Thriller: The Ultimate Choice

Thanks Mistt! Yes, the place is extremely dangerous, but more dangerous are the Joker's men.

 

Episode 54​

Suresh was very happy to see the resoluteness and the sense of responsibility in Srinivas. But, Roy seemed to be a tad sceptical, as he said,

"That mission has been aborted Srinivas. What you are going to do is completely unofficial. You have seen the fiendishness of this frigging agency. I think you are taking a huge mortal risk."

"Don't give a lecture Roy. You tell me if you have got my back or not! I don't care going all alone, and I don't balk at sacrificing my life for the sake of performing my duty."

"Don't misunderstand me Srinivas. Of course, I got your back. But, all I am saying is that we can't achieve our goal by acting impulsively. I told you and Suresh Sir that we will raid the place day after tomorrow if our meeting with the CM does not yield any result. But, we need more men and more arsenal for that. They are coming by tomorrow." Roy tried to explain.

"That's spoken like a man! Every hour is very important. We can't wait so long."

Srinivas was going to say something more, but his phone rang. From the expression of his eyes it became evident that he didn't expect the caller at this time. He hurriedly attended the call.

"Hello Mrs Mathur! What's up?"

The caller, Mrs Mathur, said something over the next two minutes that made Srinivas's face turn completely bloodless. He was standing while attending the call. After disconnecting the call, he sat on the bare floor with a thud. He threw the mobile phone on the sofa. This reaction from a seasoned IPS officer didn't augur well to either Roy or Suresh.

"Any bad news?" Suresh enquired.

After spending few days with Srinivas, they knew that Mrs Mathur was his neighbour. It was hard to even look at Srinivas's face. The face turned white and he gave a complete blank look with popping eyes.

Roy offered him a glass of water, which he drank. The weather was very pleasant in the evening. But, Srinivas was sweating profusely. It didn't evade Roy's astute eyes that tears were building in the corners of Srinivas's eyes. But, since brave men don't cry, Srinivas was holding back his emotions.

"What happened Srini? Please tell us." Suresh goaded him in a soft voice.

"This can't happen. I talked just an hour back to her. She was absolutely healthy. How can this happen? How?" Srinivas's rant seemed slightly incoherent to Suresh, but Roy had not much problem in understanding it, because he overheard the conversation that Srinivas had just mentioned.

"What happened to your wife?" Roy's raised voice almost sounded like screams.

Suresh got up tensely from the cot. Roy pulled Srinivas from the floor and made him sit on the sofa.

"Anju suffered a massive heart attack an hour ago. Now she is in life support in the ICU." Srinivas muttered.

"Don't waste any time. There is a flight at 8-30 PM. If you leave now, you can catch it. I will recommend Suresh Sir to go with you. Don't worry about this case, as we will closely monitor the situation. I will meet the CM tomorrow. If possible both of you can join us when we undertake the rescue operation." Roy suggested.

Suresh agreed with him, and he left for Hyderabad with Srinivas, who looked like a shadow of his former self. He was a broken man.

_____________________________________________

"Ranjan, you evil genius! You have again cleared the road for us."

There was no one more happier that Xi at that moment. The short-stature Chinese guy hugged Ranjan tightly.

The Ravenous Eagles guys had placed jammers and other anti-bugging devices in the hotel Paradise. The cook, who gave Srinivas his mobile phone, was given clean chit by the local cops. However, on Srinivas's insistence he was removed from the hotel temporarily during their stay.

But when technology does not work, manual methods become handy. The guy staying at the top of the room where Srinivas was staying was Joker's man. A couple of waiters were also hired by the Joker. They had been constantly eavesdropping on Srinivas and Roy. Besides, the mobile phones of Suresh's and Srinivas's wives were compromised by the satanic spying software. This software helped the Joker's team to listen all the conversations they made with their wives.

"Why does everyone give credit to me, when I know my contribution is minimum? The credit goes to our evil doctors who by the grace of the great Satan could prepare such an amazing drug. This drug tastes like an antacid but it coagulates blood in a very slow manner, and within couple of hours the patient suffers massive heart attack without getting any prior symptoms. The good feature of this drug made from herbs is that it can't be detected in post mortem report of the victim."

Ranjan tried to clarify.

"You are being too humble Ranjan. Wasn't it your idea?" Praises were manifested in Nigella's eyes.

"Yes Nigella the cruel idea was mine, because this Srinivas guy was hell-bent in invading our property last night. Had he done so, either we would have to kill him, or at best captivate him. In both the scenarios, the police would have got enough reason to hunt us. We didn't want that.

However, full credit goes to our team in Chittoor. The maid servant in Srinivas's house very carefully changed the file of antacids with our deadly drug which also looks like the same brand of the antacids. By preparing very spicy food, the cook made sure that Srinivas's wife Anju, who takes antacids regularly, had to take it. The maid servant again changed the file with the original file after Anju took it. No one will suspect her."

"Indeed awesome planning, Ranjan! But, do you have any back up plan if the capricious CM readily orders an investigation into this case and the police decides to raid our place?"

The Joker was slightly worried about this aspect, because the CM of WB was an honest man who could not be controlled by others. He did what he thought was the best, and sometimes he took decisions impulsively.

"Whether he would eventually order an enquiry I can't predict Joker Sir. We have to assume that he would, and that's why we are vacating the place and leaving for Sudan after tomorrow's final event. But up to tomorrow, we have no problem. Sabbir is there to take care of it. You tell Sabbir."

Ranjan passed the question to Sabbir. Sabbir, the literary blue-eyed handsome Arab billionaire, said,

"Don't worry Joker Sir. The Ravenous Eagles guys are supposed to meet the CM at 5 PM. But, that meeting will not take place today or for that matter tomorrow."

"But how? Please tell us how?" Though Sabbir sounded extremely confident, Xi was still tensed.

"An old building will collapse today at 4-00 PM in his own constituency in Kolkata leading to deaths of many. And tomorrow, my man in the ministry will ensure that they don't get any appointment by influencing his PA so that we can peacefully complete the reality show and escape from here."

Sabbir seemed to have made a soild, unassailable blue print. The Joker nodded his head showing his approval to the plan.

"But what about the final event Joker Sir? You haven't yet disclosed to us what it's going to be."

This time Nigella complained pouting her lips and enlarging her hazel eyes. This gesture of Nigella felt like a Cupid's arrow to Sabbir. But, Nigella being the Joker's consort, he could not make any advances. Otherwise, he would have definitely proposed her long time back. However, it didn't escape Sabbir's eyes the adoration of Nigella towards Ranjan. Sabbir had a gut feeling that Nigella loved Ranjan, and he couldn't figure out how a beautiful lady could fall in love with a gay person!

To be continued on tomorrow night

 

Yes RS, the Joker's team seems to be one step ahead of the security agencies. Roy is still there. Let's see if he can pull out a rabbit out of the hat!

 

Yes Mistt, unless Roy pulls out a rabbit out of the hat, the final test is going to happen. And that's going to be incredibly bizarre!

 

Episode 55​

"What about the preparation of the candidates, Ranjan?" The Joker seemed to have ignored the question completely.

"Very good, Sir! These two days have been like goldmine for trainers like us. Archana can now hit moving objects with almost 40% accuracy. Ranjan and Siddharth have also done very well in sprinting, long hump and high jump. I am sure the final event is going to be a superhit."

"You know the plan Ranjan!?" Nigella whined again.

"Oh no Nigella, I don't know. Joker Sir hasn't revealed the plan to anybody yet."

"Friends, the final programme will start at 10 AM tomorrow. Hold your breath till then and let it be a surprise to everyone." The Joker announced.

____________________________________________________________

It was 17th March 9-30 AM in the morning; the D-day for the trio had finally arrived. Due to yesterday's Nor'wester, the weather was very pleasant. There were few scattered white clouds in the blue sky, while the sun was blazing brightly. The breeze was very mild.

Before the beginning of the grand final, the Joker met all the contestants in the open ground floor of the 10-storeyed building. This time he was surrounded by 10 guards armed with the most sophisticated lethal weapons. As usual, Nigella was standing beside the Joker holding his wheel-chair.

Rajan, Siddharth and Archana were standing in front of the Joker. The trio were not allowed to speak, but form their body language it appeared to everyone that they were dying to interact with each other. They got very emotional being so close to each other after so many days.

"No need to be emotional folks! This is not the place and definitely not the time. Because all three of you are standing at the jaws of death." The Joker warned them.

"But you said we have a chance of surviving." Rajan blurted.

"Stop, you idiot! When the Joker Sir is speaking don't interrupt. You will speak only when you are asked to do so."

A masked guard warned sternly, pointing his gun towards Rajan.

The Joker resumed his speech,

"In the previous editions of our megahit show Survivor, there used to be only one survivor or sometimes none. But this year, we have changed the rules. I am sure this is going to be more interesting than the previous editions of this show."

The Joker paused for a few moments. But, Archana's heartbeat increased in anticipation of a good news. Rajan also started to pray to the God for hearing something positive. Only Siddharth's body language remained pococurante. Archana couldn't gauge whether he was at all listening or not.

"To make things more exciting we have decided that this year there can any number of surviors. To make it simpler there can be 1, 2 or 3 survivors. If that seems to be a good news to you, you need to know the flip side of the condition also. There can be zero survivors also."

The Joker again paused for few seconds. Archana and Rajan looked at each other. Siddharth was not looking at anyone.

The Joker resumed,

"All three of you have been trained well for this grand finale. Archana has been trained to kill, and you two have been trained to save yourselves.

Don't get startled Archana. If you become nervous by just hering the news, I am afraid none of you will survive. Because, the key to survival of you guys depends on your hand."

"My hand?" Despite the embargo on speaking untowardly, the words came out of Archana's mouth spontaneously.

But, the Joker didn't mind, as he continued,

"Yes, your hands! Now, all of you listen carefully, because I am going to tell you the rules for the ultimate test. But before that I must intoduce to you another character who will play a very vital role in this competition."

The Joker made some signal to someone in front. Archana couldn't understand what other character the Joker was talking about, because both Ranjan and the Joker himself had told her earlier that there were only three participants who had cleared the fourth stage. Rajan also could not figure out who the fourth character was going to be. Siddharth showed no reaction again.

But, they didn't have to wait too long, as a ten-wheeler big truck stopped in front of the building, facing the rear side towards them. When the tailgate of the truck was opened, Archana's heartbeats almost stopped, and her eyes popped out in astonishment.

Grrrmm! The growl and the odour caught Siddharth's attention also. He could no longer remain insouciant, as what he saw was indeed frightening. There was a steel cage in the truck, and inside the cage was a very restless royal bengal tiger. It was moving briskly from one side of the cage to the other, and making roars.

"Here is the fourth character for ya! If you are curious about him, let me inform you that this 5-year old alpha male has been in our custody in our den in MP. He was brought here 5 days back. You might have heard the disturbed barking of our agitated dogs on the day of his arrival. But later on that day, he was placed at a safe place in one of our underground hideouts. We have kept him hungry for the last 2 days.

Now you might wonder what is he doing here! Okay, without wasting any more time, let me tell you what the competition is going to be. We have partitioned the playing field into two halves, each having a length of 50 meter each, and separated by a 16 feet tall lattice wall made of steel. The tiger cannot jump over it, neither can he climb it. But, the humans can.

The tiger named Raja, Rajan and Siddharth will be in one half, while Archana will be in the other half. The hungry tiger will love to hunt one of Rajan or Siddharth or both to satiate his hunger. The task for both Rajan and Siddharth will be to come to the other half as early as possible. Both of them will have an advantage of 20 meters in front of the tiger. In other words, the tiger will be let loose from the base line, while both Rajan and Siddharth will be at a distance of 20 meter from him. Please remember the speed of a tiger is almost twice as that of you.

So you have to run very hard for the remaining 30 meter. But if that is a worrying news for you, there is also a good news for you, too. The tiger is not going to target both of you. He is experienced enough to pick his target. So, one of you can easily climb the lattice wall and move towards the other side.

Now, what is going to be Archana's task, and why does everything depend on Archana? We have made a 40-feet high wooden tower like structure on the baseline in the half where she will be standing. There will be no walls or roof on the structure. Archana has to climb the wooden stairs very quickly to reach the top. Her long range gun will be kept on the floor. This gun is loaded with only 10 bullets.

Her task is to kill at least one of the three. Obviously, she would like to kill the tiger. If she kills the tiger, all three of you can get out from here scot-free. But, to kill the tiger she can exhaust only up to 5 bullets. If she shoots the 6th bullet to kill the tiger, our snipers will shoot her in the head, and later on both of you will also be shot down. In other words all of you will die.

In case the tiger kills both Rajan and Siddharth, Archana gets out from here as the winner of this year's show. If the tiger kills one of them, and the other one comes to this half, he and Archana will be declared survivors for this year, and they can go home.

There is not much of complication in the aforesaid cases, but the situation will become a little scary in the last case when both Rajan and Siddharth cross to Archana's half. In this case, Archana has to kill one of the two. She will get only 3 minutes to fix her target after both of them enter her side, and she will have 5 bullets, assuming that she exhausts 5 bullets in trying to kill the tiger.

To be continued on Sunday night