Chapter 16(P): Poet Or Parshuram?

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Chandra typed feverishly into his laptop. His last mail to his superiors at RAW had been drafted, adequately encrypted and was now fit for sending. The travel that he had done for the past few days had tired him immensely, he wasn’t made for such strain, he was made to sit in front of a computer and analyze data. That’s what he was good at. Perhaps that’s the reason he was sent on this investigation in the first place. He massaged the bridge of his nose, lifting his spectacles up a bit.

RAW knew that this situation had the potential of being a planned Terrorists attack, especially since their first target was an emminent DRDO scientist, who worked closely on many of the goverment’s defence projects. But they did not want to commit an actual field agent straining their already depleted resources. It seemed like a natural promotion to everyone else, but to Chandra it felt like a let-down. He did not want to be a pawn who moved around according to the commands given to him, he wanted to be the one giving the commands. He even let his displeasure known to his superiors, but they promised him that this was just a temporary project and that if he was to do well, he would be one step closer to commanding those pawns.

He didn’t need that incentive however, Chandra had always done whatever he was asked to do with complete dedication. Ever since he was in school, he brought himself up as a disciplined, organized hard-liner. His parents were proud of his accomplishments uptil the time he decided to join RAW. His parents thought he wanted an exciting life, his friends thought he had patriotic tendencies, but Chandra himself based his decision on 2 very basic facts: 1) Not a lot of people were as hardworking or as intelligent as Chandra in the goverment sector, so he would stand out more easily. 2) This particular organization (RAW), seemed to offer enough renumeration and goverment benefits for him to lead a secure life. Not a lot of people were happy with his decision, but with time and money, they were won over.

Chapter 16: Poet Or Parshuram

For the past 4 years, Chandra had gained a reputation of a workhorse. He worked in a sector where he was supposed to read and analyse data, create corollaries and connections and then provide his synopsis to his superior. He knew his job stopped there, he never took credit of his discoveries, but people noticed, and soon he was the youngest chief Analyst looking over all the covert information coming in from South America. It wasn’t as fancy as Europe or high profile as Pakistan, but it was still an achievement.

Cracking this investigation would be an achievement too, thought Chandra to himself, as he closed down the lid on his laptop. He got up from his bed, and decided to take a little stroll inside the room, just to flex his muscles a bit. He turned on the TV and a news channel was on, he turned on a Cartoon channel instead. Chandra was bombarded with news every second, he tried to avoid it every free second he got. Even then he could see his thoughts drifting towards his current case.

After the first 3 kills, Chandra had to agree that this was the work of a serial killer. The 3 dead men, and the 2 other who they knew were the latest targets had nothing in commmon, and Chandra would know, he had even compared their family trees. There was no rhyme or reason to the Poet’s methods except for the fact that he seemed to have an affinity for people who were respected in their field but were not break out stars. The murders themselves were immaculately planned, and were always executed through atleast 2 proxy points in the middle. He still believed they would have found something had they stayed in Jaipur with Salil’s convoy a little longer. But the Poet had forced their hand, and they had to come to Bangalore because of Akash.

Well atleast, now they had the most concrete lead, in this case. He had finally tracked down the service center who had modified (in fact replaced) the CPU inside Akash’s car. Turns out the head mechanic was given that CPU by a guy from Honda’s sales team, pushing it as a covert CPU change to replace a defective CPU in Akash’s car to avoid hefty legal issues. The mechanic was paid handsomely for this too, once again in old notes of 100s. He had then tracked down the Honda salesman, turns out he had quit his job. The word was he was going back to his hometown of Allahbad. Chandra had asked for the CBI’s help in rounding up that salesman, but those guys acted like snails with asthema. As much he disliked the NIA and Agasthya’s attitude, he did admire the quick response time he and his team showed in case of emergencies. How many times had his vital info gone to waste, just becasue someone on the field was snoring.

He was contemplating where he would go for dinner tonight (people had recommended Meghana Biryani), when the phone rang. Life of a RAW agent he mused, as he answered the call.

“Hi Chandra Rajaswamy here.”

“Hello, sir this Durga from RAW Comm. We have a caller coming in who says he might have info about Akash’s murder.”

“Ahhan. Where is the caller from?”

“Sir he is currently in Bangalore. Says he knows who killed Akash.”

“Direct him to the Police officer in-charge of Akash’s murder. Maybe he has some info we can use.”

“Sir. There is more to it than that.”, Durga paused for a while, waiting for Chandra’s attention.”He had earlier called Delhi Police saying that he knew who killed Nandakumar. Then he called the Rajasthan Police saying he knew who was behind Salil Batra’s killer. In today’s call he said that he knew that all these were done by a serial killer and he knew who.”

“When did this happen? Why am I being told about it now?”, Chandra thundered into the phone.

“We just got the call half an hour ago sir. The team collated these calls just recently. The earlier ones were discraded as hoaxes and consipracy theories.”, Durga spoke sheepishly, defending his position. “He had given a name and address sir, and he is willing to co-operate.”

“Ok, its late right now. Schedule a meeting with him first thing in the morning. Any news of Agasthya or Kabir?”

“No sir, none of them have arrived at their locations as of yet. Sir there is one more thing.”

“What is it?”, Chandra asked a little irritated. He was going to order a pizza now, no going out tonight.

“It maybe nothing.”, Durga replied unsure.

“Out with it.”, Chandra replied more soothingly.

“During his multiple calls to various police departments. He kept repeating a word. Something about a Parshuram and his legacy.”

<<Chapter 15: Game On || About This Story || Chapter 17: Questions And Answers>>