be one of these three options."

"Do you realize what does that last option mean Huda? It means Major Rastogi might be a part of all this."

"Is it that difficult to assume that? Let's face it.... someone from the top authorities at this base that means Major Rastogi, Captain Singh or Lieutenant Sharma, might be involved. Without the appropriate authority it's not easy for any scandal to perpetuate. Corruption is always rooted at the top."

 

Naina and Alekh looked at each other in horror. They were being blamed straightaway.

"Excuse me Captain Huda... You can't put such allegations on any of us like that." Naina was infuriated.

"Don't mind me Naina... I am just counting the possibilities and not blaming any one."

"But what if you had to?" Rajveer asked.

"What?"

"I asked what if you had to. Who would you suspect and which option would you count most possibly correct?"

"I won't say that so soon. It would be like jumping on conclusions and I hate doing that. Do you have something in your mind?"

"I would go with the second option. The document was replaced by someone here."

"And who according to you is that someone. I am sure you must have built up a notion regards that as well. Somehow you just look too sure."

He took a few seconds to answer but when he answered his face showed that he was too sure about what he was saying.

"Captain Naina Singh."