Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 96 : Victim from the Past

Abhinu kept looking at his face for a while, but the looks of his face, he was trying very hard to remember who that person is and at that moment he replied “You have a familiar voice…” he paused and then in an excited tone he suddenly says “your eyes…” he stopped again and then started jumping in excitement. It felt like he knew the person very well. “Captain Delavega…” before anyone could react Abhinu hugged him tightly and replied, “Thank you for finally revealing how you look…”

“Haha… Captain Delavega… that’s a nice name you have given me bacha…”

“Of course dada… remember those days when I was punished and I slept off on an empty stomach, you used to stealthily enter the house, feed me and leave… you never told me your name so I nick-named you, Captain Delavega… Monika once told me that there is a legend in Spanish folklore by the name Delavega who watched over the villagers who raised him and when he grew up, he made sure that every man in the village never slept hungrily… You are my Captain Delavega” replied Abhinu

"Kiddo... I don't deserve to be compared to the superhero, Zorro..." 

Dada... I was so helpless back then... I had no friends, no one to talk to about my personal stuff... and then you came to my life and gave me hope... you are no less than Zorro for me..."

“Well bacha… you can call me Vikram…” and gave a sweet smile.

The very mention of the word Vikram reminded me of the call Jessica received earlier.

“Vikram… what happened why did you call us so urgently…” asked Jessica…

He looked at Jessica and continued “Actually I wanted you all to meet this scoundrel…”

“Exactly who is he…” she asked hesitatingly…

“Well…” suddenly he kicked that man on his back and continued “This is the Occultist… and the reason behind this child” pointing towards Abhinu “miserable 7 years of his life…”

“You mean to say the occultist from Christopher sir’s file.” Asked Jessica

Vikram replied “Yes… that very one… the file is incomplete without him… so I had to do some of his voodoo on him, my way…”

"What did you do Vikram?"

"Well... a little bit of this... a little bit of that and that he started talking like a baby?"

"So what did you find out?"

“It all started 35 years ago… Mr. Banerjee and his friend Deepak Singh started a small business in the Khidderpore dockyard. The trio would steal boxes of goods from ships that are docked in the ports and then sell the goods from the boxes to different local shops across the city. Over the period of 5 years, their business increased, and they began to supply goods across various shops over the country. Their hunger for money led them to get involved in various illegal activities over the years, like Narcotics and contract killings, flesh trade, and so on. They had a few high-ranking cops and politicians in their payroll too.”

“Over the years, Mr. Banerjee met Dr. Menon and he learned from him about the gender reassignment process and the total cost of the whole procedure. He learned that Dr. Menon actually wanted to perform experiments on kids and want to do the complete transformation of a boy into a girl before the age of 13 however since it was illegal to perform gender reassignment on young teenage kids, he couldn’t do anything.”

"At that time Deepak Singh got an idea that changed their lives forever. They got in touch with an occultist Baba Young who was also an old friend of Deepak Singh from his prison days. I wouldn’t say occultist, but he is more of a fraud."

“Now this Occultist had his own ways of playing with the beliefs of the devotees. He had a team of voodooists who would trap potential rich men who needed help, and they would ask them to try things, from magical stones to using lucky charms and when everything would fail, they finally recommended him to the Occultist Baba Young.”

“Now this Baba Young has a reputation of trying unconventional methods to keep his clients happy.”

I continued listening to Vikram, still trying to digest what I was hearing.

“Unconventional method??... as in…” Asked master Daa…

“Ok… Guys… I want you all to stay strong… because after listening to what I am about to say, you might lose your mind…”

“Please continue…” replied Jessica…

“Very well… some of his methods were like, getting the tooth of a Great Bengal tiger to help people suffering from Ailurophobia, or wearing amulets made of Ivory to cure Panophobia. There was a situation where he even asked the family to raise a Red Panda because their son has been failing in the exam, the reason being Red panda signifies knowledge according to Chinese beliefs.”

I don’t believe this… we are nearing the 20th Century and people still believe in these voodooists' crap. I was on the verge of laughing listening to this nonsense and asked “Are you serious… is this some sort of a joke…”

Vikram grinned and replied… “The joke is about to begin now… Joe…”

“The 4 of them came up with a master plan.”

“What Plan Vikram?” Jessica Asked.

“Does any of you know about a belief that whenever a new baby is born or marriage is performed in a family, the blessing of transgenders is considered auspicious for the occasion? It is believed that their blessing takes away the evil omen and the family is blessed with good fortune… Because of which transgenders are always welcome on such occasions.”

Suddenly Master Daa interrupted “I think I am slowly able to connect the dots together… please continue…”

“Well, the plan was simple, Mr. Banerjee's job would be to befriend high-profile businessmen and find out about their weaknesses. Once they find out about their weakness, they would recommend the names of one of the voodooists, who would have a discussion about their problems and would further recommend them to the Occultist baba young. Now what Baba Young would suggest to them is that if they can raise a child belonging to the third gender along with their own, they will be blessed with great luck and any misfortune on their stars could be averted.”  Vikram’s voice became weak as he continued “They placed a few conditions though… those kids should not be born as a third gender, but they will need to go through the trials and rituals of transitioning into the alternate s*x, their names will need to start with a certain letter which the baba would assign them at the time of christening and that they shouldn’t raise more than one child.”

Master Daa took out a napkin and began to wipe out the sweat over his forehead and said “Wow… b****y sick psychos… But how would they get the kids, it’s not easy to get hold of any random kids to perform gender reassignment surgeries and why did they choose high profile businessmen… they could have chosen any random family.”

Vikram continued “Well once the family agrees to the baba’s demand, he would give them the number of Deepak Singh. Mr. Singh would take 3 months to deliver the boy to the families. During that period, the doctor would find the potential candidate whom he considers suitable to perform the Gender reassignment experiment. Most of the time these kids would mostly be orphans. However, if at any time they would find suitable candidates whose family is still alive, Deepak Singh and his band of mercenaries would kill them. The irony of these murders is that they always looked like an accident and no police cases would be registered against them. Once the a*******n takes place, the kids are then brainwashed and then they would be finally handed over to their newly assigned families.”

Holy Smokes… I covered my mouth with my hands, shocked and unable to believe what I just heard. Is it really true…?

Vikram continued “Once the child’s custody is handed over to their new families, the process of gender reassignment begins… as we all know no doctor would go for a gender reassignment surgery unless certified by 2 psychiatrists… so when the child was handed over to the families, they would also give them the contact number of Dr. Menon who would be conducting the surgeries.”

I saw Master Daa placed his hands over his head and said “Wow…” Master Daa was shocked at what he just heard and then continued “Damn these men… even the lord of hell would be ashamed to provide them sanctuary…”

“Do you want to know master how much they would earn on every child?” asked Vikram.

“How much?” asked Master Daa.

“2 lakh rupees for the a*******n, if they had to commit some murder, then an extra charge of 3 lakh each for every victim, and finally the cost of the surgery which would be around 15 lakhs for every child. They would earn a total of 20 lakh… they would earn a profit of at least 10 lakh on every child,” replied Vikram.

Everyone spoke together “20 lakh… are you crazy… this is unbelievable…”

"You are right sir this is unbelievable… they actually stopped their other illegal operations and concentrated mainly into this. This was safer than selling narcotics and also more profitable.”

Master Daa spoke in an angry voice “When will our people learn not to listen to these babas or quack’s for such dumb advice. In their quest for great fortune, they are willing to go to any extent to get rich… ridiculous” and he went and sat on one of the chair placed next to him and then said “you have done quite the research here Vikram… we have everything we need to know about these child abductors…”

Vikram spoke again “Well sir not exactly… this is only 60 percent of the mystery… there are 3 questions whose answer I still don’t have… and there is only one man who have the answers I need” Replied Vikram.

“What are they?” asked master Daa he paused again and then continued "and who is this person you are talking about."

                                                             TO BE CONTINUED...

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