Cry of Shadows - Chapter 3

                               Chapter 3

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Kerala, Gods own country, the First state to achieve a hundred percent literacy in India. Blessed land with natures gifts like backwaters, rivers and sea. God carved the land with the best tools and it plays a very important role in Indian history and the world.

Kerala is the first ever state in the world to have an elected communist government and many her kids are all over the world spreading her name and fame and writing it with golden letters in the history of human kind.

Housekeeping staff of Hotel Taj, Trivandrum (State capital of Kerala) is busy preparing a suite for a guest coming from France. It’s not a new thing for them. Kerala is a favorite tourist destination of people from all over the world. It’s Ayurveda, Yoga, Kalari, Kathakali has crossed its borders of the state and reached nook and corner of the world.

A Mahindra Scorpio SUV stopped in front of the hotel and two people got down from the car. The person who was driving the vehicle gave the key for valet parking and walked towards the hotel. In front of the vehicle it was written as Police, Kerala state. The gentle man who was driving the vehicle was in police uniform and walked towards the hotel. Other person wearing a spec was in his tshirt and jeans accompanied him.

"Is the suite ready" The officer asked in the reception.

"Yes sir"

"No one should be allowed to meet him with out my permission even if it is the head of the state, Hope that’s clear for you"

"Yes Sir, we do remember your instructions"

"Good"

"Dhanu, are we ready?" He asked the man besides him

"Yes, Bro"

"Good, he might have alighted in Bangalore by now and will reach Trivandrum airport by 7.30. Air France is supposed to reach Bangalore by 12.30 or 1.00 pm tonight"

"Oh, it should be hectic… He will definitely feel tired"

"Yes, he will be. But we don’t have time to waste. We need to do the ground work by then"

"Sure brother, by the way who is there to pick Jean"

"Ah, I forgot to tell you… Our Mathew had gone to the airport"

"Are your sure, Brother? I sincerely doubt if you have selected the right guy. Hope Jean will pick Mathew and reach here", Dhanu smiled at the officer.

"Haha… I know"

He went outside. Dhanu kept watching the officer whose name is Azad. What a human being, he thought. He is never tired, he has never heard Azad saying no, when it comes to work.

"You are a work – 'alcoholic' brother" Dhanu use to make fun of him.

He remembered the last meeting during which he explained about some critical operation. But he could never imagine a pure software guy could support him officially in an operation which involves several aspects which he never believed to exist.

How can a software person help a French Investigation officer, that question reverberated in Dhanu’s mind

Cry of Shadows - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

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“Bonjour, Ladies and Gentlemen welcome onboard. Please turn off your Phones and any other electronic devices… ” .

Jean leaned back in his seat showing the discomfort in his face. He hates traveling in AirFrance, of course the flight attendants were quiet old. He prefers traveling via Frankfurt and his preferred choice of flight is Lufthansa. He scrolled down the movie list in the flight, the list were pretty more the same. “Good I got several movies in my Xoom”, he thought.

A flight steward came towards him, "What would you like to have sir"?

It’s normally the best thing to be in a plane if he goes by business class. But this time to India the travel needs to maintain its anonymity and the bosses didn’t want him to get any extra attention. They knew how important it was to make this mission successful. So as expected in an economic class, the treatment is not so wonderful.

"Can I have some champagne Please"

"Sure sir"

"Can you please choose your menu as well Sir"

Going to India, let me be a veggie. I always heard about India but never got a chance to go over there. How does she look like? In the history I always heard about a rich wonderful country, but later I heard only the story of snakes, rituals and blind belief.

 

He changed his Xoom mode to Flight Mode, started with his favorite bond movies. Jean is a hard core fan of bond movies since child hood. Being a cop Jean always dreamed to have all accessories James posses in his movies. He always sounds childish when he speaks to his colleagues. When the world is so advanced and with new tech coming in he still believes in Magic and super natural powers

But this time, it is his interest that made DCRI chiefs to choose him to go to Kerala. He never understood why they wanted him to go to Kerala, but he knew it was some thing very important. He leaned back in his seat and started playing the movie. In a few minutes a flight attendant came towards him and whispered in his ears.

 

He got up from his seat and followed her, she gave a sat phone to him.

"Bonjour Jean"

"Bonjour Boss"

"One more minister is missing, it is becoming crucial and all your discussions and meetings should be done with a state of national emergency"

"Did you check the video grabs, boss"

"Yes, we did"

"We have all the videos till he started from his office and his security staff was following him till he reached his home"

"So he seems to be missing from there"

"Yes, his wife told us that she saw him walking outside when he got a call and he never returned after"

"Ok… But what do I have to do in Kerala for this ?"

It is quiet natural for him to think so. It is really not logical to relate a man missing case and trip to India. But this is not the first case of man missing and murder. Few top honchos of French politics and government are either killed or kidnapped by now. But why am I being sent to Kerala???

Cry of Shadows - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jean woke up by the loud alarm from his cell phone.

Ah it is really annoying to hear that sound after a tiring day. He woke up and took his vibrating iphone. That’s terrific, “how the hell did she find this number”?

He thought looking at the beautiful face in the phone indicating the caller.

“Bonjour Maria”

“Jean, that’s not fare at all, I had to call up Grace to trace your new number”

“Look honey, I know it’s strange but then I am going for a long trip to India. It’s very important to know about the customs and traditions over there, because this time it is going to be a another huge adventure for me”

“Okay, but why do you want to be isolated from now on..ah?”

“I want to be prepared well in advance; moreover you never let me concentrate in my work” Jean Smiled. “Okie Honey..Bye for now, best way to know about me is to follow my tweets”.

“Great, this is exactly what I should be hearing, to know abt mymy boyfriend from twitter, you have gone crazy Jean..Anyways good luck”

Jean came out of his apartment; Grenoble still is sleepy and filled with snow. He always thought Grenoble is the most wonderful place in the world and had always felt being too close to the mountains of Grenoble.

 Jean Paul Miller is an officer of Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI)- Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence. He met Maria while he was doing his masters in Stendhas university of Grenoble. Since then both Grenoble and Maria are close to his heart.

Jean prepared his coffee and took his laptop and leaned in the sofa. He checked on his ticket confirmation and hotel reservation.

“Yes, everything is done”, He thought.

A while later, his iphone started to vibrate,” Bonjour Boss”

“ve”

“ve”

“Merci”.

Jean’s boss, was calling to check if he was prepared for the travel. Jean’s Boss was very particular about the secret nature of the travel. Very few people in the embassy and some top members of DRCI and the government know about his visit.

He took all the printouts and was ready for the journey. He double checked his passport, visa, hotel reservation and everything seemed perfect.

“Bonjour, Sir your taxi to the railway station”. It was the call from the cab driver. He took the luggage, checked the apartment again and moved towards the lift.

While getting into the cab he felt sad to leave Grenoble for a few days, but then I’ll be back soon. “Need to call Maria”

He pushed at his speed dial “Hello Maria… I am leaving “

“Take care Jean, please give me a call.. I know you are worried about your job than me. But please think of me as well”

“I will dear, prendre soin”. He boarded the bullet train to Paris Airport.

Once he reached Paris, he called a few people and informed his boss that he’ll be boarding the Flight soon.

“Jean, make sure that you use the secure vpn for any kind of communication and your messages should be encrypted” his Boss warned.

“Boss, you know my interest in twitter”

“ I know, you are allowed to tweet, but make sure that you don’t reveal the location and no location specific tweets are allowed, you are free to tweet on your so called “favorite hobbies” as usual”

“Merci, revoir”- Jean kept the phone. He saw his flight ready; cargoes were getting moved while he waited for the passenger boarding announcement.

He took his “Xoom”, a new gadget he added to his list. He was pretty impressed with its performance. His Android, honeycomb loaded accessory was a birthday gift from Maria. She knew about his craziness on Gadgets. He selected the Maps and pinched to zoom inside it to India and then to….”Kerala”...Gods own country”