Who Really Steals - Part 2: Who Really Murders?

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• 
  

  Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Before reading this story, read the previous sequel of the story

CHAPTER 1 :

    In historic times, people used to fight with weapons, with swords, face to face, with blood spurting out. Now, those fights has totally changed it's form. We can destroy a person, their wealth, their core data, remotely. Yeah you'd have guessed it probably. Evidently aggrandizing, it has came in the form of zeroes and ones, in the form of binary and more precisely called as 'Security Breach', 'Data hack' and if you still want a more clear - cut word, it is called - 'Cyber Attack'. 

    After so much struggles, plans and some noble thefts, I, Seenu, and Mahesh, my friend has joined in our dream jobs, former as a computer coder in cyber crime department and later as an IPS officer with the help of Vikram sir, present Head officer in the CBI, Chennai Branch. 

  

    The first case I took alongside Vikram was my then one of the three foes, the corporate giant. His name goes with Pragyanan. Reports reported that there were no enough strong evidences against him to make him stay behind the bars. Case in the court goes in pursuant to his will.

"But Sir, he has killed a whole family to grab a land", I said.

"Yeah, as we know. But in accordance with the law, it was done by some goons and definitely not sent by him. That's what the goons acknowledged", Vikram said.

"So we sit tight to watch him come out of the bars, is it not so?", I said.

"I didn't say so", said Vikram, "At conference hall". He said, pointing his index at the hall.

Some higher officials, gathered and so do I, with Vikram as the presenter.

"We are gonna perform a raid in Pragyanan's residents, his office buildings and his every other properties", said Vikram.

"But the court seems to be thinking that Pragyanan is an innocent", a senior official said.

"The court hasn't finalized it's judgement. He is still a suspect and according to my intelligence reports, there were so many uncountable amounts of black money in his premises. We are doing this and we need your consent", said Vikram.

"On what basis, Mr.Vikram, we could think that it would be a successful raid?. All your attempts are going nowhere but in vain", said the same senior official.

"If you work for us and not for Pragyanan, we can do this, you stupid", I thought while staring at him.

"You just have to let us and find it for yourself, sir", said Vikram.

"Alright, when you're gonna do this?", the senior asked.

"Today at 10 in the night, sir. We also need to tap on to his phone communications to block it", he said.

"Whatever", he sighed, "I know where it's gonna end. You think you could arrest Pragyanan with this little brat?", he pointed at me. 

My nerves tightened, with my teeth biting on each other.

"A last chance, sir", Vikram pleaded.

He nodded his head, sideways, signing 'You will never do this' and signed the papers.

"Alright, kid. We got some work to do. Call Wills", said Vikram after we came out of the hall.

"Yes, sir. I'm always available", Wills said.

"That's my boy. Alright, assemble our team. We are doing this at 5 in the evening", Vikram said.

"But you said at 10?", I said.

"You know about that senior. By now, this information would have already reached the ears of Pragyanan's PA. We will have nothing when we reach there. This time, we cannot lose, Seenu", Vikram said. I nodded and moved to my cabin to make some preparations. 

At 5 in the evening, we swooped into all of his premises and conducted the raid. I sat on the server to see if I could get some usable data.

To our astonishment, the records they hunted was clear. I said, "No", when Vikram asked about the server. We returned to the branch, with bare hands. Yeah we got nothing. The senior smirked at us and said, "Hereafter no more raids in Pragyanan's".

Yeah, we lost. Pragyanan came out of the bars, released permanently. 

There was a great party held in his office. After the party was over, his PA and himself had a  short discussion.

"Welcome back, Mr. Pragyanan", his PA said.

"Thanks to you, Ram. I was really surprised by his 5 hours in before raid. I thought I'd jailed forever. How did you handled it?. Well may be the physical records could have been cleared but the data in the server?", Pragyanan.

"Sir, to be honest, I really don't know sir. I too didn't expect his in before scheduled raid. As you said, I cleared the physical records and bonds but when I just touched the server to clear the data, the CBI came. Even I was shocked that they couldn't find any records", his PA said.

"What", Pragyanan excalimed.

"Yeah, sir. Some might have broke into our server and stole the data", Ram said.

"Who really was that?"

At my cabin, I was walking and thinking and hitting my head on what had happened.

"We lost it Seenu. We completely lost it", Vikram said and threw the files of Pragyanan on entering into my cabin.

"What's more to think?. We were ordered not to lay hands on Pragyanan any more", he said.

"But we have some other person that we should lay on", I said.

"What do you mean, kid?".

"Yes sir. You know what, I know I won't get anything in that server", I said.

"Explain me, Seenu, completely", Vikram said.

"You know, sir. Before the raid, exactly when you said we cannot lose this time, I immediately went to my cabin, opened my personal laptop, tried to breach through Pragyanan's firewall to see his data in a view of completing the raid in my laptop itself and when I hit his server, I couldn't find any data", I said.

"Why is that?", Vikram said.

"I too have no idea but my instinct said somebody could have hacked his server before I did. Only to confirm this thing, I went to his office building, opened his server. There were many phishing data, encrypted data and files which were completely the signs of a server been hacked even before I did, sir. There was some third party person involved here", I said.

Vikram got blank. 

"Who really is he?"

CHAPTER 2 :

Lots of frustrations, anger, distress and the things that were synonymous to these words corrupted my brain CPU, but I see Vikram, so calm and what is so much fascinating was that he was so much fascinated, right then.

"What do you mean you're intrigued?", I said to Vikram.

"Yeah, it tickles my nerves. Impediments in the case are the things that makes interesting and challenging", Vikram said.

"So any plans, sir?", I said looking at his exciting eyes.

"Yeah and this time a new team, 'cause we were ordered not to interfere with Pragyanan anymore. We need some outside people", he said.

"Yeah I get it. Mahesh?", I said, smiling.

"Yeah, ask him to get a trust worthy team and tell him to monitor Pragyanan 24 bar 7, every crimes he is about to undertake", Vikram said.

"What if he doesn't do anything?. I mean, he's just out of the jail. How would he possibly do anything, so quickly?", I said.

"Imagine a thief looted a huge money", Vikram said.

"Are you talking about me?", I said.

Vikram laughed and said, "No no, certainly not, just to make you understand something?".

"Alright, tell me what is it".

"After he looted, he got caught but the whereabouts of the money wasn't found. But somehow he got  convicted out of jail by the court. After getting released, what do you think the thief would do?", Vikram said.

"May be, changing the place where he hid his looted money", I said, "Oh yeah I got it".

"Alright, do the things", Vikram said.

"But sir, one thing. This time, we are not only going to deal with Pragyanan but also his secret firewall, a hacker, who seems more dangerous. To arrest Pragyanan, we need to step over him. We need to equip against him", I said.

"Like what, Seenu?", Vikram said.

"Smart phones, sir, which can be outsmarted. We cannot use it now, when we are dealing with these kind of encounters. We need to use simple keypad phones, for there is no such word called "outsimpled", for all our communication purposes", I said as he nodded to my suggestions, arranged for keypad mobiles for me and Wills and for himself.

I contacted Mahesh in person, gave keypad phones, to him and to his going - to - be assigned - team, asked him to do what Vikram wants him to. He was so much excited on doing this. I really can't see the fascinations in solving crimes. Yeah, some like binary and some other like being brainy.

For three weeks, there was no information from Mahesh and his team. Vikram went crazy and so do me. But on one day, Mahesh pinged me the details of the crime that Pragyanan was going to execute to safeguard his black money, worth about 200 crores. Mahesh, in his text, said that Prgyanan was going to own an underrated company, this weekend. The company's total net worth is 250 crores but the registration bond that was going to be signed will highlight the company's net as just 50 crores, however the company's MD would get 250 crores. He wasn't bothered about this fraudulent registration transaction. He just wanted his catastrophic company to get sold. From this Pragyanan would whitewash his black money of 200 crores. He also pinged me the location on where the transaction were to occur. It is Binarii Hotel, outside the city

"Once has he turned his black money white, it's almost a zero possibility to get him, thereafter. Only on getting him during the transaction, red hand, we could arrest him", I said.

"Yeah, Seenu. I'm well aware. Let's get him", Vikram said, "Let's see who is going to block us this time".

We all, gathered in the Binarii Hotel, waiting for Pragyanan and his bussiness acquaintances to show up. After a while, they did actually. One of our officers, disguised as a waiter, placed a mic under the table where the business people were seated. We eavesdropped on what they spoke.

"Let's start our transaction, people", we heard Pragyanan saying and when he was about to hit transfer, we jumped in, freezing all the people. 

Immediately, I hopped on his system, checking his account balance. There was no statement of 250 crores, neither was a statement on the transfer of 250 crores for the last ten minutes. The balance shows zero. Even there were no traces of amount credited in the seller's account. We got disappointed.

Pragyanan, filed a nuisance case, against us that we were disturbing his casual talks with his friends. Vikram, myself and Wills were issued a notice, warning about the consequences to be faced if we ever disturb him again. Yet we weren't convinced, confused though, but never found acceptance of defeat.

"Where does that money go?", I said during the lunch with Vikram and Wills.

"I know there will be no money", said Vikram.

Wills asked how.

"When I ran towards him for arresting, exactly, even before he saw us, his face was shocked. I, hence, deduced that he was in a shock to see his balance to be zero. Even, he doesn't know where his money went", Vikram said.

"How can you be so sure, sir?", I said.

"Trust me, Seenu, his senses and his ability to see the expressions, right through a human's face is undoubtedly trustworthy", Wills said.

"So, his secret gatekeeper in action again?", I said.

"Seems very much like that. He hacked his bank account, withdrew his money, to save him from the arrest", Vikram said.

I was so much in distressed, hit the table multiple times.

"I, even, put him in jail when I wasn't even in this job. But, now, even with this job in my hand, I am useless", I said.

"No, it doesn't sound like that, Seenu. Just so the obstacles are stacked up higher, doesn't mean we cannot solve it", Wills said.

"Yeah, Seenu. When the path gets harder, we shouldn't give up on the destination, we should just give up on the path and choose another path", said Vikram.

"Now, what's the other path?", I said.

"As of now, I thought I could get Prgyanan, stepping over this secret hacker guy. But it seems we cannot do that. When obstacles were piled up, stepping over the stacks is one way, and destroying the stacks and moving forward is another way. What we would do when stacks are so high for us?. We just have to break through it", Vikram said, "Yeah, people, we're going to get him".

Vikram devised a plan, not so much of a good one but if it did work out, it might lead us to the hacker. His plan was like throwing a fishing stick into the lake and waiting for the fish to catch. He asked the Mahesh team to again monitor Pragyanan, this time preying on the people he meet, whoever it was, and providing the list at the end of the day. Wills would search for the details of the person in the list. He asked me to tap on every communications, in and out, of Pragyanan and Pragyanan's office and their entire people, yeah tapping on the whole messages, recording their voice calls and eavesdropping on everything. When asked why, he said, no people would do such things without any favor in return and he, the hacker would definitely show up to him to propose his demands of it.

"The reason why he is doing this and what demands he was gonna claim from Pragyanan isn't important. We just need to take him away from our target, the Pragyanan", Vikram said, "Record all the voice calls and save all the messages to and forth from his office premises and his personal mobile. In the end of the day, I will hear to the voice records and you, Seenu will read the messages and if something related to the hacker hits, and it will, we will get him".

I've never seen such a seriousness in his eyes since the first day of my job, here in the cyber cell.

"Oh, this could even get worse, trust me", Wills would say.

Night and day, we worked. Sometimes, may be most of the times, it would get 3 in the night to finish all the work and just then, it seemed like we're heading nowhere, one message, an incoming message came to Pragyanan's personal mobile, one noon. It was so encrypted that seems so much impossible to crack that decryption key for it. The encryption algorithm was so much complex. But, around 12:30 in the night, I finally decrypted the message. While working on the decryption of this message, I could understand it was that hacker's message we were looking for, and from the intensity of my work, I could say he wasn't an easy prey we could catch just like that and this thought seems to be convincing thereafter.

"Cracked it, sir", I shouted.

Wills and Vikram, who were looking at the details of the persons Pragyanan met that day, turned at me and ran to my cabin.

"What was it, Seenu?", said Wills.

"There was a message that came to Pragyanan, this noon and it was encrypted so hard, that I could decode it just now and the message was", I swallowed a bit of saliva, yeah little frightened, little sighed and continued, "I was the one who was in hold of your server data and 200 crores. Meet me at Binarii hotel at 10AM". 

I could see the widening of the eyes from Wills and Vikram, so terrified and Vikram, as much as he got terrified, he was fired up.

"Call our personal team from our department, now, at conference hall within 20 minutes", he said.

"But, sir, it was almost 1 in the night", Wills said.

"Now, I said. Heard it?", Vikram shouted and went.

Within 20 minutes, his team gathered in the hall.

"Alright guys, we are going to do a final action, I suppose if it ends well. Tomorrow, at exactly 10 in the morning, a guy, a hacker, will show up in Binarii hotel", Vikram said.

"But sir, is it again related to Pragyanan?", a guy said in a boring voice.

"Well, Mister, do you have a problem in that?", Vikram said in strking voice that put no words in that guy's mouth except, "No, Sir" in breaking voice. Yeah Vikram was so much cool in his strong voice.

"But, sir, if we mess up this time, we would get suspended. Already we have got a notice on this context", an another guy said.

"Don't worry, it would be on me. If anything got messed up tomorrow, just say we were just after the hacker guy, not after Pragyanan and I would do the rest. Trust me", he said.

They accepted for the action.

"Alright this is how it goes, you, once we go there at 9 in that hotel, get hold of all the camera monitoring room, and watch all the people and when suspicious, immediately inform us. Rest of the people including Seenu would stay with me, waiting at different tables", he said and turned to me, "Seenu, ask Mahesh to stalk on Pragyanan and ask us to inform us immediately when he went out of his home, and you guys, once he enters at the hotel, we would encircle him, sitting at different tables, waiting for him to show up". 

"This time it wasn't the Pragyanan. By all means, let's catch him, the intelligent freaking bastard".

The meeting was over and the team left the office. 

"But what was my work, sir?", Wills asked.

"No, you're not into this, Wills. If something messed up at worst case, you should be here, without getting any suspend order. We need some trust worthy guy to be left in this office, to help us continue preying on Pragyanan, if something goes wrong, tomorrow", Vikram said.

Well, that was top notch of Vikram. There was a strange feeling that we might get this guy this time.

"Well, wait Seenu. He was a hacker. What if he jams the security cameras of the hotel premises?", Vikram said.

"It will happen only in cinemas sir. Only the wireless camera could be jammed. Keeping this mind, only wired cameras are used nowadays, everywhere. It is almost impossible to jam wired cameras", I said, smiling.

"Oh, my whole life is a mistake", he joked and we all laughed.

The day, finally came, with our eyes as sharp as hawks. We took our positions and I sat on a table, a reserved one, with four seated. Mahesh called us and informed about the leaving of Pragyanan.

"Good luck, guys", he said.

At 9:45, Pragyanan came and to the coincident surprise, he came in to the hall where I was positioned. I immediately called all the guys in my hall. They silently entered into the hall without anyone noticing us. Everything went as planned, atleast it seemed like. The clock hits 10.

"Sir, the security cameras were jammed", the guy we kept at the camera monitoring room said through the con call we were connected in.

"What, it's impossible. How can he?", I said in shock.

"Don't panic Seenu. The thing is that he entered. Stay alarmed. Keep watching", Vikram instructed.

After few moments, a hand patted my shoulders. A guy with a girl, may be his girlfriend, smiled at me.

"I am sorry buddy, this table was reserved to us", he said.

CHAPTER 3:

"Oh please, will you sit on these two chairs?. I got an assignment and will be out of here in couple of minutes. Please be acting cool, will ya?", I said to that guy.

"Well, alright", he said and pulled out a chair for his girl friend, "Please, my darling". She sat, smiling at his eyes and following her, he sat on the chair adjacent to hers. He ordered for two glasses of champagne and said, "Do you mind drinking one, buddy?".

"Sorry, mister. I am on an important work", I said., looking at him the whole for the first time. He was neatly groomed, dressed a seems-to-be-expensive suit, yeah good looking. I didn't looked at his  girlfriend, as it isn't just to see someone's girl friend. Moreover, it might caught me out of the work what I am doing.

"Alright, cool. Whatever work you're on, please be chill. Tension won't help you", he said.

I smiled at him and nodded. I wiped my sweats, sighed a bit and kept my eyes on. He, then, took out his phone, smiled at his girl friend and seems to be doing something with his phone, which I didn't realized then. He, then soon, surprisingly soon, signaled for the bill.

Then, a message notification popped in my smart phone. Yeah, earlier in the night before, I had programmed a code, build it in a way, that if any message encrypted in the same way as before was sent to Pragyanan, the code would use the same encryption algorithm that I cracked yesterday night, to decrypt it and will automatically show the message that has been sent. The message now received was the message sent to Pragyanan from the same source which we deduced that it would be the hacker we were after. 

"Oh God", I said to the con call we were connected, "I think, we're losing sir". Then followed by the 'What' from Vikram, several whats from the whole team, crowed in the con call. My ears pained.

"Yeah, sir. A message from the him, that hacker was sent to Pragyanan", I recited, "We were surrounded by the CBI. Pay the bill and then go off. Will meet after".

When I was talking to my team, reading out the message, for a glance, just for a short glimpse, I had noticed him looking at me, with shock may be. I couldn't deduce there what was it about.

"Oh crap", Vikram cried. When we were looking at the Pragyanan and his accompanies, the couple fled the scene. What I saw last was they collided with the waiter who was bringing the bill to Pragyanan. Pragyanan, then looked around, billed the payment and ran away. When he was about to leave, bam, he saw us and we were screwed, screwed a big time. 

Lots of frustrations, hits in my head, calmness nullified, lost hopes and more and more disappointments filled my mind. We were now even suspended for two months followed by the compliant filed by that shithead Pragyanan. With then losing a last sound of hope, I sort of almost gave up but Vikram. 

With Vikram's strategy, Wills was safe inside the department, not getting suspended out of the department building. With his authoritarian powers obtained from his post, he secretly collected the tape from the hotel. Vaguely recalled, I thought that the guy in the table might be the one. The tape confirmed it, at least we thought so.

We sat in Vikram's house, turned on his system and rolled on the tape one by one. I told Vikram about my suspect so that he would lay his eyes on him strongly. I, Wills and Vikram himself were sitting on the chair looking for something of use. We played the roll from 9:30 AM. When the clock hits 10 exactly, the camera at the reception was grayed out. 

"Alright, point number one", Vikram said.

I, 'What' at his words. Just then Wills patted at me and murmured at me, "Relax, it was his deduction mode. He would come out with a hypothesis at the end". I was quite shocked at his gestures, rolling his eyes, looking so intense that I thought for a moment he was actually possessed. I looked at Wills and shrugged. He showed me his palm, signaling me to wait. I waited.

"Point number two", he said on looking at the second tape, noting down the time and some points. I again looked Wills blank who himself signaled me to wait again.

"Point number three", he said after some time, again noting down something which I peeked to see it but couldn't clearly.

"The message, Seenu?", he said.

"What", I said, totally blanked out.

"The message, Seenu, which Pragyanan got that day. Show me that", he said, quite rudely.

I, terrified, quickly worked on my phone and showed his message. He gone through the message for quite long time, closed his eyes, and was sea sawing his back against the flexible rolling chair. He, at times, was drawing something in the open air. I glared at Wills on this open air art.

"Yeah, he does that to draw out possibilities on what would have happened with his statements, like, you know, Dr.Strange would do. He would come out with possible conclusions", he said.

"Shut up", he roared. It shook my whole body, vibrated as I was on the electric shock.

Then we kept closed our mouths till he opened his eyes, spelling out the conclusions he had then drafted.

"Alright, apologies for my rudeness", he said.

"It was much better than before", Wills nodded his head and said.

"Okay", Vikram sighed, "What would have possibly happened is this. He, as Seenu suspected, might be our guy, well I am not sure about it though but look exactly at this video tape just before the telly was grayed out", he showed us in 0.25X mode, "Yeah exactly here, as soon as the guy entered, he turned away his face from the camera, so careful that he wasn't caught on the camera, and then bam, the camera was grayed out just after he turned his face away. Seems pretty obvious because, may be because he slid in his suit and turned his jammer on".

"But there's no way closely possible that he could jam the wired CCTV cameras remotely", I cried

"May be we got to go to the Hotel to check how it had happened", Vikram said, "Getting to the point two, once he turned his face, all the cameras were grayed out, but after sometime, exactly at the time he entered, the camera where we, Pragyanan were there was turned on. You know why, see the guy, when he entered, he fall in, may be slipped by something, which might corrupted his device in his suit and accidentally turned off his device, leading to the cameras to start recording again, thus falling on a prey to us. Well, point number three. On sitting on the table with Seenu, after some time, on knowing the CBI surrounded the scene, he took out his mobile, worked on it, sent the intended message to Pragyanan and then", he stressed out, "Exactly after then, your message popped in and while you are conversing with us, look at his face, he was pretty much shocked at it. So he fled the scene ASAP". Wow, I thought, really wow on his shrewd and astute brain on looking through people's expressions and the situations.

"But if he learnt that he couldn't meet Pragyanan now, how could he meet him thereafter?", Wills asked.

"Well, he sort of actually did".

We went what on chorus on his words uttered. God, how could he do that?. Vikram was getting cooler and cooler. All I know was how to get into the system but good God, he went through the people's brain and situations and hacked the possibilities.

"Look at the message he typed in. The words PAY THE BILL AND THEN GO OFF are all in block letters, indicating it was so important. So?", he said and looked at us, smiling.

I thought through but couldn't possibly get it. But Wills thinking after some time got it somehow. Again, for the love of God, how are they doing this?.

"Oh yeah, the info was in the Pragyanan's bill somehow. Info on where to meet again and discuss the things he wants to", WIlls said. I went blankly wow at their deductions.

"That's my . . . . . ", Vikram spelled out.

"No, that's why I am still an assistant", Wills said.

I was standing, couldn't get their joke, well, couldn't get on how they figured it out and to be straight, couldn't get what on earth was happening.

"Oh, that was the reason he got collided with the waiter who has to serve the bill for Pragyanan. He might have written the info about his next meeting in his own bill and replaced his bill with Pragyanan's", I said.

"Geez, poor kid. We even, sorted out without seeing that collision", Vikram mocked at me.

They laughed and I stared.

"Alright, Willy, get the guy while we look at the hotel on how he could jam the cameras", Vikram said.

"Get the guy?. Was that all?. We just saw his face. How?", I said, well cried out loud.

"It gets easy when we saw the guy's face. Just a matter of couple of days", said Wills, so casually with his grins. 

While we were leaving, Vikram glared at the tape for a while and on asking why, he replied saying "Nothing"

Oh, I was just starting to get how cool was this solving crimes as it sounds. They were simply amazing. While their intrigue was hooking through the crimes' facts, I was into the devices. So very much into the thing on how he could bypass the wired camera.

When we reached to the hotel, I climbed to the wire lines structure and found a strange device that wasn't related to any functionality of a camera. When I climbed down, I showed it to Vikram.

"So what's it look like?", he said to me.

As I wobbled it out, turning to the nook and corners of the device, I spelled out, 'Point number one', 'Point two', 'Point three', yeah, mocking his style.

"Oh come on, is this supposed to be funny?", he said.

"Shut up, Sir", I said as I grinned. He shrugged away.

"Alright, alright, I got this how it works?", I said.

"Well explain it to me in Plain English. Don't be going around all technical, or all Seenu - ily kind of silly", he said. I laughed.

"Look at here sir, this device has a plunger like thing that can cling on to the wires of the CCTV cameras. Usually, the cameras are jammed by noise signals, nullifying out the signals from the wireless cameras. As it is not possible in wired cameras, as the signals emitted out will be through wires, it is impossible to jam it. But in this device, the noise was generated inside the device itself internally and was then added to the signals directly into the wires by clinging into the main wires of the CCTV camera, thus the noise signals nullified the signals of the cameras in the wire, creating the glitches in the cameras itself", I said and then pointing to the small stick, "You see, this is an antenna through which we can enable it remotely and by which the device would generate the noise to gray out the visibility. Wow on this tech. He must be a great technical giant".

"Phew, enough with your technology amusement. Let's go", he said.

"You really hate tech, don't you?", I said.

"Technically, yes".

In just two days, as he before mentioned, Wills caught hold of the guy. We wanted to investigate the guy and as we were suspended we weren't supposed to do it. But, Vikram with his quite influencing power went right into the investigation room. Nobody stopped him and I went along with him. 

Well, before entering into the investigation room, Wills provided us with the details about him. He, named by Adhithya, seems to be the computer Engineer, residing in the zeroth street of Anna Nagar, Mylapoor, very well in studies, but bad, character - wise. He would often hack into some random girls phones, acquire the phone's hardware like camera, mic and all and would record nude videos on the girls when girls were hearing songs in the bathroom and the girls who would often fall onto his prey would be threatened to pay a large sum and he would also threaten the girls to sleep with him. Bastard, he was. We could get that he stepped on big step, hacking the money from Pragyanan's account, stealing an whooping amount of 200 crores. While Wills was explaining all this, Vikram went wandering with doubts.

"Well, the reason on why he hacked onto the server data, earlier?", he said.

"Well on that context, he has got to open his mouth", Wills said.

With his doubting eyes, he went in while Wills and I followed him.

"Alright, back to back answers on our questions", Wills said to the guy, named Adhithya.

"Yes", he said, crying, to my surprise.

"Why did you came to Binarii hotel that day?", Wills said.

"I came there with my girl friend to spend some time. That was all, Sir. I swear", he cried out loud.

"Well, why did you turned your face right here?", Will said showing the tape.

"I was checking on my girl friend", he said, still crying.

"What did you worked on your mobile, here?", Wills asked, pointing on the tape, where he was doing somethings on his phone

"I was just texting my girl friend, replying to her message", he answered.

"Oh come on, who will text a person who is next to you?", I shouted, banging on the table, yeah to show my coolness of investigation. He was shaken by that bang. Yeah, that feels rocking.

"She would always do that, texting me even, she was next to me. It is one of our couple things", he said, shying away a bit.

"What did she texted?", Wills said.

"She said", he stumbled, shying away, "She said that she wanted . . . ".

"Say it", Wills shouted.

"She said that she wanted to do", he said, "stuffs".

"What stuffs?". I insisted.

"You know, sir", he said, "Making love".

We hit our heads and never took our hands from the face for a while.

"Then, what?", Wills said, still not taken his hands from his face.

"She wanted to book a suite on the same hotel", he said, "And just then we were to book a room, she said that her dad was calling in and said that she had to go and she went".

"Such a lie", I said.

"No, Sir. This is what had happened. I might have video taped girls and caused them to sleep with me, but, I swear I didn't do any of those things what you had accused of me. I swear, I swear to God", he cried, "Please let me go, sir, please".

Of all the time, Vikram had kept quite and just then, he hit his chair's arms and stood up.

"You guys, continue, while I'll be back in a moment". He then boycotted the investigation.

We then continued our investigation and we got nothing new. The boy, kept on crying the same words as before. We even hit him but he didn't turned up. After some time we ran into Vikram who was watching the video tape again.

"The guy was such a dumbass, kept rolling the same lie, spinning on the same wheel again and again", Wills said to him.

"I knew it from the beginning, something doesn't suit up, isn't working out and it is true", Vikram said, "He's not our guy, we were after"

We were shocked.

"But, sir, the story seems to be convincing. He entered into the hotel, turned his face to turn on the jammer, fell while entering the hall we were in, which turned off the camera and collided with the waiter to misplace the bill. End of Story", I said.

"Well, did the tape caught the scene where he had collided with the waiter?", Vikram said.

"No", Wills said, "It's because he collided with the waiter in the angle where camera couldn't capture. It was planned". 

"Well, go to that guy and ask who actually collided with the waiter", Vikram said.

 "He would say that his girlfriend did that".

CHAPTER 4 :

Yeah that was something unexpected, right?. Though his shrewdness wasn't something to be doubted, still I had this weird curiosity on how he was concluding it.

"Yeah, people, it was his girl friend. My hypothesis, which would often be the thing that could have occurred, is this. First things first. Do you really think such a wicked guy who have got these lady obsessions would be involving in such a big crime?. No. That can't be it. Of all the times, I thought, whoever is doing this wouldn't know about us, me, Wills and Seenu. But that wasn't it. She, as I presumed, was watching each and every actions of us in such a way she's always in front of us, ahead in this race, well, not anymore", he said with his eyebrows' contraction, "Here's my hypothesis. She knew we would be coming because she knew Seenu would be cracking the encryption. The reason why she did it even though she anticipated what is coming is because she wanted to catch this guy, to take our eyes from hers, so that she could do whatever she wanted".

"But, Sir how could you tell all these things", I screamed.

"This is what would have happened. She came along with his boy friend, let him go first, so that the cameras would caught him. But to fabricate and disguise him as a hacker, he should be good, very good in tech so she made up the scene as though he was the one who jammed the device. Remember, it's not an absolute necessary for him to activate the jammer after entering the hall. He could have jammed it before entering the hall. So it was not him who activated the jammer. It was her", he added, "Even it was her who pulled him to fall when he entered the room, where we and Pragyanan were positioned, so that it looks like the device crashed to ground, malfunctioned and accidentally turned the camera on. See, if the device got crashed, even other cameras would have turned on but only the camera in that hall where Pragyanan and us seated were turned on, meaning it wasn't crashed, it was safely handled so that only one camera in the hall was turned on. First mistake of hers is this. She really should have reverse jammed all the cameras in the hotel. That was her first mistake. By turning the camera on, we could see his boy friend face clearly".

"But, sir, it would also showed her face clearly too, right?", Wills said.

"I didn't finish, Wills. Wait for it. Before, she could message Pragyanan, she has to make it look like he was the one who was trying to message. So, she messaged him, in a romantic way, so that he took his phone and replied her. In the mean time, she messaged Pragaynan that CBI were surrounded and asked him to "PAY THE BILL" and go. But what we thought, which was what she expected to, that he was the one who messaged Pragyanan. Then, as planned she collided with the waiter, exchanged the bill, inscribed with the information where to next meet and quietly went off", he said.

"But you still didn't answered to Wills' , sir", I said, still wowing to his abilities.

"It wasn't her face dear", Vikram said.

"What?", I screamed. Well, now it seemed stupid of him. 

"I mean she could have make up he face so that her original face is still masked. Seems stupid but it is. Even, the guy here won't be knowing her face, her real face. She's still hiding out there somewhere with her real face, hidden from the world",  Vikram said.

"So if it's the case, what we should do to find her?", I said.

"May we should do shopping", he replied. 

I wasn't even recovered from the shock he has given just now and adding to it was when hw said shopping. I stood still, like a freeze mode Jeeva in How we met each other.

"But before we do that, Wills, you arrest this guy, do as per the norms and then go to the Binarii hotel and get the list of who and all joined for the part time job recently and bring us the manager who appointed them", Vikram said.

"Yeah, boss, I got it what you were trying to do. Again, list matching strategy", Wills said.

"Yeah, Wills. This technique of mine never gets old even in this advanced tech and techies' crimes", Vikram said and laugh.

He saw me rebooting my system from the freeze mode of shock.

"Don't worry my boy. I'll break the ice on the travel to shopping. Come with me".

I nodded like the Thanjore toy and went along with him. 

When he was driving the car, he told me everything.

"Here's it, Seenu. Have you observed the jammer placed in the hotel?", Vikram said.

"Yeah, I was the one who even said it was the jammer in the first place. I saw it", I said.

"Yeah kid, you have seen it. I know it but I am very well sure that you didn't observe it. How she was able to fix that device there in the hotel and that too, in the secured hotel like Binarii hotel?", Vikam said.

"No, I don't see what you're seeing, Sir", Vikram said.

"Oh, Amateur boy, don't see. Observe it. Who were all allowed to go there?", Vikram said.

"Oh yeah, the workers", I said and banged my head with my hands.

"That's the answer why Wills was on his way to get the list", Vikram said. Just when I raised my hands to raise another question, he went in and said, "Yeah, Yeah. Why we are going shopping?. Is it?", Vikram said laughing. I silenced myself to hear another Sherlock Holmes hypothesis.

"Well, if you have observed, well not just seen, the footage, she would be all trendy from top to bottom and it looks so new except for her foot wears which was all old and not new fashioned. So, she bought all those things just to fit into the scene to look herself rich, safely hiding her true originality. As it looks so new, it must be bought recently and look at the model, it was the famous Firewall brand", Vikram said.

"What brand?", I said.

"Firewall brand, bud. The same model my daughter asking me to buy for her. Family things", he said, smiled and continued, "So, to the point. There's no better place to search for her other than the Firewall showroom. The greatest advantage is that the showroom contents was just to show cast the models. Customers who wants to buy a specific model could not buy immediately. They would order it and the similar model would be delivered to their doorsteps. This is our advantage. Don't ask me why. You'll find it".

All that I could reciprocate was to play a Sherlock Holmes bgm.

"So this isn't shopping. It's hunting", I said as I looked through the windshields.

"If you will"

We entered the showroom, went into the delivery section by showing our suspended CBI Id cards (Which they didn't notice) and showed the photography of the dress model she wore it. They provided us with the list of who and all ordered for delivery with the the customer details. Vikram called in the delivery guy who delivered all the same dress models. He then asked him to come along with us to the department. Well, I don't know why. With the list of all the buyers and the delivery guy, we went to the department. There the manager and Wills with the list ready were there waiting for us. Wills signaled done to us when we entered the cabin.

"Alright, WIlls, get me a nice artist who could sketch faces", Vikram said and at once Wills, without asking why, went to get the artist.

Yeah, another rubik's puzzle for me. What was he doing?. I could do nothing but blinking.

"Alright Seenu, here's the glimpse of my list matching strategy. Cross check it and there would be a match in the list. Pick it up for me", Vikram said.

I now sensed his strategy. Whoever bought the dress and worked for the Binarri hotel would be the one who fixed the jammer in the hotel and came there in the hotel during our encounter that time. I still can't sense why the delivery guy and the manager. I just quickly went through the list and spotted a match. A girl named Vijayalakshmi G were both in the lists, with same address and the details.

I ran into Vikram to tell the match and once he heard it about the match, what he said made me go lunatic.

"Alright, throw both the lists in the bin", he said and walked towards delivery guy and the manager. As he was marching towards them, I asked my doubts.

"But why sir?. We have her address and let us go there and find her", I said as I was looking at the address and walking beside him.

"It was all fake Seenu", Vikram said.

"How could you say, sir?", I said.

He stopped walking, and then turned to me, approached closer to me. I was terrified.

"Empathize her, Seenu. Will you tell your full details when you are doing these kind of stuffs?", he said, "But the mistake is that she provided the same fake details. Busted".

My mouths want to pronounce, "If the details were fake, how could you get her?", but I shut it down, and decided to see it for myself. Yeah I was afraid he might shout.

After consoling those two guys ( delivery guy and the manager ), sometime after Wills came in with the artist guy, Vikram started interrogating the guys.

"Don't be panic, you guys. You are here just to help us. We won't threaten you and won't disturb you after you helped us. We need an information", he looked at the manager, "Vijayalakshmi, once a part time job worker, now resigned. Do you remember the face of hers?".

"Yes sir. I know it precisely", he said.

"Would you mind describing her face to our sketcher?", he said.

He said "Yes" and went to the artist to describe her so that the artist could sketch her.

"Alright, my boy", he said to the delivery guy, "You were the one who delivered the dress to that girl named Vijayalakshmi in the address as in the list", he said as he showed the address in the list, "The question is same. Do you remember her face?".

"Yeah, sir", he said instantly.

"Well, will you?", he showed his hands towards the artist. With now getting sense of what Vikram's doing, we sat for an hour simply as the artist sketched the face as those two guys described.

"Well, of all faces you delivered and of all faces you had given those jobs, how could you guys remember the face so accurately?", Wills said and smirked.

They both were stumbling on their words.

"So she was so beautiful that you guys were hitting on her. Thus remembering the face, right?", Wills said.

They were silent, guilt and were seeing each others faces.

"Stop it, Wills. As if I don't know that", he hit Wills, "You guys don't worry about him. Do you help. We won't harm you".

Wills laughed and they were back into their jobs. When the artist finished the sketch, he said, "Sir, both the face as they described was one and the same. Come, have a look".

When I saw the work of the face, I was so shocked and terrified. 

I knew that girl. 

CHAPTER 5 :

I sat on the chair involuntarily in shock. I was so terrified, breathed in and out fast, could here my heartbeats sound enough.

"Sir, I know this girl", I said it so silently which nobody could hear.

"What, Seenu?", Vikram said looking at me.

I looked at him, frozen, and spelled out, "Yeah sir, I know her".

"How, Seenu?", Wills said in surprise.

I drank a glass of water, took a short relaxing breath.

"It happened the week before I had to face the interview, the interview that triggered me to", I said and looked at those guys(Manager, Delivery guy and the sketcher).

"Take them out of here, Wills", Vikram said.

Wills called his juniors and asked them to give the sketcher to pay the settlement and asked them to send them home.

After a while, I opened my mouth.

"One week before I had to face the interview that triggered me to rob all those three places earlier, I met this girl at a Hackathon competition, an ethical hacking competition, a competition held by Kavitha's dad", I said just then Wills said, "Who is Kavitha?".

"My girlfriend", I said, "I mean, my ex girl friend". I then continued.

"She was recommended by Kavitha to participate in the competition", I said, "Yeah, that girl is my ex's friend".

"And her real name?", Vikram asked shrinking his eyebrows giving an intense look.

"Aadhya"

"Well, heard that Wills?", he turned  to Wills, "We'll meet Kavitha and ping you the details. The final show down begins".

I and Vikram in his car drove to Kavitha's. 

"Do I really have to come?. She's my ex", I said looking at him.

"That's why you have to come. People tends to talk more looking someone who they already knew", Vikram said, "That will help us getting more details".

"Oh come on, you need some fun, don't you?", I said.

"Well, you are getting more about me day by day", he smiled. I hated him.

We soon reached out to Kavitha's. As much as I was so hatred, my heart beats exponentially get increased, started to sweat. As I was wiping my sweats out, Vikram smiled at me and I turned my face away from him.

Vikram knocked the door and soon the door was opened, opened by Kavitha herself.

She looked at me so startled. I immediately looked down, bit my teeth so strongly when her looks intersects mine. Yeah I was so angry on seeing her again.

She, then gave Vikram the questioning looks, signing she had no clue on what was happening.

"This is CBI madam",Vikram said, showing his ID card, "We need some info from you".

"Yeah, Sir come in", she smiled a little. 

Vikram took off his coolers and hanged it in his shirt collar. We entered and sat on a private room's sofa.

I was constantly looking down while Kavitha gave us a glasses of water. When she showed me the plate to take the glass of water, I didn't look at it. Vikram tapped me to take it and with hesitation, I took a sip, just a sip.

"Seems like a big and fancy house", Vikram said on looking around. She smiled on this comment.

"Yeah yeah, seems no mosquitoes around", I said when I get a hit from Vikram. Ooch, that hurts. I could say by her look, she didn't like my comment.

"So mam, We have a sketch of a girl and some of your past acquaintances confirmed that you know this girl", Vikram said to Kavitha as he passes the sketch.

Do he really have to mention me by 'past acquaintances'?. He could have just asked if she had knew that girl. I can tell. He was really enjoying that, didn't he?.

On looking the girl's sketch, Kavitha figured it out that I was the one whom Vikram mentioned as "Past Acquaintance". She gave me look that I hate it for my entire life.

"Yes, Sir. I know this girl. She's my friend. She's working in my dad's firm only", Kavitha said.

"Could you tell me from looking at your dad's office about the whereabouts of this girl?", Vikram said.

"No need sir. I know where she is. In fact, I was the one who found a place for her to live in. You know after their whole family died, I had to help her as a friend", Kavitha said.

"Yeah yeah, you helped her a lot now", my mind voice spoke.

"Could you write the address for me, here?", Viram showed her the notepad.

"Can you please tell me what is this in context to?", she said as she was getting the notepad.

"Just for an inquiry as we are having with you, mam?", Vikram said. 

"Oh, okay". She wrote the whole address.

"Thank you so much mam for your co-operation. We may arrive in future for some other clarification", Vikram said and gave a smile. She responded likewise.

As we were leaving, she said, "Seenu?". 

By that word, all those past memories reminisced, occupied my mind, beat my heart multiple times in just a short notice. I just turned slowly looking my face sideways, not maintaining eye contact.

"I'll wait in the car", Vikram whispered. Damn sir. He pulled me in this awkward moment and he would be waiting in the car?.

"You really can't face me, can you, Seenu?".

I sighed, hesitated, and said, "What?".

All of a sudden, she started weeping. "You're right Seenu. I left you for money and you insisted that I won't find any happiness in that and that I would marry a fat rich guy for nothing. You're absolutely right".

I got to say. I almost burst into laughter but I was so kind enough not to do that. For the first time after so many years, I looked at her eyes. Yeah, it was the same beautiful eyes that I adored but now weeping. In just a matter of secs, my heart felt weighted.

"I got everything here but happiness and love that you gave me. I never should have left you da. I am sorry", she wept so hard.

Now, with no chance left, seeing her eyes tearing her off, I couldn't control anymore. Yeah my heart gave me nothing but tears in my eyes. In all those days, "Our Days", I had only seen her smiles, laughs, so merrily, dancing like a bird but I wasn't trained to see her tears, how to react to it. For a moment, I could feel my anger vanished, hatred gone and all I could see her was with the love that was broken in pieces long ago and that pieces was piercing right through me.

"I married a cruel minded person, Seenu", she said, "Leaving you, my man out there in the dark blindfolded. I deserve this Seenu. All this hell. I deserve this. I am so sorry da", she folded her fingers together and cried.

With no strength to look my girl like that, I turned back, walked, walked fast. I knew I should have told something to her, some consoling words but tell me what could I tell her. I wasn't trained at this. 

We were supposed to be together, smiling, laughing like we were used to be. But we weren't. We never was. What could I do other than leaving her?. 

Leaving the doorsteps, I ran, ran into the car, wiping the unstopping tears. 

When I entered the car and cried against the windshield, Vikram tapped me and opened his arms to hug. With no strength to hide, I hugged him. He, then, patted my head.

"Everyone has past pains, reminiscing it would be so hard and to overcome is what life is about", he said. 

Yeah he's right, I had to overcome.

"Yeah, sir. Work is my catalyst to overcome the past pains. Let's focus on the work. How we are gonna capture Aadhya?", I said completely wiping my tears off.

"I have already told you. Finding the guy is my work and getting the guy is all on Wills' ", he said, "I had pinged him the address and what's the time now?", Vikram said.

"12, sir".

"At 1, she will be in our office".

While we were waiting in our cabin, Wills brought her into the investigation room. We at once hearing at the info, rushed to the interrogation room.

We saw her, finally. She was looking down at the table, handcuffed.

I and Vikram sat in front of her.

"You know what?", she said as she lifted her head slowly and with her face slightly tilted, said, "There are one zero types of persons in the world. One is brainy", she pointed Vikram, "And one is binary" as she pointed me. I looked at her intense.

"One can see through people and situations and one can see through computers. But there is one another type. One one'th type. Both brainy and binary, can see through people, situations and computers and", she laughed like a monster.

"And Everything"

CHAPTER 6 :

"Alright Mrs.Two in one. A one word question", Vikram clears his throat and leaned forward, "Why?"

She keeps looking down, unaltered for few seconds. Wills, I and Vikram didn't take our eyes off her. Deafening silence, it was, until she tapped on the bench. She, then opened her mouth.

"What do you think I am doing to Pragyanan?", she said, "Helping?".

"As much as we know you're helping Pragyanan, I know there's something fishy in it", Vikram said, "Just don't know what it is".

"Don't you know the term helping isn't fishy enough?", she said when we looked surprise, "Yes people. It's true. I am trying to kill him".

Wills stormed in. "What do you mean you're trying to kill him?", he said, "You made him come out of the jail, helped him when we tried to arrest him. I don't see how it is killing".

"Come on Vicky, explain this brat", she said, "I know you can".

We all looked him, waiting for his answer. He looked down, so intense, bit his own teeth and said, "She made sure that Pragyanan stand out of the bars so that she could kill him".

"Bravo, Vicky. That was top notch".

"But still why?", I said and shrugged.

She turned low, enthusiasm hits ground. I could sense some emotions behind it. Somehow, I could feel it. It's because beside sharing same talents, I thought there's some other thing that connects our dots.

"You know what the farmers should never do?", she said with her tears welling up, "They should never protest. In case if they did, death awaits".

"Govindasaamy, is it?", I said, "Your father?".

"I had a mother too", she said on wiping the tears, "I had a little sister too. Oh god, I hate to mean in past tense. They should be present", she whined and shouted, "Present now, with me, with smiles, warmth smiles. Just so they refused to give away their land, they were killed"

She drank some water.

"After winning the competition, with the smiles I entered my house. I saw my whole family blood stained and my sister", she cried hard, "She was . . . she was totally destroyed, I mean, totally ruined, her body, totally", she said, her cries surged, "Just so we didn't give away our land", she banged the table, "It's our fucking land damn it", she said pointing us, "Our fucking land".

"Calm down Aadhya, I can understand. I have a sister and my dad's too a farmer", I said.

"Alright, now I am asking you the same question. A one word question. Why?", she said with the threatening eyes.

We had no answer that we look down in shame. Yeah, we only praise agriculture as our own backbone, but we don't care about the people who do it.

"That's why I wanted to kill him", she said.

"Aadhya, there's a way we should get our way justice back and killing isn't a certain way", Vikram said, "Hand over all those files you took from their server and I can assure you to bring justice to you, your sister and your family".

"Oh that seems endearing", she said, "But a late offer, bro". She wiped her tears and smirked.

"What do you mean, Aadhya?", Wills said.

"I pretty sure that you guys know about that bill thing in binarii hotel", she said, "The bill's been exchanged with some info".

"Yeah yeah we know", Vikram said.

"You know what happened in our meeting?", she said, "In order to communicate securely, I gave away my high secured non hack-able devices".

"So there's a bomb in it?", Vikram said. 

"I mean who hired you, dear?", she said, "How can you be so shrewd?"

Wills hit his head.

"So why is this distraction to make us catch the wrong guy?".

"Oh, you figured it out that too. Who married you, dear?", she said.

"Tell me why", he shouted.

"Yeah, the people who helped Pragyanan was a long list. I need to give away the devices to each and everyone of them to", she said, "You know, just to kill them".

Vikram stood up, hit his mind. There's lot more deduction process going on. 

"So the CBI head?", Vikram said.

"What?", Wills and I were shocked.

"Yep, he was in the list", she said.

"When is that going to explode?".

"I don't know. There's lot of things I have to keep it in my mind. I can't remember when", she said.

Just then a bang in the CBI's head's cabin. A bomb exploded.

"Yeah, now I remember. It's now", she smiled.

Everyone, including Vikram, I and Wills ran towards cabin, to see what had incurred to the head. Yeah, as expected he didn't survive. Sometime after, we ran to the investigation room only to find her escaped hitting out some officers to ground. 

She left a note on a table struck, depicting, "You know who really murders them?"

After a few seconds, we heard that Pragyanan was also killed in the same fashion. Now, we had gone through many cases but we never had encountered such a case ever in our life.  

After a few months,

"Sir, we got her", I said to Vikram, "This is her co-ordinates". I extended him a sheet.

He looked at it. 

"Just turn it into ash", he said and smiled.

I looked blank.

"If I wanted to catch her, before that you know I wanted to catch hold of you first", he said.

I looked down in guilt.

"Hey don't worry my boy. All the crimes aren't crimes if we search for a single word question, Why?. What makes them turn into such a dark they have never been?. Even you had been there too, now this Aadhya and then who else?. Never ending story, isn't it?", he said, "As I said to you, she's the evil that this country needs, a necessary evil if you will, not deserving though but still needs".

"Yeah, sir. It sure does".

"Well, I wanted to tell something that I notice during the interrogation", he said and smiled.

"Tell me sir".

"You know there's a reason why that delivery guy and manager recognized her face precisely, right?", he said.

"Yeah sir, they hit on her", I said.

"And do you know why do you remember her face immediately after seeing her sketch?", he said.

I looked down and smiled.

"Do I took that as a blush?", he said and laughed.

"Well, for that, the answer lies in the part three of who really . . . . . "