The Devil has no face - Chapter 4

Treachery

Salim was not feeling well, not feeling well at all. His stomach was hurting and he was having difficulty breathing. Having just dropped the box in the basement, Salim was about to exit UG-1 when he first felt the pain. Initially there was a burning sensation in his throat and he had hardly given it a thought. But almost ten minutes later he realized that something was wrong. His head started spinning and his vision started to blur. His limbs gave way and he dropped to the floor. There was sweat on his face now and he could feel his pulse weakening. And just like that, with a suddenness that took him off-guard, a sharp pain ripped through his heart leaving him shrieking his last few words. And with that same suddenness, Salim let out his final breath and lay motionless on the floor.

Salim had just been re-united with his best friend.
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Rahul realized that something was wrong here. The scenes of deserted security kiosks and empty reception desk in the other two buildings that he had searched had only heightened his suspicion. He was now running back to the main building. On his way he realized that he had forgotten his cell at his desk and decided that he would use one of the landlines instead to make a call. He wanted to call up his manager, his friends, his parents, the police… anyone. All he wanted to do right now was to get in touch with someone and apprise them of his situation. He entered the main building and reached the reception. He decided that he would first call the Operations people. He did not want to create panic without knowing for sure that something was wrong. He picked up the phone and pressed the receiver to his ear…… only to be greeted by silence at the other end.

‘Shit! The line’s dead.’ He decided to retrieve his cell and make the call from his cell. Just as he was reaching for the stairs, he faintly heard what sounded like a shriek. He stopped in his tracks and concentrated hard on the sound. It sounded like it was coming from UG-1.

‘There is someone in the basement!!’ he thought to himself and ran down the steps to the basement. He opened the door and was again greeted by the sight of deserted cubicles. But he decided to check inside anyways. He turned left and walked towards the nearest set of light switches and turned each of them on.

What he saw, made his jaw drop!!. Lying right at the center of the floor was the twisted corpse of a man. He slowly walked up to the dead man, bent down and checked the pulse. He was dead alright. There was foam around his mouth and his eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Rahul didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how or why this man was dead. But he knew better than sticking around a dead body. He was now convinced that something wasn’t right. He shook away the fear, and decided to act fast.

‘Think dammit….Think! What are you supposed to do now? You are stranded alone in a place that is nearly the outskirts, you have no one here to call for help.. What do you do?? Think think!!!”. Just then Rahul realized that he had made one big assumption. He had assumed that all of the security guards are missing. He had forgotten about the guards at the gates.

‘That’s it!! I will alert them and they will take care of the rest. Oh! Thank you Jesus for giving me enough brains!’.
Rahul wasn’t a Christian and he had just thanked the wrong god..

The Devil has no face - Chapter 3

The Night Out

Rahul hated his work. He hated doing night outs for stupid projects that never seemed to end. He hated that he was always the one sitting late in the office and fixing bugs, even though it was someone else’s work. He was a coder not a tester. ‘When will these people realize that?’ he thought. And he hated that he couldn't do anything about it. For a while it seemed like he had found the bug, but after pursuing it for about an hour’s time he realized that was not it. So here he was, sitting in his cubicle in the wee hours of a Saturday morning and wasting away what was supposedly a weekend.

He had been staring at the monitor for almost eight hours now and he could feel his muscles getting tensed. He decided that it was time to take a break. He thought that moving away from the system for a while might just help clear his mind. He stood up, and walked the small passage that led to the nearest door. He decided that he would ask the security guard outside to lend him a cigarette. ‘Nothing like fresh air and a cigarette’, he thought.

‘Whoever said smoking kills, I bet he had never worked in a software company’.

He opened the door and walked directly to the third floor security desk. The desk was empty except for a registry that was kept to track people who work late in office. ‘He must have gone to take a leak’, he thought to himself and opened the registry. He quickly scanned through the list and found the entry that he had made earlier. In looking at it he realized that he was the only one still working.

‘Just my luck! I think I am now closer to ghosts than humans here’, he chuckled.

He decided he would go out to get some fresh air and come back later for the cigarette. He walked towards the stairs and started climbing down. As he passed each floor, he suddenly felt completely alone. He was scared at the thought of being alone in the dark. All those stupid horror movies had left him afraid of walking alone at night.He thought he will try catching one of the security guards and ask one of them to accompany him. But as he climbed down the last few steps, he could make out that the ground floor reception desk was empty. ‘That’s strange’, he thought. ‘There is always a guard or two there at this time of the hour.’ He turned left and walked towards the set of cubicles hoping he would run into the ground floor security personnel but here too, he was treated with scenes of deserted cubicles and an empty guard post. Suddenly he started getting tensed. Shit! Was he alone in the building? Where are all the guards? Shit!.......

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Salim walked in short strides, carefully selecting his every step lest he step on a twig or something that will attract attention. He was not worried about a security guard spotting him. He was too well camouflaged to be spotted by anyone. But what worried him was the dogs inside the park. From what his boss had told him, there were no security dogs inside the park, but there were plenty of stray dogs lurking around. Of all the things in this world, if there was one thing that he was afraid of, it was dogs. Those nosy little creatures could pick up a scent from any distance. Once they do, they would start their growls and barks, as if announcing to the whole world, ‘Look, I found the burglar. There he is! Grrrr…..’. But today he was prepared for even that. He had smeared his body completely with what Abu had promised to be a dog repellent. A dog repellent? He had never heard of such a thing. But it was Abu who had said that, and he trusted Abu. So here he was, covered from head to toe in black overalls, face smeared with liquid which smelled like fresh droppings from a cow, walking towards what would be his last job. He had decided to quit after this. This last one was for Debu.

He was the front man for the gang. Once Abu, his boss, decided on the ghosla the gang would chalk out a detailed plan of how to break-in, loot the place and get out quickly without leaving any trace. Then it was either Debu or Salim or sometimes both, who were the first to break in. They would enter the place silently, chloroform all the guards, disable all the alarms and cameras if any inside, and then send a signal to the other members. Three of four men form the gang would join them and they would fill their bags with cash, jewelry, priceless articles or whatever the ghosla offered them and leave the place without leaving a trace. Only one of them had ever been caught so far, and he was dead. After that Salim had promised to himself that he would not end up like Debu.

Just as he was closing in on the front door, he suddenly remembered the box that was lying in his bag. He opened the bag to make sure that the box was still there. He put his hand inside and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the hard edges of the square box that was tucked away safely in one of the pockets inside. Abu had given him that box and told him repeatedly how important it was to place that box in the basement of the building. He said it was souvenir for the police. ‘Should be some kind of a calling card or something’, he though to himself. Abu had been seeing all these English movies recently and was telling them how important it was to let the world know who they were.. Personally he did not want people to know anything about them for obvious reasons. But it was Abu’s idea, and again he trusted Abu so he did not question him when he received this box.

He now made towards the main building which stood at the center of the park. This eighty storey tall towering mammoth of a building was the main target of today’s heist. Salim’s instructions were clear; Evade the guards, get inside the central building, disarm the alarms and disable the cameras, place the box in the basement, signal the others in the team and once done get out of the building. The others would take care of the rest.Well he was almost half way through that and he was already feeling a bit tired.

The Devil has no face - Chapter 2

Surprise Surprise!

"He is in", said the guy monitoring the console. He was staring at a monitor which showed a red dot moving through a maze like structure. That maze like structure mimicked the blueprint of one of world’s most prestigious Software Parks in the world and that red dot belonged to their carrier. The carrier was some local burglar who came highly recommended. He was an expert in breaking and entering and next to Debu, he held the record for the highest number of successful break-ins in the city. And it seemed like he had added one more to his record. Too bad this would be his last.

“What’s the order? Should I call this one in?” asked the guy at the console.

“No. Wait for him to reach the spot. We will call it in only when we know that the equipment is in place”, said the older of the two guys in the room.

He was not only the older, but also the more experienced. That was what had earned him this prestigious chance to oversee one of their biggest operations ever. They were a two man team and each of them was an expert in his own field. While he was an expert in planning such operations, the younger of the two was an expert in computers and hacking. And both of them put together, had become one of the most sought after teams in this field. And with the success rate such as theirs, it was natural that their price would be high.

Ten crore rupees. That was what their client had promised them if they pulled off this one. Ten crore!! His jaw had dropped when he had heard that amount over the phone. That was a whole lot more than their normal market price. Of course they had agreed immediately. With so much money, they can easily lay-off for a couple of years at least. He was already planning to take an early retirement and settle down in Goa.

Ten crores!! Phew..

‘Sir’, a voice brought him back from his reverie. ‘The carrier has reached the spot. Should I call it in now?’

‘Yes. Call it in. And make sure to ask him when the second wire transfer will be done.’

‘Ok.Will do that’.

The guy at the console dialed the pre-agreed number. The voice on the other end was gruff, with just a tinge of impatience in it.

‘Yes’

‘The equipment is in place. Everything has worked out according to the plan. We have delivered as promised’

‘Excellent. I knew you guys were worth the money.’

‘When can we expect the final wire transfer?’

‘Oh you didn’t get it yet. I thought I had already sent that. There is slight change in plan. I though I will deliver the remaining amount in cash. Let me see. Ah! The briefcase should be in front of your door by now.’

The older guy opened the door and retrieved the suitcase. Just as he was about to open the case, the guy at the console could hear the client telling him something. He pressed his ears closer to the phone as the gruff voice whispered slowly.

‘Oh I forgot to tell you. Open with care…’

The explosion was so powerful that it ripped away almost half of the building and destroyed everything there was in the room. The computers, the furniture, the walls,....the men inside… ......everything was destroyed.

The Devil has no face - Chapter 1

Prologue:

FRIDAY NIGHT, 11:59 PM

He kept staring at the screen without battling his eyelids. It had been almost two hours since he had started doing this and it seemed like it would take him at least a couple more. He stole a quick glance at his watch. The shorter hand was about to converge to its longer counter-part to form that magical moment in time when this day would be over and the next day would begin. ‘It’s strange’, he thought, that how he almost always ended up working these long hours. He had seen it happen to most of his friends, seen them stretch themselves beyond what there mind and body could withstand and the end result was almost always bad. They either ended up taking sick leaves or lost their senses for good. Ha! That’s it. He was sure he would also end up losing his mind. God how he hated his work.

The reason he was working late today was because of a mysterious bug that somehow had cropped up in his piece of code. And like all bugs, this one had decided to show its ugly head just a day before the project was going live. And the client was adamant about sticking to the deadline. He couldn’t wait till Monday morning to get the bug fixed. No, he wanted the bug fixed by the next day morning, else the whole world would be in danger..or so he would want everyone to believe.

‘Shit!’ he thought, ‘How the hell am I supposed to fix it by today? Looks like one more night out. Fuck!’ Little did he know how true he was. This would be his night out indeed.

CHAPTER 1: THE BREACH

The area around the tech park used to be a huge wasteland, a large dumping ground for urban waste. Long before that, it was believed to be the trailing path of what is now a dried up tributary. If one observed the surroundings carefully, they can still spot portions of the embankment here and there. All that was in the past. Now the land boasted of hosting one of the biggest IT Tech parks in the world.

And this was precisely the reason why this area had been marked by Salim’s boss as one of the key ghoslas. That’s what his boss used to call them - ‘Ghoslas’.. Just like a bird’s nest, they were waiting to be invaded by the ‘Serpents’. And he was a serpent. His boss, Abu, had described how each of them was special in his or her own way. And his gift was that he could slide in and out of any place without anybody noticing, just like a serpent. His colleague Debu had given him that nickname. Debu, bless his soul had been his best friend. They had almost shared everything with each other and other people in the gang always used to tell them that they looked like brothers. Last month Debu had pulled off a miracle by invading one of the toughest ghoslas in the country. No one knew how he had done it and no one would ever know as that secret had died with him. But that was all in the past. Debu was dead and it seem liked everyone had forgotten him. Now he, Salim, would make sure that he would not let Debu’s death go in waste. He was determined to pull this one last coup, which when done would be the biggest ever heist in the country for decades to come.

And the only thing that now stood in his way was the lone security guard who guarded the Inner gates of the park. He had already evaded the two guards at the outer gates. It was a piece of cake really. And this one would be too. He had done this plenty of times and it worked like a charm each time. It worked because he kept it simple. Salim had realized very early on in his career that the secret of surviving in this business is to keep it simple. No flashy moves, no movie-like stunts and definitely no gunshots. He had never ever killed a man in his life and he had vowed to himself that he never will. There were others in his gang who had killed people, but not him. He could never do it. And besides, one security guard to evade? Huh! ‘This would be like a walk in the park’ he thought.

But one thing he did not understand is why his boss chose this place. From what he could see, this was just another IT park like a million other in the city. And he was sure that there was no money inside these buildings. Just some stupid cumpooters or whatever they called it. But again, his boss had almost always been right about the ghoslas. There was always something or the other to be stolen in these places. He got back to watching the guard through the opening in the bush. Finally, as if on cue, the guard got up and headed towards the make-shift bathroom. And Salim slowly made his way through the bushes and carefully pulled himself up the compound. He took one last look at the guard booth and silently slithered down the wall. He was now officially inside the ghosla.

To be continued.....