Dark Waves - Chapter 2

Akshay opened his eyes, a pulse of raging pain went through his head, it has been three days since he had been lying unconscious on that bed in BSF Hosiptal. Rehmaan Malik, who was in his early twenties was assigned to keep a close watch on Akshay's condition, a rather comfortable job, but the one he hated more than anything. Unknown to him, this job was about to end tonight. As if Allah had smiled on Rehmaan on his boring and painfully monotonous job of three long days, he heard vague sounds coming Akshay's bed, he was gaining consciousness. Jai Chauhan came rushing into the hospital room, he looked at Rehmaan who nodded silently and looked into Akshay's direction, who was still on bed but now quite aware of himself and his surroundings. Jai and Rehmaan again exchanged glances, both of them wanted Akshay to remain unconscious, as long as possible. Pain to come would be too exruciating for him to handle.

Few minutes later, three men in plain clothes entered the room. From their personality, confidence and grim faces, Akshay could make out all three of them were from top ranks from defence. They were all looking at Akshay with same intensity as if they were calculating some thing in the back of their mind. Finally, youngest of the three spoke, his voice was firm and emotionless. Akshay was told that he has been dismissed from Special Frontier Forces with immediate effect, based on incriminating evidence found at his official residence at Khosht. There would not be any legal proceedings as Special Frontier Force has always been invisible to anything legal or judicial. There would not be a court-martial, it was in return to an earlier combing operation that happened years ago, when he took three bullets on his torso to save the life of a Commandant. That Commandant was now an IG and head of the tribunal which gave this verdict forty-five minutes back. He was being sent into a complete oblivion, everything about him would be forgotten forever by everyone. His life was snatched from him and was being buried right in front of his own eyes. Akshay thought this was a nightmare, he will soon wake up and all this will end.

The realization came up as a shell hitting his head and all hell broke loose. He found himself being escorted out of hospital with armed guards all around. A BSF Jeep was ready at the exit to take him to Udhampur Railway Station. He was too dazzled to see anything around, but he still caught glimpse of a figure standing beside the Jeep, it was his wife, she was hysterical, she was shouting, hurling abuses on him. In any case, she was about to divorce him since he could not afford any of those luxuries which she took for granted in her home as a daughter of business tycoon. It was the last time, he saw her.

Captain Jai Chauhan was asked to report to IG Sinha immediately. He was confused and sad on today's development, he saw a promising career came to an abrupt end today, somehow his instinct were telling him that Akshay was innoncent, something was wrong somewhere. With these thoughts, he entered into a no-nonsense office, name plate on the door read Ashok Sinha, IG, Special Ops. He saw some familiar faces in the office, the same three men he has escorted to BSF Hospital in the morning. Ashok Sinha gestured him to sit. He was told his services at BSF were no longer required, he sat there stunned and silent, his world was falling part. Before, he could understand his own emotions, the youngest of three men spoke one more time. Jai was asked to report to SFF HQ, Chakrata at 2300 hours next day. He was replacing Akshay.

It was past midnight, a call was made from Khosht to across the border. Ashfaq Khan answered the call, caller told him about the successful plantation of documents and the humiliating expulsion of Akshay Rajput from SFF. Ashfaq disconnected the call and looked towards the sky again "Brother this night belongs to you and your revenge". In Khosht, Lieutenant Rahul Mishra hurried to the barracks after making the call, he was expecting a transaction of two crores in his bank accounts by tomorrow. He has already decided to establish a business in his home town of Kasauli.

Dark Waves - Chapter 1

It has been more than a year now, yet Akshay Rajput could recall that night with all tragic details. It was freezing cold at that small town of Khosht. As the commander of Black Swords Batallion from Special Frontier Forces, he was leading few chosen men to a combing operation on a tip received an hour ago. The call had not come through the usual ultra-secured channel, it was a call to his personal mobile phone, he was hesitant to make a decision yet the information was of such a nature, he had to make a move, that too swiftly. Hundreds of kilometres away in Zaranj (Afghanistan), a company of American Soldiers will be wiped out in few hours, if he failed to act now. He knew he was taking an unacceptable risk by moving at this hour of night into such a dangerous territory, if something will go wrong, relief party will take hours to come to their rescue, but the time required for a detailed planning of this operation was something, he did not have.

Two earlier operations from his batallion in the same scenarios have saved numerous lives of coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, and captured key members from Taliban. The credibility of Indian Intelligence Agencies had soared high in the NATO circles. As a result, now there was a direct hotline from RAW Op Center in Khosht to NATO HQ at Kabul. As his men crossed LOC and entered into PoK (Pakistan cccupied Kashmir), he could sense this time something was wrong, very wrong. They had waited for 20 minutes before making their move, but throughout those 20 minutes there was no movement from across the border, that puzzled him a little, but his mind was more focussed towards the main objective. He knew, once he crosses the LOC, the might of Indian Army would be of no help to him, for them he and his men would not exist once they crossed from LOC into PoK. But this was the risk, he has taken umpteen times with some precautions, tonight he and his six men all were dressed as Pashtun Tribes. As he was about to provide further instructions to his men, night changed into day, heavy search lights were focussed onto them, all of a sudden they were surrounded by Pakistani Rangers, who have been waiting for them since that call was made to Akshay by none other than Ashfaq Khan, a dreaded ISI operative, whose younger brother was eliminated in an earlier operation from Black Sword Batallion. It was a trap.

All seven of them went through the inhuman torture throughout that night, he fainted after 2 hours. When he woke up there were six bodies riddled with bullets in front of him. His six men had been killed in cold blood, this was not the way Special Frontier Force men were trained to die. He has seen death from close quarters many a times before, but this time tears rolled by. A door opened and two uniformed soldiers entered into the room, he was dragged out into the sun light, and forced into a chair. When his eyes adjusted to sun light, he saw Ashfaq sitting in front of him with a wicked smile on his face. Ashfaq began "Major, my revenge has just started and you have given up in my first hit. Brace yourself Major, the best is yet to come, I think this is the time for you to go home, after all your wife will be waiting." Ashfaq then made a gesture and Akshay was dragged from chair and then thrown onto the back of a Jeep. A shooting pain went through his body which made him realise that his multiple bones have been fractured.

Captain Jai Chauhan was leading the BSF, Border Security Force, patrol party on LOC when he saw a Pakistani Ranger`s Jeep approaching, all his men took positions. Ashfaq came out of the Jeep with his hands in front of him, he shouted "We are here to return a man from your force, he was our informer but he tried to double-cross us. We are leaving him at the border to die." Jai replied "I don`t care what you want to do here, just make sure you do not cross the LOC, else ... "Saying that, he asked the driver to move. Ashfaq signaled to his men, Akshay`s limp body was thrown out and the Jeep sped back towards Pakistan.

Jai Chauhan lowered his binoculars and asked the driver to make a u-turn, soon they spotted Akshay`s almost lifeless body. He was quickly picked up and BSF Jeep raced to the Khosht Army Hospital. It was now Ashfaq`s turn to use his binoculars, he lowered them and look towards the sky "Brother, I fulfilled my promise to avenge your death, your killer`s horrible life will start now."

Dark Waves - Prologue

Akshay Rajput was a man in his early thirties, but he had managed to lose everything in his life quickly. The list included his family and job, but the list did not end there, there were lot more to it. He had also lost his pride and esteem, a tradition that every Indian Defence Personnel was supposed to guard more than his own life. But he had lost it, and he was still alive.

Now, when he thought that his life is almost game-over, he had no idea he is about to get himself entangled into a sinister game of destruction. A game in which players were not mere individuals, they were all nuclear-powered states, with just one aim. The aim, that made him sweat as he had never sweat before, on a freezing-cold night.