Revenge is divine

Chapter 5

She sat firmly in the velvet cushioned revolving chair in her cabin. A fan rotated in full speed above her. A laptop was kept unfolded on the table in front of her. She kept her mobile phone adjacent to the laptop. The screen was on with an emblem of Kerala police. The motto was enshrined in Devanagari script.

Mridu bhave, dhrida kritye, she whispered.

Some message popped up and the mobile lock screen became alive. Tiger Shroff stood with his well toned oily physique and looked at her from the mobile screen. She playfully flashed a kiss towards him. On his forehead time sparkled as 10.15 am.

She opened the text message. ‘Congratulations for your new phase of life. All the best. May you succeed in every step of your life.’ She read the name of the sender she felt happy as well as tense. It was followed by three more similar messages. The first three were almost strangers to her but she knew she will soon cross her paths with them. The last one was from her uncle Vishwanathan, the Home Minister. Then came a barrage of messages from her batch mates and old friends. She quickly replied everyone with a ‘thank you’ but nothing more. Her batch mates asked for a grand celebration but she had to wait. Most of her friends were in Trivandrum but her first posting was in Cochin.

I will celebrate myself tonight. She smiled. Little did she knew she would have a busy sleepless night

She sighed. Finally I am here. She very well knew her new life won’t be easy.

She sat erect; her five foot five inch petite body in a perfectly balanced posture and her black eyes were sharp.

Her perfectly tailored uniform made her feel more confident than she usually were. It was enough to feel her proud and fearless. Her posture was confident, eyes sharp, heart pumping with pride. Her black shampooed hair was well braided and tugged behind. A single strand of hair was left untied which fell from her right temple caressing her cheek. She rolled the strand with her finger.

She is Shivadha I.P.S., the new Additional Police Commissioner of the Cochin city.

I will be a sincere police officer. She vowed in her mind. Mridu bhave, dhrida kritye. Soft temperament, firm action. That was the motto of Kochi city police. She was the new head of the Kochi city police force.

Once again her mobile screen popped up followed by the sweet ringtone. The Chinese made Xiaomi Note 5 vibrated along with the ringtone. She curiously glanced at the screen and saw that the call was from some private number.

A random colossal of numbers with no pattern would be hard to remember. She thought for a couple of seconds whether to attend the call and decided to leave it but ended up against it. She picked up the phone and slid the green circle upwards to connect the call. There was no greeting but silence.

“Hello.” She whispered onto the phone. The silence felt void. Wrinkles formed on her forehead and an unknown sensation filled her chest. She felt the rush of adrenaline in her veins. Her mind warned her, something is about to happen.

“Hello.” She whispered again. “Can someone hear me?” This time her voice was clear and solid.

What she got in reply was a low growl. A chill went through her spine.

What am I messing with? This is not the start I expected. She wanted to say hello again but changed her mind. An uneasy silence surrounded around her. It was broken by a heavy rocking voice in a low frequency and it whispered her name.

“Shivadha.”

She could feel an uncanny urge spreading inside her heart. She waited for it to continue.

“I have a gift for you.” The voice said. “A gift for the special day.”

A gift? Really? She thought it was some kind of a joke. She tried to assess the voice. It was a male using some kind of enhancements to hide his original tone. He should be around thirty and an average built man. “What do you mean by a gift?”

“Something perfect to remember this day forever.” The voice replied.

“Who are you?” The air around her became mysterious. “How do you know me? From where did you get my number?”She had a lot of questions to ask.

Another low pitched growl was the reply.

“Who are you?” Shivadha asked again.

“Just be easy on yourself and listen carefully.” His voice became serious. “No need to ask questions because you will never get the answers. You will only find more questions and well, I challenge you to answer them.”

Shivadha was getting angry and impatient of his harsh tone. I am the Commissioner of Police. You will pay for your disrespectful words you just uttered. “You know who I am, don’t you?” She had a threatening pitch.

“Yes madam and for your information I was waiting for this day. I am going to play a game with you. Let me see how smart you are.” She heard a naughty grin from the other end of the call.

She didn’t reply, neither she wanted to. She wished the call to be over soon. It must be a prank call but how dare someone prank a Police Commissioner? Inside she was fuming. You will have to face the repercussions for this, so better be on target.

Hot air whizzed past her from the ceiling fan rotating in full speed over her.

Silence was disturbingly mounting around her. Neither of them spoke, both waited for the other to make the move. Who is he? Is someone playing a prank with me?

“Have you heard of the Holy Faith?” the unknown caller asked.

It didn’t ring a bell. But she thought she had heard that name somewhere. Is it a church or a school?

“What if I add Alfa Serene with it? Now you must be familiar.”

Shivadha scowled. Who else hasn’t? They were the buildings in Maradu municipality that would be flattened in two days. The whole media is covering about them. A two day process of knocking down five buildings and every news channel in the state is hot with the scoops. Twin buildings of Alfa Serene, H2O Holy Faith, Jain Coral Cove and Golden Kayaloram were the apartments that were to be knocked down on 11th and 12th of January.

“Yes.” She replied in a low voice. What about them?

“In one of these buildings I have kept something for you to start with. And it is one hell of a prize.” His voice was rough but crystalline and Shivadha heard each and every word. He was plotting something and she could sense that.

This is not a prank call. Whoever he was, he was enjoying the dilemma.

This guy has to do something with those buildings. She could assume that.

Mridu bhave, dhrida karma. Soft temperament, firm action. She pressed the bell on her table and a man came rushed in. She took a notepad and wrote something on it and pushed it towards the constable. The constable looked at the paper and went out at once.

The Deputy Commissioner of administration and crimes was in his early fifties and he looked at the scribbling on the notepad. There was a number, a landline. Below it was a note. Track this number immediately.

He took the notepad and gave it back to the constable. He wobbled his head in approval and the constable knew what he had to do.

“What is the prize?” Shivadha softened her voice.

“An unforgetful day of your life. The best day of your new life.” The man was still toying with her.

Shivadha was clearly getting irritated. He was still talking nonsense, irrelevant words. “What is the prize?” she asked again, her voice filled with rage but surprisingly slow paced.

The reply was a sinister grin.

“I am not going to waste my time on some madman’s utters.” She played her card.

He sensed she was serious and would disconnect the call. He wanted her to find it and so he didn’t want her to hang up the call.

“There is a body preserved to keep you guys awake and rolling. It would be followed by more.”

She thought it would be too good to be true and yet her guts said he is not joking, certainly the seriousness in his voice doesn’t.

“One of the five apartments.” He whispered again.

And the call was disconnected.

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To be continued.....

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