Operation Whitewaters: The Wrath of the Unknown Enemy – IV

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and any resemblance to any events or characters is purely coincidental.
Continued from : Operation Whitewaters: The Wrath of the Unknown Enemy – III

The Tea Time Bonanza
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‘And then I finally walked away from 6 months of snowstorms and escaping landslides and enemy gunshots and traversing through meandering mountains- day and night to the comfort of a run of the mill town place.’, Shyam Singh came to the end of his narration.
‘And this peaceful tea time with these Marie Cookies and Sweet and Salty snacks must be heavenly for you!’, exclaimed Niranjan Das, his deputy.
‘So true!’, chuckled Shyam Singh.
Shyam Singh was an elite, experienced member of the Bharat International Espionage (BIE) ‘Dz’ group. This group was faced with the deadly task of penetrating India’s worst enemies’ overt and covert armed groups, as well as at times, their military regiments and setups.
Often this group came out of information that prevented major terror attacks as well as avoided threats to key Military and Political personnel both in India and abroad.
Of course, sometimes some member could be in grave danger, and someone high up in the setup had to pull out some connection to get them back.
He had been inside an enemy territory over some high mountains, which were snow covered for most of the year, and had a narrow escape from the enemies. He had however got a lot of information which would help his bosses a lot.

Suddenly someone knocked at their door. Shyam asked the person to come in. He was Birchand, the assistant messenger boy, carrying a small letter and handed over to Shyam.
Birchand execused himself after handing the letter.
Shyam tore open the envelope and read the letter. He was serious and thoughtful.
‘What happened?’, asked Niranjan.
‘Got a Tea time bonanza- I have to travel by air 2 hours to reach the Jalandhar base(Shyam was near Hyderabad, almost in the other corner of India) and meet Col. Zakir.’
‘Yes bonanza indeed’, laughed Niranjan.
Both Niranjan and Shyam were laughing but in their hearts they knew something terrible was going on.
It was not a war, but something as serious and devilish as a war was in the offing.

The Late Night Coffee Meeting
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Col. Zakir’s desk at A-22/Neptune Block in the Northern Zone Armed Forces – 3 Brigade Buiding was a simple one.
It had an old, beautifully carved desk with steel drawers. There was a side table with water, Coffee and Tea Flask and an induction cooktop for occasional small snacks or small meals when food from outside was unavailable due to some reasons.
For most of the army people within that building, he was on a routine duty. His task was to come and do a monthly audit of Housekeeping works, Software updates, as well as helping in the Technological training programs conducted inhouse.
Many in fact used to wonder whether a person in such tasks had ever been into any war zone or fought any insurgents?
However, what most knew was a makeover. Zakir’s real task was something that very few in that building and elsewhere knew. He was Deputy Operations Commander of the North Zone of Bharat International  Espionage(BIE) and responsible for Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence operations, and at times a key firefighter when things seemed to go out of hand.
It was late December time, and rains had caused chill to set in and make people go for insides.
Besides Jalandhar City, around which this building was based, had many cold and grey days during this time of the winters, with lows going around 5 degree celsius.
The cold winds made one feel like being at a much colder place.

Shyam’s flight arrived well in time, and he got into a taxi, arranged for him in advance.
‘NZF3 plasso 4’
‘Plasso 4 confirmed Sir.’
It took Shyam close to 2 hours from airport and by the time he reached NZF3 building, it was already Midnight.

At around 12:35 Midnight, Col. Zakir got a phone call.
‘Send him in’, he responded to the call.
It was Shyam, wearing a big jacket with two layers of clothing underneath and a woollen cap and gloves.
‘Back from skiing in mountains Shyam!’ Zakir stood up and said to Shyam.
At the same time, he started pouring coffee from his flask into two big mugs.
‘Of course, its like being in a mountain place here today.’ replied Shyam and added ‘Yet I can always come to your service-be it a mountain, desert, near sea or at the Bar house1’
‘Thinking of bars Shyam, you will have to contend with a mug of late night coffee as of now.’
‘That would be excellent Sir.’
‘And then, we can settle down to our business.’
Together they began sipping that marvelous cold-beating coffee and to a night of serious business talk.
Image Source:

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++++++++++++++++++++  To be continued ++++++++++++++++++++