Operation Camouflage Read online

  Notion Press

  Old No. 38, New No. 6

  McNichols Road, Chetpet

  Chennai - 600 031

  First Published by Notion Press 2019

  Copyright © Amit Sidham 2019

  All Rights Reserved.

  eISBN 978-1-64587-158-3

  This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

  No part of this book may be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  DISCLAIMER

  This book is a work of fiction and all events, characters, depicted are fictitious. Any similarity to actual events, persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  The book refers to real places and real designations of people who operate in these places and/or government and law-enforcement agencies. These have been used purely to lend an air of authenticity to the story. The characters who occupy these positions in the book do not and are not meant to resemble their real-life counterparts in any manner.

  If despite of best efforts, some similarities have crept in, it is completely unintentional and a pure coincidence.

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  1. Aaditya

  2. Identity Revealed

  3. At the Headquarter

  4. The Spiritual Sanitising Bath

  5. Operation Reveal

  6. The Prayer Room

  7. The Dining Experience

  8. The Residential Apartments

  9. The Next Steps

  10. Back at the Apartment

  11. Next Day at the Dining Room

  12. Regaining Control Over Business and Employees

  13. The New Company

  14. Aaditya’s Opening Address

  15. The 36 Hour Surgery

  16. Veterinary Institute: The Plan

  17. Veterinary Institute: The Execution

  18. Set Up and Expansion of Green Businesses

  19. PermaCure: Redefining Customer Experience

  20. The Green Car

  21. Svelte Foods

  22. The Kidnapping

  23. Kidnapping: The Aftermath

  24. Justice for Tigers

  25. The Airplane Episode

  26. The Raids

  27. The Movie

  28. Annual Results

  29. GALAXY in Danger

  30. Peace Negotiations

  31. Yet Another Surprise

  Epilogue

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Writing and publishing a book is never an easy task and hence this book too is not a single person’s job. Support, motivation and blessings of a lot of people and forces have gone behind this book and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them.

  The first and foremost is my wife Mukta who has been a pillar of strength and stood firmly by me not just during this book journey but throughout the ups and downs in life.

  I am also thankful to my daughter Saanvi, my friend and guide Subhajit, all my ex employers, my publishers Notionpress, particularly Karthik, Dhanya, Ilayaraja, Domnic and above all destiny which has made this book happen.

  Lastly, I would also like to thank the Almighty and my parents Asmita and Anil. Today, I am whatever I am only because of them.

  Chapter 1

  AADITYA

  2nd March’ 2015

  ‘Aadi, I want to see the presentation today at 2:30’ said Mr Bakshi, Aadi’s boss and the Chief Marketing Officer.

  ‘Sure Sir. I am almost done. Will mail you in fifteen minutes’ was Aadi’s response.

  Aaditya, popularly known amongst his friends and colleagues as Aadi had been working with ConFir, an acronym for ‘Consumer First,’ a leading international fast moving consumer goods company for close to eight years. He was a typical guy having done his engineering from IIT followed by an MBA from IIM. One of the few from his batch-mates who dreamed of a career in FMCG, and actually landed in one and that too with ConFir, one of the top 5 FMCG companies worldwide. While many of his batch mates and current colleagues were on their third or even fourth job, Aadi had been with ConFir all throughout his career. Having worked on the field in Sales for initial three years, he had now moved into Marketing. Starting as an Assistant Manager, he was now a Senior Manager, Marketing.

  His understanding of consumers was amazing. And even better was his ability to convert that understanding into results. In two years, he had grown his brand portfolio from INR 850 Cr to INR 1400 Cr.

  While in terms of career growth, he was still considerably behind some of his batch mates. Not that it mattered to him, but looking at his potential he would very often be asked ‘Do you know where you should have been by now? How come you are content with status-quo? How come you never switched till now?’

  To such questions Aadi’s answer would be, ‘I have always kept myself out of the rat race. Once in the race, containment of the human desires is extremely difficult. Rather than having more and yet being dissatisfied, I am happy having less but with a peace of mind. I enjoy my work and have a good work life balance. That for me is more important than having a fatter pay cheque, a bigger cabin, bigger car or bigger house.’ Not that everybody agreed to his views but at least the topic would end there and that is what Aadi cared about.

  He was happily married and the father of a sweet five year old girl, Dhara. He got married two years after his MBA, his was an arranged marriage. His wife, Ritu was a software engineer and they were happily settled in Mumbai. While Aadi tried to leave office at 6, Ritu always complained that he never reached home before 9. Offices of both of them were not more than ten minutes away from their home, which by Mumbai standards was quite a luxury. While Ritu reached home sharp by 6:15, Aadi more than often attributed his delay to the corporate life. Ritu always scowled, whenever he came late. Even more annoying for her were the days when Aadi had to travel for his so called market visits, research and consumer connects. She always complained, when he was in sales even then he was the one who provided the Marketing guys with consumer feedback and insights. Now that he was in Marketing, why couldn’t he get it from the Sales Managers? Why did he have to travel so many days in a month? To which he would just smile and say ‘All part of corporate life.’

  Dhara would have completed her studies by the time Aadi reached home and would be eagerly waiting for him. On one such occasion, Aadi found Dhara scanning through a file having newspaper cut outs with Aadi’s photos. On seeing Aadi, Dhara immediately rushed and hugged him like every day. This was their ‘Father-Daughter’ time when Dhara would narrate her incidents of the day to Aadi. But today instead of telling Dhara was more eager in asking Aadi questions about the treasure that she had come across. Aadi sat with her on the sofa and with a feeling of pride answered all her questions. ‘This photo is when I had come first in our school in Twelfth standard, this one when our team won the badminton tournament in college, this one when our team had come first in the business-plan competition in college.’

  ‘And this one?’ asked an innocent Dhara

  Looking at the news-paper cutting, Aadi was momentarily lost. His mind went back into the past. The news article was about the death of a person along with the person’s photo. Another photo next to it showed a group of people, Aadi being one amongst them; all protesting with placards in their hands. Aadi remembered how it had all began, he remembered his first meeting with Samir and how his life had changed after that i
ncident. A small smile came onto his face.

  His thoughts were interrupted, ‘Daddy, this one?’ asked Dhara once again pointing towards that photo.

  Aadi smiled, ‘That’s when Daddy and some more people had participated in a protest, in a silent fight for justice.’

  Aadi momentarily glanced towards Ritu and saw her staring at him. He quickly turned his eyes away and got back to his discussion with Dhara.

  There had been few occasions in the past when Aadi had reached after 11 pm. Dhara would have fallen asleep waiting for him. Next day when she woke up, she would be very angry on him and to appease her, Aadi would have to pick her up in his arms and drop her to school in his car instead of sending her by her school-bus, with a promise to come early on that day. Dhara was his Darling-Daughter, Daddy’s Little Angel.

  Looking at Aadi rushing to drop Dhara to school, Ritu had once said ‘To become my Husband’s Beloved Wife, I too should start getting angry like Dhara. Maybe then you will drop me as well to office.’

  To which Aadi’s reply was ‘If I try lifting you in my arms like Dhara, you will have to drop me to the hospital instead.’ Ritu’s frown said it all. Aadi realized he had indirectly commented about she having put on weight, a territory all husbands fear to tread. Before the argument could snowball further, Aadi thought it better to escape from the scene and quickly ran out of the house with Dhara.

  Chapter 2

  IDENTITY REVEALED

  8th May’ 2015

  The clock showed 11:10 am. It was one of the usual days at ConFir. The staff had just finished celebrating success of one of the latest digital marketing campaigns of a new brand. The office was in a jovial mood and staff was heading back to their work stations.

  The Creative agency of one of the brands, Aadi was managing had come to present the concept of a new advertisement. Aadi with his team of brand managers, research head, his boss Mr Bakshi and the Creative Agency folks were in the board room discussing the new ad concept.

  At the front office, few visitors representing a new media agency were getting their visitor id badges prepared. They had come to meet Aadi’s counterpart. The group consisted of three men and a woman. While the lady would have been around 30 years, two of the guys were in their late 30’s and the senior most person who looked like their boss was around 45. All men dressed up in business suits and the lady dressed up in a formal blouse, knee length skirt and a blazer, typical business attire one would expect of executives heading for a formal business meeting.

  After completing their visitor registration formalities, the group started following the peon who had come to escort them.

  One of the men started talking with the peon. ‘Who are the other Marketing Managers here?’

  The peon informed them ‘Aadi Sir, Vikram Sir and Swati Madam’

  The man said ‘That’s good. Are they also present in office today?’

  The peon’s reply was ‘Aadi Sir is in office today, Vikram Sir is travelling, Swati Madam is on leave.’

  ‘Ok. Where is Aadi’s cubicle?’

  The peon showed them Aadi’s cubicle and said, ‘Aadi Sir is now in a meeting in the Board room’ pointing towards the same.

  ‘Ok, thank you’ said the man still following the peon who led them to the meeting room where they were supposed to meet their host. The eyes of all four guests continued scanning the office.

  They reached the meeting room and once they were seated, the peon asked them for tea, coffee. ‘Tea without sugar’… ‘Coffee’… ‘Coffee for me too.’ ‘I would like to have black tea.’ After everybody had informed their preferences one of the men asked for directions to the rest room. The peon showed him the way and went towards the pantry. The woman and their boss also followed the first man. They all started walking towards the rest room and paused in front of the board room entrance.

  Scanning the surroundings once again, they nodded towards each other and their hands went inside their suits, to remove something. The woman pushed the door open, the other 2 men rushed in and within a second started firing continuously in the direction of Aadi. There was confusion and panic all over the room and hearing the gunfire the staff outside started shouting and running helter-skelter. Some rushed towards the board room to check what the noise was and others straightaway found their way towards the exit. In the meantime the fourth visitor also joined the group with his gun.

  Inside the boardroom, Aadi was extremely fast in reacting and had thrown himself below the table for cover. Two persons sitting next to Aadi had got injured, One in the arm and other one in the chest. Without being noticed Aadi quickly crawled eight feet towards his left and suddenly rose up with 2 guns, one in each hand. He fired both guns simultaneously, once and then again. Swoosh…Swoosh. Instead of bullets, laser beams came out from the guns. The first shot made holes in the heads of the woman and one of the younger men, dropping them to the floor immediately. The second shot hit the senior most person in his chest, exactly over his heart…creating a hole of seven to eight cm in diameter, such that one could easily see the other side through the hole. The man fell down backwards. The second shot from the second gun had hit the fourth person on the shoulder of his hand holding the gun and next moment his hand along with the gun was on the floor. Blood flowed out from his open shoulder. Aadi took a leap and with his hand hit the man on his neck making him fall and join his colleagues on the floor.

  Others in the room were not sure if he was dead or simply unconscious. Everyone in the room was stunned beyond belief and could not utter a single word. Comprehending that they had just experienced a near fatal attack, itself was too much for them. And even more surprising was witnessing this side of Aadi.

  Aadi quickly rushed out, one gun still in his hand and his eyes scanning the floor. ‘Don’t panic. You are safe. Who had escorted them in? How many of them had come?’

  While everybody had an expression of fear on their face, the peon who had escorted them had an expression of surprise in addition, on looking at the bodies of the visitors.

  Looking at him, Aadi asked ‘Did you escort them in? How many had come? Did they have any more colleagues with them?’

  Too stunned to speak, the peon just kept staring with an open mouth. Aadi asked again ‘Tell me soon, it is important to ensure our safety.’

  The peon finally tried to speak but had difficulty with his words. ‘They were…fo…four of them.’

  ‘Any other visitors inside now’ Aadi asked looking towards the receptionist who had also come in by now.

  She said ‘Sir, the agency guys with whom you were having a meeting now are the other visitors inside.’

  Aadi thought for a moment, sort of recalling who all had come. No strangers he said to himself.

  He rushed back to the board room, Looked at his injured colleagues. One of the guys from the creative agency had been hit in the arm and Mr Bakshi, his boss hit in the chest.

  Aadi said ‘Wake up Raj, We got work to do.’ Something that looked like a robot came into sight from nowhere. It seemed as if the robot was in the room just not visible to the others till now.

  ‘Scan the injury,’ Aadi commanded the robot.

  An eye of the robot popped out and started moving towards the injured part, scanning the area from multiple angles.

  ‘Bullet missed the heart by 5.7 mm. Left lung punctured. Second rib cracked in the front and chipped at the back. Bullet out of the body. Twenty seven minutes fifteen seconds to unconsciousness. Five hours thirty minutes of life without treatment.’

  The robotic eye moved to the injured arm of the other person and said ‘Bullet cut through the flesh, no damage to the bone.’

  ‘Stop bleeding for both of them’ Aadi commanded.

  ‘Sure Aadi’ said the robot and got to work.

  Aadi removed his phone. But this was not his regular phone. Even the model was different from the ones available in the market. He tapped on the phone and spoke ‘Team, WE HAVE A SITUATION. Identity revealed. I repeat. Identity revea
led. I have been attacked. Secure yourself and your families. Everyone at the headquarter in thirty minutes.’

  There were many voices from the other side ‘Aadi are you alright?’ ‘Chief, any injury? I am on my way. Reaching you, ETA four and a half minutes.’

  Aadi replied ‘One of my colleagues hit in the chest. Needs treatment. I am bringing him to the headquarter. All of you reach the headquarter with your families. Over and out.’

  In the meantime, Raj the robot had stopped bleeding of both injured persons.

  ‘Clear the area Raj’ Aadi commanded the robot.

  The robot got into action and cleaned the area of all blood stains with a vacuum like action, followed by spraying of a chemical on the stains and finally burning it. It was only the chemical that was burning and once the fire was out, there was not a trace of any blood stains on the floor, furniture or the carpet. In exactly four and a half minutes there was a chopper outside the window of the board room. Aadi cut the glass with his laser gun and retrieving an oxygen mask from the chopper, secured it on Mr. Bakshi. The robot started throwing the bodies of the four attackers into the chopper. Once done, it gently picked up Mr Bakshi and started taking him out of the window. Aadi could see a hesitation on his face.

  Keeping his hand on Mr Bakshi’s shoulder, Aadi said ‘Worse has happened, Sir. You are hit and need medical help. Trust me, you are in safe hands. I will arrange for your family to join you soon.’

  Too stunned to think any further, Mr Bakshi let Aadi decide the course of action…leaving everything else to destiny.

  Within a minute of the chopper reaching outside the board room, it was back on its way again. There was a pin drop silence in the office of ConFir and everyone was just staring at each other’s faces, still trying to think if what they had seen in the last fifteen minutes had really happened – the attack, the laser guns, the invisible robot? And the bigger question that ran in everyone’s mind, ‘Who was Aadi? Why was he attacked? What was his purpose?’